Identity votes.

With every action we take, we cast a vote, either for the identity that we want to build or the one that we want to get rid of. Whichever identity gets the majority votes wins. The only way to imbibe an identity is to create evidence for it and the

Imperfect forward motion.

When we are working on a project, we can get stuck and become paralysed trying to figure out the perfect strategy or perfect action to execute. Fear and self-sabotage work together in sync to stop us from taking any action. It's not that we forgot about the project.

Finite & specific.

Making a project finite and specific makes it doable. And that's the hard part. The hard part is taking the project from an ambiguous state and making it finite and specific. It's hard because it requires us to make choices. We will have to choose the

Focus is a skill.

And like any skill, if we don’t use it much, it becomes weaker. And like any skill, we can start again, day by day, in becoming better. The amateur fears solitude and silence because she needs to avoid, at all costs, the voice inside her head that would point

Customer traction.

Customer traction is the moment of reckoning. Either the customer would want our product and sign up. Or they would decide it's not for them. One way or the other, it moves us forward. And customer traction is also the hard part. It requires emotional labour. It requires

Doing things with intent.

Doing things with intent means that we are on the hook, that we are taking ownership and that we are not hiding behind chance. Instead of saying the compliance driven “I didn’t do anything”, we get the courage to say, “Here, I made this.” Excerpt from The Practice by

Not selling is akin to stealing.

When we generously design a product or service that can make things better for our smallest viable audience, it is on us to create sufficient tension for them to help them enroll. This is where sheepish behaviour stops us from showing up as our best selves. We hesitate to sell,

Writing it down.

No matter what it is, it will most likely become better if you write it down. Resistance will push you to not write. It will try to convince you to resolve it in your mind. But, that will only make the thing more complex. Just start writing. Don’t think

What you can't see, yet.

Our biases and blindspots can hide important information when we are making a decision. The perception deception, though, makes us believe that we can see everything. This leads to erroneous decision-making. This is where generous feedback from others can help significantly. When the feedback giver is ready to do the

Burnout.

The strongest sign of burnout is that we want to continue burning out. That we resist taking a break and keep pushing it back. The body and mind can support us at times when there is a crisis. But, if we keep manufacturing a crisis, one after another, then that

Segregating income and vocation projects.

Income projects: I do this work as a professional but I would not do it if I was not paid to do it. Vocation projects: I would do this work as a professional whether I am paid for it or not.

The trap of entitlement.

Entitlement chokes creativity. When we focus on what we don’t have, when we compare our situation with someone who is supposedly getting a better deal, we fall victim to resistance and we earn a good excuse not to do our work. If there are people with more who are

Conflicting directions.

Conflicting directions create confusion. And mostly, that's what we give to our body, our brain and our mind. It takes emotional labour to keep life simple and keep our direction simple. It takes emotional labour to overcome the urges that self-sabotage puts up in front of us. It

Taking a break.

Taking a break doesn't make you not a professional. Rather, that's what professionals do. They take breaks with intent. Burning yourself out is a trait of the amateurs.

Shipping cures all.

There's a saying in business, "sales cures all". As creatives, we can trust that "shipping cures all". When we ship, we breakthrough resistance and get to the other side. And the other side is where the magic happens. “What does Resistance feel like? First,

Being a contribution...

Excerpt From The Art of Possibility by Ben Zander & Rosamund Stone Zander: Four young men sit by the bedside of their dying father. The old man, with his last breath, tells them there is a huge treasure buried in the family fields. The sons crowd around him crying, “Where,

Energy savers or taxers?

Some people are energy savers. You spend time with them and you feel more energy than you had started with. Others are taxing. They leave you drained. Sometimes, we have to spend time with the taxers. but many times we do that without needing to. How can we become more

Receiving as generosity.

A blog reader receives the blog as a generous gift, so does the person who listen to an artist's song or the movie-goer who makes it a point to watch his favourite moviemaker's film. Some of these gifts may require a payment, but that's

I am the one who...

...ships the work on time. ...takes initiatives. ...leads. When we start seeing ourselves as someone who leads, we start leading.

The other side always shows up...

...if we do the work, if we show up with intent and generosity, if we stay the course. It may not show up the way we expect it to or when we expect it to, but it will show up. And it would ensure that we can stay on track,

Persevere or quit?

“The Dip is the long slog between starting and mastery. A long slog that’s actually a shortcut, because it gets you where you want to go faster than any other path.” ~ Seth Godin, The Dip Seth Godin talks about The Dip and the Cul-de-sac in his book, "The

Adjusting the environment...

Too often, we ask the individual to adjust to fit into the given environment. We ask her to be flexible, to work harder, and to change. And the onus is on her to adapt. But what's more productive is to adjust the environment to suit the individual or

Letting go...

...of things, ...of people, ...of beliefs, that don't serve us anymore. When we travel lighter, we live better. What do you want to let go as you enter the next phase of your life?

We imitate.

We tend to believe that we do things of our own accord, that we are rational as much as possible, and that we are in control. But most of the time, we are simply imitating what we have seen or what we are seeing. Unless we start appreciating this fact,

Our side of the work.

We just need to keep going, keep shipping and keep doing our side of the work. The rest is not up to us and so we can let it be. We can choose to trust… in ourselves, in the world, and in the universe. As long as we hold our