#36: the enough mindset

Feb 04, 2021

👋 Welcome to the 36th volume of Out of Curiosity, a weekly newsletter promoting ideas to help get 1% better everyday.

Every week, I go through nearly 100 pieces of content (from books and podcasts to newsletters and tweets), and bring you the best in this newsletter together with what I publish on my blog and podcast.

In this issue:

⚽️ Leadership lessons from Ted Lasso

💭 Focus on enough, instead of more

🧠 Better brainstorming

💬 Talk less, listen more

⚽️ Leadership lessons from Ted Lasso

This week, we shared our thoughts and takeaways from Season #1 of Ted Lasso: a sitcom television series starring Jason Sudeikis.

We specifically talked about the scenes and moments where Ted shows true leadership, resilience and self-awareness by taking things back to the basics of being a human, despite his lack of knowledge about the sport itself!

Grab a ☕️ and Listen

💭 Focus on enough, instead of more

There's a lot of talk around ambition, pushing your boundaries and constantly wanting more. This article looks at things a bit differently by explaining the "enough mindset":

Clearly defining your own limitations in life and business that YOU feel confident, comfortable, and happy with.

This doesn't necessarily mean letting go of all your short- and long-term goals, but defining minimum viable limits for your different life areas (finances, career, relationships) that keep you content and fulfilled.

{14-min read}

🧠 Better brainstorming

The secret to unlocking a better answer is to ask a better question. Applying that insight to brainstorming can vastly improve the search for new ideas.

Focus on questions, not answers, for breakthrough insights:

1. Set the stage: select a challenge you deeply care about
2. Brainstorm the questions
3. Identify a path and commit to it

{15-min read}

💬 Talk less, listen more

Listening goes beyond simply hearing what people say. It also involves paying attention to how they say it and what they do while they are saying it, in what context, and how what they say resonates within you.

It’s not about merely holding your peace while someone else holds forth. Quite the opposite. A lot of listening has to do with how you respond — the degree to which you facilitate the clear expression of another person’s thoughts and, in the process, crystallize your own.

Good listeners ask good questions.
One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned as a journalist is that anyone can be interesting if you ask the right questions.
That is, if you ask truly curious questions that don’t have the hidden agenda of fixing, saving, advising, convincing or correcting.
Curious questions don’t begin with “Wouldn’t you agree…?” or “Don’t you think…?” and they definitely don’t end with “right?” The idea is to explore the other person’s point of view, not sway it.

{6-min read}

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me.
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.
But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.
Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.
Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.
And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.