Sunday Setup
A weekly newsletter to help get your mind set up for a positive workweek.
06.22.2025 — Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
A Hapless Hen
Imagine all the GPS satellites orbiting the earth malfunction at the same time, causing you to get so lost you end up somewhere that could actually be hazardous to your health. Although no one really knows why, that's basically what happened to a chicken in Iowa last week.
A confused hen was found parading in front of a Buffalo Wild Wings in Des Moines, Iowa, prompting a call to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa by a (possibly vegetarian) Good Samaritan. The ARL, which runs a chicken adoption program, dispatched an officer who chased, caught and saved her from the fowl play of becoming one of the 2.4 million chickens BWW customers consume every day.
So, why did the chicken cross the road? I think the better question is why did she go to Buffalo Wild Wings?
Maybe she was raised by Jeffrey Dahmer and now enjoys many of B. Dubb's 21 signature sauces.
Maybe she was trying to start a Chickens for Chickens campaign and prove that Chicken Lives Matter.
Or maybe she wants to replace Hank the Buffalo as the BWW mascot and prove that LiMu Emu isn't the only talented, flightless bird in the world. That's one spicy chick.
What if…?
Regardless of what day you're reading this, are you excited about going to work tomorrow? Are you looking forward to whatever it is you have to do — meetings, presentations, deadlines, covering for a vacationing co-worker? Or are you wishing your unchecked Powerball ticket will contain the winning numbers and grant you the ability to spend a bit more time doing things you really wanna do?
Speaking of Powerball, how come psychics never win the lottery? Shouldn't they know what numbers are gonna come out? I'm just saying, if I had that gift...
Anyway!
If you're like me, you've probably experienced a point in life where you felt stuck, as if forward progress in whatever you seek — life, love, or the pursuit of happyness — has either been significantly impeded or completely halted. With respect to a job or career, that "stuck in quicksand" feeling can be overwhelmingly demoralizing, extremely paralyzing, and very challenging to overcome.
In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford University, during which he famously stated that he had looked in the mirror every morning for the past 33 years and asked,
“If today were the last day of my life, would I wanna do what I am about to do today?”
Whenever the answer was no for too many days in a row, he knew he need to change something. I love that question, mostly because it invokes introspection, which in turn inspires change, but also because it reminds me of something my grandmother used to say,
"The best nation is imagination."
If you're feeling stuck at work and are dreading the upcoming weeks, consider reflecting on both quotes and ask yourself the simple question, "What if...?"
If you're bored at work because you no longer find what you do as interesting as you used to, What if...
you found a way to view your work from a different perspective?
you went back to school part time? Could that inspire new ideas?
you took a leave of absence to explore other possibilities in life?
If you don't see any growth opportunities within your organization, What if...
you reached out to your network to inquire about opportunities elsewhere?
you ventured out on your own to pursue the work you truly enjoy as an independent consultant?
you devoted more of your "free time" to a hobby or interest completely unrelated to your job?
While those are broad examples, the point is to use your creativity and imagination to get unstuck form your specific situation. Asking "What if...?" helps us trade paralysis for movement because thinking up creative hypotheses for our lives is the first step toward making change a reality.
And if you don't think you have a creative muscle, trust me, you do. Everyone does. It's just that some people use theirs more than others. What if you were one of those people?