No is good. Nothing is not good. We are all afraid of rejection. We are so afraid that we don’t even ask. We feel that it’s better not to put ourselves on the hook because of the fear that something might go wrong. But that’s precisely the wrong strategy. ‘No’ gives us feedback. It
What's your status? The status game is the one we play with the people around us. The decisions we make depend on what we perceive as our status and what we want our status to be. Some want to fit in, to feel the security of being a part of something bigger than
0.000000014 percent If every one had an equal chance of winning a lottery, then this would be roughly your chance of winning the lottery. And still, most see this as a non-zero number. Your work is too important to be left to luck, to be average, to not be remarkable. Instead of
Do it now. Don’t wait for a better time. Don’t wait for a better state of mind. Just don’t wait for better. Do it now. Later does not make things better. Later takes away the opportunity that is now. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already
Bad Writing. The way to good is through the bad. Bad cooking leads to good cooking. Bad singing leads to good singing. Bad swimming leads to good swimming. No writing does not lead to anything. Choose bad writing over no writing every day. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you
The challenge of levelling up. Levelling up means letting go of the status quo. Letting go of the comfort zone. The people, the habits, the ideas that we have become comfortable with. Levelling up is not easy. Levelling up is not without cost. Few have the courage to let go of what they have in
A conflict-free life. Conflict-free work. Conflict-free income generation. Conflict-free relationships. Zero conflict. Expectations create conflict. Resistance creates conflict. Be clear. Who’s it for? What’s it for? — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your friends.
Resistance. The goal of Resistance is stop us from doing our work. The work that only we are supposed to do. The work that matters. So, it will keep creating distractions and temptations. It will create emergencies and situations. Everything to stop us from taking action that can help us do
Releasing the stress. Our body and mind knows how to adapt. When put under stress, we get used to the stress and start adapting to it. Our nerves go from our brain to the various parts of our body through the spinal cord. When we are tensed, these nerves become tensed. They do
Sit chilly. Don’t leave your seat. No matter what. Don’t switch the tab. No matter what. Don’t stop typing. No matter what. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your friends.
Who’s on your investor board? They don’t necessarily need to invest, at least not in terms of money. But they need to take you and your work seriously. I think it’s very important for us as creatives to setup a board of investors (for the want of a better name). And then we
20 pins. If you do deep work for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, you would make a lot of progress in your goals. Consider a board with 20 neat pins arranged in a stack of 5 x 4. Each pin represents an hour work, uninterrupted. How would you distribute
Being yourself. There are layers and layers of ‘not you’ covering the real you. Things people said, things you believe that are not you. It’s worth the effort to cut through the clutter and remove these layers and uncover the real you. And once you do that, you own that. — If
Bad estimates. We are not wired to make good estimates. And bad estimates lead to bad expectations. It’s much better to err on the other side. We can add slack to our estimates. Any project or task would most likely take twice the time and cost twice the money than what
Keeping your promises. It’s a habit which starts by keeping one promise. It starts with the intent of keeping your promises. Once you start taking this habit seriously, you will also start becoming very careful about the promises you make. One sure sign of amateurs is that they keep making promises they
The book within you. There’s a book within each of us. Rather, there’s more than one. We need to make space to take it out. An hour a day is enough to write a book in 6 months. It has never been easier to publish your book. Kindle, Medium, WordPress and countless
No judgement. We are not a good judge of the quality of our work. The work is for the audience, not for us. Our job is to simply do the work and share it with the audience. The more we do that consistently, the more we will be surprised by their reactions.
perfectionist mindset and finisher mindset. When we listen to our self-doubt, we get into a fixed mindset. Instead of doing the work, we think and plan and wait for it to be perfect. Instead, if we switch to a finisher mindset, we focus on getting the tasks done and moving forward. We understand that it
Distractions. Resistance uses distractions to keep us from doing our work. It’s cunning. It knows what matters to us, what will be difficult for us to ignore. Once we give into the distraction, it’s an uphill battle to come back and do the work. — If you liked reading this,
Self-image. Self-image is one of the most important determinant of a good life. Our career, our relationships, our health, all are affected by how we perceive ourselves. Most of us do not get a chance to work on our self-image proactively. We reactively keep adding to the self-image based on other
Stimuli-free time Turn off the wifi. Switch off your phone. Put the noise cancelling earphones on with lo-fi music playing. Open a blank page. And type. Keep typing. The key to deep work is stimuli-free time. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with
When it's not urgent. Can we focus on generating more income, when it is not urgent? Can we work on improving our health, when it is not urgent? Can we build relationships and connection, when it is not urgent? It’s not just can we, but rather, the best time to do these things
Time for change. Sometimes we need to adjust and survive. It might not be the right time to make a move. But this can soon become a so-called comfort zone because we have so become used to the discomfort. Change needs time, energy, attention, money and also an activation energy to bring it
It's your life. What will you make of it? What do you want to do with it? Do you want to take action and make your dreams live? Or do you want to listen to the voice of fear that says ‘tomorrow’. It’s your life. You decide. — If you liked reading this,
breathe... just keep breathing… in out in out… just keep breathing… — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your friends.