🕑 8 minute read
Allow me to set the scene.
Have you ever felt so creatively inspired you thought to yourself "I want to share more of myself, and my creation, with the world!"?—and then you started listening to your low-quality thoughts that talk you out of sharing because, well...
"I'm not _______ enough."
"No one wants to see this"
"This is embarrassing."
"Good enough is NOT good enough."
"I know I can do better if I had more time."
"Who am I to _______"
"I'll do it someday."
Someday is an illusion.
Don't wait for someday to arrive—it never will.
The inciting incident
Have you heard of the saying "We teach best what we most need to learn"?
So I've actually been thinking to myself, "I want to share more of myself with the world!"—and then I started listening to my low-quality thoughts that talk me out of sharing because, well...
"This feels half-baked."
"I need more time to make this really impactful."
"I'll do it when I have more time."
You guessed it—More time is also an illusion.
We take time for the things we prioritise to take time for.
My 2022 priorities
I checked my Bullet Journal, and my priorities this year are to:
Nourish relationships—with myself, my family and my friends.
Create extraordinary value by serving people powerfully.
Transform knowledge into experience into wisdom.
I have been ¹nourishing my relationships and ²serving people powerfully—and recently my low-quality thoughts are shining a light on this opportunity for me to ³transform knowledge into experience into wisdom.
From learning with my head, to practicing with my hands, to knowing with my heart.
Always get clear on your why
Why am I interested in transforming my knowledge into wisdom? Because I know I serve most powerfully when I am wisdom in action.
It’s no longer enough to just know. It’s necessary to know how.
I want more transformation—not just more information.
To be more transformed—not just more informed.
Sahil Lavingia's tweet illustrate my why brilliantly:
Building products, writing, and painting are not mental exercises, they are physical ones. Reading to improve is like watching someone else workout—it does almost nothing for you.
To run better, run.
To paint better, paint.
To write better, write.
To build better, build.
My biggest takeaway from his tweet
To do better, do.
To be better, be.
So what am I creating?
An accountability project called ‘30 days of being'.
Transformation occurs with tiny, tiny steps. In this case, 30 tiny steps.
Who am I being?
My original intention was to be someone
Who can speak effortlessly in front of a camera.
Who can articulate her thoughts clearly and eloquently.
With remarkable verbal fluency.
I was going to become that person through sharing a video every single day for 30 days—but after spending the last 7 days on a small island with the breathtaking beauty of nature and unreliable internet, I realised how ✳︎at home✳︎ I feel being away from my phone.
I didn't want this project to create an invisible thread of dependence between my phone and I—so I've decided to shift my intention ever so slightly.
The beautiful thing about life is you can always change your mind and create from nothing.
So who am I being now?
My new intention is to be someone who can articulate her thoughts critically, clearly, and creatively—and I am going to be her through
Writing every day for 30 days—starting 03.30.22.
Sharing my writing here on my website
I choose to write because writing is thinking in practice.
By becoming a better writer, I will become better at observing, evaluating, analysing, reflecting, and—ultimately—articulating critically, clearly and creatively. David McCullough puts it beautifully, “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly.”
I am committed to transforming
My thinking — "I want to share more of myself with the world!"
Into doing — writing every day for 30 days
Into being — someone who articulates critically, clearly, and creatively
An invitation
If your low-quality thoughts are saying things like...
"I know I should..."
"I'm trying to..."
"I need to..."
"I'll do it when..."
I’d like to extend this invitation for you to join me on this ‘30 days of being' project.
Think of your priorities
Reflect on what you want to create every day for 30 days
Get clear on your why
Choose your intention
Create your new way of being
Commit to 30 tiny consistent actions
Parting thoughts
Success is not going from bad to good.
Success is going from good to better, and better.
Practice makes progress.
My ‘30 days of being' project outcome
Writing is thinking in practice
I am committed to transforming my thinking ("I want to share more of myself, and my creation") into doing (writing every day for 30 days starting 03.30.22) into being (someone who articulates critically, clearly, and creatively).
Day 01
My parents named me—Sarita (สริตา).
In Sanskrit—Sarita (सरिता) means
flowing / in constant flow
In Pali—Sarita means
a river
of worldly joys / to love
I believe we are not static beings, and have always been enamoured by the notion of living as a river. Open. Flow.
This piece is inspired by a delightful email exchange with divine essence.
03.30.22
Day 02
Honouring my solitude.
As I become more aware of my unconscious way of being—I become more drawn to the spaciousness of solitude that allows me to switch off entirely from my outer world .
When I'm connected with myself, I feel more deeply connected with others—and I'm learning to identify when I am ignoring or avoiding these essential times.
It is through this inner oasis that my great insights and transformations emerge.
It is through this inner space of consciousness that I am truly awake to my radiance.
03.31.22
Day 03
Metacognition journaling (1/4).
It occurred to me that journaling by hand is an incredibly powerful tool. Not only in moving us into this space of awareness—where we become the observer of our thoughts—but also in creating this deliberate space of slowness, where we can practice our power to choose our response.
In this intentional space, we practice our freedom of becoming a product of our decisions—not our conditions.
04.01.22
Day 04
Metacognition journaling (2/4).
As I journal by hand, I witness my thoughts taking literal shapes.
There is now a physical record of my thoughts that can be observed by others.
We pay much greater attention to our thoughts on paper because there is a sense of responsibility that comes with their, now, tangible existence.
04.02.22
Day 05
Metacognition journaling (3/4).
The more I observe my thoughts on paper in matte black ink—the more present and conscious I become of my unconscious ways.
04.03.22
Day 06
Metacognition journaling (4/4).
Being forced to slow down my thinking—so my hand could catch up with the multiple streams of habitual responses pouring through my mind—made me become aware of my responsibility to take ownership of this reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of my conscious awareness, and consciously create who I am in every moment.
04.04.22
Day 07
流れる
Q: Your design is very simplistic, not only in a visual way, but the content you present is very to the point too. How did you develop that sense of style?
A: My curiosity is a blessing, and—when used unconsciously—it can also be a curse. I can get really overwhelmed and paralyzed by information.
What I share on my instagram are tools and concepts I learnt and found useful. By stripping the information down to its core idea, I am able to quickly remember the concepts and apply them.
Tools are useless in a toolbox. Making them easy to access—so they could serve us powerfully—is likely the genesis to the simplistic sense of style in my design.
Full interview coming 04.10.22
04.05.22
Day 08
I am my words.
If I do what I say I will do, I can become what I say I will be.
04.06.22
Day 09
Our lives deserve our attention.
How we invest in ourselves is how we show others how to invest in us.
04.07.22
Day 10
Clarity is not a static state.
It occurred to me—during my recent descent into the quantum mechanics rabbit hole—that my search for clarity shares the same nebulous presumption as arriving at the top of a mountain. That one day I will arrive and see things clearly from atop.
If atoms are in constant motion, and we are in constant change, then clarity can’t possibly be a static state.
We are always in the constant state of becoming, and every so often—if we pay close attention—we experience an energetic alignment, granting us a moment of clarity.
There is peace in embracing clarity as a constant flow—like our living, dynamic beings—and not a place to get to.
Like climbing a mountain with no top, let us learn to love the climb that grants us infinite moments of clarity towards a greater self understanding and becoming.
04.08.22
Day 11
Expressing gratitude is the only way to open yourself up to receiving.
04.09.22
Day 12
My dad would have been 75 today.
He was an extraordinary human being. He wrote this piece for my mum 30 years ago. I thought I’d share it here on his birthday.
To my darling wife, Elle.
How to raise your child
Try your best
Try not to wish that you could be different or better than you are
Try to be as honest as you can with your children
Try not to worry about how they will turn out
Try not to blame yourself for how they turn out, because no one knows the best way to raise a child
Show them that you love them
— Ivan Walsh 2 July ‘92
04.10.22
Day 13
Q: How do you deal with the obscurity of the future?
A: Accept the fact that certainty is an illusion.
The only certainty is uncertainty. So I choose to surrender to the perfect unfolding of life as it is and consciously create from the highest version of myself moment by moment.
The only time that matters is now, and I practice not wasting the present moment by ruminating on the past, or worrying about the future.
04.11.22
Day 14
Q: Green flags to look for in a potential partner?
A: When the best authentic version of you shows up and is celebrated.
When the worst authentic version of you shows up and is embraced in a space of love, presence, patience, compassion, respect, curiosity, support, effort, and open communication.
04.12.22
Day 15
The best way to hold space of compassion is with the knowledge that we are not responsible for other people's feelings.
04.13.22
Day 16
Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly to start.
04.14.22
Day 17
Q: How do you live in the now and not stress about the future?
A: By doing my best right now
and now
and now
and now
and now
and now
and now
and now
and now
and now
and now
and now
04.15.22
Day 18
I used to read a lot and do nothing about it. Constantly getting more information without the transformation.
My intentional this year is about transforming knowledge into experience, and into wisdom.
From learning with my head, to practicing with my hands, to knowing with my heart.
04.16.22
Day 19
Q: What is your 'one thing' that helps you find balance, reduce ego and increase compassion?
A: I am love.
I often ask myself "What would love do in this situation?"
Sometimes love would listen deeply and be present in silence.
Sometimes love would let go of being right.
Sometimes love would simply love.
Love always has the answer for me—and it's my responsibility to act in alignment with what I say I want.
Simple—not easy.
04.17.22
Day 20
When you surrender, you allow life to reveal itself through you.
04.18.22
Day 21
Knowledge is for the mind.
Experience is for the body.
04.19.22
Day 22
Today is Ry’s birthday.
I used my words to communicate with a composer and co-create this brilliant piece of music for Ry.
04.20.22