The independent project. Is your project independent? Does it work without you? If not, when can it become independent? What needs to happen to make it independent? A hobby is different from a project. We should be clear which one we are working on.
Fear in fancy shoes. Perfectionism is nothing but fear in fancy shoes. It stops us from shipping, from putting ourselves on the hook, from doing what needs to be done. It makes us feel that we are doing that not out of fear but rather out of care. Because we want everything to be
Hustle doesn’t compound over time. Hustling or working hard is a symptom of linear thinking. Compounding, on the other hand, relies of assets and systemic advantages, and mostly gives returns passively. A day trader is hustling, trying to make a buck with every movement of the stock, while successful investors invest for decades and don’
Low battery notification. When our phone gives us a low battery notification, we become conscious of how we use it and we know that we need to plug it in soon. Our body also gives us similar notifications. But, in the prevalent hustle culture, we have learned to ignore these signs: low attention,
No one owes you anything. No one owes us anything. Or, if they do, it’s in our interest to act as if they don’t. ~ Seth Godin, The Practice When we choose to show up generously in the world, we are not playing a reciprocity game, a quid pro quo game. We are in
Doing their best. Everyone is trying to do their best, with what they have, the resources, the skills, and especially the story that they are telling themselves. What we can do is to do our best to change the story that helps us show up as our best selves. Working on your own
Systemic advantage. If you setup an autopay where $100 from your account goes into a compounding fund automatically, you will keep building an asset effortlessly. Most of our thinking is linear. Most of our training is linear. We study for an exam and then we forget what we studied. We work on
Elegant hustle. Elegant hustle is an oxymoron. Either you are aligned with an effortless strategy, or you are not. You can’t hustle your way into elegance. Elegance is simplicity, efficiency, and effectiveness. It’s not only a solution that gets a result. It’s arguably a better solution—the least complex
Games people play. People play different games, and some even play the same game with different rules. You can adapt and try to win their game, or you can choose whether it's a game worth playing and if there's a better game for you to play. It takes emotional
Does it fit the box? If you want to send something through Fedex, it has to fit into the Fedex box. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t ship, at least not through Fedex. We have our own boxes, our own perceptual maps. Our brain perceives only the sensations (stimuli) that we are programmed to
Systemic advantage. Systemic advantages compound. They get better over time, with every iteration. In contrast, linear systems stay as they are, irrespective of how much effort we put in them over time. Systemic advantage beats heroic effort over the long run, every time.
Emotional rest day. Exerting your body physically, in the gym or otherwise, without taking sufficient rest is counter-productive. There's not much debate about it. What about emotional labour, though? Emotional fatigue is more challenging to acknowledge even though we can feel the signs. If we want, we can push through our
The minimum viable action step. Something that can lead to the next version, the next iteration. Something that can be made better. Something that gets us from zero to one. The minimum viable action step takes us away from planning and perfectionism and puts us where we need to be to move forward.
Courage in many forms. Some days, courage would take the form of shipping stuff that scares you, of raising your hand, of doing what you didn't think you can do. And on some days, courage might be just to let go and to get through the day. The latter might be more
Who else will be there? That's what determines, for most of us, whether we will show up for the party or the conference or the meeting, especially when we have a choice. This also gives us agency as the impresario to design our projects with intention. People mostly seek affiliation and status more
See what you’ve never seen before. When was the last time you did something for the first time? HT to Rosamund Zander for the game in Pathways to Possibility that inspired the title for this blog.
The one decision. What is the one decision you need to make, the one that you don't want to? Every other decision, task or chore can seem important or urgent, but most likely, becomes a safe space to avoid that one decision that can move us forward. It would take courage
Without a strategy. Some journeys have their paths defined. You don't need a compass for them. You can simply do what the map says. But most of the work that matters doesn't have a map, doesn't have paths laid out, doesn't have a herd to
Later has no date. When we have to choose "now or later?", it's tempting to choose later. Somehow we feel that later will be better. But later is not specific enough. Is it tomorrow? next week? next year? Instead of hiding behind later, we can choose to put a date
At the last moment. If you keep doing things at the last moment, you would become quite good at doing things at the last moment. What you would not become good at is doing them the right way and especially at doing the right things. It's a choice we make. What do
Lady Macbeth's perfectionism. "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" ~ Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1 Perfectionism can seem innocuous: "It's just one more detail that I care about." But it can be a trap. Seeing the spots that only you can see. A better way to spend our
In the ring. Getting punched in the face is part of being in the ring. Boxers don't complain or crib about that. You always have a choice of getting out of the ring, of not going back, of being a spectator. Yes, you would not get punched. But you won'
Owning your best self. The one who stands up for something, the one who take risks, the one who makes assertions. The one who isn't afraid of offending someone, the one who isn't trying to pacify everyone, the one who isn't trying to play safe. It takes courage
Fort or playground? When we perceive threats around us, the nervous system brings up the defenses and builds a fort. And in some extreme cases, it even shoots at (or at least ignores) anything good that might show up. In such a scenario, creativity and love takes a backseat and we are completely
Who do you want on your side? When I was young, we played cricket on the roof (I miss that a lot). One thing we used to do is to select 2 captains and then each person would select one of the players to be on their team. Who do you select first? Who do you select
