My Daily Post-It Notes

There are certain principles I’ve learnt from people I call my mentors, friends, colleagues, and family. A few actions I’ve learnt through mistakes and milestones. Each of these 10 principles have come together in becoming ‘post-it’ notes I try and keep in my mind each day.

?If you’re reading this, add even one of these to your mindset and I’m confident you’ll witness them further propel you to your goals and do share yours with others (including me) because much like anything in life, nothing can be done alone. Like how all these beliefs have been compiled through an amalgamation of people and their experiences, your guiding principles can go a long way for someone.

?1.????Celebrate the small wins - Conquering a mountain requires being able to reach every base. Therefore, don’t discount each time you’re at a new base by not acknowledging it as a partial victory. Being able to keep the excitement always is a way to keep your hunger and animal instinct to hunt for your goal at its optimum level. Remember, celebration should not take over being humble. Humility helps you stay grounded and helps you remember that irrespective of every win, winning isn’t as constant as the act of ‘being at it’.

?2.????Stick to the basics - There’s a saying I once overheard, ‘don’t over complicate a straight line into a maze’.

?If a task can be done in less than 2 minutes don’t wait to do it and complete it in the moment. This will help you focus less on tasks that shouldn’t pile up. Similarly, whenever you encounter a problem that has been solved by you previously, refer to your notes on how this was achieved and simply follow the same rules. If you did something correctly in the past, it’ll be the case today as well.

?Methods that don’t need to be changed, shouldn’t be, until challenged.

?3.????Don’t be shy - This tip might require some discomfort at first if you consider yourself to be an introvert, but it goes a long way once you can experience the benefits of it. Wherever we are in life, there is a higher probability of someone being in a place where you strive to be. Therefore, a simple sit down and conversation with them can help you quicken your learning curve, and this is where I highly suggest you reach out to others. The quickest response you can get is a ‘no’. However, the moment you hear a ‘yes’, everyone in this category who was a stranger once will become a core part of your intellectual net worth. Thus, reach out and build relationships. The power of network cannot be emphasised as well as it can be experienced.

?4.????Analyse yourself - This principle is self-explanatory. Set goals for yourself and let your results be your critic. However, don’t just stop there. Evaluate how you got to your goals, whether you achieve them or not, inspect your processes. It’s the small idiosyncrasies that often help identify a reason to swim or drown.

?5.????Fall in love with the process over the product - Point 4 and 5 here are closely linked, simple because the product has a shelf life and an evolution, whereas the process requires consistency. Every great athlete follows the same routine for countless years, simply because once your processes are inbuilt into your muscle memory, the effort you put in is no longer in conducting the process but in maximising the result from the process.

?6.????Build a team smarter than you and delegate without apprehension - The best inventions, products, services, and architecture are built to outlast the people who started it. To do this, surround yourself with a team that has the same ethos, culture, and motivation as you. Delegation can simply be described as enabling yourself to become an octopus and empowering yourself to achieve more in a shorter time. On the same lines, if you can train with the intention of building a team smarter than you, then you’re certainly going to be in a position where your team builds beyond your original capability.

?7.????Remember why you started - There will be more days where you don’t win than when you do. This is a fact of life and there’s nothing that we should change about it.

?We’re human beings and are built with emotions, endorphins, and at times unwanted thoughts. Whenever the serotonin in the body is low and you find yourself facing a wall questioning yourself, think about why you started. Don’t make your ‘why you started’ the same as ‘what you want to achieve’. The ‘what’ you want can be tangible, whereas the ‘why’ is a bit more intangible in most cases and hence is a much larger existential reason. Remember your why and then remember the progress you’ve made to know you’re always closer to winning, if you can push through each day that isn’t a definite win.

?8.????Compound your growth - Nothing significant happens in one go. Everything is a culmination of processes, patience, and planning and then a bit of praying that luck recognises you did all of this. I do want to add that luck for me is defined by perseverance, so if you feel you’re not lucky at first, try again…and then again.

?9.????Learn to time out - Your tank needs to refuel and cool down. Even the sun sets near you to rise and shine again, therefore, don’t let guilt take over you when you choose to pause. ?

?10.?Learn and do something you don’t know how to every other month – Challenge yourself to pick up a new hobby, whatever it might be to always be learning. Our mind is built in a manner where whenever it is challenged, it either feels fear or excitement. Both these emotions lead to an adrenaline rush that will lead you to be always in the moment, executing tasks that add to your personal and professional growth.

?In the end, it’s about surrounding yourself with people that you want to grow with, building something that stays beyond you and sticking to the basics of why we did what we did when we were younger, which was building experiences and having fun in the process.