The double-edged sword of fear. On the one hand, it beats you up by constantly telling that you are not doing enough to grow your business. On the other, it stops you from taking any action that can actually help you grow your business. It's tough to break through when we are caught
Taking back charge. Little by little, resistance creeps up. It asks us to make exceptions. It convinces us that we're still in charge. But slowly, but surely, we start losing our agency. Slowly, but surely, resistance starts dictating our day. And when it does that, it may sometimes feel like it&
You can't see what you can't see. Unless someone else helps you see it. And once they help you see your blind spots, it's very difficult to unsee them. That's where friends, peers, coaches and mastermind groups help. The hard work is to create a safe space where like-minded people can share their
Putting on a show. As professionals, we put on a show with intent. We may not necessarily feel our best in the moment, but we do not let the audience or the clients notice. We keep our personal feelings aside and deliver on what's expected of us. This is the hard part,
Humans serving humans. When we look at our work, including our marketing, as a human being being serving other human beings, we take our decisions with empathy, compassion and respect. We don't seek to manipulate the other person, we don't seek to cajole. We create a path for them
It doesn't need to be hard. The journey is tough; no doubt about that. But it doesn't need to be hard. We can find friends who can accompany us on the journey. We can have people who care and understand and can keep us on the hook. Trying to do it all alone may
Empathy. The client doesn't know what you know. She doesn't believe what you believe. She doesn't care about what you care about. ~ Seth Godin, The Marketing Seminar What does she know? What does she believe? What does she care about? We can guess. Or we
Perfect or on time? Being a professional doesn't mean that things will be perfect. It means that things will be on time. We have to choose between the two as both is not an option.
Anti-fragility and the learning curve. Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile The growth mindset leads to antifragility. The focus is not on maintaining the system as it is. It is to keep breaking it to make it better.
The source of fear It is the inadequate response to a challenge that breeds fear. ~ J. Krishnamurthi, Public Talk 3, Saanen, 14 July 1966
Superpowers. Imagine if you wake up one day and you have the powers of a superhero. Surprisingly, you don't have to imagine that any more. With AI tools like GPT-4, you have similar powers in the digital world (where most of our professional life is). Yes, you can delay
Shipping momentum. It's easier to write a blog daily than it is to write it weekly. Initially, it isn't. Initially, it seems like a monumental task. But as we keep going, it keeps becoming easier. On the other hand, when the frequency is smaller, we have to restart
The professional freelancer. The professional freelancer is strategic. She knows that although she is the owner, the CEO, the talent and the back end of her business, she respects each of these roles. She doesn't mix them when she shows up to work. As an owner, she allows the CEO to
Customers are humans. They can be your coaching clients, course students, community members, online shoppers, or mailing list subscribers. But each and every one of them is a human being. Not a number. Many times, businesses and entrepreneurs forget this fact. Many times, they are driven by the desire of getting a number
The magic of hard deadlines. Soft deadlines can be ignored. They can be rationalised against and pushed back further indefinitely. Hard deadlines are different. You can't mess with them. They could be set either because there is a human being waiting for the work on the other end or a system that doesn&
Resistance is useless. Resistance's pitch is to convince us to do the work later because then it will be better. That's a lie. The delay that resistance creates serves no value. There's no reason why later will be better.
Getting out of our own way. “Basically, your fear is like a mall cop who thinks he’s a Navy SEAL: He hasn’t slept in days, he’s all hopped up on Red Bull, and he’s liable to shoot at his own shadow in an absurd effort to keep everyone “safe.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, Big
Out of the boat. "Out of the boat" signifies more than being off track - it means you don't know where the track is anymore. When you are out of the boat, you cannot think your way back in; you have no point of reference. ~ The Art of Possibility, Ben
Energy game. "You don't have a money problem. You have an energy problem." - Eva Forde [evaforde.com] Almost everything in our life could be brought down to how our energy is about it. Do we let the feeling of overwhelm and self-doubt take over and stop us
Specific is scary. When we make things specific, we are on the hook. We either get it done or not. Hence, resistance pulls the trick out of its hat. It stops us from making things specific.
Shipping delays. How frustrating it is to order something and not get it at the expected time. The feeling of being stuck, of waiting, of not being able to do anything about it. That's how it is when we delay shipping our work: sending the emails, making the changes, and
One day is enough. One day is enough to get started. One day is enough to gain ground. One day is enough to start changing things. All changes happen one thing at a time, one day at a time.
Earning trust. Whether it's about getting a new client, making a new friend or finding a romantic partner, it all comes down to earning trust. But, how do we do that? There are three things that lead to earning trust: deep, authentic, and emotionally resonant interactions, how frequent these interactions
Residual results. Some changes can have a ripple effect on future actions. Make the change once and it makes things better going forward. These system-level changes are easier to put off for later. We can always adjust. Why change something that isn't broke? But, if we start making these changes
One thing at a time. Focus on one thing. One thing only. Keep working on it until it starts taking shape and it's done. When we keep switching tasks without getting them done, we don't make progress in any. This is true for projects as well. Once we commit to a