🔑 IT’S NEVER TIME TO QUIT — PIECE THREE

COLUMBO DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING.

Beloveds,

I have apparently become Columbo.

🤣🕵🏿‍♀️

Not intentionally.

Nobody issued me the trench coat.

I did not apply for the position.

But after spending an absolutely ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out why my posts suddenly would not behave, I found myself doing exactly what Columbo does.

Looking.

Thinking.

Walking away.

Coming back.

Trying something.

Discovering that wasn’t it.

Looking again.

And then:

“Just one more thing…”

👀

That might be one of the most useful things I have learned about perseverance.

Sometimes perseverance is not courage first.

Sometimes it is curiosity.

🔑

We usually tell stories about perseverance after everything has worked out.

That makes them sound much prettier than they felt while somebody was living them.

We say:

She kept going.

He refused to give up.

They persevered.

Wonderful.

But what did “kept going” actually LOOK like?

Because sometimes it looks remarkably unimpressive.

🤣

Try something.

Nope.

Try something else.

Still nope.

Get irritated.

Take a break.

Come back.

Ask a different question.

Realize you have been solving the wrong problem.

👀

Now THAT will humble you.

🔑

I had been looking at my posting problem and thinking one thing was wrong.

Then another.

Then another.

At some point, the problem itself became less interesting to me than the assumptions I was making about it.

What if the problem isn’t where I think it is?

What if what LOOKS wrong is not actually what IS wrong?

What changed?

What stayed the same?

What haven’t I tested?

What am I assuming because it worked yesterday?

And—

just one more thing…

🤣🕵🏿‍♀️

What if I don’t need the whole answer yet?

🔑

That question matters.

Because sometimes we quit when we cannot see the entire road.

We think we need certainty before taking another step.

We want the solution.

The plan.

The explanation.

The guarantee.

The map with a cheerful little arrow announcing:

YOU ARE HERE.

And preferably another one saying:

EVERYTHING WORKS OUT RIGHT OVER THERE.

🤣

Life has been extremely inconsiderate about providing those maps.

So maybe I don’t need to know everything.

Maybe I need to know the next useful thing.

🔑

What can I learn from what just happened?

What changed?

What did not?

What have I already ruled out?

What deserves another attempt?

What absolutely does NOT deserve another attempt?

Do I need more effort?

Or better information?

Do I need to keep pushing?

Or stop long enough to notice what all that pushing has been hiding?

Do I need an answer?

Or do I need a better question?

👀

There it is.

🔑

Sometimes the key is not an answer.

Sometimes the key is the question that finally opens something.

That changes how I think about failure too.

A failed attempt can feel like:

I couldn’t do it.

But curiosity says:

Interesting.

That didn’t work.

Why?

What did it teach me?

What do I know now that I did not know five minutes ago?

What happens if I change ONE thing?

That failed attempt just became information.

It did not become prophecy.

It cannot tell me what I will never accomplish.

It can only tell me what happened THIS time, under THESE conditions, using THIS method.

That is a much smaller statement.

And smaller statements leave room for possibility.

🔑

Beloveds, maybe there is something in your life you cannot figure out right now.

I am not going to hand you a motivational poster and tell you to TRY HARDER.

Sometimes trying harder is exactly how we wear ourselves out doing the wrong thing more efficiently.

👀🤣

Instead, I’m handing you Columbo’s question.

“Just one more thing…”

🕵🏿‍♀️

What haven’t you asked yet?

Maybe:

What am I assuming?

What am I afraid the answer will be?

What changed?

What keeps repeating?

What have I learned?

Who could help me see what I cannot see from where I am standing?

What happens if I rest?

What happens if I change the method?

What happens if I stop demanding that today’s information answer tomorrow’s questions?

What if I am not stuck?

What if I am still investigating?

🔑

I like that.

Still investigating.

Because there are seasons when I genuinely do not know what comes next.

And I am learning that “I don’t know” does not automatically mean:

There is nowhere to go.

Sometimes it simply means:

I don’t know.

Yet.

So I can stay curious.

I can look again.

I can ask another question.

I can change my mind when the evidence changes.

I can admit when my first theory was wrong.

I can rest without closing the case.

And when I am ready—

👀

“Just one more thing…”

🤣🕵🏿‍♀️🔑

Maybe perseverance isn’t always charging forward.

Sometimes it is refusing to let confusion have the final word.

Sometimes it is staying curious long enough to discover that the problem was never quite what you thought it was.

And sometimes the next step isn’t an answer.

It’s a better question.

You matter to me.

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

One step. One step. One step.

You are loved.

You are NOT alone.

Keep on being…YOU!