Saying no to say yes. We are trained to not say no. We are told we can't say no to the test in the school, or to the subject we don't like or to the company we don't want to work at. And now, as solopreneurs, we aren'
20 pins. During a day, our maximum capacity is of doing 2 (max. 3) "deep work" sessions of 90 minutes (max.) with preferably 30 minutes break between each of them. If we'd like to do deep work, we hence have a limit of around 20 such sessions a
Forward motion. Once you see what's next, there's not much to do but to move forward. The more you delay it, the more misery it costs. It might work and it might not, but you'd never know until you do what needs to be done.
The voice of later. Ship! Publish the imperfect blog, make the imperfect post, send the imperfect email. Don’t wait. Don’t listen to the voice of later. The cunning voice that tells that later will be better somehow. It won’t. Later will not be better, it will only be more difficult.
What else could it be? When something doesn't go our way, there's a tendency to jump to the worst conclusion about ourselves. When our mind jumps to a conclusion, one helpful thought can be "what could be another reason for this thing to happen" and how likely is the
Staying with resistance. There's a predictable feeling that comes whenever we are about to do something important: like sending a message to a potential client or asking someone out for a date or sitting down to work on something important, something that needs to get done. The stomach starts churning, the
Closing time. War of Art by Steven Pressfield teaches us that a professional works on a schedule while an amateur works when he feels like it. The point that Pressfield is making is that the professional starts at the same time each day. However, it may be even more important as a
When things don't work. When things don't work, it's a sign that we showed up, we took a risk, we put ourselves on the hook. It's a sign to embrace that we are on the right track. In creative work, things will never be perfect and the way
Glass half full. The water in the glass is real. The empty space is a story. Which one do you choose to see: "the way things are" or "the way they should be"? “Often, the person in the group who articulates the possible is dismissed as a dreamer or
Infinite and finite. Human creativity engages with the infinite in order to create something finite, whether it is a movie, a book, a painting or a product. As creatives, we engage with both the infinite nature of inspiration and the finite nature of resources. Every project we commit to requires a certain amount
Writing is a privilege. It gives you space to express and share your ideas. It helps people connect and learn from you. It doesn't need to be hard. It can come from a place of curiosity and play if you allow it to.
Finding your work. What is the work that others have done that you are grateful for? That has mattered in your life, that has changed your life significantly? That if it was not there, your life would not be the same? Now, what is the work that you can do that would mean
Letting go. What's on your plate? Would you put it on it now if it wasn't there already? If not, how can you get it off the plate? Sometimes, it might even help to start with a clean slate, rather than making space on the already cluttered one.
One change. What is the one thing that you want to change in your life, one thing that matters to you right now? Before thinking 0r rather than worrying about the how, make the what clear. Once the what is clear, the how will become clear. Mostly, we end up not being
Unblocking abundance. Emotions and fear make us create blockages in the flow of abundance, whether it is money, love, or anything else. These blockages lead to artificial scarcity, although it feels quite real. It might take tremendous courage to take action which can help us unblock the flow, but once we do,
There's all the time in the world. When we are aligned with abundance, there's no rush, there's no fear, there's no hustle. There's all the time in the world. Our smile comes back, our shoulders drop, our mind relaxes and we stop inventing scenarios in which we don'
The beautiful person within. She pushes us to be generous, to be happy, to be kind. She pushes us to smile and make others smile. She makes us feel seen and heard. She makes us know that we're okay and that we matter. She encourages us to be courageous and vulnerable and
Inconvenient. Changing the status quo requires inconvenient action, action that requires a pattern interrupt. Resistance doesn't like that and it uses its most cunning tool to stop us from taking action: rationalisation. The voice of rationalisation speaks like a friend, telling us why it would be smart to put
Work that matters. School taught us how to do the work that doesn't matter. And cookie-cutter jobs want us to leave logic out of the door and spend hours doing work that don't make sense. But, we do have a choice. And the choice is to do the work
Finding "people like us". The world is full of "people not like us", people who'd like to share their opinion whether we ask for it or not, over how we look, what we do, what we should do, and whatnot. And these opinions have a strong tendency to become overbearing.
Learn from success, not failures. "Learn from failure" is one of the most unhelpful advice we have received. When we try to learn from failure, we learn "what not to do". That doesn't give us any idea about "what to do". And so, the pattern repeats. It&
Two ways to grow your business. The difficult (almost, impossible) way to grow your business is this: * let your imagination/intelligence/muse come up with a product/service/idea. * let that idea become as large as possible in your head. * imagine who this idea would help and how. * try to convince (read: force) these people that
Burnout. You can ask your body and mind to push through and, despite needing rest, they will trust you and do that. The deal is that after the push-through, you take a break and help them rejuvenate. When we have an external boss, it's easier to negotiate a vacation.
Getting out of a funk. “What does Resistance feel like? First, unhappiness. We feel like hell. A low-grade misery pervades everything. We’re bored, we’re restless. We can’t get no satisfaction. There’s guilt but we can’t put our finger on the source. We want to go back to bed; we want
Getting creative work done. Pick a priority creative project. Break your creative project into sub-projects. Identify the priority sub-project. Write down "what done looks like" and fix a deadline for it. Focus on delivering a "good enough" version by the deadline. Once done, pick the next sub-project. Repeat. That'
