When and where? When we think of taking action, especially action that can potentially make our lives better, we skip the when and where. Rather, we say: I want to workout more. I want to write more. I want to take more action to increase my income. I want to make my dating
Intentionally imperfect. How can we get the first imperfect action step done in our project? Not just imperfect, but intentionally imperfect. The only thing that matters at this stage is that the action step gets done. That once its done, there is no going back from there. Once we get there, once
Separating money from identity. Resistance uses our self-doubt to make us seek validation from strangers when we are answering “what do we do?” This makes what we do precious, especially what we do to earn our living. Instead, if we can frame a simple answer, “I have an online business” or “I work as
Does it matter? That Netflix episode? That long drawn cricket match? That doom scrolling about US elections? That time spent perfecting your painting... or removing silences from your podcast episode? Who does it help? What change does it bring? What would you do with the time and energy if you had a choice?
One a day. Can you play only one game a day? That way, you look forward to playing again tomorrow, and you don’t feel guilty. Plus, you build an identity of being patient enough to wait for tomorrow. What about the Netflix episode? Or that pizza slice? It's a skill
Framing Possibility. Excerpt From The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Ben Zander: The practice is to invent and sustain frameworks that bring forth possibility. It is about restructuring meanings, creating visions, and establishing environments where possibility is spoken—where the buoyant force of possibility overcomes the pull of the
Fix one thing at a time. Most of our struggles in fixing things usually come from trying to fix too many things in one go. Yes, most of the time, we don't have the luxury to just focus on one thing and ignore everything else. But, what we can do is to figure out
Are you an impresario? Whether you are a freelancer or a creative, we can either wait for things to happen or we can make them happen by being an impresario. Here are 2 brilliant videos from Seth Godin that change the whole game: On being an impresarioUpdated in 2021 to include this lost footage,
Action / motion. Action brings about change. Motion gives the illusion of action. It's important to distinguish the two.
Minimum effective mindset. What's the minimum that's needed to be done to bring about this specific change? What can still be reduced? What's still missing? If we start approaching our challenges from a strategic mindset, we can regain the agency to bring about the change that we
More of the same. Maintaining the status quo is a busy job. And it can drain us physically, mentally and emotionally. Changing the status quo on the other hand requires effective action and mostly emotional labour, more than physical or mental labour. It requires us to take our attention away from the things in
Tetris - 1 While playing Tetris, ,most of us keep building and wait for that one long piece so that 4 rows vanish in one go. It gives us a dopamine hit too. But a better strategy is to not wait for a particular piece, but to keep completing the lines as much
What's it for? We can ask this question for everything in our life? The stuff in your room? That hour that you are spending? That thing you are buying? We can ask "What's it for?" and look for a single, non-complicated answer. The more specific we get with this,
Getting swayed by emotions. Getting swayed by emotions is easy. It's what most of us tend to do when we face something uncomfortable, something that doesn't go the way we want it to. We let the emotions take us off track, to the point where we don't know
Being 24/7 open. Being 24/7 open is, of course, possible now. But, is it needed? Especially, in our work? Are we being available 24/7 because we need to be or because we can be? Can the notifications wait? Can the Slack replies be sent later? Can your workday have a start
Getting enough reps. The first rep of a new exercise is the most tricky. You are not sure about your form, which muscles to engage, whether you are doing right or wrong. But, as you keep getting more reps in, you start engaging the right muscles, finding the right form and keep getting
Changing the story. We tell stories about ourselves. And we keep repeating those stories. "I am not a runner." "I am not good with money." "I always do this." If your story is that you are not a runner, you will never go for a run. And
Keep things moderate. Don't let the hungry ghosts take over. Give them sufficient love, care, food, etc. so that they don’t need to try and come in and take charge. That’s the hard part, keeping things moderate.
Sprints, marathons and walks. Sprints are tempting. They give the feeling of a lot happening in a short space of time. But sprints don't last. And if we are going a long distance, sprints aren't very useful. A marathon is not a series of sprints. It's about sustaining
Fear of the unknown. We feel secure in the known, in the certain, in the predictable. No matter how miserable we are in it. Possibility lies beyond the known. The company who would hire you, the person you'd end up falling in love with, the place you would start calling home may
Tough knots. Some projects are like tough knots. That doesn't mean that they are not executable. It's just that they need more patience and more time and more intention. Sometimes that might not be enough, but mostly it is.
Where is your hour? Seth Godin chimes in (from The Practice): You manage to find an hour every day to bathe, to eat, to commute, to watch Netflix, to check your email, to hang out, to swipe at your phone, to read the news, to clean the kitchen… Show us an hour spent on
There is all the time in the world. You don’t need to solve anything right now. in the next 5 minutes. in the next 60 seconds. you can just be. just breathe. there is no imminent danger. for one minute. just let go. of everything. of striving. of changing. of what’s broken. appreciate what’s not
Changing the posture. When we change our posture, everything changes. If we start looking at ourselves as a contribution, we can't resist but become a contribution. A leadership posture is always there for the taking. No one can assign us the posture. But, we can choose to lead from any chair.
