Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy when it comes to taking on challenges to foster growth: 

You might tell yourself that you’re not ready. 

You might tell yourself that you’re not capable. 

You might tell yourself that now isn’t a good time. 

You might consider...

Every realization that you can do more than what was previously thought to be possible is the result of playing at the boundaries. 

Boundaries are simply what you currently know to be possible. 

Before Sifan Hassan’s record-breaking 4:12.33 mile in 2019, the boundary was Svetlana Masterkova’s 4:12.56 mile...

Productivity refers the effectiveness of your efforts.

Effectiveness can be framed in terms of how well your actions bring you closer to solving the problems you’re working on. 

It’s important to make a distinction between behaviors that make you feel productive vs. behaviors that actually are productive because on...

Inspired by John Cutler’s writings on Think Big, Work Small: https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-452-think-big-work-small-part

It’s normal to want to visualize your goals in their loftiest and most exciting forms: 

A writer might look forward to their first novel.

A start-up with an encouraging business model might look forward to great financial success.

The...

It’s important to be grateful.

The research supporting practicing gratitude is pretty compelling, but that’s not the main reason to be grateful. 

No, the main reason to be grateful is because there are likely many profound aspects of your existence that you’ve come to take for granted and stopped noticing....

“[Space X] is a test program, we expect [the rockets] to explode. It’s weird if [the rockets] don’t explode, frankly. You have to run things close to the edge.” — Elon Musk It’s normal for things break or fail in the process of trying to produce great work. 

Achieving...

In a factory production line, time has a fixed value where a certain amount of time reliably guarantees a certain number of widgets produced. 

In work where knowledge is the primary capital (think engineers, designers, and writers), the relationship between time and output isn’t so straight forward. 

For example,...

A few years ago someone opened their door into my car and made a dent about the size of a dime. 
It drove me nuts. 
Then one day I decided to see the dent an endearing dimple. 

It hasn’t bothered me since. 

Was that a strange perspective to...

I had to be in 3 places at once today due to a variety of factors beyond my control.
It was a frustrating situation to be in, but thankfully I was able to figure out how to maintain these commitments with the generous help of family, friends and  colleagues. 
Was...

Resolving to run 1 extra mile more than what you comfortably did during your last run is the stretch. 

The piece of content that you produce on the day where you didn’t feel like writing at all is the stretch. 
The new and at times intimidating responsibilities that you take on at...