by Tim Parkins | Dec 7, 2025
The Shadow Career: Why You’re Succeeding at the Wrong Thing Stop optimizing a life that was never meant to be yours. The fortress you built to protect you is now the shadow that owns you. You’re damn good at your job. And that might be the problem. That professional life you’ve built? The one that pays well, looks impressive on LinkedIn, and uses about 60% of your actual horsepower? That’s your Shadow Career. It’s not a mistake. It’s a defence mechanism. You didn’t stumble into it. You…
by Tim Parkins | Nov 30, 2025
When You Stop Trusting the Path When the work still matters – but the way you’re chasing it doesn’t. When the destination is clear, but the path is uncertain. I spent at least four hours this week optimizing my home network. It wasn’t broken. It wasn’t even slow. But there I was, buying new mesh nodes, running speed tests, rearranging cables, and screwing with network settings like it was mission-critical work. I also browsed Black Friday sales for things I don’t need and don’t even really…
by Tim Parkins | Nov 23, 2025
The Lie Beneath Your Hustle When your motion becomes your mask. How your hustle became your hiding place. You’re addicted to tactics because strategy requires something far scarier: honesty about what you actually want. I know because I was a tactics junkie too. Had my morning routine locked by 5:47am. Read every negotiation book, and got so good at managing up my boss thought I was magic. I got the promotion. Senior executive. The title I’d chased for years. Six months later I was in the…
by Tim Parkins | Nov 16, 2025
Driving Blind: Why Your Career Feels Like a Snow Squall When you can’t see where you’re going, someone else’s taillights become your plan. Last week I hit a wall of snow on the highway. It was one of those classic Ontario squalls where visibility drops to fifty feet and every driver becomes a white-knuckled philosopher questioning their life choices. In that moment, I wasn’t “making decisions.” I was reacting. Slow down. Follow the taillights. Hope nothing suddenly materializes out of the…
by Tim Parkins | Nov 9, 2025
The Subtraction Myth: Why Less Isn’t Always More Meaning isn’t found in what you remove, but what you build. You can’t subtract your way to a positive — only to zero. You’ve read Essentialism. Deep Work. Maybe even Four Thousand Weeks if you were feeling existential. You tried their tactics. Said no to meetings, batched your emails, and protected your calendar like it’s a castle under siege. You subtracted the bullshit, set boundaries, focused on “what matters most.” And yet – you’re still…
