Week 42: What I've Been Holding Back

Week 42: What I've Been Holding Back

Laura sits down and works through three things that surfaced this week: her first real nasty comments on social media, her grad students finding her on Instagram during her visibility experiment, and the big one — waking up with a pit in her stomach about holding back information on Useful Thinking that she knows could help people. The episode lands on a decision she's been avoiding for the entire run of that podcast: integrating human design into the work. Key takeaways:  * Why the nasty comments landed lighter than she expected and what that tells her.  * The question of whether her worlds merging (professor, business owner, experimental woo practitioner) is confirmation or catastrophe.  * And the core tension she's been sitting on: she knows no one else is combining brain mechanics with human design energetics, which is both the reason she's scared to do it and the reason she has to. Connect with Laura: * Instagram: @think.laura [https://instagram.com/think.laura] * Substack: https://thinklaura.substack.com/ [https://thinklaura.substack.com/] * Pod: Useful Thinking [https://usefulthinking.transistor.fm/subscribe] * Hub: thinklaura.com [https://thinklaura.com/]

Week 41: Lessons on Visibility This Week

Laura traces a thread that's been running through her visibility work all year. She starts connecting the dots between a conversation with a dear friend, her Instagram experiment, and a pattern of getting close and pulling back. Also: a birthday gift from Mike that turned into an unintentional experiment of its own, and the decision to finally close a loop she's been leaving open since December. Key takeaways:  * Why not finishing something you committed to stays open as a loop in your integrity  * Inventing reasons to be scared vs finding one reason it will work * What the next scary growth move is Connect with Laura: * Instagram: @think.laura [https://instagram.com/think.laura] * Substack: https://thinklaura.substack.com/ [https://thinklaura.substack.com/] * Pod: Useful Thinking [https://usefulthinking.transistor.fm/subscribe] * Hub: thinklaura.com [https://thinklaura.com/]

Week 40: 55 Years Ago the Universe Said Yes

Laura records her birthday episode after refusing to force it the day before. What came through on the morning walk was an overwhelming sense that 55 years ago, her specific energetic makeup was declared part of the recipe of this world. The episode moves into a real-time processing of two very different business paths she sees in front of her, and lands on a question she's asking the universe for her birthday: how do you know when to surrender and when to take the reins? Connect with Laura: * Instagram: @think.laura [https://instagram.com/think.laura] * Substack: https://thinklaura.substack.com/ [https://thinklaura.substack.com/] * Pod: Useful Thinking [https://usefulthinking.transistor.fm/subscribe] * Hub: thinklaura.com [https://thinklaura.com/]

Week 39: 9-Month Check In

Nine months into the bet, Laura sits with the tension she's been circling all year: the work has never felt better, but the external numbers don't reflect it. This check-in covers the stats, a visibility experiment born from a breakfast conversation with Mike, and the raw admission that she still wants her damn results even though she knows the point was never the results. The second half, stitched from a recording a few days earlier, catches her in the moment of staring down what might be the real next level of this whole experiment. What You'll Learn * Why an accidental conversation about defensiveness led to a 30-day visibility experiment on Instagram * The three rules she set for the experiment and what she's actually measuring * How the desire for external proof keeps showing up even after months of internal work * Why the willingness to keep doing the reps when nothing external is moving is the whole point From / To Pattern Shift From needing external metrics to validate the internal work → to building the capacity to keep going when the only evidence of growth is how she feels. Connect with Laura: * Instagram: @think.laura [https://instagram.com/think.laura] * Substack: https://thinklaura.substack.com/ [https://thinklaura.substack.com/] * Pod: Useful Thinking [https://usefulthinking.transistor.fm/subscribe] * Hub: thinklaura.com [https://thinklaura.com/]

Week 38: My Intention Reset Practice

Memorial Day morning, Laura sat down staring at the trees, feeling like something in her life is shifting but unable to name what. Instead of forcing an episode topic, she opened her laptop and journaled out seven facets of her current intention. This episode is her speaking them aloud for the first time. Also: why intention and attention paired together might be the whole game, and a pro tip for tuning into your voice when you speak your own beliefs. Key takeaways:  * Intention drives attention, and the two together activate everything else.  * Thoughts are not yours and you didn't create them, so you get to choose which ones you let pass through.  * Half of every lesson is just surrendering to it. And your authenticity is the only way to honor a one-in-400-trillion life. Connect with Laura: * Instagram: @think.laura [https://instagram.com/think.laura] * Substack: https://thinklaura.substack.com/ [https://thinklaura.substack.com/] * Pod: Useful Thinking [https://usefulthinking.transistor.fm/subscribe] * Hub: thinklaura.com [https://thinklaura.com/]