Welcome to mindful manager! Here’s 3 ideas I’ve been recently pondering / playing with.
Why Do We Want the Things That We Want?
At first glance, it seems like a useless question. I see or think about something, and if it meets my interests, I start desiring it, period. Turns out it’s not like this at all, at least not if you talk to Luke Burgis, the author of an amazin book on mimetic desire.
The idea behind this intriguing theory, created by the French Polymath René Girard, is that everytime we desire something (a certain job, the next vacation destination, a piece of clothing) we do it because we’re following a model. Something or somebody else is modeling that desire for us (consciously or un-consciously), creating an imitation game that’s been central to most of human history.
Create Systems, Not Goals
We’ve heard it many times: goal setting is the foundation of productivity and getting things done. That’s definitely true, but sometimes even goals are not enough. When dealing with the initial stages of a big endeavour (launching a startup) or when there’s not a precise destination point (getting - and staying - in shape) it’s way better to focus on creating and fine-tuning systems, not goals. Systems let you focus on the task at hand, on keeping the course, and will probably (if they’re good) bring you to the finish line.
Inspiration: Naval Ravikand on The Knowledge Project Podcast
Thinking (Grammatically) Better
Next time you have some minutes to spare, try this excercise your school teacher would be produd of. For 5 to 10 consecutive minutes, your goal should be to think in a grammatically correct and complete way. Turn all the images you might think about, all the internal chatter, into complete sentences that could be written down and other people would understand by reading them. There are (in theory) real benefits connected to this little task, but I personally like to do it just for fun.
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Have a great rest of the week.
Riccardo