Welcome back, Agent Impostor! I trust that you've worked hard to fulfill our first objective of finding and infiltrating the right community for you. Finding your people is crucial to the mission, but it's not enough by itself.

This next objective may sound simple, but many good operatives have fallen by ignoring or minimizing this objective:

Objective #2: Be kind to yourself

It's a common misconception that spies need to be tough and unfeeling to see their missions to a successful end.

But despite our general badassery, we are still human. It happens to even the most astute and formidable of spies. We feel on top of the world, capable of anything, our power grows with each new skill we learn. We are untouchable! Until we are not.

It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's important to remember that how we react to that gut-punch of disappointment matters more than the pain itself.

This spy gig is tough, and we need as much courage as we can muster just to make it through the day! Courage cannot exist if we are invulnerable. We have to take chances, make and learn from uncomfortable choices, and face some truly hard truths about ourselves and the world. Most often, this will take more time than you would like. That's just life. But to be humbled by this reality makes all the difference. To be patient with yourself is to be kind to yourself. When we start to pay attention to who we really are, who we truly want to be, and the role we want to play in this world, we can start to focus on what is in our control. We can reflect on all the small things that amounted to big gains that we usually dismiss with a quickness. We can forgive ourselves for being human.

Conversely, when we realize what is out of our control, we are free to quit the self-flagellation we often inflict in times of failure and personal doubt. We are free to be reasonable with our expectations of ourselves and stop equating our productivity with our self-worth. I've witnessed a number of good spies tackle Mission: Enough only to discover that the moving goal-post of "enough" made the objective impossible to complete. Some are still chasing it. The ones who were kind to themselves are the ones that believed they could get back up and learn a better approach for next time. They also focused more on the positive aspects of the mission, instead of fixating on the negative outcomes.

In addition to being kind to ourselves in times of failure, we must also be kind to our minds and bodies. We can't be exceptional spies if we don't take care of ourselves. Just ask Agent Anecdote, their sleep deprivation caused them to become compromised during an important mission and they had to get facial reconstruction surgery just to step foot in spy HQ again! In addition to quality sleep, make sure you are drinking enough water, eating healthy meals, and incorporating movement breaks into your day. Do things that bring you joy and recharge you. You'll need that balance to stay at the top of your game.

Being kind to yourself is an absolute must if you hope to advance to the next objective: get comfortable with failure.

Stay tuned for the detailed briefing to follow at an undisclosed time.