What story are you telling yourself? 📚

Hello and happy Thursday! A mind-blowing thought I recently found on Reddit: A whole generation of children grew up with the internet without ever touching a wired mouse or keyboard. 🤯 I wouldn’t be surprised if using Excel with a wired mouse and keyboard is considered ancient practice a decade from now. 😂

Excel Gridlines 101

What do you know about gridlines in Excel? At first glance, they’re just the gray lines that separate our cells. Basic stuff, right?

But there’s more to gridlines than meets the eye. Today I’m going to show you two ✌️ gridline tips to level up your Excel game.

💡 Tip 1: They are optional. It’s easy to remove them from your spreadsheet—just head to the “View” tab and uncheck the “Gridlines” box.

Why should you know this? I’ll let a TikTok commentator explain!

💡 Tip 2: You can change the color of your gridlines. This isn’t just for visual aesthetics—changing gridline colors can enhance readability and highlight specific sections. 

Let’s say you want your gridlines to be pink. Here’s how you do it!

Voila! You’re all set.

What Story Are You Telling Yourself?

It’s a hot November day in Sedona when I get an email from Social Media Marketing World. “Kat, we’d love to have you as a speaker for our upcoming conference this March.”

This is a big deal for me. Huge. Thousands of people attend Social Media Marketing World to hear from world-class marketers (and tickets start at $800).

There’s just one problem: I’m terrified at the idea of going onstage. 🙃

I can’t do that. I’m not a performer. Never have been, never will be.

But this isn’t the type of opportunity you say “no” to. So I respond with, “I would love to,” close my email, and start bugging out about how I’m going to pull this off. 🫠

Chances are, you’ve found yourself in a similar situation. An exciting opportunity comes up—a promotion, a new creative project, a conversation with someone you admire—and you start telling yourself all the reasons why it’s not for you.

Those “reasons?” Well, they’re actually stories you tell yourself. Kindra Hall, author of Choose Your Story, Change Your Life, calls these “self-stories”—the automatic thoughts that influence how you perceive the world.

But the thing about stories is that you can choose which ones you want to write. Hall has a four-step process for how she rewrites her stories:

1. Catch yourself. If an opportunity comes up and your first thoughts are “I can’t,” “It’s not for me,” or “I’m not XYZ,” recognize you’re in the middle of telling yourself a (potentially harmful!) story.

2. Analyze your stories. Ask yourself where this story might come from. Dig deep!

3. Choose a better story. For each “I can’t” story, you have an “I can” story waiting for you. Best part? These “I can” stories can be about tiny, feel-good moments.

4. Install your new stories. After choosing your new story, recount it when you feel those doubts creep up. With practice, you’ll slowly phase out that old story.

This isn’t easy, but I promise you the results are worth it. Because what’s cooler than rewriting your own story?

P.S. I did end up speaking at SMMW—and it was such an incredible experience!

• Are you coordinating messy schedules in Outlook? This tip is a lifesaver.

• This Google Sheets dashboard is a stunner. This is a good reminder that you can be so creative with Google Sheets! 🤩

• If you’re stressed about not being “passionate” about your job, listen to this.

• Zapier profiled 40 habit-tracking apps—here are the top five.

• Hitting a turbulent period in life? This podcast episode from To Be Magnetic might help.

This is just your regularly scheduled reminder that XLOOKUP does also work on Google Sheets. 🤝

Stay Exceling,

Kat