#3 - Special Edition: How to design a remarkable life!
Hi, While every newsletter is trying to feed you new data and information, I am going to try something different for this edition. I want to give you a gift! This is something that really helped me during one of the darkest periods of my life and continues to help to date. I vividly remember the moment when I discovered this - I was standing at a bus stop in Pittsburgh after work waiting for my bus (yes, public transport is actually good there) and listening to a podcast. The audio from the podcast touched my soul as it entered my ears and for a moment, made me tear up. I am glad that I was wearing sunglasses and didn't have to bear the shame of crying in public. Long story short, that exercise became one of the most important learning in my life.
Hi,
While every newsletter is trying to feed you new data and information, I am going to try something different for this edition.
I want to give you a gift!
This is something that really helped me during one of the darkest periods of my life and continues to help to date. I vividly remember the moment when I discovered this - I was standing at a bus stop in Pittsburgh after work waiting for my bus (yes, public transport is actually good there) and listening to a podcast. The audio from the podcast touched my soul as it entered my ears and for a moment, made me tear up. I am glad that I was wearing sunglasses and didn't have to bear the shame of crying in public. Long story short, that exercise became one of the most important learning in my life.
I got this exercise from Debbie Millman - the celebrated and amazing designer, while she was on the podcast with Tim Ferriss. (Check out Tim's podcast, it's good)
I recommend all of you to go through the whole episode as that episode is one of my favorites podcast episodes ever. It’s something that is number one on my downloads and I treasure a lot. But it might not resonate with everyone, so, try for yourself and see if it works.
I recommend checking out the whole episode here but if you want to get directly to the exercise, listen to the clip here. You can also download it from this link.
Here’s the link for Apple podcasts and Stitcher too.
Anyway, I have described it here in text format for easy reading.
The exercise is simple and involves you to imagine - what life would you be living in 5/10 years if you didn't have the fear of failure. If you were given surety that whatever you do, will succeed. What will you do? How will you change the world? How will your life look like?
Go as detailed as possible - from the style of your house to the paintings on the wall. What kind of car do you drive? How does your day look like? Who are the people you are hanging out with? Are you married, single? What color is your toothbrush?
There is no limit to how long or short this has to be but make it as detailed as you can. As Debbie says "Write as if your life depends on it, cause it does". Write with all honesty, with no fear in your heart, with no seeds of doubt, write like there is no tomorrow.
And that's it. You take this writing and read it once every year. Read it twice if you are awesome and have that time.
As Debbie says "it's magic" and I believe it. I have always mildly believed in the "Law of Attraction" but modern media has also sensationalized and trivialized it and used it as a tool for selling stuff. Nothing wrong there but the essence is the power of the thoughts you generate.
I am grateful that this came into my life and probably it came when I needed it the most. This is so personal that I have shared the scenario with only one person ever - my then-girlfriend. Other than that I have kept it personal in the of coming off as weak but I realized that I need to share it as hearing my story might help someone else.
Some of you might be surprised that I am writing this kind of stuff but I wanted to write unhinged as I presented this gift to you. I hope it helps you the way it helped me.
If you find value in this, please send this to at least one person who might benefit from this.
I wish you all an amazing 2020. Let's make it awesome!
I love you all, keep going!
- Aakash
@pathakaakash
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Originally published on substack.