Entering the dip.

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: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) First,

The skill of compassion.

Compassion means making space for others to share things without judgement, without condemnation, so that they can work on their blind spots and become better. There are people who show up in the world with compassion and make it a better place for everyone. They help others in making their

The challenge of coaching humans.

AI doesn't need a coach. It can set an objective and then follow that objective from point A to point B. The challenge which makes working with humans interesting is that we are emotional beings. And our emotions have a tendency to make us adapt and change our

Overcoming emotional labour.

When we are good at something, when we know that we are good at it, emotions hardly play a role in how we approach it. On the other hand, when we struggle with something, the biggest challenge is to overcome the emotional hurdle. A student who is good at maths

Making way for your audience to reach you.

As a creator or freelancer, you live in your reality, the place where you are certain about things and people, the place where you know your stuff, and the place where you know who you can trust. That's your sphere of reality. And for you, it is difficult

Keep writing.

The voice in your head will keep doing its job. It will keep telling you that you are not in the right state of mind, that you should come back later to this, that tomorrow will be better somehow. But if you keep doing your job, if you simply take

Outputs and inputs.

Outputs can help us in setting goals and also in checking whether we are on track to achieving them or not. But they do not help us in moving forward towards our goals. What helps in achieving the goals are the input metrics. That's what matters. If you

Possibility lies beyond reality.

Reality is about the way things are and the way things have been. Reality is certain and predictable. There is a sense of comfort in rooting ourself in reality. But change and growth have nothing to do with the way things are or the way they have been. They are

I don't need a coach...

Because I have no limiting beliefs holding me back... Because I have no intention of growing in my work any more... Because I can coach myself... Said no one ever... who was serious about achieving their goals. who was serious about becoming the best in the world. who was serious

Uncomfortable conversations.

It's easier to say nothing and pretend as if nothing's wrong. It's easier to find ways to adjust and navigate around the problem. It's easier to make do with the status quo. But it's easier only until we feel the

The challenge of sitting down to do the work.

The mind says that we need to figure everything out before we sit down. It gets distracted by some genuine and some invented urgencies, forcing us to delay sitting down. The more we delay, the more stressed we feel, and the less likely we are to sit down and start

Failed experiments.

Are not something to frown upon or be disappointed by. They are what that leads to forward motion. Any experiment that's guaranteed to succeed is not much of an experiment, is it? As creatives, it's worthwhile to embrace experiments and the failure that comes along with

Compassion is a skill.

Especially, compassion for oneself. There are days when you do great and then there are the other ones. It's hard to be compassionate to yourself on the other ones. But that's the skill a professional builds.

The weight of unshipped ideas.

When we get new ideas, they feel fresh and exciting. They bring in a joy along with them. What ideas want is that we make something tangible out of them, we process them, we ship them. When we carry ideas and neither ship them nor let them go, they start

What are you running away from?

What is the project that's there on the backburner? What is the project that all the distractions are distracting you from? What is the project that seems too far, too arduous to get back to? As Steven Pressfield asked in his interview on the Rich Roll podcast this

I'm not sure.

It's actually easy to say, "I'm sure this is going to happen". The truth is that we are never sure. It's just that it takes a lot of emotional labour to see the alternatives, to see how the thing we are sure

Managing the day.

When we leave the task of managing and prioritising the day to the last minute mind, it creates havoc. It leaves the important things pending and indulges in the time-sinking activities which bring our energy down. It's the equivalent of leaving the home for a toddler to manage.

Tackling overwhelm.

It's not easy to do that in your head. The brain has not evolved to tackle multiple stimuli and hold them in place. For the brain, an unexpected stimuli is a survival threat that activates fight, flight or freeze mode instantaneously. It does not say, "Oh, I

Abundance breeds abundance.

And scarcity breeds scarcity. When we show up with a scarcity mindset, we try to hold onto what we have. We see the world from a fixed perspective and every interaction becomes a zero sum game. We win when you lose. On the other hand, abundance is beautiful and it

Upstream or downstream?

Should you go against the river flow or along with it? Should you move up the hill or down the hill? Should you choose the more difficult task or the easier task? All of this is irrelevant until we specify what's it for. When we become clear about

We buy stories.

Apple is a story. So, is Starbucks. And Nike. If all you are doing is selling a product, then you become a commodity and join the race to the bottom, to be the cheapest. But when you sell a story that resonates, then people engage with you and the price

Coming back to true north.

Distractions, urgencies and emergencies take our attention away, they make us busy. They create a mind space where we can't think clearly, where we are preoccupied. We feel that once we handle the distraction, once we take care of the urgency, we would be able to sit down

Two kinds of work.

One is tangible and imminent. Someone's waiting for it. You can check it off from your to do list. The other is ambiguous and without a deadline. But it leads you towards your goal. It helps you make progress, no matter how slow it may seem. It'

The professional creates his own luck.

We hear the term "beginner's luck" thrown around everywhere. Some of it has to do with the fact that the expectations are way low for a beginner. But still, many strive to make it through riding the beginner's luck. And once you fall into

Money & emotions

If money is an emotional issue for you, you’ve just put your finger on a big part of the problem. No one who is good at building houses has an emotional problem with hammers. Place your emotional problems where they belong, and focus on seeing money as a tool.