The last-minute mind! That's where all good intentions go to die. The last minute mind might act out of fear or laziness or just pure evil. We can't trust the last minute mind to take intelligent, long term decisions. It is an instant gratification addict. The key here is
The decision to change. Changing the status quo needs activation energy. It is easy to want change without committing to doing the work that will bring about the change. What is needed to bring about the change is a decision. When we decide to act, without any exceptions, we make change possible. Whether it
Are you busy or productive? It's very rare, almost impossible, that you can be both. Most of the world chooses to be busy in the disguise of being productive. How can you be more productive? The following questions might help: What is the one goal, one project that you are working on? What
Being a contribution. We have the power to contribute, be generous and make things better for others. The more we do that, the more that power increases. Instead, most of us get blocked by our conditioning and focus on what we need (in the short run) and what we can get (in the
Forward motion. What can you do next? What specific action step can you take? Instead of sitting and pondering and trying to decide, can we move somewhere, in any direction? The more we start taking action, the more things will become clear, the more we will be able to move forward. No
Put yourself in it. Whatever it is that you want to do, you are not going to get anything by being on the sidelines. It seems an intelligent approach to prepare and plan and ensure that you don't make mistakes, but it is nothing but just another form of procrastination. When you
Shifting gears. There is a big difference between working on things that life throws at us and initiating something new. The skill to initiate is rare indeed. Most of us have been trained from school to do what we are assigned instead of being an impresario and creating something out of thin
The mindset of possibility. How can we let go of our need for certainty and embrace a mindset of possibility? A mindset where we let new things happen to us, where we create space for new people and new experiences. Our faux need for certainty comes from fear: it comes from past heartbreaks and
Done for the day list. Before we set out for the day and start tackling the things on our minds, it is a good practice to create a "Done for the day list". How is a "Done for the day list" different from the normal to-do lists that we make? Because
What is the one thing that matters? The one that you might be running away from? The one for which you think you still have time? The one which scares the hell out of you? The one that can wait? The one that matters.
The illusion of reality. Reality is dynamic and reality is changed with intent by creatives. That's the main job of a creative, whether it's a founder, a writer or any other pursuit. If a creative isn't changing reality, what exactly is he/she doing? The rational pursuit of
Compounding frequency. The most important factor in compounding is the frequency of compounding. Even with the highest of compounding rates, if the frequency is low, the return would be low. The frequency is what determines the absolute returns of a compounding phenomenon. Skill acquisition is a compounding phenomenon. The skill we want
Books worth reading. To explore your creative side: 1. The Practice by Seth Godin 2. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert 3. War of Art by Steven Pressfield To earn better: 1. The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss 2. This is Marketing by Seth Godin 3. The secrets of closing the sale by
Respecting the end of the week. It's tempting to carry our work into the weekend especially when we don't have a clear cutoff day and time for the end of the week. But if we work over the weekend, there is no beginning of the week either. Instead of pushing yourself for
Do the hard thing first. There are tasks that require emotional labour and we have a tendency to procrastinate on them and to focus on the other stuff. But when we do that, we make it even harder to execute them and the stress starts compounding. The alternative is to focus on one task that&
One by one. Greg Mckeown talks about the absurdity of the word priorities in his book Essentialism. Priority is a singular word without a plural form. More often than not, our effectiveness gets reduced because we cannot identify our singular priority. We end up putting in a lot of effort in different directions
The expectation of good. Whenever we work on any creative project, whether it is a book, a blog, a song, an enterprise, or anything else, the thing that stops us the most is the expectation of making it good. We start believing that starting it would make sense only when we can ensure that
Not breaking the streak. When we start building a habit, eventually a day comes when we feel a strong tendency to skip. The resistance or laziness or whatever we call it is at a peak and we keep delaying until it's too late. Somehow, our mind convinces us that it would be
Make an ordered list. The brain is not equipped to sort the things on our minds. The more stuff we carry in our heads, the more we become stressed as our brain continuously tries to make sense of the unorganised list of things we are carrying around in our minds. It makes sense to
A space for everything. Work from home is an oxymoron. The mere fact that it is home should suffice to say that you can't work from there. When our personal and professional lives overlap, it creates confusion and trouble. The best way to compartmentalise work and personal, especially if you are an
Use a timer. A timer can help us get done with more stuff than we think. It can make possibly arduous tasks come within reach. A workout with a timer of 20 minutes is much more likely to be done. Since you know it's going to end in 20 minutes, you
Adjusting to new. When we build our habits, we become used to the tools that we use. Changing the tools causes a bit of readjustment both physically and mentally. This readjustment is a big reason why we are hesitant to upgrade our tools. But as technology evolves and it helps serve our audience
2 kinds of why! One is where we want to act with intent. Hence, we are imploring what our action is for. This is a why worth exploring. The other is a form of procrastination. Instead of acting, we wait for the right reasons, we look for purpose and passion. There is no answer
A framework for income generation. Start with customer traction: find a smallest viable audience that desperately needs a problem solved. Empathise with the audience, understand their challenges and create a product that solves their problem. Show up with generosity and intent. Create tension and trust to help the audience take action. Make it easy for
Fear accompanies action. When we take action to move forward, fear asks us to wait. It tries to delay and maintain the status quo for as long as possible. If we wait too long, the fear takes over and we feel paralysed. Any action involves a trade-off and has the potential of loss.
