What would Dory do? In the movie Finding Dory, the characters use this mantra to get out of the troublesome situation they are in. We all know people in our life we get inspired by, people who seem to be able to act with courage in the face of challenges, people who seam to
The skill of reaching out. Make the message warm, concise and easier to read and reply. Write to someone as if you were talking to them in person. Give them an easy way to say no without feeling weird. Make the ask specific, small and simple. Don’t bet everything on a single reach out.
Getting comfortable with discomfort. Taking an initiative, doing the emotional labour to make something happen that will change things for someone else, is not just about doing it right. Because it never feels right. It creates tension and tension feels like discomfort. There is a choice. Either, we can run from this discomfort or
Change, tension and status. Change doesn’t happen because it makes sense. It happens when there is tension. And tension is mostly related to losing or gaining status.
Letting most things be. We can’t change everything but we can change something. It’s easier though to get agitated with almost everything that doesn’t seem to be the way we want it to be. That’s a place to hide as it makes us believe that we can’t change anything.
Toddler mode. A toddler doesn't care much about anything else but getting the thing it wants. And as soon as it gets it, it wants something else. Most times when we get obsessed with an idea, or a project or a person, it's because that toddler part of
Contrary opinions. For some people, giving a contrary opinion is a way to garner attention. It doesn’t matter if their opinion is right or not. When we engage with them, we are likely to waste our valuable time and attention. Ignoring is a skill and sometimes letting people have their opinion
It's not that bad. It's not that good either. Our perception is a master at fooling us. It rarely shows things as grey, the way they usually are.
One too many. You can eat one too many pizza slices or watch one too many episodes. But you can't read one too many books or do one too many workouts.
The thing that's stopping you. You may think it’s resistance or self-doubt or perfectionism. You may think it’s the task or the challenge or the people involved. You may be right. But behind all of this, it's the status and the story you are telling yourself about the status that might
Write. don’t talk. Talk is cheap. And talk can get you off the hook. But sharp, clear, concise writing is difficult to walk away from. When in doubt, put your ideas in writing.
Resisting the tension. Events that we might miss out if we don't join create tension. Sometimes this tension is useful and helps us move forward towards where we seek to go. But most times, it has the potential of derailing us from our strategic path towards our goals. It's
You don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know what you don’t know. Worrying about it isn't going to get you too far. What you can do is make assertions. Make a hypothesis and see if it gets rejected or not. Each assertion helps you move forward.
Changing the story. When we look in the mirrorWhen we look in the mirror, who do we see? [A note I sent to a young friend.] The person we see when we look in the mirror is the person we become, the person we fight to defend and persist with. I…Seth'
No one gets to know. When you write your blog and no one reads it, no one gets to know. When you host a meetup and no one shows up, no one gets to know. When you ask a girl out and she says no, no one gets to know. Except... Except that voice inside
Story and evidence. “A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying, SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES The other writes back triumphantly, GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES ~ It's all invented,
The cycle of fear and shame. First, fear and perfectionism stop us from shipping on time. Then, guilt and shame make it worse by making it heavy and not letting us move forward. The cycle repeats. Unless, we choose to not give in, we choose to not let these voices become the driver. It's
The invisible driver. The story we tell ourselves about ourselves determines how status plays a role in our interactions. Status is the invisible driver behind most, maybe even all, human behaviour. Unless we start seeing status, we will keep picking false proxies as the drivers of behaviour.
The skill of "acting as if" Actors do it all the time. Christian Bale acted as if he was Batman knowing pretty sure that he wasn't. And we believed him. We wouldn't have much enjoyed the movie if Bale was constantly doubting himself. Your best self might, most likely, be a version
Ship it to...? You can't ship a Fedex box without a destination address. What about your work? Who are you shipping it to? Once you know the "Who's it for?", it becomes easier to figure out the "What's it for?" and to send
Mental Highways. The neural pathways are similar to the roads in our cities. The roads we take more often are the roads we end up taking more often. And the ones we start avoiding end up being avoided more.
The skill of shipping projects. It's not complicated: 1. Deciding whether the project is worth getting done or not. 2. Figuring out what done looks like, what's the good enough version. 3. Assigning the resources (time, energy, money) that will help you get to done. 4. Getting to done. 5. Figuring
Strategy is a choice. When faced with a decision, we get to choose: do we want to be strategic or emotional? Only one leads to where we seek to go. As Seth Godin says, "Strategy is a philosophy of becoming." Emotions usually keep us in the here and now. This is StrategyA
The wobbly table. It might not be that bad that you can't continue to work on it. But it might wobble enough to keep irritating you again and again. It would take not more than a couple of minutes to fold a paper and put under the table and make it
