Get the next one in. When you miss a workout, get the next one in. Don't try to make up for the one you missed. That's a trap.
Breaking the block. Ice is made of the same material as water but it is not water. It does not flow. The difficulty arises when we expect ice to behave like water. We can either break it with force or sit long enough with it for it to melt. But if we do
In the absence of crisis. Shipping when there is no crisis, no deadline, no hell breaking loose. It's a skill that’s worth learning.
Yin and yang. The dance of the good and the bad will go on. How can you remember the amateur when you are a pro? How can you remember the pro when you are an amateur?
The smartness trap. At some point, the only thing left to do is to take action. And in that moment, the moment when action might lead to change, it always feels smarter to wait, to explore the other options, to do anything but what needs to be done. In that moment, taking action
Trust yourself. It's a skill to choose trusting ourselves over doubting ourselves. It's a skill we can learn through practice. It's a skill that can help in building all other skills.
Can you trust you? Strategic decision-making depends on making the strategic choice and taking action. It's better to separate the two. Making the strategic choice is possible only when we can think clearly and are not shrouded by emotions and fear. However, while taking action, emotions and fear are expected to show
One bad day. One bad day doesn't make you not a professional. It's how you respond (or react) to it that decides that.
Making space for slack. Being a professional doesn't mean being efficient, trying to make the most out of every hour of the day, every day of the week, every week of the year. Rather, these are sure shot signs of being an amateur. Instead, a professional focussed on what needs to be
Starting afresh. You don't need to wait for a new year, a new month or even a new week. Each day brings with it the gift of a new day. You may not be where you want to be right now. But you can choose to start the day tomorrow
Permission slip. Excerpt From Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert: You do not need a permission slip from the principal’s office to live a creative life. Or if you do worry that you need a permission slip—THERE, I just gave it to you. I just wrote it on the back of
Effective or efficient? Do you focus on the change you are seeking to make and on the things you need to ship to make that change? Or on how efficiently you are using the time you have available? The latter does not lead to the former. And we can burn ourselves out trying
Complex emotions. Sometimes we feel joy, followed by embarrassment, and maybe sadness too. On other days, it's fear, anxiety and guilt getting entangled with each other. Emotions rarely show up alone as we grow up. If we learn to segregate them, we might be able to dance with them. The
Unblocking. If a water pipe is blocked, you don't keep staring at it and hope it will unblock itself. You would need to do something about it. Maybe you do it yourself or you call a professional. But, there needs to be some movement. The same is true with
The other side. As creatives and independent professionals, we learn again and again about trusting the process and not worrying about the outcome. Still, the voice of fear keeps us fixated on the outcome. It demands certainty, the certainty that any effort we put will not go waste, the certainty that we are
Action causes change. Not planning, not discussions, not thoughts or feelings, but action. They may help us in taking action, but without action there's no change. What does action look like in your project? What can help you move forward? What's stopping you from taking action?
If I have to write... If I "have to" do it, I’d do it this way. If we do not give ourselves a choice for “later”, we might be able to let go of perfectionism, and make do with what we have. When “later” comes into the picture, perfectionism can wreak havoc.
A few tools worth trying out. Arc Browser on the Mac - It will change the way you browse. For the better. Arc from The Browser CompanyExperience a calmer, more personal internet in this browser designed for you. Let go of the clicks, the clutter, the distractions. Claude.ai - an intelligent AI assistant ClaudeTalk with
The bully (inside our heads). When something goes awry, it goes, “See. This proves it. You are no good.” When something goes well, it goes, “let’s focus on the next thing. that’s in the past” or "that’s by chance" or "they are just being polite". The thing with
Creativity and productivity. If you want to be productive, put yourself in a familiar environment, one where you have been productive in the past. On the other hand, if you want to be creative, put yourself in a new space, one you are not familiar with, one where new ideas can take birth.
Anxiety or guilt? Anxiety and fear show up when we show up. Otherwise guilt and regret show up. We can choose.
Interesting problems. Interesting problems are ambiguous, complex and seem unsolvable, much like how a Rubik's Cube appears to a beginner. But every action we take gives us feedback and helps us understand something we didn't know yet. Sometimes because it worked, but most times because it didn'
Where do you want to go? What will take you there? What is distracting you from reaching there? It’s not going to happen on its own. It is an uphill battle to some extent. Especially, not going into the downhill indulgences. There is no end to them. There is always the next episode, the next
Unnecessary emotional labour. Our important work requires us to do emotional labour. To show up, to make a change, to create tension, to make things better. But, there are other spaces in our life that lead us to do emotional labour without any returns. Bad traffic, an argument that was not needed, news
What will I tell my boss? If we focus too much on what we will tell our boss, we tend to get distracted from what our real work is. Our real work is to help the users, the clients, the customers. And we are in a much closer proximity to the user than the boss. Instead
