“The mountains are calling and I must go.”

– John Muir

Add me to the group chat!

I wasn’t thinking about resilience, or how to grow from discomfort when I got on my catch-up call with my buddy Noku in July. 

What I had on my mind was more along the lines of how I was excited to tell him my Service Industry Horror Stories after spending some time waitressing in a restaurant in town. 

They were the “my feet hurt so much” variety, and the “you won’t believe the delicious meal this one customer sent back to the kitchen” type.

What happened next catalyzed an even bigger, even crazier adventure that my feet appreciated significantly less.

I talked to him about some of my summer passion projects, and how they were progressing, as he listened patiently, asking enthusiastic questions. 

But then, with classic nonchalance, he mentioned his plans to summit Mt. Fuji, explaining how the huts were almost fully booked, who he was planning to do it with, and all the incredible details. 

I had to stop him right there, because the radar we all have inside that God gave us to detect cool opportunities was going off like a fire alarm. 

Mount Fuji. 

Yes, the Japanese mountain. The big one. That one you see on postcards and in dusty geology textbooks. 

That one. 

“Is there room for me to come too?”

“Yes,” he said. “But you have to book your overnight hut like now, because they’re almost fully booked.”

So I did. 

That was still mid-July, and there were somehow only 8 huts left for a stay at the beginning of September. 

So I got my reservation, and he added me to the group chat.

The stars had aligned. I was going to climb Mt. Fuji. 

How to start climbing. 

There is nothing like walking uphill for an hour only to pull out your crumpled trail map and see that you have several more hours (and meters of elevation) yet to go until you can stop at a hut to sleep. 

The start of the climb is like this: You don’t want to ask how far you’ve gone because you know it will not be very much. 

You want to eat another snack, but know you should save some for farther up. 

The mood is still pretty good, but you keep getting stark reminders of how little cardio you have done lately.

The question on everyone’s minds is “Are we really gonna do this?”

Well, let’s keep walking and find out. Because really, at the start of the climb, that is all that you have to concern yourself with: putting one foot in front of the other and continuing along the trail.

How to take breaks.

You pause, catch your breath with cool nonchalance. 

“Let’s wait a second for SoAndSo to catch up,” you advise the members of your group who are part mountain goat with a false sense of charity. 

In reality, your main motivation for stopping is that your lungs feel like deflating balloons and your lower back is making you wish you packed a little lighter. 

At the start of the climb, it feels lame to “need” a break. 

Eventually though, after enough communal huffing and puffing, ego is put to one side. 

Take the breaks. Eat the snacks. Stop to keep the group together. 

We came to realize it was never a race to the top. In fact, we were all the last person at one point or another, as were we all out of breath every few minutes. 

My reasons for climbing Mt. Fuji were not to break some mountaineering record. It was about creating meaningful lifelong memories with my friends; about empowerment; and about adventure.

Taking generous breaks along the way up facilitated all of these aims, and made the climb not only more fun, but more accessible. 

How to sing on the way up.

When you get close to the summit is when it gets steep, rocky, and unforgivingly cold. At that point, you’re absolutely exhausted, and the clouds are obscuring you from even being able to identify exactly how much climb you have left. 

Dreary and bleak, you say?

Well, it depends on the soundtrack. 

In addition to the faithful konbini snacks and layers of warm clothing, we were well-prepared with a fair supply of theater kids as well. 

I’m talking, say the name “Eliza”, and for the next half an hour, listen to every song in Hamilton as your nose turns into a popsicle. 

We sang and we sang, and when we weren’t singing, we listened to others in the group sing. 

It’s one of my fondest memories from the hike up, and honestly? It taught me that just about anything difficult is made that much more joyful if you just burst into song. 

How to wake up early for the sunrise.

I have always regarded those who willingly wake up at the crack of dawn with a fair dose of suspicion. 

Typically, I assume if they do it willingly, they are somewhat masochistic and potentially antisocial. Now though, I accept that there is a new possibility: early-risers are in love with the sky. 

We woke up at the crack of dawn to continue climbing, and we stopped near the 8th station to eat breakfast while watching the sunset. 

It was, in a word, sublime. 

The flaming oranges, blushing pinks and impressionist feathery clouds all came together into this one scene that all at once felt both staggering and life-affirming. 

Sometimes, I noted, waking up early is actually worth it.

How to stop to take pictures.

Much like I regard those who willingly wake up at 4am with suspicion, I also feel suspicious of people who take too many pictures of their food, vacations, or selves.

Why? 

Because moments should not be defined by how they look in your camera roll, but rather, how they make you feel, and the person they turn you into. 

So generally speaking, my stance is “put your phone away, for crying out loud”.

However, I must admit, in some select circumstances the act of taking a picture also does something else. 

Along the hike, taking photos of my journey was a way to reiterate to myself “this is a moment I want to treasure”, and then I captured it, not only with the click of my phone, but also a mental click that said “I want to hold this moment in time forever”. 

So I did.

Keep adventuring.

After climbing Mt. Fuji, my bucket list only got bigger. 

As soon as I got home, I wondered what other mountains there were to climb (besides Mt. Everest). 

I wanted to climb them all. 

It’s the strange thing about embracing adventure: no matter how much your feet hurt while you do it, you are hungry to do it even more the second it’s over. 

Thought To Action 

1. Map the Impossible: Write down three “too big” ideas you’d pursue if fear, money, or skill weren’t limits. Circle one. Start with the smallest visible step.
2. Use Tech Intentionally: Schedule a daily “digital audit”—10 minutes to check what tools you actually use to create versus to consume. (See this guide to mindful tech habits).
3. Build an Independent Study Track: Pick a theme you want to master this year (creativity, AI, storytelling) and design your own syllabus—books, podcasts, projects, mentors.
4. Pair Reading with Doing: For every chapter you read, add one experiment to test the idea in real life.
5. Reflect in Reverse: Once a week, ask: “What did I not do because I underestimated myself?”—then do one of those things, badly but bravely.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post Climbing Mount Fuji Was Uncomfortable—and That’s Where the Growth Happened appeared first on Green Also Green.

“We don’t have to waste our time learning how to make pastry when we can use grandma’s recipes.”― Orson De Witt, Earth Won’t Miss You

Some Of The People I’m Grateful For This Year

When we seek life hacks and thrifted wisdom, we often turn to the lofty role models we see on the glossy covers of Forbes, Vogue, and the like. 

But this year, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I wanted to take a big highlighter, and emphasize something really important: there is wisdom all around us. 

There is wisdom in our family, wisdom in our closest friends. 

I would even venture to say there is wisdom in little children and animals, and in the minds and hearts of every person who hasn’t been invited onto a famous podcast to share their Top 3 Life Hacks For Breaking Out Of The Matrix.

This year I’m spending Thanksgiving abroad in Japan, so I’m leaning more towards a “friendsgiving” year than “familysgiving”, but in reflecting on my life, I realized that some votes of thanks are in order!

When pondering exactly how to distribute the thanks, I decided to pick twelve wise people in my own life- one for each month of the year- and tell you something I learned from them.  

12 Life Hacks From Some Of My Personal Wisdom Providers

#1: “Just go to sleep already.” – C.

Do you have that one friend who you can’t text past midnight without getting a message back that reads, “why are you still awake?!” 

…Except ten times more aggressively, in all-caps, and with four too many exclamation points?

Well, I do. 

The annoying thing is- she’s right. 

Let’s face it, you’re up so late at night because your mind is catastrophizing about that one thing you said to Sally in the bathroom that afternoon without thinking. 

If not that, you’re scrolling to avoid thinking about it, or you convinced yourself one additional email will only take “a few minutes” to answer.

Stop. 

Put your phone down. Close your laptop. Go to sleep already. You will feel better in the morning (even Harvard agrees!).

#2: Don’t sacrifice your peace just to put everyone else at ease. – My mom

I was once the person who fetishized unnecessary sacrifice, so I will be the first to say I learned this one the hard way. 

Over my short (but oh, so long) 20 years on our little blue dot, I have sacrificed my peace way too often to make other people comfortable, and to keep them content. 

It was always along the lines of “keeping the peace” for others, but crumbling on the inside. 

Anyway, long story short, my mom was right. 

Now here’s the thing I didn’t realize before that prevented me from truly internalizing this: when you don’t advocate for yourself, you aren’t actually gaining respect and admiration. 

Instead, you are training people to walk all over you. 

So speak up. Stand up for yourself. Fight for your peace and do not compromise. 

#3: Stop picking at your face. – my grandmother

If I had a dollar for every time my grandmother told me to stop picking at my face- a habit I sometimes do without even thinking – I would basically be a trust fund baby. 

But even apart from picking at my face, this extends further.

When you’re stressed out because you feel like you failed, don’t sabotage yourself even further. 

If you have acne, don’t pick at your face to release frustration, even though you will be tempted to. 

If you’re like me, you have also had the late nights of low self-esteem-scrolling through other people’s social media because it facilitates the ever-deeper spiral into self-loathing.

The first step to getting out of a deep hole is to stop digging- or in this case, to stop picking. 

What you feel will change by the morning. 

The scab you get from popping the pimple will last a bit longer.

#4: Your perception of inadequacy comes from how hard you push yourself, not from the reality of your progress. – My 10-year-old sister

Watching a young child grow up is the crash course (and crucial life hacks) in perseverance and resilience you didn’t know you needed. 

For me, I think a lot about my sister. 

She is incredibly busy, plays several instruments, and always seems to have another extracurricular hobby that she is trying in school. 

And yet…and yet.

From the inside of her own life, she doesn’t see her incredible progress and growth. 

Why? 

Because she is pushing hard and trying so many new things. 

Honestly though, I feel the same way most days, and I am ten years ahead. 

You think you’re not doing well because you are pushing yourself hard and your standards are getting higher. 

In fact, the higher your standards get, the more you probably feel you are falling short.

What you don’t realize is how much progress you have already made, and the expectations you have already exceeded. 

All you can see is how far you have left to go. 

So remember- you are learning. You are growing. You might not feel it, but you’re doing great.

This growth is the whole point. 

#5: Effort counts twice. – my brother

There is a special place in the world for all the women with little brothers who once shadow-boxed around them in public and now communicate exclusively through Michael Scott and Phil Dunphy references. 

My brother, however, is not just an Office superfan or a shadow-boxing addict. 

He is also ruthlessly stubborn and (unreasonably?) obsessive. 

When he gets it in his head that he wants something, there is no ‘undo’ button. 

In watching my brother grow up, I’ve had the opportunity to see him get into obsessions and pursue them with crazy intensity, whether it’s boxing, video editing and social media marketing, or business and finance. 

He does the unglamorous work on the missions he cares about, and then he gets results. 

It’s not so much a hack as a heuristic, but here it is: become obsessed. 

Relentlessly pursue your vision for success. 

Work harder, because effort counts twice. 

#6: Not everyone is worth the effort. -Aunt T.

Some hacks turn out to not be hacks at all. 

For example, when we are taught to measure success against how close we are to being married, having two kids and a dog, two matching BMWs, and an iPhone that doesn’t fit into the pockets of our jeans.

Here’s the truth: Being single doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you. 

Losing friends doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. 

Getting ghosted by a mentor or a role model you really looked up to doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. 

Getting rejected from your dream college or the perfect internship doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Oh, and here’s a controversial one: Maybe losing those particular people and life paths is a blessing in disguise

…Because sometimes the hacks that get us to where we want to be are the painful losses we didn’t want to endure.

So listen to my aunt and walk away. 

Better people will find you, and what’s more is they will choose you. 

#7: It’s never too late to start something new. – my grandfather

Apparently, you’re supposed to retire at 65. 

Some people do that. 

My grandfather isn’t one of them. 

In fact, he decided to go one step further: get an additional job. 

Now, my grandfather has worn lots of hats throughout his life, so I guess it wasn’t a surprise when in his 60s he decided to add another one to the list: being an ordained deacon in the Catholic church.

So far, he has been an anesthesiologist, a pilot, a boat captain, a boy scout leader, a dive master, a business owner, father/grandfather, and now, a deacon. 

Some people might get dizzy just imagining this, but for me, getting to witness this has been a source of peace.

In a world that tells you to choose one thing for the rest of your life, my grandfather has been a shining example of what it looks like to reinvent yourself over and over again. 

Throughout your life, there is actually lots more time than you realize. 

No, you can’t have seven careers going at the same time, but over 70 years, you will have space to grow in many directions. 

And guess what? 

If you get to your 60s and realize you have blossoming career aspirations in a completely different space, it’s not too late. 

Don’t get stressed about having to choose one thing and commit to it forever. 

There is always time for that reinvention. 

#8: You won’t realize how hard it is until it isn’t hard anymore. – my high school homeroom teacher

As a teenager, I thought life was supposed to be miserable. 

High school was lonely, and it felt like every few weeks I found myself crying on the bathroom floor all over again- or in the office of my homeroom teacher, updating her on the most recent drama in my life. 

If it wasn’t boy drama, it was feeling like I was going to fail all my classes and never get into college, or stressing because “I have no idea what I want to do with my life and everyone else does”. 

Looking back, fifteen-year-old me deserves a lot of credit that she didn’t give herself. 

She did some hard things back then- hard things that seemed impossible once- and she had the courage to invest in herself and create the life I get to enjoy now. 

I wish I could tell my fifteen-year-old self that it gets way, way better, and that she is facing some inordinately hard years, so crying on the bathroom floor is normal. 

However, I also know my fifteen-year-old self would have rolled her eyes hearing that. 

In truth, she just had to be patient, get older, and come out the other end of the tunnel to see the bright light of her future. 

How did I ever make it through that?

Now I know: turns out, being a teenager is just incredibly difficult, and you only realize just how difficult it is once you grow out of it, look back, and wonder how did I even survive that?

For me, one of the people who provided me incredible solace in the difficult stormy waters of high school was my homeroom teacher, with whom I have exchanged tears, laughter, heartbreak, and lots of small pep talks and reassurances.

You might not be a teenager, but you can still pose the question to yourself: What if what you’re experiencing right now is just difficult? In fact, what if it’s supposed to be difficult? What if you can’t make it out exclusively with skincare hacks and new piercings?

Could it be that you are growing and changing, and emotional growing pains are real? 

Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, there is a beautiful future waiting for you on the other side? 

#9: Don’t underestimate the social credit you get by being genuinely excited for other people. – N.

You know that feeling when you open up LinkedIn and the first thing you see is a post about yet another person who is excited to start their sparkly new internship?

Or how it feels when you’ve just broken up, but that girl who sits three cubicles away from you met the love of her life who just engaged to her at sunset, and by the way you can see the diamond on her finger from the moon?

Yes, I’m talking about that sticky green jealousy that makes you hate them but hate yourself more. 

When you feel the lack of what you want, it’s natural to resent the abundance of others.

So, naturally, if I then told you to pick up those pom poms of support and love and genuine excitement, and wave them in the air as hard as you can, you would probably want to punch me in the throat. 

Here’s why you shouldn’t: when you celebrate other people’s wins, you are giving yourself an important message. 

You are signalling that you know your win is coming too. 

And trust me, the wins are coming your way. 

#10: Quit the boring books. – Aunt W.

The sunk cost fallacy is real, and if you have ever kept reading a boring book way past the event horizon at which you knew it would never get better, then you are a victim.

Of all my aunts, this one reads the most voraciously. It’s actually a little intimidating, between you and me. 

But here’s what she won’t do: keep reading a bad book until the bitter end. 

I learned to put down bad books too, but there was a time when I felt I simply didn’t have the authority to say a book was boring enough to be abandoned. 

Now, I think about the sunk cost fallacy in other areas, and wonder to myself where I need to jump the ship and move onto something better. 

You have the authority to make that call for yourself. 

No, really. You do.

Yes, there is uncertainty, and yes, you might jump onto another boring book, but you will at least be able to handle it just like you did the last one. 

Remember, it doesn’t matter how many pages in you are. If it’s not getting any better, it’s probably not worth the wait.

#11: It starts with deciding to be an artist. – L.

I used to carry the deep belief that I had to do hard things to prove I could do them. Then, I had to deprive myself of the things I loved to prove I had “discipline”.

One of the activities I deprived myself of was being an artist. 

When I held this belief up to the light, I wondered where it came from, then promptly decided I didn’t want to carry it anymore.

Since then, I have embarked on the long, slow, acutely painful process of reclaiming the side of me that is, at heart, a writer-artist-explorer. 

L. has been my writing buddy since we met in kindergarten, and she has been instrumental in showing me what it looks like to step into your creativity and live like an artist. 

Really, it boils down to this: If you want to live a creative life, stop telling people you’re not an artist. 

If you want to be a writer, start calling yourself one. 

Call yourself a scientist. 

Call yourself an entrepreneur. 

Being exactly what you aspire to be is about actually making the choice to be that thing and see yourself as worthy of honoring your gifts. 

#12: You might need to cry first, but you still have what it takes, and you will impress yourself later on. – my littlest sister. 

Meet my youngest, yet most mature sibling- because, like I said, life hacks also come from kids.

She may be little, and she may be sweet, but make no mistake: she is a force to be reckoned with. 

My sister has decided she will one day run the Natural History Museum in London, and that she would like to pursue paleontology. (She’s 4 by the way. Who told her what “paleontology” was??)

She is several grade levels ahead in math, and when it comes to reading and writing, it feels like she could be very well start composing Shakespearean sonnets.

However, like every superwoman, she has her kryptonite: Kumon. 

The funny thing about Kumon and my sister is that she is actually amazing at it. 

Like I said, she is incredibly precocious, and has no problem understanding what to do. 

So the problem isn’t the math. It’s the act of sitting down and doing extra work. 

Now, I don’t do Kumon, but I’ve sat down to do things before that give me that same feeling. 

It’s the “this code cell will be the end of me” feeling, or “there’s so many applications to submit and they’ll mostly get rejected” feeling. 

My sister cries about Kumon the same way I cry about Python error messages. 

But guess what else?

After crying, she does the Kumon. And after the Kumon, she gets to play. 

Sometimes, in order to sit down and get through long sheets of math, you need to cry first. 

That’s okay. Just get it done.

Thought To Action 

1. Design a Tech Sabbath: Pick one day or evening a week to go screen-free and let your thoughts get noisy again. (Read why stillness fuels creativity).
2. Build a ‘Slow Stack’: Keep one long, complex book by your bed and promise it five pages a day—no summaries, no speed. Just sustained attention.
3. Use AI as a Mirror: Instead of asking an AI tool for answers, ask it for better questions. Collect your favorites in a “Thinking Prompts” doc.
4. Join the 30-Minute Club: Set aside 30 minutes each day to learn something unmonetized—no career goals, no productivity—just intellectual play.
5. Create a Digital Garden: Capture the best things you’re reading, writing, and noticing in one evolving document. Growth deserves a home.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post 12 Life Hacks I Learned From Some Of The Coolest People I Know appeared first on Green Also Green.

“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” -Steve Jobs

Passion vs. Grit

The typical narrative places grit and passion on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

We imagine “following your passion” as taking a low-paying career in something we enjoy as a hobby. Then, alternatively, there is the “gritty” path that will pay-off years into the future, after many all-nighters and existential crises. 

This is a false narrative, because actually, passion and grit work in tandem, and today I want to unpack how that happens.

Angela Duckworth

The inspiration for this entire post comes from one woman: Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and author who studies grit and self-control. 

On her recent appearance on the Mel Robbins podcast, she discussed the ideas I’m outlining below. 

My Realization

This podcast was a paradigm-shift for me in several ways, but especially as someone who has always struggled to “narrow down” my interests and unlock the things I’m super passionate about. 

Here are a few key insights I realized about myself that might strike a chord:

1.  I have always assumed the “harder” path was inherently more respectable, even if my “easier” path was even more unique and impressive. I figured if I spent a bunch of time trying to brainwash myself into being interested in certain things that didn’t really excite me, that I was doing something inherently more “impressive” than pursuing other (equally) well-earning, nuanced, respectable field/careers/subjects. 

2. Grit is more about consistency than about excessive effort. If you only have 3/10 effort to give, it’s still better than 0. If you fall off the horse, get back on. 

3. You probably don’t even realize that you are talented or passionate about something, because you take your interest in it for granted. For example, I have lately become obsessed with mineralogy, as I’m taking a geology course. I thought everyone found that cool, but turns out, it’s a strong interest  somewhat unique to me. 

#1: The Hard Thing Rule

Duckworth talks about a rule she uses to cycle her kids through interests so they can find their passions, and, in turn, develop grit. 

To choose your “hard thing” she outlines these 3 rules.

#1: The hard thing must require deliberate practice and goals. 

While listening to Duckworth and Robbins, I thought to myself what in my own life might count as a “hard thing”, and the immediate example that stood out to me was learning how to play piano. 

As a kid, I had a checklist on my desk, created by my mom, and on it were the list of things I had to do every day when I got home. 

It was more or less: homework, shower, eat dinner, and practice piano. 

So practicing piano became a habit, like brushing my teeth or packing my school bag. 

It also became a goal- to learn to play Jingle Bells before Christmas, or to memorize Scherezade. 

#2: You cannot quit the goal. 

Another important rule is that you cannot quit the goal. This doesn’t mean you are committing to the “hard thing” for the rest of your life, but rather, that your experiment of the passion you have for that hard thing must be fulfilled. 

About a year and a half ago, I ran a half-marathon, and at the last mile, an aching pain permeated my right hip. I knew I had to finish though, because this was a goal I had and it needed to be completed. 

I ended up finishing, but the last mile took me 45 minutes. 

Duckworth says you have to finish your goal too. After the goal, you can stop, but you must cross the finish line.

Me, after I finished the half-marathon!!

#3: Nobody gets to choose the hard thing but you. 

This is the one most parents ignore. It’s either: you must learn piano or violin, or you will take karate because you need to learn self-defense. 

It even happens in careers. 

If I had a dollar for every kid I met who was on the I’m-becoming-a-doctor-because-it’s-what-my-parents-want track, or the lawyer/engineer/finance bro equivalent, I would never need to work at all. 

You need to choose your hard thing yourself. 

It can’t be your mom. 

It can’t be your math teacher. 

And no, it can’t be another white dude on the internet who thinks the only thing you ever need to learn about is AI.

The problem, then, is how to choose. 

#2: Choose easy. Work Hard. 

Most people think they have to “choose hard”, then “work hard”. It’s a belief I even internalized myself. 

However, if you choose easy first, working hard requires much less friction, and you will experience greater success. 

So…how do you “choose easy”?

#1: Choose easy. Avoid the ‘should’

Let’s start by clarifying what “choosing easy” isn’t. It isn’t:

• Giving up because one random, cruel person in your past told you “you can’t draw” or “you’re not good at math”. 
• Avoiding risk 
• Rejecting growth mindset (e.g. “I will never be able to figure out how to ride a bike because I fell off my bike twice when I was trying to learn.”

What “choosing easy” really means, is to pursue the things you’re already really excited about. Not what you “should” be excited about, but what you actually are excited about. Think:

• What do I like to learn about in my spare time?
• What am I least likely to procrastinate on?
• What kinds of fun facts do I naturally want to tell people about?
• What kinds of problems really annoy me about the world?
• What kinds of lifestyles, jobs, people make me jealous?
• What kinds of skills, knowledge, or behaviors do people compliment me on (or tease me about)?

No Stupid Answers!!

When you go down this list, you might think your answers are stupid, but they’re not. For example, I love to bake and knit, and I thought these were just silly hobbies. 

Lo and behold, my love for these activities provides a deeper clue toward the fact that I love to be creative in a tangible way. I love exploring the properties of materials, and to learn about chemistry in a tangible, non-academic way. 

If I am answering the question “What kinds of lifestyles, jobs, people make me jealous?”, I will point to the cover of a National Geographic magazine, and tell you that I’m jealous of everyone who gets to be a National Geographic explorer. 

Now, that makes perfect sense. 

Exploring the natural world feeds my soul, and I would love to be able to combine a love for chemistry with an enthusiasm for exploration. 

It’s might seem silly- of course anyone would envy the person with a super cool job- but it’s not. 

I know, after many a rock-rant, that minerals and geochemistry are not universally fascinating, nor is knitting or baking or sitting curled up with a National Geographic.

#2: Work hard through deliberate practice. 

Duckworth and Robbins highlight this second part of “choosing easy”, and it’s perhaps the more intuitive part of the path to passion. It’s pretty simple:

High Quality Practice = Having A Goal + Getting Feedback

What is the difference between me, someone whose peak running performance was a half marathon a year and a half ago, and Usain Bolt?

The difference is practice- and not just quantity, but quality. 

I want to take a highlighter to this point, just like Duckworth did in her discussion. 

This is why you are not a food critic, even after spending over 10,000 hours eating food. It’s why you are not a spelling bee champion, even after spending years trying to spell ‘Worcestershire sauce’.

If you want to become great, you need to practice with a goal in mind (e.g. “knit a scarf for my dog”), and get feedback (e.g. “I have 7 stitches on my needle instead of 6. I did something wrong.”). 

If you don’t have those two ingredients, you will not become the Usain Bolt of your “hard thing”. 

Passion belongs to everyone. 

A lot of times when we talk about passion in the context of really clear passion- the person who has known they wanted to be an architect since they were 5 years old, or who has always known they wanted to be a professional ballerina. 

But most of us aren’t that person. 

In truth, passion is for everyone, and it’s just about unlocking the gifts and interests you already have, maybe without even realizing it.  

Thought To Action 

1. Design a Tech Sabbath: Pick one day or evening a week to go screen-free and let your thoughts get noisy again. (Read why stillness fuels creativity).
2. Build a ‘Slow Stack’: Keep one long, complex book by your bed and promise it five pages a day—no summaries, no speed. Just sustained attention.
3. Use AI as a Mirror: Instead of asking an AI tool for answers, ask it for better questions. Collect your favorites in a “Thinking Prompts” doc.
4. Join the 30-Minute Club: Set aside 30 minutes each day to learn something unmonetized—no career goals, no productivity—just intellectual play.
5. Create a Digital Garden: Capture the best things you’re reading, writing, and noticing in one evolving document. Growth deserves a home.

Sources

The Mel Robbins Podcast

The post Angela Duckworth’s Approach To Discover Your Passions & Developing Grit appeared first on Green Also Green.

“What is now proved was once only imagined.” – William Blake

Training myself to think bigger.

After reading more about neuroscience this year, and developing greater intention with how I visualize my success, I discovered something crazy: I was used to thinking small.

This thought has driven me toward a long, winding road of daydreams, journaling prompts, and award-deserving mood boards. 

It has all given me a great sense of excitement and enthusiasm for life, and it’s all rooted in one question:

What if?

So many of us go through our day-to-day lives accepting everything exactly as it is. Let’s start there. 

What if you could make X better? What if you could read the book you’ve been meaning to start for 6 months? What if you didn’t have to feel Y or worry about Z? 

This exercise goes beyond personal development though, and can even make for a fun creative exercise in other tasks. 

Allow me to share some of the items on my own “what if” list now:

• What if I learned more about ethnobotany?
• What if I increased my time to action?
• What if I bought a bunch of land to turn it back into natural habitat? 
• What if I bought e-waste and found a way to deconstruct it while preserving the quality of the materials?

The Enduring Power Of “What If”

#1: Deepen your understanding. 

In adding items to my “what if” list, I have learned the skill of asking increasingly more obscure, random hypothetical questions. 

Exploring their answers often reinforces fundamental concepts that are tangibly applicable in my life. 

For example, in studying geochemistry, I got to thinking, “why isn’t there silicon-based life on earth?” Like carbon, silicon is what you would call tetravalent- it has just as many valence electrons as carbon, and thus, you would imagine, just as much opportunity to bond. In fact, most minerals on earth are silicon-based. 

After asking around and exploring this idea, one of my peers shared some papers he wrote on the subject, which I got to enjoy reading. 

In the end, asking a “stupid” question allowed me to make connect with others while deepening my own awareness of key concepts within geochemistry and evolutionary biology. 

#2: Challenge your assumptions. 

Let’s talk about “what if”’s favorite cousin, “why not”. 

For most of my life, I believed the narrative of choosing one career and using that end goal to make all my decisions. 

It was: if you want to be a doctor, read chemistry books. Wanna be a lawyer? Read about philosophy. And if you like both chemistry and philosophy, just pick one for crying out loud!

For a long time, it was tormenting to be the kid who simply liked everything. I was overwhelmed by the infinite paths I could take, and simultaneously saddened by the fact that they all seemed to lack the crazy diversity I dreamed about. 

Then I asked a question: Why not cultivate my unique portfolio of skills and interests? Who says I can’t design a career perfectly suited to what I’m good at, interested in, and hoping to get out of life?

When I asked this question, I realized that the answer to this “why not” boiled down to two things: fear of uncertainty and not wanting to put in the effort to discover the life that would truly fulfill me. 

Most of us do not realize how much we take for granted- intellectually, in our relationships, in the way we live our lives. 

So start asking yourself “why not”, and you might be surprised by the answer.  

#3: Realize your big dreams are attainable.

Here is some tough love: you’re not special. 

Throughout the course of human history, millions of people have also faced heartbreak, loss, financial ruin, and uncertainty. Many of them have also come out of those things with the reinforced determination to have crazy amazing lives. 

So what if there was a way to chart the path from exactly where you are to the amazing world, life, or career you envision?

What if you are not limited by your circumstances, but instead by your creativity?

We tell ourselves certain things are impossible for us, but when we ask “what if”, we realize an unsettling but reassuring fact. Actually, there is no real reason why someone else in your position could’ve gotten/done that thing and not you. 

When I do this exercise for myself, it can be disheartening. I realize that the responsibility to create what I want is fully up to me, and in a lot of ways, I fail at it.

Yet after that stark realization, there is also a glimmer of hope- yes, it’s up to me, but also, I have every power to fix it. Why? 

Well, why not?

What if it works?

Go and see for yourself. 

Open a new “Note” on a note-taking app, and title it “What If List”. 

Write one question. Make it crazy. Make it unhinged. 

Let’s see where it takes you. 

Thought to Action

1. Start a “Future Self” Journal: Write one page from the perspective of your dream self—what are you building, learning, wearing, prioritizing? Use this to guide daily decisions.
2. Identify Your Personal Design Criteria: What makes a task or project feel deeply worth it to you? Make a mini checklist. Use it to evaluate new commitments before saying yes.
3. Create a “Someday Stack” of Ideas: Start a list of crazy, impractical, or ambitious project ideas that you don’t have time for yet. This becomes your personal innovation vault.
4. Study Someone Whose Job Didn’t Exist 20 Years Ago: Look up someone in a role like climate designer, circularity strategist, or biofabrication artist—and reverse engineer how they got there.
5. Fuel Up With Fiction That Thinks Ahead: Read a sci-fi or speculative fiction book this month. Start with something weird. It will stretch your imagination more than any TED Talk ever could.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post. 

The post Use This Secret Tool To Build A Crazy Imagination appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Never waste any time you can spend sleeping.” -Frank H. Knight

Unfortunate PSA: Your day is not 50 hours long. 

You will find it’s only 24. 

And here’s the math: 

8 hours sleeping +

8 hours at work/school/studying +

30min shower +

20min. For using the toilet at various points +

2 hours for commuting- to work/gym/school/pickup kids/drive to grocery etc. +

2 hours eating (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks) +

1 hour Household chores- laundry, cooking, cleaning +

2 hours phone time (answering texts/DMs, checking social media)

 = ~24 Hours

If you want to do anything else in your day, you either have to sleep less, work less, commute less, do fewer household chores, or abstain from going to the bathroom or eating with your family or friends (or, let’s face it, with Netflix). 

We have heard how to do 15-minute workouts and how to eat only 1000 Calories a day- how to budget away our money, calories, weight, and living room space. 

But what about our lives?

How do you actually live a fulfilling life of aimless hobbies, meandering walks by the sea, and slow afternoons of cuddling with your dog when you only get 24 hours every day, and you can’t give up another hour of sleep (no, you are not one of those people who can function healthily with 5 hours of sleep. I don’t care what you keep telling people.)?

You can try blocking off yet another 14.5 minutes on Google Calendar to do what matters most: live. 

Or you can make a few big decisions to eliminate the dozens of smaller ones that eat up your life every day. 

Today I want to talk to you about these big decisions, so that you can finally pursue the work you love, the life you dream about, and, of course, the not-so-stupid, stupid interests you’ve been putting on hold since childhood. 

Easy no’s.

While we want to say no, it might not be easy to actually do it.

So first I want to talk about how to cut out the tasks we want to say no to, but can’t figure out how. 

#1: Unconscious content consumption. 

In my own journey toward cutting down on unconscious content consumption, I have discovered a few key facts about this particular time-drain:

1. We are all underestimating how long we spend scrolling each day. 
2. We are so used to the dopamine hit of intense content consumption that we often experience withdrawals, making it incredibly difficult to “quit” social media even if we wanted to. 
3. If you quit Instagram, you will scroll more on YouTube shorts. 
4. People will start talking to you about Instagram, and then interject with “Oh, you’re not on Instagram anymore,” as though you have been on a restrictive no-carb diet and they feel some pity because you haven’t seen the latest viral cat video.
5. You will be annoyed when you hang out with the people you love, and see that they prefer scrolling than actually paying attention to you. 
6. Ergo, you can never escape social media. 

Let me say that again- you will never escape it. 

That’s why this is an easy-not-so-easy no. 

We would all like to believe we prefer real life to screens, but we have never even stopped to ask ourselves how this is supposed to work when the world demands that we use these same exact screens to socialize, market our business, communicate with each other, and stay up-to-date. 

So I am not going to wag my finger at you and tell you to throw your phone into a lake.

Instead, let’s try something else. Let’s get strict about phone usage the way we are strict about alcohol consumption or sugar. 

What if…

#1: You designated certain days for no-YouTube, no-Instagram, or no-Facebook? This way, you don’t have to quit completely, and you can still get back all that time during the week to read, see people in real life, go to the park, walk your dog, and so on. 

#2: You installed a shortcut on your phone that creates a buffer before you open any social media app. I still use YouTube, but every time I open it, I have a shortcut installed with an app called “one sec” that makes me wait 10 seconds before actually opting in to go to YouTube. 

It also has an option for “I don’t want to open YouTube”, which just takes me back to my home screen. Making the process of opening YouTube that much more aggravating is enough of a deterrent for me to help me stay off the app. 

#3: You switched your phone to black and white mode? 

I have done this, and now anytime someone sees my phone open, they cringe. The upside is that, once again, using my phone is such a depressing experience that I am not tempted to sit on it for hours. 

My daily screen time is usually 2.5 hours, between answering texts, listening to music, using Safari, taking notes, and (you guessed it) YouTube shorts, and when I am not on black and white mode it will often go up on average by an entire hour.

#4: You left your phone in another room for a few hours every day. Every time I do this, I experience so much peace. 

Something about knowing you can’t get bombarded by notifications…

#2: Emotional labor from saying yes out of guilt. 

Growing up, I had lots of allergies, but the biggest one was probably to the word ‘no’. 

Will you join my club? Yes, that sounds so fun!

Will you stay after school for this event? You know it!

Will you come and see this movie with me? Absolutely, I love that actress! 

(*anxiously looks up the name, because I have never heard of them in my life*)

It was a real problem, because with every additional ‘I guess I’ll do this’, I was saying no to an ‘I wish so badly that I could do that.’

In the end, no one is happy, because you are never fully committed, but never fully honest about it with them or yourself. 

Life is too short for saying ‘no’ to what you really really really want, and that means it’s also too short for saying ‘I guess so, sure’. 

What if…

#1: Instead of saying “Yes”, you said “I’ll get back to you later with an answer.” It gives you time to evaluate your excitement and enthusiasm, and seriously think about what are the other options of how you could spend your time in a way that makes you excited. 

#2: You made your automatic answer ‘no’ or ‘probably not’ instead of ‘yes’. Realistically, we don’t truly pursue most opportunities available to us, so why not adjust our behavior to align with that reality?

How you spend your 24 hours is how you spend your life.

Have you ever heard that quote that goes “How you spend your days is how you spend your life?”

Me too. While it’s unclear who said it first, its wisdom rings alarmingly true. 

Do you spend your 24-hour allowance on joy, growth, and purpose? 

What about spending it moving your body, stretching your mind, and connecting with cool humans (and dogs)? 

I hope when you lay down to rest, it’s with a content smile. 

If so, you have succeeded.

Thought to Action

1. Make Your “Ugly List”: Write down 5 things you’ve been too scared to start and commit to beginning one this week—ugly on purpose.
2. Create an “Ugly Drafts” Folder: Store your roughest starts and revisit weekly.
3. Try a 24-Hour Debrief: After beginning a project, come back the next day and reflect—did the cringe evolve?
4. Post Before You’re Ready: Share one in-progress idea publicly or with a friend to build momentum.
5. Talk To People In Other Fields: Use these 11 tips to start conversations with people from other fields. 

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post How To Find 24 Hours In A Day. appeared first on Green Also Green.

 “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” -Carl Jung

What Is Cool?

When I think of “cool”, I think of Codie Sanchez. 

I’ve been following her journey for about five years, and the life and business(es) she has built never fail to inspire me. 

After working on Wall Street for several years, she left to buy “boring businesses” like laundromats and teach others how to do the same. Now, she has a huge following on several social media platforms and a New York Times bestseller, “Mainstreet Millionaire.”

What I love about her journey is how many times she started over. 

Her beginnings were as a journalist, reporting on various atrocities in Juarez, Mexico, which resulted in her being awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for print journalism. 

In 2008, right before the financial crisis, she made the first switch and took her first job at Vanguard. After this, she continued to grow, working at places like Goldman Sachs, First Trust, and State Street until 2020. 

That’s when she launched Contrarian Thinking, a finance and media company that is still going strong today. 

That’s two times where she pressed ‘reset’ and built an entirely new path with great success. 

And she is still doing it today, combining what she has learned about media and finance to bring into the world something it has never seen before. 

She is unstoppably cool because she carved a radically unique path that was deeply rooted in values and impact, while also being unapologetic in how she thinks, works, and creates.

My goal is to use the same approach in my own life and work, and today I want to talk to you about 3 ways I am doing just that. 

#1: Saying no to false binaries.

For a long time, I tormented myself with the thought that I had to choose between all the subjects I studied in school. 

I could have a career in chemistry or a career in English. 

I could be a science student or I could love humanities. 

Still a student, albeit at university and not high school, I am faced with similar decisions between majors, minors, and class schedules. 

However, now, I’m much more relaxed about the whole thing. 

Why? 

Because I realized my decisions were just that: decisions about majors, minors, class schedules, and exams. 

I didn’t stop being interested in the living world when I stopped taking biology. Similarly, I didn’t stop thinking and reading about philosophy when I decided on two STEM majors. 

My brain still mingles with dozens of “subjects” regularly because I choose to explore them. 

The secret, though, is that now I’m in control of how I explore them. 

I have learned how to mix and match everything I like to do and learn so that I have an education based in freedom, podcasts, books, travel, self-directed projects, and incredible (often random) conversations.  

It’s not “choose humanities or science”, “lawyer or doctor”, or “good at/bad at”. 

Being unstoppable cool is about knowing exactly what your decisions mean and what they don’t. 

It’s about knowing that whatever options you think you have, there are probably seventeen more invisible options that are that much more aligned. 

#2: Filtering your input. 

As a recovering people-pleaser and life-long paralysis-by-analysis girl, my single biggest source of doubt has just about always been other people.

Sometimes it’s some random unqualified charlatan on social media. 

Other times it’s someone very close, like family or friends who have known you your entire life. 

But as yet another internet charlatan, my advice is this: don’t take all advice. 

Because, unfortunately, most of the people whose advice you are getting are probably completely unqualified. 

And what is advice?

Experience repackaged as wisdom.  

But this isn’t just about advice. 

It’s also about media consumption and quality. 

Deliberately evaluate what you consume now, and what type of media you want to consume ideally. Be brutally honest. Most of us lose a scary amount of time to mindlessly consuming other people’s opinions. 

Finally, try being a better friend to yourself, because the way you talk to yourself is one of the most influential inputs around. 

What does that mean?

Stop calling yourself “stupid”. Make your bed. Buy yourself flowers. Give yourself pep talks. 

Yes, it will feel weird at first, but based on personal experience, I have never regretted waking up to flowers on my desk. 

#3: Performative productivity vs Slow Creativity. 

Of all three points in this post, this one is the hardest for me to live out. 

Why, I have spent many a late night wondering, do you hide behind a laptop in Sisyphus’ Inbox while also procrastinating on the important thing that you can do on your laptop?

An answer usually never came, and truth be told, I felt ashamed. 

The way I see it, if you’re going to procrastinate, choose something fun, something memorable, something that isn’t productivity porn. 

But there is a deeper dilemma here, and it is the fact that most of the time when we procrastinate on the important stuff, we justify it to such an extent that we can almost convince ourselves we aren’t procrastinating. 

Hence, me taking notes in the least efficient way while preparing for class because I would rather learn the easy way rather than the effective way. 

That alone has cost me hundred of hours that I will never get back. 

To honor those hours I have lost on pretending to be productive, I made a vow to be lazier. 

Yes, you got that right. 

I made a vow to spend less time in front of a laptop and to spend my extra time actually living. 

While it’s been hard, and I still find myself floundering at times, it ends up meaning that I actually make progress when I do sit in front of a screen. 

So say no to performative productivity. Say yes to slow creativity and progress.

Because you’re in it for the long game, not the short-term self-esteem boost or the aesthetic Instagram post. 

Claim the person you want to be. 

Being cool is about becoming, not about ticking off an arbitrary checklist that society has decided is the moving finish line of success. 

It’s not about following trends and wearing your hair in a slickback with a perfect set of nails and a wardrobe full of neutrals.

Instead, being cool is about who you are and how you act, not what your Instagram and LinkedIn look like. 

Thought to Action

1. Redefine “Cool”: Write your own definition—what draws you, not what sells.
2. Try a Micro-Rebellion: Create or wear something that feels fully you, even if it’s outside your comfort zone.
3. Start a Curiosity Journal: Follow your questions like da Vinci—capture 1–3 curiosities each day.
4. Read Fiction with Designer Eyes: Notice how stories spark material or systems ideas—see my insights here: 3 Easy Ways to Unleash Creativity and Innovation
5. Replace Performing with Experimenting: Trade one habit driven by approval for one driven by pure creative curiosity.

Sources

The post How I Learned To Be Unstoppably Cool appeared first on Green Also Green.