Grit / Quit.

Here's Annie Duke from her book Quit: "That’s the funny thing about grit. While grit can get you to stick to hard things that are worthwhile, grit can also get you to stick to hard things that are no longer worthwhile. The trick is in figuring

That happened. Now what?

You were late to a meeting you were not supposed to be late at. You made a mistake in the slides to the client. You didn't reply back to the email you should have replied to. And now it's too late. Now what? You can beat

Working with insecurity.

Insecurity will show up, in all of us, from Frank Sinatra to Tom Hanks, to you and me, to some degree. We have little control over the feeling. It will show up when the limbic part of our brain senses threat, whether or not the threat is real or not.

Quitting is not easy.

Especially when you are invested in something with all your heart. But sticking to it even when you know that there is almost no likelihood that it would work is taking away from yourself the chance to work on something better, something worth pursuing. Again, it's not easy.

The desire to fit in.

Affiliation, the desire to fit in, is a strong force. As Seth Godin puts it in This is Marketing, it can be explained in seven words: "People like us do things like these". Many times, though, we default into the "people like us" and the "

States of consciousness.

At times, we experience a version of the self which is content and secure. It is not afraid. It wants to be generous, to take risks and to be on the hook. It seeks to ask, “How can I be a contribution here?” Then, we also experience a version which

Let go.

Letting go is an adult game. Toddlers can't play it. For the toddler, it's a matter of life or death. Even or especially if it's a story it's telling itself. And the toddler part of ourselves is no different. It attaches itself

Time travel backpack.

If you pack a bag to travel across time, maybe to give it to a past self or a future version of yourself, what would you take? If I had to pack the bag it would mostly consist of books. The minimum version would have at least these: 1. This

The one you don't want to choose.

When making decisions, we are biased towards certain choices and against others. This bias interferes with making a strategic decision. Many times, it's the choice you don't want to make that makes the most sense. And it might require courage and patience to make the right

An employee in the myth of “you”

In an interview with David Letterman, actor Shahrukh Khan (SRK) said, “I am an employee in the myth of Shahrukh Khan” Your best self might be an employee in the myth of you. What is the story (myth) you are working on? How can you build it like a professional

When do you decide?

Do you make decisions when you are low on energy, low on self-esteem, tired or stressed? Or when you are feeling like your best self, engaging with abundance and possibility? Our future is a reflection of our decision making. It matters when and where we make them.

Where to?

Can we answer the "where to" without the "where from" and the "how would we"? Are we able to express our desires and intentions irrespective of our circumstances? The logistics matter, but they come later. First, we need to figure out where are we

Project mindset.

Life gets better when we approach things with a project mindset. We define what the project is for, we identify what needs to happen so that it might work, we become aware of the constraints and the unknowns, and we show up with intent. On the contrary, the job mindset

The way things are.

An excerpt from The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Ben Zander: The practice... is to be present to the way things are, including our feelings about the way things are. This practice can help us clarify the next step that will take us in the direction we

"It takes that long?"

A baby takes 9 months to take birth. A book takes at least an year or two to come out. A movie might take longer. When we seek advice, validation, consolation from others, consider whether they have done something similar themselves. Anyone who doesn’t understand the process might question

Creating the conditions for lightness.

Lightness allows us to play, to experiment, to test, to move forward. Lightness requires letting go of outcomes, expectations and shoulds. We can create the conditions for lightness with intent.

Driving in the wrong direction...

...is better than not even leaving the house because you are waiting for the right direction.

The comfort trap.

The driving force for many profit seeking businesses is comfort. Not resting, which is satiable, but comfort, which is insatiable. It creeps up on us as we start making exceptions. One more episode, one more reel, one more drink. Sooner or later, we get stuck in the trap. We start

Beyond "not enough"

"Not enough" is a story. Even though we may not see it that way. The story plays like this: if this happens, I will be enough. If I earn this much, if I weigh this much, if I start dating this person, if I get this job, and

You did well.

Three words that can change everything. When the critical voice is taking over, someone you trust telling you, “you did well” is enough to help you start coming back to being your best self. And sometimes we can choose to tell this to our self too.

In the face of no.

We can have the agency of reframing it as "not yet". We can learn and change and grow. We can earn enrollment by engaging with possibility. Or we can choose to move on. An excerpt from The Art of Possibility: A “no” can so often dampen our fire

Active letting go.

Letting go is perceived to be a passive activity. It is not. It has to be done with intent and it’s an active process.

Past or future?

Decisions can lead to forward motion, but only if, we gather the courage to focus on where we seek to go. We can choose to travel light and carry what we need to become what we seek to become. Is your decision making based on where you are coming from

Change is scary.

If it isn't scary, it isn't really change.

Leaving stuff behind.

While shifting homes, we can choose to leave behind the stuff we don't use. Not only would we avoid paying the carrying cost for moving, but also the cost (emotional, physical, mental) of keeping them in the new place. A similar decision is on offer for us every