Do incentives help or harm? Is it easier to do a diet when you are highly motivated? When you really, really want those abs? Is it easier to find a better job when you are really, really hating your current one? The question is: Would you still be this motivated in a couple of weeks?
Making exceptions Exceptions are the enemy. The day that we do not work out because we didn’t feel like it. The day we did not study because there was no exam the next day. Exceptions don’t end with one day. Once you make an exception, you get off the ride.
Streaks. That’s how anything gets done. You start with something one day. You repeat it the next. And after a few days, not repeating becomes more difficult than repeating. Mise-en-place happens. Everything is where it should be. The threshold energy reduces. There is much less uncertainty and the process and
The illusion of certainty. Is there anything which is certain? You may say yes. You may say that since I have a job, it is certain that I will get my salary at the end of the month. We call this job-security (a word I dislike intensely). You may say that since I am
But, where's the parachute? When we do a favour for a friend, somewhere in our mind, we are expecting them to do something about it. Maybe just even acknowledge it. But we want something in return. This is the natural human tendency and this tendency is what the economic system is based on. To
How to be miserable? Take a task or an idea. Make it extremely important. Don’t put a deadline to it. Now your mind will take care of making you miserable. You’d think of this and you’d think of that. Scenario 1: What if I did this? Scenario 2: What if I
Procrastination, self-doubt and all other demons... A riff on the voice(s) inside our heads. We all have at least one voice inside our heads. Is that voice us? Do we control what thoughts or ideas it generates? Is it our friend or enemy? Before I read ‘War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield, I did not
Uncomfortable conversations. What would a 5 year old do when she sees another kid with a new toy? Would they just sit there and think how weird it would be to ask this kid if they can play with their toy? Somehow, this tendency of just asking what we want goes away
What do you think? What do you think? Is this idea good? Should I pursue it? That’s a lazy question. That’s a search for an excuse for not taking action. That’s seeking validation or reassurance. As Seth Godin says, Reassurance is futile. You can never get enough of it. A better
1% better There is always a possibility of making things 1% better. No matter how bad or how good the things are, we always have the option of making them 1% better or 1% worse. That’s the decision that we face. Everyday. Every moment. Every decision has 2 actions: Do the
Starting from scratch. ‘What will this lead to?’ is a question that ends more journeys than it starts. We become obsessed with the outcome. The best answer to this question is ‘Let’s find out’.
Money - A game we have to play! There are games we want to play and then there are games that we have to play. One of the games that we have to play is the game of money. We may play that game in different manners. Some may play the traditional way and some may be more
A day repeated, over and over again... Life is nothing but a day repeated over and over again x number of times. What’s x? Well, it seems that we do not have an idea and in the absence of an accurate number, we tend to just ignore its value. It comes out be around 24,000
Artificial urgency or doing things before they are urgent. The world works on artificial urgency. The University Exams, the education calendar, the company’s financial reports don’t need to be annual. But making them annual serves a purpose. It takes the choice away from the person involved. You can’t make exceptions anymore. It keeps the machine running.
Intentions and actions How many times do we do something which is exactly opposite to what we intend to do? We intend to study to score more marks and instead end up bingeing the entire series. We intend to be healthier but end up ordering from the food delivery apps. We intend to
Ignoring the Hiccups On the way of our practice, we would run into hiccups. Something would happen. We would cheat on our diet. We would not sit down and finish what we had planned to finish. We would get distracted. We would lose our willpower. The common tendency is to analyse these hiccups
The purpose of pain. And how to handle it. Pain serves a purpose. First, it could be good pain or bad pain. Good pain is like the one that we feel while working out. That indicates that we are making progress. Similar pain is felt, in the form of fear and anxiety, when we
Would you do it even if you were sure it would fail? In the book ‘The Practice”, Seth Godin asks the question, “If You Knew You Were Sure to Fail, Then What Would You Do?” Would I write this blog if no one read it? Would I write my book if it didn’t sell even a single copy? Would I meditate
The superpower earned through repetition Michael Phelps. Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos. Seth Godin. Tim Ferriss. How can Seth Godin communicate so seamlessly? How can Elon Musk apply first principles to complex problems and execute the seemingly impossible with so much relative ease? How can Tim talk to the top performers in the world with so
What is the worst that can happen? If you did not send that email today. If you did not publish the blog today. If you did not make the calls today. This is Resistance’s trap. It makes us focus on avoiding the downside rather than embracing the upside. And we fall for it. As we have
Writing and thinking. If I ask you to write something, anything, for 30 minutes, you’d ask “What do you want me to write upon?” “What are you expecting?” “What is the purpose of this exercise?” But instead, if I just leave you for alone for 30 minutes, with or without your smartphone,
Being kind to myself This is one of the toughest thing to do. And this is one skill that we need to learn. We can be kind to others, but how can we be kind to ourselves. How can the voice inside our head be the kindest of them all. It takes conscious emotional
Misplaced priorities We tend to favour going with momentum instead of deliberately calibrating the direction in which we are moving. A symptom of this is excessively busy behaviour. Because we do not know where we want to go to, we start moving in many directions at once. It is difficult to pause
The intention to finish There is a significantly different quality of mind when our intention is to finish something. Most of the time this quality is evading us. Thinking about a decision and deciding something are very different. The thinking can go on indefinitely and it is that which brings a lot of pain.
Gravity and Sisyphus Sisyphus was punished by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Most of us look at this like a curse and a punishment. I have started to believe otherwise. What
