Opening a better door. It's tempting to look for a smaller, less scary, more realistic door to open when another one closes for us. Instead, we can choose to look for a better door, one that requires us to be more courageous, to raise our hand and volunteer, to lead. Interestingly, there&
Recharging the creative battery... It can be done with intention. Eating better food, drinking more water, getting comfortable sleep, having healthy social interactions, spending time in nature, or by the sea and getting enough rest. Decision fatigue is real and it doesn't do us good to make decisions when we are running
Back on the territory. A territory provides sustenance. A writer’s territory is the blank page. A dancer’s is the studio. A boxer’s is the ring. When a professional is far from their territory, they feel uneasy. The only solution is to get back to what makes them feel alive. What’s
Out of the boat... Excerpt From The Art of Possibility by Ben Zander & Rosamund Stone Zander “Out of the boat... It signifies more than being off track—it means you don’t know where the track is anymore. “Out of the boat” could refer to something as simple as losing all memory of
Afraid of making mistakes. If a decision has a 100% probability for the desired outcome, it's not a decision, it's simply an action. Any decision would have a best case scenario and a worst case scenario and other potential scenarios in between. Rarely would we see the extreme scenarios happen.
Smart or stupid? When we try to be smart, we tend to overanalyse and overthink. We hardly take action. But if we allow ourselves to make mistakes (or to be stupid enough) to take action, we are much more likely to become smart.
Emotional energy reserves. We are usually attentive about money and time. We are conscious when we are running short of either. And we are also sometimes aware of our physical energy and mental energy bandwidth. But when it comes to emotional labour, we are usually not compassionate with ourselves. A reason being that
Navigating fear. Fear shows up every time we are engaging with possibility and by definition with uncertainty. It especially shows up when the action in front of us can change our life significantly for the better. The goal is to not eliminate fear but to navigate it.
Slightly better... Eating slightly healthier... Working out or moving the body slightly more... Taking slightly less stress... When we start making slightly better decisions, they compound.
Tyre pressure. When driving a vehicle, we usually give attention to the engine, the make, the kind of fuel and whatnot. One thing that doesn't get that much attention, one thing that seems mundane, but can make everything better is tyre pressure. It makes the driving more comfortable, the engine
Shipping one thing. One keeps you on the hook. Either you ship it or not. There is no hiding behind the other. What is the ONE thing you are shipping next?
Without leaping... A leap is a change of identity. When we do things that align with our existing identity, it doesn't feel like a leap. But even the smallest of actions that "doesn't feel like us" creates fear and anxiety. We can choose the leaps which
Unentanglement. Slow down. Observe the feelings, the thoughts and the behaviour. Separately. What action do you need to take today? What action do you want to take today? Do you want to be feelings-driven or fear-driven? Or do you want to be intention-driven? Find your micro goals. Pick one, move towards
Without the mess. It's tempting to want to become healthier without the mess of going to the gym, sweating and needing to make tough choices about food. It's tempting to earn projects without the mess of building a portfolio, having conversations with people, creating tension, and becoming okay with
The uncertain choice. When offered a choice, we usually have an option of a safer, more predictable action or one that is uncertain and seemingly risky. Our tendency, by default or design, maybe to choose the former over the latter. It definitely seems like the smarter choice. But the other one is where
Shipping sub-projects. Sub-projects are projects within projects. They can be the specific way forward in an ambiguous territory of a larger more ambitious and ambiguous project. They can have imminent deadlines. They can have constraints. They can help us move forward with intention. If we start shipping enough sub-projects, we become much
Feelings driven. Our feelings can drive our behaviour. Or our behaviour can drive our feelings. There's only one that we can proactively choose.
Fear and action. Fear shows up in many forms. But mostly it wants you to stop taking action. If you take action, there’s no fear.
Just keep swimming In the Pixar movie, Finding Dory, this is what Dory keeps saying. Just keep swimming. No matter what. Just keep swimming. Can we do the same? Can we just keep swimming? One thing at a time, one day at a time. Without judgment, without analysis. Just keep swimming.
Overcoming overwhelm. When we connect deeply with things that we engage with, we need to be careful about what we allow our attention to go towards. If we don't filter the content that gets access to our nervous system, it can create havoc inside our brains. A starting point towards
Getting to action. What action step changes the status quo? What stops up from taking that action? How can we make the action imminent?
What's it for? Design requires intent. When NASA or SpaceX design a spaceship, each and every component serves a purpose. Nothing is there just because. How can we make choices with intent in our life and our work as well? How can we let go of things, beliefs or maybe even people that
Something to strive for. We hear a lot about dopamine addiction and how social media and other stuff manipulate our minds for their benefit. And it's obviously true. But, what happens when we don't have enough of it? In an experiment, scientists discovered that a mouse which was unable to
The critical voice doesn’t create. The critical voice is harsh, pseudo-confident and strong. It could come from within us or it could come from others. It has strong opinions and it is good at creating doubts. But what the critical voice doesn't do is to create.
Removing small pebbles. It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. ~ Mohammed Ali Can you keep going with the pebbles still there? Sure, why not? Would you lose some momentum if you paused to remove the pebbles? Definitely. But if we don’
