Passing through the membrane. Once you start writing, you keep writing. Once you start working out, you keep working out. By starting an action, we pass through a membrane. On the other side, everything seems easy and doable. The membrane is between the psychological and the physical, the thoughts and the action. Whenever you
The challenge in being Pro. MacBook Pro is a Pro. When you switch it on, it works. It does exactly what you expect it to. The challenge in being Pro is that we are human. We have a voice inside our head that manipulates us, that convinces us to take the amateur route. The Pro
Being kind. Can we be more kind? The answer, always, is yes. Should we be more kind? Again, the answer, always, is yes. Does that include being more kind to ourselves too? You get the point. Yes, the answer, always is yes.
What to write? Is the wrong question. Instead, it’s about the decision to write. Once we make up our mind that shipping is imminent, the content will take care of itself. ‘What to write?’ is a question that Resistance uses to stop us from writing.
The fear of success. Success, i.e. the moment we achieve our goals, changes the status quo. The problem is we do not know what to do after that. Yes, we have fantasised about achieving this or that goal for a long time, but we haven’t really given a thought about what we’
How to get unstuck? ‘Declutter’: That’s the mantra we can use when we are stuck. What does it mean? Well, I guess you already know but let me still explain. If you are stuck, if you are unable to move forward, the thing that works for me is to declutter. I remove everything
The joy of missing out. The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) can be really useful. It can make us sign up for courses that we might not have otherwise. It can make us go say ‘Hi!’ to that person that we want to talk to. But there are so many companies that are hacking into
What it feels like? One of my favourite chapters in ‘War of Art’ is when Pressfield describes what a writer’s day feel like. Here’s a glimpse of what he describes: The sun isn’t up yet; it’s cold; the fields are sopping. Brambles scratch my ankles, branches snap back in my
Activation energy. Stephen Duneier, in his TEDx Talk, talks about breaking down big goals into small doable actions. Like instead of focussing on reading 50 books, he would focus on reading a book for only 5 minutes. That’s it. He says, “After that, I’ll shoot some hoops, do this or
Decisions. Tim Ferriss says, what’s the one decision that removes ten. Seth adds onto this by mentioning that he decided that he will publish a daily blog, some 20 odd years ago. That’s a decision that does not need revisiting. Taking decisions when we are not up for them.
Giving up... Giving up is easy. And it can be easily rationalised. And not only you, but the world will understand. To some extent, many of them would be relieved. But not giving up, especially when every sign in the world urges you to, to get up one more time, to stand
The power of people. People can have a magical power. Just by listening to and acknowledging what someone might be feeling. By nodding and sharing what resonated with them. We each have that power, to make someone’s day better.
Giving power to Resistance. Resistance has no power of its own. Our decisions are what gives it power. It can only nudge us to deviate from our path, our task. If we ignore the nudge, the power that Resistance wields over us reduces. If we give in to the nudge, the power multiplies. The
The off-day. Is it inevitable? Can we avoid it? Can we turn it around? If not, should the strategy be to do the minimum and play for tomorrow. It’s quite tricky to assess and handle the off-day.
Small, deliberate actions. The big changes. The big decisions. The big chances. We keep looking out for them. For the sudden luck. But it is the small, deliberate actions that bring about change. You keep doing the crunches for 10 minutes daily, and in a few months, your abs start shaping up. And
The default mind and the deep mind. By default, the mind is shallow. It gets attracted to shallow things and shallow activities. It resists going deep. It takes labour to access the deep mind. The deep mind doesn’t show up accidentally. That’s why a daily routine that help us access the deep mind is important.
The illusion of control. Whether it is our health, our work, our finances or our relationships, we find it hard to differentiate whether we are in control or if there is just an illusion of control. When we are in control, we have clear insights on what the current situation is and where we
Getting to the other side. How do we get to the other side? Because once we are at the other side, then everything starts falling into place. We do not understand how that was not the case all along. We just can’t relate to things not being in place to begin with. But on
Restarting the streak. Streaks work. They keep getting better. Until they don’t. Until that one day when you miss. That day is inevitable. All you can do is dust it off and start again. The momentum of the streak is much more important than the absolute number. The ability to restart the
The muse and the mind. The words just flow. There is no decision making. It just happens. The struggle just vanishes. How does that happen? Yes, it could be the muse taking over. But what does that actually mean? What I understand is that two different sources of thought are there in the Central Nervous
The only magic I know. There’s something about my fingers and the keyboard. I don’t know what it is, but it’s the closest to real magic that I’ve ever been. As soon as I start typing, as soon as I start moving my fingers on the keyboard, pressing one key after
Foot-soldier Make no mistake about it: It is a damn war. And you are not the General (for the most part), you are the foot soldier. You know how to be miserable, you know how to keep fighting. That all this is about. Taking ground from the enemy one inch at
Billboards... Resistance is like the billboards on the highway. The ones that you learn to ignore when you are driving. If you look at it, if you engage with it, it takes your attention off the road. It ends up delaying reaching your destination. But if you ignore it, the billboard
Assuming... That’s the source of all pain, isn’t it? Because if we don’t assume, there won’t be any heartbreak. We would look at any situation as a new stimulus and act accordingly. Is it possible for us to not assume? To do the work without longing for
Mise-en-place French, literally ‘putting in place’. Google Dictionary The creative’s place of work is like the professional kitchen. The professional chef doesn’t go looking for the ingredients while he is creating magic. Everything is there, where it should be, as it should be. The only mess that’s allowed
