There are moments in the year — not marked on any calendar — when the pace softens just enough for reflection. A brief pause between what has been and what might be. A threshold moment. It’s in these spaces that a shifting vocabulary begins to reveal itself — the small linguistic clues that we’re changing, even before we consciously notice it.
That’s what this year’s A–Z conversation with Erik Fisher offered me: a quiet mirror. A way to see how much my vocabulary around productivity has shifted, sharpened, or dissolved since the last time we walked through the alphabet together. The words returned, but not in the same form. Some carried new weight. Others lightened. A few bowed out so better, truer words could take their place.
It reminded me that the words we choose aren’t simply labels. They’re reflections of who we’re becoming.
What Finishing Looks Like Now
I’ve written about my evolving relationship with finishing — how my stance has shifted from relentless completion to something more humane, sustainable, and aligned. That shift appeared organically in this year’s A–Z list.
Part of what I’m noticing is a shifting vocabulary around finishing — one that’s less about urgency and more about alignment.
Words like equanimity, expectation, mapping, and meaning making surfaced not as tactics but as truths — the sort you arrive at only after broadening your perspective on what finishing actually means. They point toward prudence, trust, and will, not as rigid forces but as guiding principles.
Finishing is still essential. It’s simply become more honest.
Why I’m Still Passionate About Productivity (But in a Different Way)
I also revisited and rewrote an older piece about why this work continues to matter to me — and how my passion for it has changed over time.
What once drew me to productivity were the systems, structures, and efficiencies. But what keeps me here — and keeps me writing, teaching, and practicing — is something deeper:
Humanness. Grace. Cadence. Nuance.
These aren’t afterthoughts. They’re foundations. And they’ve become the lenses through which I now understand and express the work.
Which is why this year’s A–Z list felt different. The words weren’t just describing methods. They were describing me. They were describing the ongoing shift from productivity to productiveness.
This shifting vocabulary isn’t cosmetic; it’s a sign that the work itself is maturing.
How a Shifting Vocabulary Reveals What Matters Now
As Erik and I moved through our lists, I noticed that many of the words drifted closer to the principles that form the backbone of Productiveness. Not deliberately — but naturally.
- Adaptability and alignment mirror nuance and prudence.
- Breakpoints and grounding reflect humanness and grace.
- Cadence stands as a principle on its own.
- Integration hints at efficacy.
- Meaning making is the quiet engine beneath everything.
Even friction — a word people often try to eliminate — reveals the importance of tolerance: the ability to hold tension without collapsing beneath it.
These words weren’t part of my vocabulary when I began this work. They arrived slowly, through experience, reflection, disruption, curiosity, and conversation — including this A–Z tradition with Erik. They arrived because I kept paying attention.
The words that serve us at the beginning aren’t always the words that serve us later. That’s not inconsistency. That’s growth.
The Work Ahead
Lately, I’ve been paying close attention to how language evolves alongside experience. When our words change, it’s because we have changed. When our vocabulary matures, it’s because our understanding has matured. The words become quieter, truer, more attuned.
The principles that surfaced beneath this year’s A–Z conversation — humanness, grace, prudence, nuance, tolerance, efficacy, cadence, trust, and will — aren’t theoretical frameworks. They’re invitations. They shape how we navigate our days, how we interpret our choices, how we relate to time and to ourselves. They’re already present in the way we talk about our work, often before we consciously notice them.
This conversation with Erik (you can listen to Part 2 here) simply made that more visible. It showed how the language guiding my work is shifting — and how that shift is happening for a reason.
All of this points to a shifting vocabulary — not toward trendy terminology, but toward language that actually reflects lived experience. If the words are changing, it’s because the work is changing too.
And that feels like exactly the right direction.
