With a grain of salt. "Don't take this personally..." "Don't take offense, but..." "Take this with a grain of salt..." These phrases let the speaker off the hook. They aren't asking for permission. They are simply assuming it. They know that what they
The opportunity of tired. Tired is a signal from the body, just like hunger or thirst. It gives us an opportunity to listen and allow ourselves to rest. Pushing through tired and staying on the desk might seem productive to you in the moment. After all, it's a badge to carry in
In the system. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over
Tough knots. Untying a tough knot rarely happens through force. Rather force only makes the knot tighter. To untie a tough knot, you have to be patient, observe the different threads which are entangled with each other. Figure out which one you can pull at, with little force and see if it
Glass half full. Often, the person in the group who articulates the possible is dismissed as a dreamer or as a Pollyanna persisting in a simplistic “glass half-full” kind of optimism. The naysayers pride themselves on their supposed realism. However, it is actually the people who see the glass as “half-empty” who are
Harmless distractions... ...are rarely harmless. They take our focus away from what matters, what we need to make things better. And they are usually a slippery slope. One distraction leads to another until we are so deep in the rabbit hole that we forget where we were in the first place. What
Move slow and make things. Making things that matter, things that make things better, doesn't happen by breaking things. They happen with intention and care. When people who want to build them make the space that's needed for creativity and curiosity. This doesn't happen when we are rushing things,
We, not us. Us can't exist without them. That division is what gives definition to us. We is inclusive and ever expanding. There is no other. We are in it. When we tell the "we story", we leave "us vs. them" behind. The WE appears when, for
What's changed? When we are stuck in a loop, when we are doing the same things over and over again, but expecting different results, a useful question to ask is, "What's changed this time?" If we can't get a clear answer, then it is quite certain
Leading from any chair. Here's Ben Zander teaching the world leaders at Davos and all of us on how to lead: And here's Derek Sivers explaining how leadership looks like: Who can you lead? What can you lead? What are you waiting for?
The stories we create. The stories we create become who we are. Our identity, our belief system, the way we see the world. Sometimes we choose the stories we create. But most times, they are either a creation of our childhood or from a difficult time or episode we have had experienced. In the
The dorsal vagal collapse. This is when our bodies and minds go into the freeze or flop mode. Freeze is when we can't speak when the teacher asks us a question (even when we know the answer). Flop is when we are not even able to get out of bed for days.
Chemistry or maths? I hated the chemistry class in school. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't find anything interesting in it. But I had to get good marks. So, I worked. Worked hard to get through chemistry. Maths was different. I loved doing maths. Teaching it to others. Learning
With anxiety. Being productive while going through an anxiety spiral is akin to running a race with a broken toe, only more challenging. An anxiety spiral can take us into a fight, flight (or fawn) mode where all we can think of is how we can get out of danger, whether or
Body or mind? Both our body and our mind act as powerful compasses. Most people, most of the time, listen to the mind. They think about what they need to do or what they want and how they can get it. The mind is extremely good at the how, the logistics, the way
In the ditch. The first thing to do when you realize you're in a ditch is to stop digging. Only then, you can start to figure out how to get out of it. It might require you to do something different from what got you there. You can't think
A conversation on possibility. Sharing this conversation I hosted earlier this week with Seth Godin where we talked about possibility: We are organising a 4-week sprint in Purple Space to work together to engage with possibility. Join us here. And here's the wonderful book that's helping us create the magic:
Anxiety isn't fear. In the movie Inside Out 2, the character of fear is kind of smitten by the character of anxiety. It got me wondering how they are related. Aren't fear and anxiety the same thing? Not until I started reading Beyond Anxiety by Martha Beck did I get to
Adjusting the scope. Some days, we have the courage and the creative energy to see how things will evolve over time and how we can bring the change we seek to the world. On other days, it's about managing what's in front of us and getting through to the
Yearning. Not what do you want or what do you need. But, as Martha Beck asks, What do you yearn for? And once you have an answer, how can you create the conditions for that to happen?
The beauty in sadness. Sadness is one of those emotions we are wary of feeling, especially with other people around. It's something the culture tells us not to feel. But sadness in itself is a beautiful emotion. It helps us process grief. The grief could be immense like the loss of a
Pushing through tired. This is what the hustle culture teaches us. Push through the tired. Mind over matter. But "move fast and break things" mostly breaks things fast. Including the ones who do it. Instead, we can listen to the tired. We can breathe and rest. When we care for our
Compass interference. "What would others think? What would they say?" "How would we get it done? What challenges might come in the way?" "Do we have the bandwidth to do this? What else is there?" These seem like constructive questions, questions that might help us make
Reducing ambiguity. That's the hard part. Making assertions, choosing. It might work. It might not. But you have to start somewhere. You have to pick something or someone. It's tempting to want someone else to do this for you, human or AI. But, emotional labour cannot be outsourced.
