💬 Fireside Chat: What guides how you show up in the world?

Sharing our personal manifestos.

Hi, it’s me.

Welcome to the fire circle—it’s good to see you again! Grab any open seat and help yourself to beer and sodas in the fridge. We’ll get to this month’s question in a minute.

A July 4th backyard fire at the ZugHaus, 2024.

A few weeks ago, I updated this newsletter’s About Page using a manifesto-style framework:

I love…

I believe…

I promise…

This was probably my third update since I started writing here in 2022? Each time I do a refresh, I get closer to understanding how I want to show up here and who I hope will join me. Writing this one surfaced more of my unique voice and intention for Pretend You’re Good At It—a clarity that will signal to curious lurkers what this space is about while also keeping me on mission, so to speak.

Do you have a personal manifesto? Or a brand manifesto for your business or newsletter or other creative endeavor? Do you have a family manifesto? Keeping in mind any of these contexts, here’s this month’s question:

Using this framework, what guides how you show up in the world?

I love…

I believe…

I promise…

🙋🏼‍♀️ I’ll go first (this is from my updated About Page):

I love stories that resonate.

A lyric, phrase, or feeling…a nugget of truth that prompts a slow nod of recognition…these resonant moments are how I make sense of the world and find my way through. If you feel at home in my words, let’s try to make sense of the world together.

I believe life is messy, but we can still laugh.

You won’t find any toxic positivity here, but I need laughter to live. We can laugh, cry, rage, and be silly together, even when we can’t see the bright side.

I promise to show up as myself.

Look, I can’t handle the pressure of delivering a polished essay every Wednesday, but I do look forward to our weekly connection. So I’ll be here with whatever mood or thought is hitting me at the moment, and it would be great if you stopped by to say hello. I’ll save you a seat.

🪵🔥 Your turn! If we were hanging out around our backyard fire pit, how would you answer this question? Your manifesto might not be as finished as mine (I worked on this one for awhile), and maybe you don’t have supporting language around your statements yet. That’s cool, we’re just spitballing here. Take a shitty-first-draft stab at it! Whatever you come up with, I look forward to learning more about you in the comments!

(You can also reply to this email for my eyes only, or use it as a writing prompt in your journal.)

Until next time,

Jen

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