Letting go of 2025. We are in the final stretch of the year. Maybe it's worth practicing letting it go gently. Here are 3 prompts that might help you do that: Start with gratitude. Think of 3 people who made your year better. Share with them what they did to make you
Where does this go? The brain compartmentalises. When we give it evidence, it asks where to put it. If we have a folder for it, it goes there. If not, it goes in miscellaneous. If you have a folder, "bad things happen to me", you will accumulate the evidence there, the folder
The cost of truth. If you say this, you will get in. Just go and say this. But... that's not the truth. How does that matter? Just do what I say. There's a cost to being true to yourself. The system would fight back. The culture would fight back. And
What is. Our brain likes going into overdrive with the "what should be". There's always something wrong with the way things are and if we can just force them into being the way we want them to be, everything will be okay. But that's fiction. One,
Freak accidents. Yesterday, I cut my finger while washing a new cheese grater. It started bleeding and it took a while for the cut to clot. [Don't worry, it's much better now. It will take a few days to heal completely] Now, my mind was quick to ignore
Fill the canvas. It's a hack. But it works. Many artists fill the canvas with paint before they start making the painting. Once the canvas is filled, it's already spoiled. Now, you are just making it better. Same can be done with a blank page or a blank email.
Which game? It doesn't make much sense for a professional boxer to complain about getting punched. That's the game, isn't it? We are all playing games, whether we see them or not. Office politics is a game, so is online dating. Each game comes with its
Start with curiosity. Curiosity can be the starting point, no matter where we are stuck. If not anything else, we can be curious about the place we are stuck in. Curiosity makes us calm and compassionate. That opens up the way to creativity. And from there confidence and clarity start showing up. As
The truth in acting as if. When DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, he is not Leonardo, he is Jordan. He is not trying to be Jordan, he is Jordan. When you are the leader, you are the leader. You are not a follower. You can't think "I am
Which you? "I'll do it." You are pretty sure when you say this to someone, or to yourself, that when the time comes, as you said, "you'll do it". But it's not you who will do it. At least, not the present
Without compromise. Can we live a day without making compromises? An hour? A minute? We get so used to making compromises that we don't even remember what it's like to live without them. Rather, our culture dictates that compromise is necessary. In work, in relationships, in every space.
Carrying costs. You have a box in your home. Something you haven't opened for years. You don't know when you'll open it or if you'll ever. Why don't you discard it? There are zoom recordings in cloud storage, WhatsApp history that goes
Out of integrity. How does an airplane become not ready to fly? 99.99% of the systems might be running perfectly, but if even one small component is faulty, the plane can be out of order, out of integrity. It can't do what it's meant to do. It doesn&
Define productive. You might count productive in hours. That's what most of the world does. Or you may count the number of tasks done. Both are traps. Traps that stops us from working on the thing that matter - to figure out a strategy and navigate in the right direction.
Staying on track. The first challenge is getting on track. The longer challenge is staying on it. The challenge of doing things even if they seem boring. Not deviating for the heck of it. Persisting with the strategy. This is where things break. Not when we are trying to start them, but when
Maintenance/change. The goal of maintenance is to ensure that things don't get worse. Maintenance is getting a haircut, doing the dishes, getting to inbox zero. Maintenance is what "doing your job" mostly means. Ensure that you don't get fired. But maintenance doesn't bring
Spec making skills. "I wish someone else would do this for me." This is not an unusual request or wish. We say it all the time. Maybe we mean it, or maybe it's just a way to feel lighter for a second. But what if we run with it?
Short no or long yes? It's hard to say no. Especially for something we don't feel like doing. It's easier to rationalise and compromise and adjust. To make an exception. To say, "How does this hurt?" Saying yes when we want to say no can become a
Where are you at? If I ask you about your phone, it would be easier to tell. "I am at 68%" or "I am running low, it's about to switch off." But what about you? Your brain, your body, your mind? The body allows us to push it
Strategy work. It's tempting to just jump into the next thing - We will figure it out once we get there. Sometimes, it might be helpful. But mostly it's not. We become so busy trying to win a battle that we don't even consider what would
Spinach in your teeth. "There's something in your teeth." This is generous feedback, even though it might not feel like it. We can act on it. Sometimes it's a stranger that gives it. Mostly it's a friend. Rarely do we see it ourselves, even in a
The hope in maybe. Choose one: [] yes [] no [] maybe Ambiguity feels safe. A "maybe" feels more hopeful than a "no". But, even though it feels like possibility, it mostly closes the door on possibility. Clarity, on the other hand, allows us to move forward. Even if it might hurt in
EOD Where does the day end? At what time? And what do we do once it ends? The birds are clear about this. The day ends at sunset. It's time to head home. Time to sleep. Time to rest before becoming the early bird which catches the worm. What
What if it doesn't work? What if it doesn't work? This one thought, almost always half-baked, stops us in our tracks. It forces us to prepare more, plan more, and most likely, delay things. The truth is that anything that might work might also not work. What does not working look like? In
