The challenge of sitting down to do the work.

The mind says that we need to figure everything out before we sit down. It gets distracted by some genuine and some invented urgencies, forcing us to delay sitting down. The more we delay, the more stressed we feel, and the less likely we are to sit down and start

Failed experiments.

Are not something to frown upon or be disappointed by. They are what that leads to forward motion. Any experiment that's guaranteed to succeed is not much of an experiment, is it? As creatives, it's worthwhile to embrace experiments and the failure that comes along with

Compassion is a skill.

Especially, compassion for oneself. There are days when you do great and then there are the other ones. It's hard to be compassionate to yourself on the other ones. But that's the skill a professional builds.

The weight of unshipped ideas.

When we get new ideas, they feel fresh and exciting. They bring in a joy along with them. What ideas want is that we make something tangible out of them, we process them, we ship them. When we carry ideas and neither ship them nor let them go, they start

What are you running away from?

What is the project that's there on the backburner? What is the project that all the distractions are distracting you from? What is the project that seems too far, too arduous to get back to? As Steven Pressfield asked in his interview on the Rich Roll podcast this

I'm not sure.

It's actually easy to say, "I'm sure this is going to happen". The truth is that we are never sure. It's just that it takes a lot of emotional labour to see the alternatives, to see how the thing we are sure

Managing the day.

When we leave the task of managing and prioritising the day to the last minute mind, it creates havoc. It leaves the important things pending and indulges in the time-sinking activities which bring our energy down. It's the equivalent of leaving the home for a toddler to

Tackling overwhelm.

It's not easy to do that in your head. The brain has not evolved to tackle multiple stimuli and hold them in place. For the brain, an unexpected stimuli is a survival threat that activates fight, flight or freeze mode instantaneously. It does not say, "Oh, I

Abundance breeds abundance.

And scarcity breeds scarcity. When we show up with a scarcity mindset, we try to hold onto what we have. We see the world from a fixed perspective and every interaction becomes a zero sum game. We win when you lose. On the other hand, abundance is beautiful and it

Upstream or downstream?

Should you go against the river flow or along with it? Should you move up the hill or down the hill? Should you choose the more difficult task or the easier task? All of this is irrelevant until we specify what's it for. When we become clear about

We buy stories.

Apple is a story. So, is Starbucks. And Nike. If all you are doing is selling a product, then you become a commodity and join the race to the bottom, to be the cheapest. But when you sell a story that resonates, then people engage with you and the price

Coming back to true north.

Distractions, urgencies and emergencies take our attention away, they make us busy. They create a mind space where we can't think clearly, where we are preoccupied. We feel that once we handle the distraction, once we take care of the urgency, we would be able to sit down

Two kinds of work.

One is tangible and imminent. Someone's waiting for it. You can check it off from your to do list. The other is ambiguous and without a deadline. But it leads you towards your goal. It helps you make progress, no matter how slow it may seem. It'

The professional creates his own luck.

We hear the term "beginner's luck" thrown around everywhere. Some of it has to do with the fact that the expectations are way low for a beginner. But still, many strive to make it through riding the beginner's luck. And once you fall into

Money & emotions

If money is an emotional issue for you, you’ve just put your finger on a big part of the problem. No one who is good at building houses has an emotional problem with hammers. Place your emotional problems where they belong, and focus on seeing money as a tool.

Don't leave your seat.

It's not about working longer hours. It's about maintaining your focus on the task that matters. It's easy to keep switching contexts from the work that you need to do to the unending distractions vying for your attention. But if you keep doing that,

Infinite to finite.

Creativity is the act of engaging with infinity and creating something finite which our audience can engage with. The canvas that you paint, the startup that you launch, the book that you write, the conversation that you initiate are all acts of creativity, are all about creating this magic.   The

Choices and decisions.

We make a lot of choices each day, and sometimes we might call them decisions. Most of the choices are impulse choices or habits that we have formed over time. On the other hand, decisions are mindful thought and reviewed. They help us in making the choices as we go

Lost in the clutter.

One by one, slowly but surely, clutter starts to accumulate. It seems harmless every time but soon it takes over. All our energy goes into navigating through the cruft. And our priority goal gets lost somewhere.

Out of balance?

What would you do if you were driving a car and it seemed out of balance? Would you speed it up or slow it down? Would you take it to a maintenance shop and get it recalibrated or keep driving? What about you when you feel out of balance?

Becoming a better "boss" to ourselves.

If someone working with us is not feeling well, even if slightly, we will proactively ask them to rest and get better before they get back to work. We will not question their intention or assess their situation from a critical eye. But when it comes to ourselves, we can

99 business ideas.

When we make ideas scarce, we feel afraid. What would we do if it fails? But there is no dearth of ideas. Ideas are always in abundance. To access the good ones though, we need to go through the bad ones. We need to write them down. And this isn&

The antidote to perfectionism.

Perfectionism is laziness, the laziness coming from our desire to create only one draft, the perfect one. And this desire comes from the fact that as consumers we only see the final iteration. We see the movie only after it's released in the theatre, we buy the phone

Getting out of our own way.

There may be other obstacles between you and your goals, the life you want to live. But the greatest obstacle is us, ourselves. The fear, attachment, emotion associated with doing the work that can make our lives better. The key is to work as a professional, doing things because they

The best version of you.

There are days when you are at your best self and there are days when you are not. And that's okay. That's human. The important thing here is to take the strategic decisions for your life and work when you are your best self. And not