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

Hiding and starving.

The hunter-gatherer can’t hide. If she hides for long, she’d starve to death. She has to go out there and hunt. There is no other option. Over the last 100 years, we have created a system where even if we keep hiding, we don’t starve. If the

The labour of feedback.

When we seek feedback (or when we give it), I think it makes sense to be clear about what we are looking for. Sometimes, all we are seeking is validation, and that’s okay. It’s kind to mention it though. If we are seeking to improve, and if we

Irritations.

There’s a Breaking Bad episode where Walter White and Jesse Pinkman find a ‘fly’ in their meth lab. Jesse: “Dude, you scared the shit out of me! When you say it’s contamination, I mean… I’m thinking like an Ebola leak or something.” Walter: “Ebola.“ Jesse: “Yeah, it’

Reliable.

You simply can’t count on your other handicaps to hold you back if you persist in being reliable. Charlie Munger’s prescriptions for misery in Harvard Commencement Speech, 1986 Reliable: Able to rely upon. Are you reliable? If yes, great! You can skip today's post. If no,

The butterflies.

The ones that flutter in your stomach. When you are about to say ‘Hi!’ to the cute girl or guy. When you say ‘Yes’ to something that you’re not sure if you’d be able to pull off or not. When you know you are about to change things

What time do you get off from work?

If you ask this question to any corporate employee, they’d give a very specific answer. Sometimes the answer might be, it might get very late today, but mostly you’d get something like ‘At 7.’ Not with the creatives though. They don’t know. How could they know? That’

Destination and distractions.

Let’s say you are driving from New Delhi to Shimla. You get a thought about Kolkata. Would you immediately take a U-turn and start driving towards Kolkata instead? While driving, would you stop at every billboard, every eatery on the way? No, you’d keep driving until you reach

Eating an elephant...

There’s a riddle that’s common among children: How do you eat an elephant? The answer: One bite at a time. It hides a lot of wisdom in its ridiculousness. Most of the time we keep looking at the elephant, strategising and planning about how to go about it.

Excuses.

“I don’t have enough experience.” “I am not that good.” “I don’t have time right now.” “My parents…” “My teacher…” “My this…” My that..” “I don’t…” “You don’t understand…” Easy and free to make, excuses are there everywhere. Yes, you don’t have enough experience and

The warmup.

My dance teacher keeps emphasising on the need of warming up before you start dancing. The same is true for a creative. You need to warm your fingers up to type. Morning pages are a good way to do that. You need to click a few casual pics. You need

The camera is heavy.

So is the guitar. The keys on the keyboard are hard to press. The vocal chords are jammed. The record button does not work. There is one and only one solution to the supposed writer’s (or creative’s) block. Lift the damn camera.

The battle has to fought anew each day...

The day when you underestimate the enemy… The day where you take him lightly… The day when you are casual about your work… That’s the day the enemy strikes back. Day by day, a streak is built, day by day, the battles and the wars are one. The life

The therapeutic power of typing and shipping.

Resistance can make us feel miserable. It can make us selfish and self-indulgent. We get mired in apathy, instead of empathy. We start believing that we are a victim and it’s time for the world to cut us some slack. There is helplessness and hopelessness in ResistanceLand. What’s

Slowing down time!

There’s more to life than simply increasing its speed. – MK Gandhi Just like ‘a calorie is a calorie’ isn’t true when it comes to food, similarly ‘an hour’ simply isn’t ‘an hour’. It depends a lot on what we are doing in that hour. A minute in

Uphill battle.

Being a professional creative is an uphill battle. It’s Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the mountain. The only way to arrest the downhill slide is to keep moving uphill. The moment you are not doing that, the moment you are not pushing against the gravity, you start losing out