From My Inbox: What Still Matters

Labor Day's behind us. And if your inbox looks like mine, it's full of newsletters screaming clarity, reboots, and Q4 hustle. That familiar "summer's over" script. But maybe you're not there.

Perhaps there are pre-summer ambitions and goals which remain unresolved. Perhaps stalled. Perhaps uncertain. Now’s not the time to shame your inaction or scold your stalled momentum. Now's the time to ask a better question:

What still matters?

I've been watching ambitious women rush back into September chasing the same goals they had in June — goals that may have fizzled with the pleasures of longer days and relaxed pursuits.

There's this pressure to treat seasonal transitions like fresh starts, but ambition doesn't work like that.

Some things stalled for good reason. Maybe the goal was never yours to begin with. Maybe the timing's off. Maybe your network was already signaling the misalignment — and you just weren’t ready to hear it.

Before you pour your energy into finishing what remains unfinished, ask:

• Do I still want this — or am I just trying to prove I can finish it? or
• Do I still want this — or am I holding on out of obligation? or
• Do I still want this — or am I just trying to justify all the time I’ve already spent?

Don't recommit without reconsidering:

✅ What deserves your network's attention? Which stalled goals still make you want to pick up the phone? Those are worth pursuing.

✅ What passes your Why Filter? If you can't say clearly why something matters now, it probably doesn't deserve your energy.

✅ Where is your focus actually pointing? Sometimes our ambition evolves faster than our to-do lists. Catch up with yourself.

The women I study who sustain success aren't the ones who finish everything they start. They're the ones who get good at deciding what no longer deserves the investment of their most valuable resources — including their relational energy.

Your time is finite. Your attention is finite. While your network isn't necessarily finite — it’s capacity can be overdrawn.

What is limited is your ability to nurture connections, your time to follow through, your energy to ask or offer with clarity, and your attention to discern who matters, when, and why.

The real question isn't what you didn't finish. It's what still matters enough to call your focus, grit and network into action — and what needs to be released, without guilt.

Your move this week:

Pick one stalled goal on your to-do list. Ask: Do I want this badly enough to call in my network? If yes, make the call. If no, let it go.

Need more? Three suggested (re)reads which you may have missed:

🗝️ Ambition, Interrupted: What if your ambition isn’t broken — but just ready to be restructured?

🗝️ The Power of Why in a Noisy World: In a world full of distractions, knowing why you show up is everything.

🗝️ What High-Achieving Women Know About Their Networks: Success isn’t just about what you do — it starts with purposeful network design.