💬 Community Doh: Discussion Prompts
Every four to six weeks, there is a discussion thread related to that month’s posts, for paid subscribers only—that means only paying Dohnuts can read and reply to comments. Hopefully that gives you an extra dash of courage for sharing your story (as it does for me), knowing they aren’t Google-searchable or directly out in public view.
In reverse chronological order:
💬 What’s your quirkiest daily ritual?
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock…
💬 Who did you become in the process of waiting? 🌌
“The stars we are given. The constellations we make.
💬 How do you balance faith and doubt?
“Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible, then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”
💬 Is there such a thing as failure?
“It’s easy to be an armchair contrarian. It’s hard to take contrarian action: to question the dominant narrative, to be honest with yourself, to tell the truth even when the immediate outcome is pain—like losing the chance to sell my company, and instead getting buried under an avalanche of debt. I try to have skin in the game. This time I had too much.”
💬 How Do You Tap Into "Suprapersonal Wisdom?"
This prompt builds on a quote from Milan Kundera: “Not only is the novelist nobody’s spokesman, but I would go so far as to say he is not even the spokesman for his own ideas. [Tolstoy] was listening to what I would like to call the wisdom of the novel. Every true novelist listens for that suprapersonal wisdom, which explains why great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors. Novelists who are more intelligent than their books should go into another line of work.”
💬 Is "Just Be Yourself" Good Career Advice?
Last month, Stanford neuroscientist-turned-chart-topping-podcaster Andrew Huberman made appearances on two shows proffering one particular piece of advice that made me spit out my coffee, passed down from music producer and fellow podcaster Rick Rubin: "The key to being really great at something is to just be you." But this misses one crucial caveat . . .
💬 What Donkey Are You Carrying? 🫏
In the previous post, I shared a 13th-century fable about a miller, his son, and their donkey. What donkey(s) are you carrying? Share even just one or two sentences: What leftover beliefs, criticism, judgment, or shame is no longer serving you? What have others or society said you should do that contradicts your own intuitive wisdom? What would it look like to set the donkey down?
💬 Your turn: If your business could talk, what would it say?
In my last post, I shared an imaginary dialogue between me and my teenage business: Building on our earlier monthly(ish) Community Doh discussion threads, I’d love to hear from you: If your business could talk, what would it say? Share even just one or two sentences . . . what would it tell you in this moment? Wor…
💬 If Rolling in Doh were a publishing imprint, what would your imaginary book title be?
“Fearless writing is the willingness and ability to choose your writing path, and write as your authentic self.” —Beth Kempton, The Way of the Fearless Writer Right after I read this passage, pausing to underline its relevance to my intentions here at
💬 What true-to-you risks have you taken recently?
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Sometimes despite our best efforts to return to normal—the way things were—we realize in bewilderment that the old ways of doing things have stopped working altogether. There is no going back. There is only forward, and all forks in the potential paths ahead include degrees of risk.
💬 What mantra lifts your spirits when you're in a slump?
Allison told a story about grieving losses as we move through life, even for happy occasions like getting married or becoming a parent. In those moments, she reminds herself: been there, done that. It acknowledges the grief of losing our ghost self, while also opening up to the personal growth that follows. Upon hearing those words, it hit me just how much ambiguous loss I am working through after so much corporate work vanished these last few years, even if I know I am evolving toward something new. I felt relief, even just for a moment.
💬 What does your closet reveal about how you’ve changed from The Before Time to now?
In the previous post, A Tale of Three Outfits, I shared my story about Closet Shock: realizing that most of what’s gathering dust in mine is from a former self—a former life—and no longer fits, in any sense of the word. Does part of your closet still reflect your BeforeTimeSelf™️? What was the biggest shift for you sartorially (and spiritually!) from January 2020 to now?
💬 How do you collect stories and ideas? 🐿️
“I am a compost heap, and everything I interact with, every experience I’ve had, gets shoveled onto the heap where it eventually mulches down, is digested and excreted by worms, and rots. It’s from that rich, dark humus, the combination of what you encountered, what you know and what you’ve forgotten, that ideas start to grow.”
💬 What's one of your memorable rejections?
Time to share and laugh-cry together 😭 in the comments: What’s a memorable rejection you’ve had in your business and/or creative projects, mutual or otherwise? A gut punch where you wished (at the time) things turned out differently? In hindsight, was there a divine redirect behind it? What did you make instead with the resulting rejection ‘doh?
💬 What's one of your divine business disasters?
Since the day I launched this Substack, I’ve been eagerly counting down to our first official call for reader submissions. I know you’ve got your own divine disaster diaries hiding up your business sleeves, and now is your chance to air them out! What’s a memorable divine disaster you have experienced in your business? Something you never would have wished upon yourself (at least not consciously) but that ended up transpiring anyway? In hindsight, was there a wake-up call behind it? What new skills, systems, or insights did you gain?