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’
Authenticity is overrated. It’s not about how you are feeling. It’s about how you make others feel around you. When you learn to act as if, to make others feel joyful, happy, seen and heard, you would feel joyful, happy, seen and heard. It takes emotional labour to act as if,
A little more than expected. It doesn’t cost too much. But it makes a lot of difference. We love to be surprised, to be delighted, to get something beyond what we were expecting. When we show up, how can we deliver a little more than expected?
What are you saying "no" to? Not only the thing that you don't want to do... but also the thing that you do want to do. The thing that does no harm, that's definitely better to have, that no one would say no to. But that's not your priority. Not
Battery life. Our phone's battery works best when it is kept between 20% and 80% charge. Even though we know this, it's tempting to push it to 100% while charging and avoid plugging it in until it drops down to 1% or turns off. The more we give
Will they talk about it? It can feel selfish to add features to your work that create tension for the users to talk about it. It can feel like a disservice to the audience because we feel like the work works without these features. But, remarkability is a feature that doesn't only make
Begin it now. “Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occurred. A whole stream
Effortless discipline. Discipline has less to do with willpower and more to do with systems. When you create rules that work for you, it becomes less difficult to stick to them. It’s okay to rebel against outside rules that don’t make sense for you, but wanting to live without rules
Streamlining. What is your priority goal or project? How can you streamline your day and week around the priority goal? What do you need to let go of in order to make space for your priority goal? If you are not willing to make trade-offs, how is this project a priority?
