Neil Gaiman, being a great writer, says a lot in just four words.
Make glorious, amazing mistakes.
Neil Gaiman
Note that he’s not saying to make dumb, easy, obvious mistakes. 🙃
If that’s enough to get you interested, he has more to say.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world.
It reminds me of Steve Jobs.
Here are a few tips that helped me get through times when I felt lost or hopeless. This is my practical, step-by-step guide, hard-earned and tested in real life.
Decide what you want. Pick a small goal for now — anything useful. Take the pressure off. Just pick something to work on that you can do.
Think short-term and what’s in your control. What can do you today, tomorrow, this week, this month? You can act most effectively in this timeframe.
Narrow your focus: Do one (main) thing at a time. You can’t do everything all at once. Once you finish a major goal, you can move on to the next with even more focus, having the first thing done.
👉 It takes practice.
Visualize the outcome you want. Close your eyes, breath, and picture in vivid detail what you want to happen. This may sound silly, but it can help motivate you and sharpen your focus.
Work towards the outcome you want in small steps every day. Keep your current daily goals modest; keeping a backlog of stuff to do later is helpful.
👉 Doing Great Things is Boring 🤷🏻♂️.
Place your happiness in the progress towards the results, not in the result itself. Steady work in itself will make you feel better.
👉 “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.”
Yes, work towards an outcome, but don’t get attached to it; you can’t control everything. Focus on what you can do right now and take pride in your effort, however it may turn out.
Keep your ego in check. Do things because they go with your values and goals and not to look good or to avoid judgement.
Your happiness depends only on you, not on external people, places, or things.
👉 The Secrets to Happiness (Distilled)
Enjoy nourishing foods any time you want: water, tea, bone broth, fruit, avocado, nuts, yogurt…
Try some calming sounds. Listen to some ambient music, nature sounds, movie soundtracks, whatever works. You can find these in your music app or even YouTube.
Freshen up your environment. Get outside for some sunlight and fresh air. Open a window. Light a scented candle or incense. Clean and tidy your home.
Move. Walk, stretch, exercise every day. Find an exercise (or two) that works for you. 🧘🏻
It takes practice.☝️
👉 Super Summary: Think Like a Monk
Ask yourself – is this useful? If you find yourself having unhelpful, repetitive thoughts, then nip them in the bud. These are usually about a past or future that you can’t control and can’t solve by thinking.
Take a few deep breaths, then work on calming yourself.
Focus your mind on a game – Wordle, a crossword puzzle, or a chill app like isowords, Townscaper, paper.io, or MiniMetro.
Work through your thoughts and feelings with journaling. Don’t hold back. Get it all out – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Or just write a haiku about your day to make it more fun. 🤷🏻♂️
Meditate: Clear and observe your mind non-judgmentally. Scan your body, focus on breathing, visualize success, give gratitude, find empathy for others.
Fear makes you do stupid things and must be conquered.
👉 “Fear is the mind-killer.”… “Move, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.”.
Above all, keep faith in yourself. ✌️
You’re only as young as the last time you changed your mind.
Timothy Leary
I love this perspective. Being flexible in light of new information is a key to growth and is likely to lead to a more interesting and fulfilling life.
I’m changing my mind about Timothy Leary. To me, he’s no longer just a hallucinogenic drug weirdo any more, but a pretty smart guy. 😆 Staying’ young, folks.
Fear makes people do stupid and crazy things.
Years ago, I vowed not to make any decisions driven by fear.
It’s not easy to do. But I’ve applied that idea most of the time (hey, I’m not perfect 🤷🏻♂️). And when I didn’t, I regretted it.
When you do kind and loving things, good things happen — not immediately and not 100% of the time, but overall they send you (and those around you) to good places.
Okay, Eleanor Farjeon said it better. 👇😛
All the ill that is in us comes from fear, and all the good from love.
Eleanor Farjeon
See also: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”
Below is a snapshot — literally — of one of J.K. Rowling’s storyboards.
Firs of all, it looks cool!
But more importantly, it illustrates an interesting point. No matter how natural and effortless a Harry Potter book is to read, clearly writing it is a pretty analytical process. Starting with a big vision, drilling down into the details, and finally “shipping” the end result seems similar to making software.
I’m organizing and planning my own book using software engineering tools and processes, all the way down to version control and text formatting. What can I say, as a software engineer, this is my comfort zone. Having a good process gives me the freedom and security to be creative, try ideas without risk, and literally commit when I’m done. 🤷🏻♂️
And like a great app, I hope the end result will impact you but appear effortless. Stay tuned to see how that goes. 🤓 #goals
Mental Break Town 