Alien career strategy. If an alien shows up... someone who magically gets all the skills that you have, all the experience, connections, and desires, what would you suggest it to do? What career options would you present to it? Why are you not pursuing those options?
But I already... A trap of three words. It's easy to say "ignore sunk costs". It's easier still to show "opportunity costs". But if we are unable to let go of "but I already...", none of it matters. You can make choices based
Dropping balls. How many balls did you drop? The answer is rarely - "too many to count". In most cases, it's almost zero. Another way to put it - not enough. The fear of dropping balls stops us from putting more balls in the air. No one comes to watch
Down the rabbit hole. Your curiosity will lead you there if you let it. And down and down it goes, till you get lost in Wonderland. For Michael Crichton, and then Spielberg, it was dinosaurs. For George R.R. Martin, it was the song of ice and fire. For JK Rowling, it was magic.
The 30-min project MBA If you want to learn everything about projects in 30 minutes, here you go... projects · specs · ship dates · the hard part · decisions · leverage · tasks & chores · AI [All courtesy of seths.blog] Seth’s BlogSeth Godin’s Blog on marketing, tribes and respectSeth's Blog This is more wisdom
Pinky promise. We make promises. And we keep them. That's the whole game. Which promises are you making? To whom? Are there too many to recall? Or too few? The hard part is not keeping the promises. It's in making them. It might help to say "pinky
The two-week test. I don't like the word detox. It has gained a cultural connotation that takes away its real meaning. Let's reframe it as an experiment. Take one thing (or two) that might not be bringing joy to your life right now. It might be something you eat
Where do you start? 3 things - Have you slept enough? Have you eaten enough? Have you had enough water? If not, start there. Everything else will follow from there.
The selfish ask. If your friend were in a similar situation, would you be happy that they asked you for help? How would it make you feel? Relationships are built when we are courageous enough to ask for help. And, of course, show up when it's asked for. The selfish ask
Creating magic. All magic is nothing but concentrated energy. The sun is the ultimate one. A self-sustaining fusion reaction that generates concentrated energy consistently and lights up everything. A fruit is a more on-earth version. A plant brings together nutrients from soil, water, sunlight and other stuff to create this
The anxiety lie. You do better when you are afraid. It's good to be anxious. It's hard to believe this when it's told to someone else. You wouldn't want your flight captain to fly in anxiety. But when anxiety whispers this to us, we believe
Who's it for? What's it for? When we show up as a professional, whether we are doing work as a freelancer or building a product, there are two questions we need to answer before anything else. Who's it for? and What's it for? If we are unsure, we tend to answer them
Something wrong. If you show up, if you raise your hand, if you make assertions, sooner or later, you'd make a mistake. Sooner or later, you'd do something wrong. Our mind gets fixated on the something wrong. And the eagerness to avoid it going forward. But... what about
Ten minutes of now. The present is infinite, yes. But that creates its own challenge. When are we in the now? And when are we not? What if the now lasts 10 minutes? Start now. Take 10 minutes to breathe. Or do a task. Or just relax. Use a timer if possible. Slowly, we
Where do we start? If we allow ourselves, we can start with peace & joy. We can make space for our anxiety and let it be, let it breathe. We can create a little space between us and the anxiety. Then we can look at the problem in front of us without anxiety leading
Emotional labour. You show up at your desk. What do you do? One option is to see what's on your plate. Clear your inbox. Do the things that are pending. Ensure nothing is left undone. Great. What's next? What's tomorrow? New things show up in the
The unsure doctor. That's a hard one to find - a doctor who isn't sure - who doesn't show up, who isn't sure she can help, who is trying to hide. Maybe it's the years of rigorous training. Maybe it comes with the coat and
Entropy is default. Your cup of coffee will become cold if you leave it. Dust will settle on your desk if you don't use it. And your day will just pass if you let it. Entropy doesn't require effort. Making things better does. Dandelions spread their seeds at the
Napkin creativity. When I write on a napkin, ideas just flow. Things become clear, fast. There's something about it. The temporary nature, the texture, the limited space. Suddenly, a lot of clutter in the head just vanishes. Like, this is all there is. All in this small square. Doesn'
A space for boredom. Intermittent fasting does one thing well. It gives your digestive system time to rest. Time to do nothing. And that allows it to do what it does well when it's supposed to. Can we do the same for the nervous system? Create spaces of no stimuli, no tasks
On the train. If you board the train, you sign up for a few things. That it will move fast, mostly. That sometimes it would stop. But also, what food would be available, who would be around you, and the narrow or wide lanes to move through. As long as you are on
Following the sun... That's what most beings do. They adjust their lives with the ups and downs of the sun. The interaction of the sun & the earth, and sometimes the moon, have given us cycles that make the rhythm of life. Some are daily, some weekly, some yearly, and some
Without anxiety. Anxiety makes us believe that we are better off with it. That we will do better work, faster, if we are anxious. The hustle culture & the economic system driven by anxiety keep doubling down on this message enough that it starts feeling true. But... are you sure that is
Listening to the body. Most days we are telling the body what to do... to push through when we are tired, to show up when we don't want to do. And most days, the body does what we ask it to do. But it also tells us if it's not
