Mindset

You’re counting the wrong thing

by
Person in a gorilla suit walking through a basketball drill while others count passes

The Gorilla You’re Trained Not to See You can train yourself to count the passes. You can also train yourself to see the gorilla. It depends what you’re aiming your attention at. There is far more happening around you than you could ever possibly notice. People. Problems. Opportunities. Threats. Ideas. Patterns. Open doors. Dead ends. Most of them remain invisible. Not because they aren’t there, but because your attention is finite. You can’t notice everything. Your mind is constantly…

I had an amazing life. So why wasn’t I happy?

by
Clothes that used to fit, hanging unused beside a life that still looks good on paper

You’re Allowed to Outgrow What You Once Wanted Better is always possible, but better doesn’t always mean more. It used to fit. You’re allowed to want something that now fits better. A few years ago, I was sitting in my favourite room of our house, drinking coffee and looking through a wall-to-wall window facing the Ottawa River. It’s a ridiculous view. Water stretching out in front of me, trees on both sides, ducks paddling around. It’s the kind of place people rent for a week or two to…

You’re Not Lost. You’re Camping.

by
Compass held on a wooded trail with no map in sight

You’re Not Lost. You’re Camping. “Job hugging” feels like safety. It’s not. No map needed; just a bearing. I’m a hiker, and have spent my share of time in the bush. I like to venture off the well-beaten paths, the kind of terrain where your phone loses signal around hour two. Every hiker learns the same rule early: if you get lost, stop moving. Stay exactly where you are. Make yourself loud, make yourself visible, and wait. The moment you start wandering to “find your own way out,” you cover…

The most polished, useless thing I’ve ever made.

by
Stack of drafts covered in red edits, with a red pen on top

Perfectionism Got You Promoted. Now It’s Keeping You Stuck. Perfected into oblivion. I once spent so long perfecting a briefing that it died on the way up. It was headed to the CIO, then the deputy minister. Lots of visibility, and my name was on it. That made it high stakes to me. So I revised it. Then I revised the revision. Tightened the language, reworked the framing, chased one more data point, softened one more sentence so nobody upstream could poke a hole in it. By the time it reached…

You’re telling the wrong person your story

by
Person at a desk writing their own pages under a lamp

You’re Telling the Wrong Person Your Story The org’s draft is always ready. Yours needs to be too. Recently I gave a talk to 38 cybersecurity professionals about how to communicate so their work actually lands. Not just reports, dashboards, briefings, and risk registers, but meaning. The whole talk hinged on one idea: there’s always a story being told about your work, and if you don’t tell it, someone tells it for you. Be the storyteller, or be a character in someone else’s story. I didn’t…

Nobody’s Stopping You. That’s the Problem.

by
Person sitting inside an open cage while a key hangs in the doorway

Nobody’s Stopping You. That’s the Problem. The door was never locked. If I asked you what problem you’re solving at work, you’d give me a masterclass. Risks. Tradeoffs. Dependencies. Stakeholders. All the things. You can think your way through chaos with impressive precision. But if I asked what you really want from your work? Suddenly, you’ve got nothing. Not because the answer isn’t there. But because the moment the true answer showed up, your analytical brain stepped in and immediately…

You’ve already changed. You just didn’t author it.

by
Empty chair in front of an old computer console

You’re Planning a Patch When You Need a Version Jump You’ve been away from the console longer than you think. You’ve already changed so much over the course of your life that you’re an entirely different person. So why do you keep planning your future as if you’ll be so similar to who you are today? Look at a photo of yourself from ten years ago. Not a flattering one, but a “real” one. The kind that makes you wince a little because it feels like it’s a stranger wearing your face. Now think…

One of these nearly killed me.

by
Three unlabeled bottles on a table, one tipped on its side

BURNOUT, BOREDOM, OR BETRAYAL? Why a misdiagnosis is keeping you stuck. Burnout, boredom, and betrayal can all feel the same. Pick the wrong medicine and you’ll spend years treating the wrong problem. Imagine someone gave you two weeks off. Fully paid. No boss to answer to, no inbox, no obligations. What happens at the end of week two? If you feel noticeably better — rested, maybe even a little excited to get back in the saddle — and you can imagine going back with a few things changed, what…

You’re Not Risk-Averse. You’re Certainty-Addicted.

by
Man standing still with arms crossed while a crowd rushes past

You’re Not Risk-Averse. You’re Certainty-Addicted. And that addiction is quietly costing you the one life you get. Standing still isn’t safety. It’s just a slower way to fall behind. In cybersecurity, there’s no such thing as zero risk. There’s only the risk you manage consciously and the risk you ignore until it bites you. I lead cybersecurity teams for the Government of Canada. We don’t chase zero risk. We evaluate, mitigate what we can, we decide., and we move forward. This idea also…

You’re not stuck. You’re over-automated.

by
Person walking a deep rut across an open field

Your Current Life is a Lagging Indicator You’re dragging the past decisions of a ghost along your path. The field is wide open with options. Yet you continue in the rut. Almost everyone wants to change something about their life. Yet almost no one does. Not because they don’t care. Not because they’re lazy. The people I’m talking about all want the change badly — they think about it constantly. But they can’t make it stick. If you’re reading this, you’re likely in that same boat. Here’s…

Work Reinvented Newsletter

Join the Sunday email. Frameworks for work that works for you.

Connect

© 2026 Tim Parkins
Privacy Policy