What's it for? We can ask this question for everything in our life? The stuff in your room? That hour that you are spending? That thing you are buying? We can ask "What's it for?" and look for a single, non-complicated answer. The more specific we get with this,
Getting swayed by emotions. Getting swayed by emotions is easy. It's what most of us tend to do when we face something uncomfortable, something that doesn't go the way we want it to. We let the emotions take us off track, to the point where we don't know
Being 24/7 open. Being 24/7 open is, of course, possible now. But, is it needed? Especially, in our work? Are we being available 24/7 because we need to be or because we can be? Can the notifications wait? Can the Slack replies be sent later? Can your workday have a start
Getting enough reps. The first rep of a new exercise is the most tricky. You are not sure about your form, which muscles to engage, whether you are doing right or wrong. But, as you keep getting more reps in, you start engaging the right muscles, finding the right form and keep getting
Changing the story. We tell stories about ourselves. And we keep repeating those stories. "I am not a runner." "I am not good with money." "I always do this." If your story is that you are not a runner, you will never go for a run. And
Keep things moderate. Don't let the hungry ghosts take over. Give them sufficient love, care, food, etc. so that they don’t need to try and come in and take charge. That’s the hard part, keeping things moderate.
Sprints, marathons and walks. Sprints are tempting. They give the feeling of a lot happening in a short space of time. But sprints don't last. And if we are going a long distance, sprints aren't very useful. A marathon is not a series of sprints. It's about sustaining
Fear of the unknown. We feel secure in the known, in the certain, in the predictable. No matter how miserable we are in it. Possibility lies beyond the known. The company who would hire you, the person you'd end up falling in love with, the place you would start calling home may
Tough knots. Some projects are like tough knots. That doesn't mean that they are not executable. It's just that they need more patience and more time and more intention. Sometimes that might not be enough, but mostly it is.
Where is your hour? Seth Godin chimes in (from The Practice): You manage to find an hour every day to bathe, to eat, to commute, to watch Netflix, to check your email, to hang out, to swipe at your phone, to read the news, to clean the kitchen… Show us an hour spent on
There is all the time in the world. You don’t need to solve anything right now. in the next 5 minutes. in the next 60 seconds. you can just be. just breathe. there is no imminent danger. for one minute. just let go. of everything. of striving. of changing. of what’s broken. appreciate what’s not
Changing the posture. When we change our posture, everything changes. If we start looking at ourselves as a contribution, we can't resist but become a contribution. A leadership posture is always there for the taking. No one can assign us the posture. But, we can choose to lead from any chair.
Hungry ghosts and child stories. When the hungry ghosts within us take over, we have very little bandwidth to move. They become active because the child parts in us stop trusting the adult part to deliver on their emotional and physical needs. The child parts and the hungry ghosts are not patient and they are
Let it flow. Let the words flow from your fingers onto the keyboard. Let the music flow into the guitar strings. Let the dance flow through your body. The more we think, the more we doubt. We can edit later. For now, let it flow.
More urgency - Part 2. Don't listen to the voice of fear. The one that says that it's better to wait. Start acting with intent. Make mistakes. Move forward. Bring more urgency into your action. Every second matters. ~ Carmy, The Bear
A posture of generosity. The more we give, the more we get to give. A posture of generosity takes us from the world of measurement and helps us step into the universe of possibility. In the world of measurement, if someone takes an extra slice of pizza, someone else doesn't get it.
Running shoes. Can you run without them? Of course you can. But will you run regularly without a pair? Not if you are not forced to. What is it that you want to do that you don't have the "running shoes" for? How can you create the conditions
More urgency. If things can get better today, why do we wait to take action? Why are we waiting for tomorrow? The only thing that stops us and delays us is that we are afraid that we might end up making things worse. So, instead of moving forward, we slow down, we
Doing a rep. In the gym, a rep (repetition) by itself doesn't make much change to your body. But 12 reps can make a set and 3 sets count as one exercise. A workout typically comprises of 8 exercises. And if you get in 3 workouts a week in 12 weeks,
Out of battery. If your phone runs out of battery, you won't expect it to charge itself on its own. You plug it into an external source of energy to make it work again. Our motivation, persistence and discipline also run out of battery every now and then. Just like the
Ship one thing. It's tempting to want to plan everything first, have everything in place, know everything in advance. But when we are engaging with possibility, when we are looking to lead, when we are initiating, this becomes a good place to hide. Leadership is about taking initiative, and initiative requires
What's it for? These shoes, are they for running or training in the gym? This notebook, is it for mathematics or english? This hour, is it for income or vocation? The more we are clear about what's it for, the more effective we become.
One thing at a time. Yes, everything is linked to everything else. Of course. But, we can't do everything at once. We can only do one thing at a time. What's the next thing you can do? One thing at a time. One day at a time. As Seth Godin says,
Getting to action. Send a message. Post a blog. Do a push-up. Eat a healthy meal. Say hello to someone new. Action moves us forward. What’s the next action in your project?
Gaining back agency. Resistance takes our agency away. It uses its cunning to keep us trapped in distractions and displacement activities. The more time we spend there, the more difficult it becomes for us to gain back our agency. Agency requires intention. It requires us to decide what we are working on and
