Issue #034 | November 15, 2020  

THE SUNDAY CHECK-IN 

This week: embrace the F ups, exercises for productivity and happiness, how to find the time to start a podcast, how to recognise a good business idea, project tracking templates + a poem a day.

That's F'd Up

A few years back I attended an event for female entrepreneurs. 

There I was, huddled in a tight dark corner with three vibrant wantrepreneurs. 

Clutching my tumbler of ice cold lemon water, I listened as each member of our group took it in turns to speak. 

One woman confessed her reason for not starting her business. 

She'd been attending entrepreneurial events for two years. Always stuck in 'planning mode'. Never taking any action.

"I don't like the thought of failing." She paused to swig wine from an almost empty glass.

"The worst thing for me would be to start something, then fuck it up. And knowing me, I would royally fuck it up."

The women laughed. I smiled.

I smiled at the irony of her confession.

In my mind, not starting the thing you've been yearning for is the worst kind of failure. Never becoming the true boss of your life because there's a risk you'll make a few mistakes along the way... 

That's pretty F'd up.

"I don't like the thought of failing."

Name one living soul who does?

I certainty don't. I mean I tolerate my failures, but I don't like failing.

What I do like, is the growth that comes from failing.

I've started a few different business ventures over the last 10 years. And I've had to reconcile with this one truth:

Failure is inevitable. Avoidance is futile. You will F up. Many, many times. It comes with the territory of trying new things.

heres to the crazy ones quote - not fitting in

My main gig is designing and selling gift books like these on Amazon..

(Spoiler alert: I'm building an online boutique for my paper goods. It's coming soon-ish).

Just recently I published a new type of gift book. It bombed. Badly.

I went way over my advertising budget trying to get this thing to sell.

I should have read the signs. I should have killed that ad sooner. But I didn't.

I lost a good chunk of money (and I fricking hate losing money).

I F'd up.

But you know what? It's not the end of the world. 

I learned that people liked the concept of the book. It's just that the cover design sucked. 

It's OK. It's something I can change. And I can re-advertise (this time keeping an eye on the ad spend).

We can't live life trying to avoid mistakes. Playing it safe, is playing it small.

We're going to mess up. Over, and over again.

But what we'll gain through these blunders is a new found confidence in ourselves and abilities.

To me, that's well worth the pain of the F ups.

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Quick Tips & Cool Tools

✨ 12-minute exercises to boost productivity 

How you start your day, is a reflection of how well that day goes. 

According to this article, if you check your phone first thing in the morning, there's an 82% chance you'd go on to waste over half of your working day.   

You can prevent that from happening with these two 12-minute daily exercises.

→ Forbes


✨ How to find the time to start a podcast

Want to start a podcast (or any other content heavy side project) but wondering how you'll ever find the time? 

The Podcast Host has a few tips for how to manage your day in order to free up time. As well as advice on how to stay consistent as a creator. 

Including: changing the way you think and talk about time, using automation, prioritisation, and how to protect your boundaries by saying no.

→ The Podcast Host


✨ How to recognise a good business idea

The best business ideas are the ones right under your nose.

You could be sitting on the next big thing, but not actually know it. 

This article lists 5 actionable steps you can take to identify and capture your best business ideas.

→ GrowthLab


✨ How to keep a writing notebook

Take a sneak peek into the notebooks of famous writers and thinkers.

You'll find some useful tips on how to capture your ideas and preserve them for later (applicable regardless of whether you take notes in a physical notebook or digitally). 

→ Nicole Bianchi


✨ Project Tracking Template

I love Airtable. It's a database system but I like to refer to it as Excel on steroids. 

They usually have pretty good templates too. Like this one. It'll come in handy if you have a tendency to juggle several different projects at the same time.

→ Airtable

Caught on Twitter

Just for Fun!

Like poetry? Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. 

→ Poets.org