Hi Friends:
This week, I’ve got a lineup of articles that are all about how to boost your luck, getting creative for productivity, owning your agency, appreciating the beauty of being useless, and even writing a letter to your future self! 🚀
So grab a cup of coffee ☕ (or decaf tea, in my case), get cozy, and let's dive into these awesome reads.
So, on with the links!
I know this to be true.
…luck can be created. More precisely, you can actively create optimal conditions for lucky things to happen to you.
How embracing creativity can help with productivity
Treat your life as an experiment, try new things, follow your whims, and be open to surprises.
Each of us creates our day through how we interact with the world, with ourselves, with other people. If we see creativity as a way of being rather than of doing, we can attempt to live each day as if our life itself is a work of art - we can be what I like to call ‘day artists’.
No one starts out being great at anything. Crossing the moat of low status is an inevitable part of the learning process. Once you grasp that, it gets easier to become the architect of your own journey.
The moat of low status is one of my favorite concepts, courtesy of my husband Sasha. The idea is that making changes in your life, especially when learning new skill sets, requires you to cross a moat of low status, a period of time where you are actually bad at the thing or fail to know things that are obvious to other people.
Give yourself permission to pursue what you love, even if it seems useless, as it can lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful life.
For many years of my life, what kept me dreaming was Cheryl Strayed’s words in this letter: “The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.”
The Letter to Your Future Self
Write a letter to your future self that enables you to set your intentions, outline your goals, and serve as motivation for your actions. Don’t overthink this; you can even write it really quickly on Apple Notes, and then later go back and refine it. The key is to just get started!
Over the next few weeks, sit down and write a letter to your future self.
10 years from now, 5 years from now, 3 years from now, whatever.
Reflect on where you are, where you hope to be, and the changes you need to make. Take action to make that envisioned future a reality.