A "pursuit" interaction is often done with the expectation of a gain.Most interactions—especially 1-on-1 interactions like informational interviews and direct messages—fall under this category. You're engaging because you hope to gain:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">information about a role</li><li class="ql-align-justify">information about a company</li><li class="ql-align-justify">the possibility of a referral</li></ul> An "attraction" interaction is done without expectation of reciprocity. You're:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">sharing what you know because you want to help people</li><li class="ql-align-justify">engaging with others because you love what they do</li></ul>

Pursuit VS Attraction Interactions

You can't have only one type of interaction.There are always new things to learn, whether you're just starting out or already established. This requires you to reach out to people and learn from them—a form of "gain" and thus, "pursuit".However, if 99% of your interactions are pursuits, you could easily build a reputation for being "transactional"—someone who only interacts with people who are "useful", and overlooks those who are not.

The Networking Paradox

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Get curious about the topic and how you can provide value to others in the field</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Get curious about the people you find interesting</li></ul>When you lean into your curiosity, you'll do more research before publishing that piece of content or reaching out to that person.The interactions feel less icky because you did your due diligence, increasing the quality of the interactions.

Principle #1: Come from a place of curiosity

To prevent social overwhelm and exhaustion, you need to be clear about:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">What kind of people you want to be around</li><li class="ql-align-justify">What kind of activities/interactions you do better in</li><li class="ql-align-justify">What ratio of "Pursuit" VS "Attraction" works best for you</li></ul>and use this knowledge to decide:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">how frequently you network</li><li class="ql-align-justify">what interactions and activities you engage with</li></ul>These preferences and capacities will change over time, especially when you network more and step into new roles in life. And that's okay!Experiment and double down on what works, then review periodically and adjust whenever needed.

Principle #2: Be very, very self-aware (and make use of it)

Society likes to label people with their career roles.But labelling reduces us to one-dimensional characters when we're inherently multi-dimensional.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Multidimensionality means we'll have multiple interests.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Multidimensionality means we'll have multiple aspects of life to take care of.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Multidimensionality means we'll have multiple changes in perspectives.</li></ul>Accepting that people are complex and will change over time is how you can best support people through their inevitable career and life changes.It's how you become THE person they remember—for seeing them for who they are.

Principle #3: Accept that people are complex and will change over time

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I’m on a mission to design and live an intentional life, and I share what I’ve learned along the way.This newsletter issue was inspired by my networking experiences in Medellín, Colombia.I had to take a break from writing in 2023 but I hope to restart my writing in 2024. <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Want More Ideas Like This?

These are the secrets I uncovered after many icky experiences with "networking".

Networking doesn't have to be painful or overwhelming.

remotework

Remote Work

career

Career

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

business

Business

3 Principles for Effortless Networking

Growth correlates the strongest with applied leverage. If I had to write a formula for growth, it would be:Growth = ( Time^0.5 ) * Intensity of Effort * ( Leverage^2 ) <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">If your effort is focused (and thus, intense), you usually achieve the same amount of things in less time.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">If you work on higher-leverage stuff, you can achieve the same amount of things with less amounts of time and effort.</li></ul> Thus, the “shortest route” is not necessarily the shortest one.Don’t pick a route solely for its length.

1. Growth correlates poorly with time (and effort)

If you achieve a milestone earlier, will you be able to enjoy it for a longer time?Ideally, yes. But we never really know.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Things in life are impermanent. We are all on God's clock.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I could die tomorrow in some freak accident. Then, I’ll no longer be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor.</li></ul> What we can do is make the best of what we have in the present.Enjoy your days, whether you achieve something or not.

2. Earlier achievements != More enjoyment time

Objects break down over time.That Porsche, Rolex, or fancy house won’t be “as good as new” 3 decades later. But you can relive your experiences as if they happened yesterday.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">You’ll remember that lovely honeymoon with your spouse.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">You’ll also remember the gruelling 70-hour workweeks you put in to get that Porsche.</li></ul> Collect good experiences that you can:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">feel happy in the present</li><li class="ql-align-justify">fondly look back on</li></ul>

3. Experiences last longer than material possessions

I.e. They keep saying you’re “too old”/“too young”/“too late” to do X…or that you’ll “lag behind” if you do X…<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Do your research. Know what you’re getting into.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">If it still resonates, do it anyway.</li></ol>

So: If Someone’s Telling You That You Shouldn’t Do It…

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I’m on a mission to design and live an intentional life, and I share what I’ve learned along the way.This newsletter issue was inspired by what others have told me about<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">taking a gap year</li><li class="ql-align-justify">studying overseas</li></ul><a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

I’ve taken the “longer route” twice in the past 7 years. Here’s why I no longer feel “left behind”.

Don't let the fear of "lagging behind" stop you from trying.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

education

Learning & Education

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

3 reasons why you don't need to feel "left behind" in life

The root of self-sabotage is fear.
The 4 most common fears are:
<ol>
<li>Fear of Failure</li>
<li>Fear of Success</li>
<li>Fear of Judgement</li>
<li>Fear of the Unknown</li>
</ol>

Where does self-sabotage come from?

“What if [my target outcome] doesn't happen?”Result: <ul><li>You start on your project, then procrastinate on finishing it.</li><li>You believe that if you don’t launch anything, you can’t fail.</li></ul>

Fear of Failure

“If I succeed, will I ever achieve the same level of success again?” ”What if I can’t cope with the work that comes after achieving success, and burn out?”Result: You give up on ideas too early—right as you are about to achieve success.

Fear of Success

“What if people hate or ridicule my work?”Result: <ul><li>You spend hours working on and “perfecting” your work.</li><li>Your perfectionism delays or prevents the work's launch.</li></ul>

Fear of Judgement

“What if [something bad] happens?”Result: <ul><li>Your risk assessment might be inaccurate.</li><li>You might not start on the project at all.</li></ul>

Fear of the Unknown

<ol><li>Identify your fear(s) and their stories</li><li>Change the stories and beliefs</li><li>Embody your new beliefs through experiments</li></ol>

Conquer your fears with the ICE Framework

Before you can tackle something, you need to know what that something is.The 4 fears listed above are just examples. You might have more. So:<ul><li>Identify what your self-sabotaging behaviors are</li><li>Brain-dump the fear(s) driving each behavior</li><li>Identify the belief or story behind each fear.</li></ul> The story or belief could be about:<ul><li>Your abilities & lived experiences</li><li>Your familial and social environment</li></ul>

1. Identify your fear(s) and their stories

Question your stories and beliefs rigorously.Is it a valid concern, or are you making generous estimations of the future? Either way, turn those stories & beliefs into empowering ones that focus on what you can control.For more tips on this, you can check out this Stash: <a href="https://deepstash.com/article/174293/how-to-conquer-self-doubt-over-and-over-again">https://deepstash.com/article/174293/how-to-conquer-self-doubt-over-and-over-again</a>

2. Change the stories and beliefs

Make your new beliefs your new life narrative using deliberate experiments.Then, let the data speak for itself and guide you on your next steps. For more tips on Deliberate Experimentation: <a href="https://deepstash.com/article/170137/how-to-explore-your-interests-with-deliberate-experimentation">https://deepstash.com/article/170137/how-to-explore-your-interests-with-deliberate-experimentation</a> For more tips on "data collection" for goal achievement: <a href="https://deepstash.com/article/172029/3-data-points-to-collect-for-faster-goal-achievement">https://deepstash.com/article/172029/3-data-points-to-collect-for-faster-goal-achievement</a>

3. Embody your new beliefs through experiments

You might also like my newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea for Thought</a>!I’m on a mission to find life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by 8 years of grappling with self-sabotage.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

If you liked what you've read...

I used to self-sabotage myself a lot. Here's how I'm tackling it with ICE.

writing

Reading & Writing

creativity

Creativity

How to Stop Sabotaging Yourself

Self-doubt leads to a lot of self-sabotage, such as:<ul><li>Fear of getting started</li><li>Analysis paralysis</li><li>Fear of failure</li></ul> After trying many things in the past 8 years, these 3 solutions stood out:<ol><li>Rewire your self-talk</li><li>Focus on what you can control</li><li>Be kind to yourself</li></ol>

Why tackle self-doubt?

Self-talk refers to your “inner voice”—the way you talk to yourself.To rewire it:<ol><li>Take stock of what your self-talk contains</li><li>Rephrase negative self-talk into positive ones</li><li>“Install” the new, positive self-talk with affirmations and visualizations</li></ol>

💭 1. Rewire your self-talk

<ul><li>Use positive, empowering frames</li><li>Focus on what you can do about the situation, not outcomes</li></ul> Personal examples:<ul><li>“I’m the most inexperienced person here.” → “I’m a go-getter; what I lack in experience, I make up for it using effort and persistence.”</li><li>“This failure shows that I’m not good enough.” → “This setback shows me where I can improve. If I learn its lessons, I’ll do better next time. ”</li></ul>

How to rephrase negative self-talk effectively

Despite using affirmations and visualizations daily, my crippling self-doubt returned in tsunami waves whenever I faced a setback.This was because I was deriving my self-worth from things I couldn’t control. In general, you cannot control:<ul><li>The past</li><li>Other people</li><li>Event outcomes</li><li>Birth circumstances</li></ul> You can control:<ul><li>Your plans</li><li>Your efforts</li><li>Your response</li><li>Your consistency</li><li>Your mind and body</li></ul> Focus on the second list.

🧐 2. Focus on what you can control

Self-doubt will always come back. You will always be in new situations that create new fears.You will always meet new people to <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/teaforthought/p/how-to-get-out-of-the-comparison?r=1yp5g8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web">compare yourself to </a>and feel inferior to. In fact, if you're not doubting yourself every once in a while, it could mean that you're not growing! So:<ul><li>Treat self-doubt like your health. Both require consistent, long-term maintenance, not a one-time fix.</li><li>Treat mindfulness like an exercise. Do it consistently to reap the benefits.</li></ul> And when your self-doubt comes back from time to time, don’t beat yourself up over it.Remember, it’s not a failure, but a learning opportunity ❤️

❤️‍🩹 3. Be kind to yourself

You might like my newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea for Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by 12 years of personal struggle with self-doubt.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Want more ideas like this?

After struggling with self-doubt for 12 years and trying to "deal with it" for 8 of those years, here's what I learned.

If you're growing, you will have self-doubt. Here's how I dealt with it for the past 8 years.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

meditation

Meditation

How to conquer self-doubt, over and over again

All types of journaling are helpful in gathering data about your inner and outer worlds.It just depends on your current needs and context. 3 types of journaling to have in your toolkit:<ol><li>Rant Journaling</li><li>Prompts-based Journaling</li><li>Brain Dump Journaling</li></ol>

Use the right journaling type for the job

Instead of suppressing negative emotions, let everything out on paper:<ul><li>Curse and swear about the situation</li><li>Rant about the “could haves” and “should haves”</li></ul>Stop writing the moment you feel like you’ve run out of things to say.Don’t read what you just wrote. Instead, step back from your journal:<ul><li>💆‍♀️ Wash your face</li><li>🥛 Drink some water</li><li>🔥 Burn the pages (optional)</li><li>🤔 Think about how to move forward, using prompts or brain dumping (see below)</li></ul>

🤬 Purge Poisons with Rant Journaling

Prompts are useful for:<ul><li>Tracking your progress over time</li><li>Revealing limiting beliefs and blind spots</li><li>Providing a starting direction for your writing</li><li>Thinking about a situation in novel and productive ways</li></ul> For more details on what to track for greater self-awareness and goal achievement, check out this Stash: <a href="https://dsta.sh/TbDnJsZetnwi7qDZA">https://dsta.sh/TbDnJsZetnwi7qDZA</a> You should find yourself using prompt journaling most of the time, such as for your periodic (daily, weekly, etc.) reviews.

🧪 Collect Data with Prompt Journaling

<ul><li>Use the same prompts for your periodic reviews. This lets you easily compare your progress across periods.</li><li>Keep things simple. You don’t have to use all the questions suggested by ChatGPT, a blog post, or a guided journal.</li></ul> As a rule of thumb, prompts should:<ol><li>Be relevant to your present situation</li><li>Leave you feeling neutral or refreshed, not drained</li><li>Help you organize your thoughts, not trigger a thought spiral</li></ol>

Tips for better prompt journaling

Brain dumping, also known as “stream of consciousness” journaling or Morning Pages, has 2 simple rules:<ol><li>Write whatever comes to mind until you reach your “goal”</li><li>Keep writing even if you can’t think of anything to write</li></ol>It’s like rant journaling, but without the intense negative emotions.Instead, you’re driven by a goal—usually a target page count or word count.Forcing yourself to keep writing is what helps you get unstuck.

💡 Breakthrough with Brain Dump Journaling

Write down, as many as you can:<ol><li>Information you have about the situation</li><li>Details of your desired outcome</li><li>Possible ways to change the situation—even if the solutions seem unrealistic</li></ol>Then, implement one of the solutions in Step 3 and collect data on whether it works.Bonus: You can also use prompts to kickstart your brain dump.

How to solve problems using Brain Dumps

You might like my newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea for Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by 10 years of personal journaling experience.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Here's a simple toolkit for using journaling to manage your emotions, track your progress, and get unstuck.

A simple toolkit for managing your emotions, collecting data, and getting unstuck.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

How to journal for intentional living

Your efforts will always pay off.You'll always be paid in lessons and experience.Introspecting your feelings, ideas, and progress helps unlock those lessons.

Progress is great. But are you progressing on the right things?Noticing your negative feelings can tell you what’s wrong:<ul><li>Misalignment between actions and values/purpose/goals</li><li>Flaws in your strategy and execution</li><li>Overexertion</li></ul>

😶 Feelings

As you work towards your goal, you’re likely to encounter new information and perspectives.These can spark ideas for:<ul><li>improving your quality of work</li><li>improving your systems & processes</li></ul>

💡 Ideas

Most systems boil down to these 3 questions:<ul><li>How much progress (relative to a goal) did I accomplish?</li><li>What actions were effective in creating this progress?</li><li>What didn’t work, and how can I do better?</li></ul> Feel free to use more prompts to get a more detailed analysis.

📈 Progress

<ul><li>Double down on the actions that worked</li><li>Re-alignment (if necessary)</li><li>Experiment with ideas (and iterate)</li></ul>

🤨 What to do with all this data?

<ul><li>Introspect consistently (daily, weekly, etc.)</li><li>Record them in your note-taking system</li><li>Refer to your records whenever needed</li></ul>

How to collect these data?

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to find and implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.📕 Bonus: I’ve also tied the above concepts together into a simple weekly reflection template.If you subscribe now, you’ll receive the template link in the welcome email.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Your efforts will always pay off. Introspection helps with extracting those rewards.

Your efforts will always pay off. Introspection helps you unlock those rewards.

productivity

Productivity

strategy

Strategy

3 data points to collect for faster goal achievement

When you start a new job or move to a new place, there are so many things to do.It's not possible to do all of them without overexerting yourself. Create a vision and use it to:<ul><li>Filter out shiny new objects</li><li>Prioritize & align your actions toward your goals</li></ul>

🗺️ 1. Have a vision for the new phase of life

When you start a new phase of life, you usually don’t have a routine.This makes it easy to give in to temptations or quick fixes that can morph into unhealthy habits. The solution: Have good default choices, especially for your health and finances.

🥑 2. Have good default choices

Life is hard.Beating yourself up over your mistakes makes it harder. Two principles that helped me be kind(er) to myself:<ul><li>"You will make mistakes. It means you’re growing! Remedy the mistakes and move on."</li><li>"Your pace is the best pace. No need to FOMO or feel bad about it."</li></ul>

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.substack.com/">Tea For Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to find and implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by my undergrad experience—I had to move to a new country every 4 months.<a href="https://teaforthought.substack.com/">Come learn with me :)</a>

These 3 things helped me settle down quickly as I moved to a new country every 4 months for the past 2 years.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

habits

Habits

How to make life transitions less overwhelming

A state of being where you do your tasks without directly thinking about them.It’s like navigating to the grocery store near your home. You’ve been there enough times to know the way, so you can direct your attention toward other important things like looking out for traffic or avoiding potholes on the road.

What is Autopilot Mode?

<ol><li>Create a plan of action (e.g. a prioritized list of tasks)</li><li>Remove your feelings</li><li>Start on the first task</li></ol>Step #1 helps you immensely if you’re tackling a task for the first time.Step #2 is crucial. By “removing your feelings”, I really mean eliminating them—even if they’re positive, and especially if they’re negative. You can do this using any mindfulness practice that you’re comfortable with.

How to enter Autopilot Mode

<ul><li>Negative feelings can create analysis paralysis, stopping you from starting on a task or persisting through obstacles.</li><li>Positive feelings can (unconsciously) create expectations . When those expectations aren’t met, it’s easy to feel derailed and demotivated.</li></ul>

Why "remove your feelings" before doing a task?

#1: Persisting through tasks that you must complete, but don’t like. You may enjoy your work, but it’s impossible to love all the tasks involved.#2: Doing tasks faster. In Autopilot Mode, you work methodically like a robot: Knock out Task #1, move on to Task #2, and complete Task #3. <ul><li>You’ve removed your feelings, so you don’t feel as tempted to distract yourself with social media or Netflix.</li><li>You’re focused on completing the task, so when you encounter problems, you’re more likely to persist through the problem and become creative at solving it.</li></ul>

Autopilot Mode is good for:

#1: For planning, especially for long-term time horizons. <ul><li>You should be deliberate in your planning so that your pursuits are intentional in helping you move closer to where you want to be.</li></ul>#2: As a way of life. <ul><li>If you’re in Autopilot Mode all the time, you’d blink and realize that you’ve “coasted” through a significant period of time. That’s when you feel that life has stagnated or become unintentional.</li></ul>

Do not use Autopilot Mode:

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to find and implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by my assignment grind for the Spring 2023 semester.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Autopilot Mode helped me churn out 3+ 1000-word essays in two weeks. Not recommended for long-term use, but immensely useful to push through short-term tough times!

A counterintuitive but effective approach to intentional living.

timemanagement

Time Management

How to get through tough times using Autopilot Mode

It's exploring your interests intentionally, with a map, and with minimal fear.

What is Deliberate Experimentation?

<ol><li>Reduce the fear of failure because you’re framing it as an “experiment”. There are no right or wrong outcomes in scientific experiments, only data that supports or disagrees with the hypothesis.</li><li>Reduce risk and gain clarity through your deliberate planning and research.</li><li>Because of #1 and #2, you gain the confidence to take action, which is crucial for collecting the data you need about your interests.</li></ol>

Why use Deliberate Experimentation?

<ol><li>Start with one interest to learn more about</li><li>Structure your information input</li><li>Structure your information output</li><li>Tie it all together with a map</li><li>Take action and collect data</li></ol>

How to deliberately experiment

You can explore more interests simultaneously, but limit yourself to 2 - 3 interests so that you can focus on them without neglecting your responsibilities.

1. Start with one interest to learn more about

Select 1 - 3 resources as your “primary curriculum” for learning more about your interests.These resources can include online courses, YouTube playlists, or studying a mentor’s social media posts.

2. Structure your information input

Completing a project as you learn is the fastest way to consolidate your knowledge and skills. You’ll also learn what you like and don’t like about the interest.At minimum:<ul><li>Decide on a project topic</li><li>Define 1 - 3 scopes/outcomes of the project (you can add more later) and prioritize them</li><li>Work out the first two steps needed to start on one of the defined scopes</li></ul>

3. Structure your information output

A map is an effective type of “plan of action” that helped me <a href="https://teaforthought.substack.com/p/4-lessons-from-my-zero-to-noob-journey">accelerate my Zero-to-Noob journey</a>.A map has four components:<ul><li>a starting point (where you are now) </li><li>an end point (where you want to be) </li><li>At least one immediate action to kickstart your journey. This can be finishing the first lesson in your curriculum, or completing Step #1 of your project.</li><li>At least one checkpoint (intermediary goals/milestones). This can be finishing the Xth scope of your project, or achieving a desired level of consistency.</li></ul>

4. Tie it all together with a map

In your map, you should also try to schedule at least 1h/day for both information input and output (i.e., at least 30 min each).

Schedule at least 1h/day to explore your interest

While going through Steps #2 - #4, you might find some aspects of your plan unappealing.That feeling is a data point, indicating that you may still like your interest overall, but there are some parts of it you’d find boring.However: it’s not a valid data point until you take action on your plan. Any feelings you experience before that are merely expectations, which are often influenced by biases and social interactions.Collect data about your feelings as you go through the process of planning and executing. They’ll help you figure out your likes and dislikes.

5. Take action and collect data

I find life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by my goals for Summer 2023!I also brew these ideas into Tea For Thought, my weekly newsletter. <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

This is a useful technique I've used in the past to explore my curiosities and interests.

How I explore new interests to figure out what I want from life.

How to explore your interests with Deliberate Experimentation

It's a mechanism that forces you to work towards your goal. Personal example: Becoming conversational in Spanish<ul><li>I have to attend Spanish class every day on Lingoda in order to get back my money</li><li>I moved to Colombia to practice my Spanish through daily activities like grocery shopping or taking public transport</li></ul>

What is a forcing function?

<ul><li>Stakes-based accountability: The pain you feel from thinking about losing the stake will propel you to take action</li><li>Requiring consistency instead of motivation: Make showing up consistently—on schedule—a requirement</li></ul> Personal Example:<ul><li>The money I paid for Lingoda Spanish classes is substantial (high stakes), so it's painful to lose.</li><li>The pain propels me to show up for class even when I don't feel like it.</li><li>BUT: Living in Colombia doesn't require consistency in speaking Spanish (Google Translate exists), and is thus less effective</li></ul>

Features of an effective forcing function

<ul><li>😵‍💫 Overwhelm. I clammed up on my first day in Colombia whenever a local tried to converse with me in Spanish. When I got home, I also started panicking about how I’m going to survive the next four months with so little knowledge of Spanish.</li><li>✈️ Slipping into Autopilot Mode. During finals, I went through the motions of attending my Lingoda classes. I stopped preparing for each class and didn’t review the class content or my Lingoda instructors’ feedback.</li></ul>

Potential Negative Side Effects of Forcing Functions

A forcing function is just one of the many tactics you can use to achieve your goals. They’re effective, but they can also be uncomfortable if the difficulty level or stakes are too high.If the forcing function is overwhelming, adjust it:<ul><li>work on a smaller goal/milestone/project first</li><li>reduce the frequency slightly</li><li>focus on showing up consistently, not how much you’ve achieved in a particular instance</li></ul>

Don't let side effects/discomfort stop you from trying!

I find life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by my goal to become conversational in Spanish!I also brew these ideas into Tea For Thought, my weekly newsletter. <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

A technique I discovered for goal achievement when trying to become conversational in Spanish.

3 Principles for Effortless Networking

3 reasons why you don't need to feel "left behind" in life

How to Stop Sabotaging Yourself

How to conquer self-doubt, over and over again

How to journal for intentional living

Pei Qi Tea