Welcome back to Retire & RISE {{first_name}}
This week I laid out every poll question I've asked you since July, side by side, with your answers underneath. I'm grateful for every one of them. Read together, they tell a story I didn't see one week at a time, and they point straight at what I'd like you to do this weekend.
By the end of this you'll:
see what your answers added up to over the summer
see why getting stuck on choosing is the normal part
have your own direction written down in one line
have one small, real appointment to start it
🗳️ Four Questions, One Answer
Back in July, I asked which direction you were most curious about. The biggest group of those who answered, close to half, said "Honestly, still figuring it out."
In August I asked whether you'd settled on one thing to try. Fewer than half of you had picked one. Just as many were leaning toward one, and the rest hadn't started.
In September I asked what would help most if you wanted to start something small. Half of you said knowing which idea would fit you. Nobody asked for a clear first step.
And last week, when I asked what free thing would help, more than half picked a simple step-by-step guide. The next biggest group asked for help picking which idea suits them.
Put those four side by side and one thing jumps out. For most of you, the hard part wasn't the doing. It was the choosing.
🌱 From Seed To Planting
That's why these Saturdays spent so long on choosing before they ever got near earning.
In June I asked you to write down one thing you already know how to do. Then I said, "Think of what you wrote down as a seed. We are not planting it yet."
Since then we've gone slowly on purpose. "Explore one thing, owe nothing." When something didn't quite work, "It just needed a small adjustment, not a funeral." When we talked about money, I gave you the honest picture: for most people with a small online side project, a couple of hundred dollars a month, and only after real work. And last week: "Starting small is what makes being wrong survivable."
All of that was groundwork. It was never meant to stay groundwork forever. This is the Saturday we plant.
🛠️ One Line And One Appointment
Here's the whole step:
Write your direction in one line. Keep it the size of last week's exercise: one kind of person, one problem, one thing you could offer them. "Helping friends from church get their new phones set up." "A short guide to the garden I've kept for thirty years." "Selling the birdhouses I already build." If you have two ideas, pick the one you'd most enjoy spending an hour on. If no line comes yet, use the one thing you wrote down in June.
Give it one twenty-minute appointment this week. A real day and a real time, written on the calendar or on a sticky note by the coffee pot. Not a plan. Just twenty minutes.
When the time comes, do the smallest version you can. Tell one person. Write the first paragraph. Photograph one birdhouse. Then stop, and notice how it felt.
That's all. You don't need to know where it leads yet. You only need to know what Tuesday at ten o'clock is for.
🧭 A Direction You've Touched
If you keep that appointment, you'll end the week with something the last three months couldn't give you: a direction you've actually touched. Even if it turns out to be the wrong one, you'll know, and knowing is how you find the right one.
If you don't, that's all right too. The line you wrote still counts. Keep it somewhere you'll see it. The appointment will still be there to make next week.
💬 Just The Day
If you'd like to, hit reply and tell me just the day you picked. One word is plenty. I won't hold you to it, and I won't follow up to check. I'd simply like to know someone out there has a Tuesday, or a Thursday, with their name on it.
Thank you for spending the summer with me. I mean that. There's more ahead, and I'm glad you're here for it.
See You at the Bank 💰
Bob
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