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When we meet someone, we talk to them respectfully.
That, however, isn’t true respect.

It is built by choosing how we define the other person, when they are not around.

True respect is respecting someone even when we are not in front of them.

You want to pursue an art.
Maybe write, design or become a professional musician.
But your parents won’t let you.

That causes tension. Lack of communication. Anger and frustration.
And the belief that “getting there” or “doing something” will prove it to them.

However, parents don’t crave to be proven right.
They want the same things for us that we would want for ourselves. The path may be different.

What if we told them that the only thing you need from them is their support?
What if we got out of our own head and had that conversation from the heart?

We can’t convince our parents through things or actions.
Only difficult (and most important) conversations can.

We have different experiences with different people we meet.

People help us in trouble.
Or perhaps put us in one.

Embrace the ones who help us.
Let go of the ones who leave us. 

Better still, do help them when they need you if you can.
And forgive the ones who put us in trouble. Let them go.

One of the best judgments to acquire is learning to deal differently with different people.
It will decide almost everything we do in life.

Imagine your best friend is going through a tough time.
They aren’t able to succeed or are really sad.
Would you start telling them that they’re no good?
That they can’t ever do any good?
That they should already give up?

No. Right?

We hate going around people who bring us down yet go about doing the same thing to ourselves. 

What if we became our best friend, our most loyal supporter, our cheerleader?
How would that change the journey you have with this one person?
How smoother would it be to hang around an encouraging human 24*7?

Treating yourself like your own best friend will make your life fun and positive, just as a best friend does.

If you invest in a stock with the information that everyone has, you will get the returns everyone else gets.
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

Same choices, same results.
Yet each day, we go about following the rest of the world while making our life choices.

What if we made different choices?
What if we made an attempt to get different results?
What if we made an obvious choice, to resist the obvious?

“To get the results only few have, do only what a few do.” – Robin Sharma

We know we shouldn’t do multiple things at a time.
But how to accomplish the huge list of tasks we have?

One task at a time.
Then moving on to the next.

We’ll be more focussed.
And get things done in less time, which will allow to move to the next task

Our brain craves novelty and works in focus.
When you give it both, it’s productivity quadruples.

The secret isn’t multitasking. It’s doing a single task at a time, multiple times a day.

We are procrastinating.
On that project that is important to us.
On that gig that will get us closer to our dream.
On writing that email that might help us land our dream job.

Not because we can’t.
But because we are afraid.

Afraid of doing it wrong.
Afraid of criticism of people.
Afraid of not being able to do it fully.

The task for you to do it isn’t to do the task you’re procrastinating on.
The task for you is to tackle this fear. 

Solve for the fear of the future.
Procrastination will be taken care of, as a consequence.

“It’s raining today. Let me not work today and enjoy instead.”
“It’s a festival today. Let’s skip the workout.”
“It’s too cold today. I’d rather not get to the desk and write.”

These are words of an amateur. 

However, a professional shows up to work daily.
Consistently.
Relentlessly.
Even when they don’t feel like it.
They don’t do it for the accolades, they do it for who they become in the process of showing up daily.

The differences between an amateur and a pro aren’t on the basis of their skills or talents.
The pro is the amateur that simply showed up every day.

How often do we find ourselves saying that or thinking to ourselves, “I am rambling”.

Thoughts are coming, but they are unstructured, they are fast and don’t do justice to what I know about the subject. 

The solution is to write.
To speak in a manner that is coherent, writing is the solution.
Because writing is the slowest form of thought consumption.
When we write, we filter them. Pace them well.
And over time, our thoughts slow down too. At that point, there is a fine balance between what we are thinking and how we are communicating that. Write your thoughts.
They’ll get slower.
Your words will find their meaning. One word at a time.

You want a new job.
Or start your own business.
You want to get out of a relationship.
Or you want to lose weight.

But you’re unable to do any of these.
Not because you don’t want to.
Rather because you’re afraid.

Afraid of failure.
Maybe afraid of what people will say.
Afraid that they’ll make fun of you.

The question isn’t to avoid the unavoidable; the question is to ask yourself, “What is it that I’m afraid of?”

And when you do know what you’re afraid of, you can take the next step of getting comfortable with it. And taking action anyway.

Failure is discomforting.
Being comfortable with it makes the discomfort less scary.