Downward spiral talk Some excerpts from The Art of Possibility: Downward spiral talk is based on the fear that we will be stopped in our tracks and fall short in the race, and it is wholly reactive to circumstances, circumstances that appear to be wrong, problematic, and in need of fixing.... Focusing on
Stories we don't tell. There are stories we tell and there are stories we hide. The latter affect our lives as much as the former. And unless we create spaces where we are able to tell the stories we usually hide, we would find it difficult to see them and to change them for
A game to play. Here's a game you might try from the book "Pathways to Possibility" by Rosamund Stone Zander: There is another open-ended game that I am particularly fond of. It functions like a towrope to pull you out of your habitual decision-making patterns.... It is played like this:
What battery are you at? Not your phone. You. Is it in the 70-80% or the 15-20% range? Or maybe it is 3-5%... If your phone was at 3%, you would use it carefully until you can plug it again. Generally, when we are at low battery, the critical voice and the hungry ghosts take
Lightness. What if we start choosing lightness? Yes, in contrast to heaviness. But also in contrast to darkness.
Creativity & chaos. When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007, it "disrupted" everything. Of course it disrupted Blackberry and Google and all the competitors. But it also disrupted the whole economy. It changed how companies did work and how people interacted with each other. There was no organised way of
"We always do it this way." There are people who aren't interested in change, whether it makes things better or not. You can try to change them. It's going to require a significant investment of effort, time and money. And it might (most likely) still not work. Or you can find the
Being a contribution. Being a gift. Being love. Being friendship. Being compassion. Being kindness. If we have a choice of being, we can choose to be these.
Low confidence. Self-doubt or low self confidence takes away our ability to trust ourselves and our belief in ourselves that we can make things better. Sometimes, this takes the shape of procrastination and sometimes perfectionism, but almost always, it stops us from shipping. Thinking that it's better to not ship
Making less mistakes. Making less mistakes is not an actionable strategy. You can't strive for less negatives. You can only vie for more positives. Trying to avoid mistakes leave us paralysed and unable to move forward. MISTAKES CAN BE like ice. If we resist them, we may keep on slipping into
A "professional" salesperson. As an independent professional, you may call yourself an entrepreneur, a freelancer, a bootstrapper, an impresario, a writer, a creative, an artist or whatnot. These are all good, but if you are not on a salary, you are now a salesperson. It's your choice though, whether you want
Smallest version. The smallest version of action that heps you move forward is always better than the version in your head that keeps you paralysed.
Move the pin. James Clear talks about the paperclip strategy in his book Atomic Habits. It's simple. You keep one box full of paper clips and another one empty at the beginning of the day. As you take any action that moves things forward, you move one pin from the first
Plug it in. When your phone runs out of battery, you don't expect it to charge itself. You plug it in into an external source of energy. Same with your car. If it runs out of fuel, you don't expect it to go anywhere unless you pour some fuel
The carrot and the stick. The carrot will make the mule move towards where you want it to go, effortlessly. The stick will keep it in place, frozen. Mostly, we keep brandishing the stick and wonder why the mule doesn’t move.
Where are you going, next? When you book a flight, you have to choose. Are you going to New York or New Delhi? You might need to go to both places but the same flight is not going to take you there. Where are you going first? Which flight can take you there? What about
Reliable or perfect? Do you want to be reliable or do you want to be perfect? Do you want to ship on time every time, or do you want to never make a mistake? You can spend hours, days, weeks and months trying to be perfect. Or you can choose to be reliable
That's enough, darling. Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro: Ms. X is an attorney who lives in Los Angeles. Here’s her story: I was driving, alone, from San Francisco to L.A. I took Interstate 5 because it was faster than the 101 and I had a meeting I had to get to. I
The courage of sending short, specific messages. The fear of "no" makes us write long, complicated messages and emails. If there are multiple things to respond to, the likelihood of a simple no becomes less. In reality, though, the likelihood of a clear yes becomes minimal. It's better to write short clear messages
Can we make it easier? If you are feeling blocked at your desk, can you go to cafe and work? If you aren't able to workout at home, maybe it might be good idea to try a gym? If you can't fall asleep, maybe it might be better to take a
Oceans and swimming pools. Seth explains the smallest viable audience in This is Marketing: Coloring the ocean purple. There’s a dangerous prank that relies on thief-detector dye. This dye, sold as a powder, is quite bright and a tiny bit goes a long way. Once the powder touches the moisture on your skin,
Be kind. You don't know what the other person is going through. The other person doesn't know what you are going through. The least we can do is to be kind to each other and to ourselves.
"It's a memory." If you stub your toe now, you know it’s happening in the present, and you won’t try to categorize the feeling as a memory—unless you are experiencing a fear around it that seems excessive. ~ Rosamund Stone Zander, Pathways to Possibility. But most other times, the feelings that
Attention and love. There's hardly anything that won't get better when we give it attention and love. And when we do that, we get better too. The world can do with more attention and love.
Choosing your story. What is the story you are telling yourself? What is the story you want to tell yourself? Can you design your story with intent? Can you repeat your story until it becomes your story?
