Category: Volume 4
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#421: You can win or be right
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#420: Deal with your endless to-do list
Hello amazing!
Are you feeling overwhelmed and losing focus?
Try this…
- Do a mind map of what you are working on: list all projects
- Sort each subject into these five buckets:
- 1, 2, or 3 things to do with special care and attention.
- keep going
- pause for 6 months or more
- do with explicitly reduced commitment
- stop doing
Let me know how this works for you.
With love,
Mathias
Oct 5, 2015 Winston Churchill Square
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#419: Decision scenarios
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#417: Your own formula for success
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#416: Deeper conversations
Meaningful Conversation
Hello amazing!
Omri reached out to me via instant chat:” How can I have more meaningful conversations?” Here’s one way to begin.
People
1. It’s not for everyone. Make a list of 5 to 10 people you think might be interested in going deeper.
Place
2. The place you meet has a big impact on the conversation. Draw a place that you think would be ideal. Find an actual place that is a bit like that.
Topic
3. Personal topics are good. Take them to extremes: highest ambitions, biggest fears, death.
Try it! Practice. And hit me on chat to let me know how it goes.
With love,
Mathias
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#415: Be a change agent with this map
Hello amazing!
How do you handle an endless to-do list? If it sucks the energy out of you, here’s a way you can try:
- Take your list or rewrite it from memory (good practice- see what is top of mind).
- Sort into three buckets based on best fit.
Bucket A: “Could do” (Don’t worry)
Bucket B: “Should do” (Do later)
Bucket C: “Want to do” (Creates energy)
3. Don’t worry about bucket a schedule time later for items in bucket B. And pick one item from C and enjoy doing it. Use that energy for bucket B.
With love,
Mathias
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#413 Should you quit your job?
Hello amazing!
A friend recently asked me for advice on whether to quit this job. Stay in the well-known with good and bad or jump into the unknown.
I offered this quote from illusions by Richard Bach:
Don’t turn away from possible futures before you’re certain you don’t have anything to learn from them.
Whether my job is frustrating (it is!) I always come back to this: there is so much more to learn.
With love,
Mathias
Hello amazing!
Imagine you are an actor and executive producer for a new TV show, and you can have the writers create and shape the fictional character to be exactly the way you want to be. Which character do you want to play?
- Lead character or support?
- How does he/she look? What does he/she wear?
- What main character attributes do you want to have?
Reminder
You don’t have to be realistic- you don’t even need to try to become –? like this fantasy character. Just enjoy creating and imagining. See where it goes.
With love,
M ❤️
Hello amazing!
Do you define your friendships based on your shard past or the imagined potential futures? Try this to find out. First, make a list of your best friends and make a note of how many years you’ve known each other(roughly). Second, make a list of the people you have met recently(past 6-18 months) who have made a big impression on you.
-Compare lists
-Are there overlaps?
-If you knew they felt the same way with you, who would you rather spend your time with tomorrow?
-Find your own conclusion of this. It’s probably correct.
With Love ❤️M
Hello amazing!
Today 53 announced the new version of the paper, including Think Kit. It’s an amazing new set of simple and intuitive tools that turns paper into the most powerful digital thinking tool I have ever tried. For example, you can use it to map out complex decision scenarios like the example below. When you run out of space you can use the cut tool to quickly re-arrange. You can read more about complex decisions on the link below.
With love,
Mathias
April 23, 2015
Hello amazing!
Two weeks ago, on April 7th, 2015, our daughter Uma was born. A very special day- especially because it’s also the day my mother would have turned 56. Uma is healthy, eating and sleeping and we are tired and happy parents. ❤️
Before Uma was born I was working on a project, and although it seemed to be going really well, I was overwhelmed with a highly critical voice in my head. I had this flood of negative thoughts- mainly unconstructive criticism of what everyone around me was doing. My friend and mentor Sarah suggested that I just write it all down instead of trying to ignore it, and it really helped. Seeing it on paper allowed me to find the useful 2%.
Critic-> Write it down-> Filter with appreciation-> Trash 98%-> 2%
The useful 2% helped me see where we were relative to where we want to be, creating creative tension.
Where you are -> “pull” creative tension-> Where you want to be
With love,
Mathias
Hello amazing!
You are always free to believe anything you want to believe. Anything! Even if it directly contradicts the so-called “facts.” Their are people still don’t believe in climate change and santa claus, despite piles on evidence. Here’s how you do it:
1. What do you want to believe?(Key to happiness here. Your choice!) For example, I want to be beautiful I have beauty so why not believe I am?
2. Do you currently believe that? If not, then what exactly do you believe about the chosen topic? e.g. I believe that I am of pretty average physical appearance. (The “fact”).
3. Use creativity to invent supporting theories and beliefs that explain away any inconvenient “facts” and make it easy to believe what you stated above. e.g. “Real beauty comes through the way you smile with your eyes.” That makes it easier to believe for me. (Get creative!)
4. Lastly, if you truly believed what you stated in 2) then how would your actions and behaviours be different? For me, I would walk with better posture, and smile more. Begin acting this way, and quickly your new belief will be real.
Repeat until you’re satisfied.
With love,
Mathis
Hello amazing!
I aspire to be super-human!
But sometimes I misunderstand my own intention. Super-human is not about being above or beyond the qualities that make us human:
- Limits: physical, mental and emotional
- Feelings and emotions
- Warmth, love and care
- Learning and growing
- Creativity.
Without these we become efficient like robots. At least for me, super-human means more of all of the above. Not less. What kind of human do you aspire to be?
With love,
Mathias.
(Traduction française disponible)
Hello amazing!
We talk a lot about being productive and efficient: get sh-t done. But in creative work, I think the biggest risk is not low productivity but negative productivity. That is, when what you do create more distracting work for you(and others). And you would be better off if you just stopped. This week, try to notice if you get into negative.
With love.
Mathias
(Traduction française disponible)
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#401 Perfectionism and true aspiration
Hello amazing! And welcome to 2015. I recently found myself beating myself up for not living up to my own standards. Why? I kept telling myself that I need high standards to grow. What was missing was a perspective of time. Without time there is no aspiration, just perfectionism = focus on always being not good enough. Give yourself time.
With love,
Mathias