Short Daily Update: introducing a work mood tracker
Day 2 - Week One
Hello, friends. I invited you to come along with me—not quite building in public, but growing in public. This will be me, not so much doing deep thinking, but simply taking note of what the day brought. Hopefully, on the weekly career coaching sessions with AI, I can take these notes and do some deep reflection.
But for now this will be it: the short daily update.
The Feedback
Thank you, my friends! I’m lucky to be surrounded by such good people—ones who don’t judge, who take the time to read me, and who send me the energy to keep going.
My friend D. challenged me to try other AIs as career coaches, to see if I’d find new answers or insights. Definitely a good idea to test. My friend M. was curious about whether I was using the paid or free version of ChatGPT—it's the paid one, but I think you could do the same with the free one. And, funny enough, my other M. friend said I could sell Career Coaching ChatGPT Prompts. Could this be a career path to explore? (I’m joking, as she was.)
But let’s stay with my friend M. a little longer—she sent me a few extra questions for reflection. I asked if I could sit with them a bit longer and whether it was okay to share my thoughts here. She said yes.
What have you learned/gained since starting this job? The most relevant win? I trust my own abilities now—I no longer have imposter syndrome. All those years invested in learning, the uncomfortable moments of feeling like I didn’t know enough, have finally paid off. I actually have experience. I know things.
Beyond that, I’ve met incredible people I now call friends, I live in a very cool city, I’ve accelerated my financial security, and —most importantly— I’ve had fun along the way.
Coaching, if you wanna do just 1 or 2 session per day, can you make it more expensive? Because for a lot of people that can actually be too much. Or can you test a group thing? I think there’s definitely potential to play around with pricing, and I’m open to group coaching or learning. In my company, I taught my coaching framework in group sessions, so that’s familiar territory. The real challenge is finding clients—that part feels like a pain. So far, all my coaching clients have come through referrals, and honestly, I prefer it that way.
The Work Mood Tracker
Since yesterday, I’ve had an insight—thanks to all the conversations my text sparked: where is this need for change coming from? Is it because I want to honor the version of me from ten years ago who couldn’t stand the idea of having a ‘corporate’ job? Or is it to soothe the anxiety of future me, because present me believes traditional work will disappear, and soon enough, we’ll all be service providers—so I’d better learn how to navigate that sooner rather than later? Or am I just like everyone else who sees trading their time for a paycheck as a form of servitude to a grand master they secretly despise?
Between my feelings and my perception, is there a more objective way to look at this? Probably not—it’s not exactly an objective matter—but I’ll give it a try. I’ll start tracking how I feel about my workdays and see if that gives me data my dear AI friend can parse and interpret back to me.
On a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being terrible, 5 being awesome), today was a 5. Why?
I was part of a workshop with really smart people.
We uncovered systematic issues—both in our tech and in how we’re organized. I loved the investigation process and finding solutions.
A new and super smart team member is shifting the dynamics with our stakeholders for the better.
I left work later than usual, but not so late that I couldn’t enjoy my evening.
What’s possibly, also, contributing to that 5 is that I started the day with a challenging gym session—it always feels good to kick things off with a sense of accomplishment. Also, today marks one month since I challenged myself to cut out sugar. And yesterday, I did something just for me: I started this little blog. And you, my friend, showed up to support.
All in all, I had a good day today. :)