Day A good day. A day is too long to be effective. We have 16 hours of awake state. It is not easy for the brain to manage such a long period. We need to break it down. An hour is better, for most tasks. Can we focus exclusively on one task for an
Vitamin S Deficiency Cause: Lack of enough shipping Symptoms: As Pressfield puts it: “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
Letting fear drive. Fear is a part of us. It has its utility. At times it keeps us alive. Especially when we are facing a physical, or in today’s time, financial, danger. But fear merely wants us to survive, to stay alive. It stops us from taking action, any action. Its philosophy
The dichotomy of rest. When we think of rest, we think of lazying around. And many times, things such as YouTube, Netflix, etc. can be counted as rest. But rest doesn’t happen without engagement and connection. To activate the parasympathetic nerves, we need to signal to our nervous system that there is no
Bad writing. Bad writing is better than not writing. Bad writing is the way to good writing. What matters more than anything else is consistency. If we are consistent, we will become better by default. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your
Doing something new. When you do something new, you become someone new. The stagnation goes away. The growth mindset takes over. You feel like doing something next which is also new. This is the beauty of a creative life. This is the beauty of life. Because life by nature is creative. — If you
Crazy is good. Normal is boring. Fitting in is a crime. Showing up is the new sexy. Shipping is everything. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your friends.
Keep going. The creative path is a journey with milestones, not destinations. When you reach one milestone, you start working towards the next one. There is growth along the way and that is the whole purpose. All we can do is to keep going forward. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing.
Reacting to stimuli. Every morning, we receive the gift of ‘the day’. We are given the opportunity to work and move towards our goals and dreams. But most of the time, for most of us, that gift is squandered away in reacting to stimuli. WhatsApp, Email, Phone calls, Instagram and whatnot. Our brain
What makes you excited? What makes life exciting? What will you do in the next 6 months that is exciting to you? It’s easy to fall in the trap of making the ends meet and doing what is necessary. But without this, without something that makes life exciting, it can soon become mundane.
Anne Lamott Interview on How to Human Notes: * Inner critic is part of you. You can’t just ignore it. You need to learn to live with it. * Get that thing inside you out. * Nobody cares about your writing. That’s why it’s important that you write. * Everything starts with SFD (shitty first drafts). * A lot
Getting back on track. When we are off-track, it seems sometimes impossible to get back on-track. We think more, we look at the highlights of when we were at the top, we want that to come magically back. The key to getting back on track is to be kind to yourself, to understand that
Making writing wait. Yes, it can wait. Yes, it will wait. But for how long? And when it’s gone, what remains? — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your friends.
Shipping magic. Shipping, getting things done, putting them in a box and sending them away. I think that’s the key to happiness, that’s the key to end misery. When we work on something and we ship, that’s where magic happens. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you
Taking a break. When we work for someone else, the weekend is defined. It’s a drag for us to work on a weekend and if that happens multiple times, we start looking for another job. But as creatives, we tend to merge the weekend with the weekdays where we no longer know
Hope and fear In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, the protagonist fights a battle in hell against the demon and it’s about how hope defeats fear. I think like everything else, hope needs engagement, effort and hard work, while fear is easy to give into. It is true for creativity, it is true
Stress. Stress comes from wanting things that are not in our control. If we focus on what we can do, and stick to that, then a lot of stress will go away. Also, we would get so much more in return, because we would be able to do so much more.
That voice. That voice is cunning beyond all measures. That voice of rationalisation. That distracts us from what we need to do and instead makes us run amok in distracted pursuits. The only way to counter the voice is through action, the right action. The action that needs to be done now.
Effortless. It’s important to create boundaries, to compartmentalise. That make life effortless. We get more done and we feel less stressed. Work does not need to be tiring. We can get enough done and then move on to things that bring us more joy. — If you liked reading this, consider
Connect. When the mind and body are connected, we take wholesome decisions. We start moving forward in the right direction. The key to connect is to slow down. Find yourself and connect with yourself. — If you liked reading this, consider subscribing. If you are already a subscriber, do share with your
Taking time to prioritise. We can invest our time, energy and attention in multiple things. Urgencies, emergencies and distractions keep cropping up from all directions. Moreover, we have a tendency to not focus on the 1-2 important things that matter. Sitting down and identifying the 1-2 top priorities and moving beyond the immediate urgencies
re-decisions. Revisiting a previously made decision may sometimes be a good choice. It can help us take new information in context. But most of the times, the revisit to a former decision is not due to new information, it is because we are reluctant to put in the physical and emotional
where do ideas come from? I was listening to Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert in the morning and she talked about ideas in a magical manner. Ideas going from one person to another, inspiring them, nudging them to take action. Most of the time, most of the people say ‘I’m busy. I don’t
Intent. Most of us like going with the flow. Getting things done as they come on our table. There is another way to look at life. That is to put things on your table with intent, deliberately. To identify what you want to get done and then proceed on making it
Empathy is difficult. It might be the most difficult thing that there is. And the irony is, that it seems easy. Whenever someone learns the concept of empathy, they seem to think ‘What’s difficult about that? Of course, I can understand what the other person is feeling.’ But when you go deeper,
