The Elixir Method: How To Track What Actually Matters

Or... A Pocket Quest™ to make you happy.

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Call for Heroines is where midlife women stop waiting and start rewriting.

Every week, you get story-based tools, midlife travel tales, Pocket Quests™, and bold reminders to help you get unstuck, take action, and become the main character in your next chapter.

It was the professor who led my Master’s program who convinced me to pursue a PhD. She offered to be my Supervisor and said she was curious where my research might lead next (I didn't even know what my research was or if I even knew how to research). But she'd dangled a shiny new toy in front of my face, and I am known for being unable to resist shiny new toys (I'm getting better).

The title alone glowed in my imagination: Dr. Cabrelli.

For a first-generation college attendee, that level of education and the identity that came with it felt like an impossible goal. But I decided I would do it. And once I decided, I got serious. I project-planned. I systemized. My supervisors were impressed, and the thesis monitoring committee swooned. This was gonna be a cake walk. I had the whole thing in hand.

But then I didn't.

COVID hit.

Instead of spending my days in the library and meeting the other candidates for coffee, I was alone. And everything seemed impossible and irrelevant. Why was I spending hours poring over another complicated academic sentence I couldn't understand, when the world was falling apart around me?

Unlike most paths I’d walked - corporate analyst, business creator and owner, the PhD wasn’t amenable to a killer project plan, or a carefully constructed process based on reliable data. It wasn't a staircase I could climb step by step. It was a trail of mirages (I started more things than I finished), deep wells (I fell down research holes I couldn't climb out of), and loops (I found myself re-reading papers I thought I'd dismissed a year earlier). And the process was long. The finish line didn’t get closer; it disappeared into forks in the road and dead-end paths.

Progress is my comfort zone. I'm calmed by measurable movement. But this? This wasn't a straight path to a single destination. It was cyclical. I was wandering.

And it changed me.

I began to discover that the path was the point. Instead of achieving a single goal (like a hero on an epic journey), I was collecting elixirs (like a heroine who journeys, not to enrich herself, but to brighten the kingdom). More than a degree, I was collecting insights, skills, and moments of shift. The journey was no longer about the title. It was about the learning.

When the traditional academic methods of notetaking failed me (my process queen screamed in agony at the post-its, piles of PDFs, and colored sticky tags I couldn't remember), I went looking for a more technology-based solution. I eventually found Roam Research (and later Tana). These tools didn’t just help me finish my research; they transformed how I thought.

So, I documented everything, created a guide, and shared it on Twitter, thinking a few people might find it helpful.

That unadvertised $99 course went on to sell $50,000+ in 18 months while I wasn’t even looking.

The point?

You may start with a goal (a PhD). But the real story lives in the unexpected gifts you collect and then pass on. You brighten the kingdom.

That’s the elixir. These are the gifts you collect on your journeys. And the world needs yours.

However, both you and I know it's sometimes tough to recognize these gifts on the roads of our journeys. Even if an elixir jumps out of a tangle of bushes and lands in your arms, you still may dump it back on the road (you know what I mean, "I'm carrying too much already. I'm not holding that as well.") That's why it's helpful to have an official process (Hey, I told you I was the process queen!) to capture your elixirs as you journey.

I do all this work in Tana Inc., but you can use your bullet journal, a stack of Post-its, or any system you choose.

Pocket Quest: Share Your Elixirs

You can download your Pocket Quest Workbook here!

Objective:

Build your own Weekly Elixir Report system to help you name, track, and share what you’re really learning and creating each week.

Use this for:

• Personal reflection & development

• Substack or blog content

• Coaching or client sessions

• Legacy-building

You are the Heroine. Your job is to return with the Elixirs, even if no one has asked for them yet. Ready to create your Weekly Elixir ritual? Start with Day 1 below. I'd love to hear about any elixirs you didn't even recognize you were holding! Please share them in the comments.

DAY 1: IDENTIFY YOUR ELIXIR TYPES

Create your own categories of meaningful progress. Here are the core types I use, along with examples from my week.

• #glow Moments of joy, gratitude, connection, beauty, or personal truth

  • I repotted the peonies from the Italian front garden to carry them back across the sea to Scotland.

• #build Progress made: drafting, decision-making, effort that doesn’t look finished but matters

  • Sent Heroine's Circle group coaching announcement to all groups (paid, founder, comp) with polls

• #spark Insights or realizations from books, posts, conversations, and inputs

  • "For too long, we’ve lived in a world that favours the linear over the cyclical, a patriarchal structure that measures worth by productivity, output, and constancy."

    Rosie Peacock 🦚

The Four Archetypes of the Feminine: A Journey Through Life’s Cycles

• #signal External resonance: replies, restacks, comments, reviews.

  • Frequent restacks from Suzanna

• #create Finished artifacts: guides, posts, prompts, quests, videos.

  • Adventure Quest - Rewrite Your Backstory: The Lost Manuscript of You.

These are just examples of the types of elixirs I collect. You can invent your own based on your strengths, knowledge, skills, whatever you are picking up on your journeys that will make the kingdom brighter.

DAY 2: PLAN YOUR TRACKING SYSTEM

On today's Pocket Quest square, jot down how you plan on tracking your elixirs (a mobile version and daily tracking form).

You know when you say to yourself, "Oh, I don't need to write that down. I'll remember it."

Did you remember it? Nope.

Have a method to capture elixirs on the go as well as your main tracking form. I use the Tana app on my phone, but am also partial to carrying around one of these cute little notebooks.

DAY 3: DECIDE ON FORMAT AND DISTRIBUTION

On Fridays, I go through my elixirs and decide if there are any worth sharing. I have an audience to share with (both here on Substack and through my personal author email list), but you don't need a large audience to brighten the kingdom. Perhaps your kids would benefit from your weekly elixirs? Your co-workers? Your friend squad? Maybe a weekly elixir report would bond you to your partner?

For example, I’m currently using the following elixir format (I just updated it and may update it again as I learn what resonates).

• This Week’s Story Arc:

  • My from/to for the week (ex, from hesitation into motion)

• Field Notes from the Elsewhere:

  • From wherever I was, to wherever you are.

  • Tags: Gratitude (glow moments), Homework for Life

  • Content: Personal reflections, updates, or stories from my travels

  • Purpose: Travel/personal anchor. Builds relationships with heroines.

• Tools for Your Journey:

  • What I built or released this week to support your path—printables, posts, quests, or story-medicine.

  • Tags: Pocket Quest, Midlife Elsewhere. Adventure Quests, Media Articles

  • Content: All work that heroines have early access to because they are members of The Lab, and also a reminder of anything I released outside of The Lab. One-sentence benefit statements per tool so it reads like a gear list, not a paragraph dump.

  • Purpose: Provide value. VIP Access to the Heroine's Adventure World

• Behind the Scenes: In the Workshop:

  • Modeling Momentum: What I’m shaping, testing, or sketching right now

  • Tags: Build

  • Content: All work I've been doing during the week

  • Purpose: Provide value. Provide valuable insights into the process and business work.

• Sparks + Realizations:

  • Insights from the world outside.

  • Tags: Note

  • Content: Ideas and explorations that emerged from the collection process. “Why this matters for you” after each spark. These ideas don’t just change my perspective, they’re potential elixirs for my heroine’s own reframing.

  • Purpose: Provide Value. From outside the Heroine's Adventure world.

• The Echoes

  • What resonated. Quotes, messages, restacks. A look at what sparked.

  • Tags: Signal (repeat this series in every week's post)

  • Content: Screenshot quote from a reader, notable reply, unexpected spike in a post. Add a CTA once/month: “Want to echo something back? Just hit reply.”

  • Purpose: Social Proof. Community Building.

• Heroine Spotlight

  • Sharing your elixirs.

  • Tags: Spotlight

  • Content: Updates and success stories from paid heroines.

  • Purpose: Community Building.

• The Dispatch Board

  • Your turn. A quick poll or insight request, because you’re not just the audience. You’re part of the lab.

  • Content: A poll with a question to dig deeper into heroine needs.

  • Purpose: Product Development Insight.

*My Elixir Report is called Sharing the Elixirs: Dispatches from The Lab.

It’s sent exclusively to members of The Lab, our space for women who want full access to the Heroine’s Adventure as it's being rebuilt. Every tool, prompt, and Adventure Quest is included in one (very low-priced) subscription.

Sharing the Elixirs goes beyond the usual Call for Heroines content. It’s where I share what’s working, what’s changing, and what I’m experimenting with inside life and the business. And if you're curious about how I’m building this story-driven ecosystem behind the scenes? I share those insights, too. Totally optional. Always a bonus.

DAY 4: MAKE IT EASY TO REPEAT - WRITE IT DOWN

Choose your rhythm:

• Weekly review ritual?

• Friday check-in?

• Sunday night wind-down?

Then:

• Add a recurring reminder

• Name the ritual

• Consider closing the week with: "What am I carrying forward?"

REMEMBER:

You don’t need to wait for the PhD, the book deal, or the client win.

The story’s already happening. The elixirs are already arriving.

Your job is just to notice them and share what matters.

If you think this Pocket Quest will help a friend discover all the magic she already has in her life, please share Call for Heroines with her.