If you seek change, looking at what the person sitting next to you is doing won’t help much.
At best, it will make an easy excuse to use when you want to fall back to your old habit.
Go as far from the mean as you can, instead. Learn about what’s been tried a few times only, about what’s new, about what’s not been tested yet.
Seek outliers.
That’s the path to change.
Start from small.
A little thing that bothers you just a little. Something you want to change. Something you want to try. Something that’s been on your mind for a while.
Something small.
We often fail because we want to get to the end result right from the start.
We go on a diet, and we want the body we desire on week 1.
We start a blog, and we want an audience from day 1.
We land a new job, and we want to love it already on the first month.
We found a new company, and all we think about is to make it a unicorn.
Start from small instead. Break the big achievement down into small, if you need.
Small is your buddy.
When somebody tells you that you are not ready for a project, a new challenge, a promotion, there are two ways you can react.
You can behave as if you were not given the responsibility. That’s easy, because you were not. It is the attitude of “why should I?”, of “it won’t matter”.
Or you can behave as if you were given the responsibility. Do what you would have. It is the attitude of “I can”, of “I will make it matter”.
Which one will you choose?
Breaks should not be a privilege, a sign of laziness, something you are embarassed to ask.
Breaks are important for two reasons.
They help to take distance from what you regularly do. And in doing so, you get the chance to reinforce your dedication and find new ways to approach old problems.
They also promote the idea that no matter who you are, no matter how important the work you are doing, the world is not going to end if you pause.
Take frequent breaks, and take some long ones too throughout the year. Give them all of your attention and dedication. Make them real.
You should be proud of it.
When you do something praiseworthy, you will get approval.
The feedback you get is going to make you feel good, and possibly you will set out to do some other things that will be worth the praise of your peers and audience.
Are you in it for the doing or for the approval?
That is a silly question to ask, because most likely you have mixed motives.
The question to ask, instead, is: would you do it anyway if there was no approval?
That’s how you define passion.
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