-
Aligning process with results
Earlier in my career, I focused on work that gave me energy. Some of my projects made no money (like Prologue, my early writing at Medium, etc.). I took on projects that could subsidize them. I really enjoyed this way of working. I felt free, energized, and curious. In this season of my career, I…
-
Drawing a cartoon every day
Before the New Yorker published her first cartoon, Liza Donnelly submitted eight cartoons every week for two years. (Over 800 cartoons!) Drawing must be a practice that dies hard, because Liza still publishes a new one every day at Substack and at Medium. Sometimes she draws live, which is a delight to watch.
-
Choose the frame
There are a hundred interpretations to each event in your life. Choose the one that is the most useful to you. This frame should be consistent with your values, make you feel proud, and energize you. Look for metaphors to help you make sense of it. Practice it every day. Thank you BJ Miller for…
-
Don’t open the app, open your journal instead
Buy a paper journal. It can be the cheapest one from a convenience store, it can be a beautiful leather bound one, it can be a structured one with guidance and prompts—whichever makes you feel better. It just needs to have space that you can write in. The next time you get an urge to…
-
A setback is a good opportunity…
To choose optimism. When things are going well, it’s easy to feel optimistic. The momentum can practically carry you away. It’s when things aren’t going well, that’s the real opportunity—a game rep—to actually practice optimism in three ways: If you can seize this moment, you can seize the next one as well.