šŸŒ± How to pay attention (hard vs easy mode)

Professional observer. Independent thinking. Self-reinforcing life.

Hereā€™s your 3 insights (in 2 minutes, 53 seconds).

šŸ‘€ Professional Observer

"A writer is someone who pays attention to the world ā€” a writer is a professional observer."

-Susan Sontag

Great observations can save poor writing.

But great writing canā€™t fix poor observations.

So how might you improve your ability to observeā€¦?

šŸ¤” Independent Thinking

The essay Solitude and Leadership beautifully illustrates how leadership requires the ability to think independently, which can only be developed through solitude.

The entire essay is worth reading, but hereā€™s my favorite part: 

William Deresiewicz, ā€œSolitude and Leadershipā€

Hereā€™s how I think of introspection:  

  1. Follow your intuition to learn interesting things and do interesting stuff

  2. Evaluate how you feel 

  3. Get feedback from people you trust

Then repeat step one and the cycle continues.

šŸ” Self-Reinforcing Life

Love this idea of building a ā€œself-reinforcing life.ā€

Christine offers a great heuristic for things you love vs. things you do for money

Hereā€™s how I think of this:

Hard mode:
Everything you do is separate, doesnā€™t compound, feels heavy and uninteresting

Easy mode:
Everything is you is connected, compounds, and feels light and interesting

Check out her post here

Salud,
Mitchell

Ps. My ā€œWoo Scoreā€ was 21. What are you?
(scorecard here h/t @christineist)