No Day Without A Thought

Despite being a huge believer in goals and how internal alignment, focus and discipline on a goal is satisfying and also helps achieving things you might not have thought you will achieve.

Often, when not achieving your goal, you might be mislead from things that don't represent your values, i.e. getting hung up on a fight with a friend,...

Goals can also have different time horizons, daily, weekly monthly, 2 years, ... or even life goals.

I can't say haven't followed the concept too much, but recently heard the idea of (paraphrasing): "as long as you do something and that something is according to your values, you will be on the right track".

For example, constantly being exposed to new experiences, being honest, getting out of your comfort zone, saving money/not spending much, being generous, taking chances, ... will all likely bring you on a good path without having an end goal in mind.

1) Once you hire a new person, tell them that you expect them to make 10-20% mistakes. 

Provide them with a) some sort of margin of error in favor of speed and also b) so they don't irrationally overanalyze every single decision to think they are not making any mistakes and being anxious about it.

2) Make your team members come up with solutions

If you are the team lead, your job is to make the people below you better and get road blocks out of the way. However, you are also likely busy. To make your team more independent by making them more comfortable with calling the shots, getting the experience in while still getting your input, they should almost never come to you with problems only, but with problems and a) 2-4 proposed solutions, b) pro and cons of each and c) your ranking and reasoning for the ranking.

Every once in a while this happens: i get a feeling of being overwhelmed and anxious when looking at all my current and upcoming to dos.

While I certainly can get better in noticing that feeling earlier before getting into it, the moment when you tackle it and are in full control is just such a relief, inspiration and push.

Not that I purposely do it, but I noticed that just before I tackle it I usually come from sports. So hey, guess the wisdom of sports works and clears that head is true after all. Always knew it generally and as a baseline, but think I never experienced it so directly.

So, after a sports session I am like "ok, let's get this through".

- open calendar
- if you don't have it yet, make a list of all the things you have to do
- decide which ones are most important to do or most urgent (use Eisenhower method, or just do it in your head/what is right in your priority matrix)
- this can be a messy process, block time in the calendar when you want to do what
- watch out how long each tasks take, if there are follow ups needed, if you need other people's input
- mark every step and finish line (also: when is the task finished?)
- you might want to replace some tasks, postpone, cut more, re-add, make it work for you
- watch out for your energy, when during the day are you better in doing creative thinking, executing, meetings, ...
- what you don't achieve: delegate, ask for help, deprioritize for later or cut completely and let ppl know when you can't make certain things
- start hammering through what you committed to

Mostly known from the man himself - Wim Hof - cold showers are a great way for your immune system.

While he goes obviously deeper into the actual physical response and why it matters for your body, there are also some other aspects why I do it.

How do I actually shower cold?
Tbh, I always shower normal warm, not hot as in like the mirror is gonna be misted up. When I am at home that is mostly it. However, I am at the gym ~5 a week and when I am there, the shower is nicer and there I always end with a cold shower.

What do I do?
After finishing the actual cleaning, I will turn the water a bit colder, fell the water, bit colder, feel it and so forth until it is actually cold, like muscle tensing and not following the instinct of just jumping out of the shower. 

Why I do it?

1. Getting out of your comfort zone, showing yourself you can do more
Every time I shower cold, it is making me feel uncomfortable. But also, every time I shower cold, I show myself that I can push outside my comfort zone. That I am in control of what my body does or not. Doesn't matter how much it tells me that it's cold. I am not going to die from these 30-120sec, so I will remain under the water.

2. Meditation
What helps me actual go through it, is sort of disconnecting from my body. I take the physical response and just observe it. "Aha, now my muscles are tensing, breathing becomes harder and shorter, ..." - taking the role of an observer makes me actually curious and is a meditative state that you can reuse in other life situations. You are not your body.

3. Humbling
No matter how much money you have in your pocket (I don't have much, but even if I would), it's a leveling experience. Not matter who, money, fame etc doesn't matter. It's only you and your body/mind against the cold, nothing else matters.