Do what you can. Some days can be hard. Emotions can get the best of us. What we can do on those days is to do what we can. If we keep doing that, we are more likely than not to get back on the boat. ...the metaphor “out of the boat” signifies more
Even if you don't feel like it... Waiting for inspiration is a luxury a professional can’t afford. That belongs to the amateur. The professional gets done what's expected of her, even if she doesn't feel like it, especially when she doesn’t feel like it.
Letting go of assumptions. Assumptions can hold us back from opening ourselves to possibility. The more we invest in them, the more they can turn into attachments. But, when we choose to let go of them, when we can look at them without judgement, we can act and create the conditions for what we
Doing the creative work first. As we work on our creative projects, all kinds of urgencies tend to pop up on a recurring basis. The tendency to cater to the urgencies and then try to come back to the work is very tempting. But it becomes an uphill climb. Better to do the work first.
Assuming that there's no child story. The strongest child story is to assume that there is no child story. The biggest resistance is to assume that there is no resistance. We can’t work on a problem we are not willing to accept we have. …and all the while you, like everyone else, take pride in
Bird by bird. “...I also remember a story that I know I’ve told elsewhere but that over and over helps me to get a grip: thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had
Getting good at projects... If a project fails, it doesn't do your work or your idea justice. Getting good at projects give you the freedom to do your work. ~ Seth Godin Check out Seth's course on getting good at projects below. Get It Done: Complete Projects that Matter with Seth
Emotions and decision making. Emotional decisions are different from those made based on intuition. They have a different texture too. We can identify whether our decisions are based on emotions or intuition based on the intensity behind them. When emotions make us go ahead with decisions, they are led by our child parts. They
Possibility lies beyond fear. "This might not work." ~ Seth Godin When we are too afraid to let go of what was, or what could have been, our actions get driven by fear and insecurity. The child parts in us take over and they seek certainty because for them this is all about
Safe is risky. The voice of fear is cunning and it persuades us to always choose the safer option, the option that lets things stay the way they are. And so, things remain as they are. For a professional, for a change-maker, possibility and growth are the only options. The last thing we
Thinking is Resistance's territory... ...and so is talking. But writing, and that too, writing with intent, is where Resistance is at its weakest. When we sit down to write what needs to get done and then move forward to get it done, we take the power away from Resistance. Most of us have two
3 kinds of shipping. A note: I learned the idea of the 3 kinds of shipping from a fellow participant in The Creative's Workshop by Seth Godin which is now part of a thriving global creative community at purple.space. 3 kinds: shipping. Shipping. SHIPPING. "shipping" is for the people
What assumptions are you making... ...that are stopping you from moving forward? What story are you telling yourself that has led to these assumptions? What story can you choose to tell that can help you let go of them and make better assertions?
Compassion over judgement. The easiest way to be off the hook is to judge other people for their resistance. That feeling of judgement puts us on a (superficial) high ground. And stops us from fighting our own resistance. All we can do is to fight our own demons. For others, as well as
Child stories. When you find yourself ready to bolt from a relationship, or hanging on to one that is going nowhere, or frightened about the future, or feeling insecure in a group; when you are driving people crazy with your efforts to get things under control, or are unable to take steps
Willing change into existence. Stress arises when we try to will change into existence, especially when we are not happy with the way things are. But that's not how change happens. Change happens when we create the conditions for it to happen. And it takes as much time as it needs for
Who do you want to serve? That's a trap question. Instead, the question could be, “Who wants to be served?” There is a natural order to things and we can align ourselves to that order. There are audiences desperately wanting to pay someone to solve their problem, more so, they are looking for someone
The anatomy of commitment. There's desire and then, there's resolve. A lot of people have a desire to be healthy, but only a few have the resolve to not miss a workout, to eat healthier, to take care of themselves. Commitment means nothing until something is at stake whether it&
Listening to fear. Fear mostly tells us what not to do, what to avoid so that things remain the way they are. The problem with listening to fear is that it can become a habit. And that habit can make our health, our work and our relationships stagnate. On the contrary, building the
The dip is a good sign. It shows that we are on the right track and that all we need to do is to keep going. It's not pleasant. It never is. But once we embrace it, once we embrace the identity of being someone who can persist through the dip, we start looking
More, not less. More love, more happiness, more belonging, more compassion, more connection. We can choose to do more. The less can take care of itself.
"...so let the girl go." From Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert: “Who the hell do you think you are?” your darkest interior voices will demand. “It’s funny you should ask,” you can reply. “I’ll tell you who I am: I am a child of God, just like anyone else. I am a constituent
Unsolicited help is not generous. Everyone deserves the agency to do things their way and unsolicited help diminishes that agency. It is selfish to offer help without earning enrolment from the other person. And enrolment can't happen if there is no choice. For a "yes" to happen, "no" has
Getting out of the downward spiral. The downward spiral has a tendency of keeping going. In that space, every thought and action tend to make things worse than they are. The way to break out of the spiral is to pause, and allow ourselves to think and act from a different place, a place of possibility.
Status roles supersede everything. We think we are rational and take decisions based on our perceptions, values and choices. But, they are so strongly determined by the choices of those who we hold in high status. When status roles strike, everything else takes a backseat. We can rationalise anything.
