“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”— Marcel Proust, French novelist, literary critic, and essayist

Back when I played just to play… 

When I was a little girl, there was a random assortment of hobbies I pursued when I played (and how foreign the concept of “play” becomes when you’re taught about “productivity”). 

I used to orchestrate grandiose story lines for my Barbies to act out. I would imagine entire worlds and characters for each. 

When my cousins came over, we would spend part of the time scheming about how we would convince our parents to let us sleep over, and another part putting on plays.

I had a little garden, just my own, with basil, mint, lavender and a blueberry bush. It was in a big wooden container with wheels and brakes, and I could push it around- in the shade or in direct sunlight, all at my own discretion.

With all my heart, I loved my little garden tenderly. In fact, I felt genuinely heartbroken when my basil would grow long and woody, or when my mint would turn brown. 

What play looked like as I got older.

As I got older, the stories I would write got more elaborate, and my experiments with the plants got more…interesting. 

One time I sprouted a bunch of pepper seeds in my room, growing at least a dozen little pepper plants in my room in discarded pots of yogurt. For one of my birthdays I got a hydroponics kit, and eventually convinced my parents to help me build a hydroponic system from scratch. 

You would think, from the outside, that maybe one should take these kinds of interests into consideration. Maybe these are those “signs” people always talk about. 

I mean, who is digging around in the trash for pepper seeds and yogurt containers, aspiring to turn her room into a jungle?

But for whatever reason, I ignored these quirks. 

I felt like I didn’t know enough yet to “settle” on what I naturally loved to do. 

…and yes, there was also a fair dose of peer pressure and feeling the need to prove myself.

How I translate play from childhood to adulthood.

Now I’m 2 months away from turning 21, and I can confirm a few things.

One: I’m still a writer, and am finally learning how to take that side of myself seriously.

Two: I still love plants, and soil, and dirt, and asking questions about the natural world. 

Three: By insisting on properly testing out different interests, I have found ways of applying those things I’ve always loved in a way that feels way aligned with the adult I’m becoming rather than the child I used to be.

Allow me to explain. 

The Balance: You know what you know, but you don’t know what you don’t know. 

Maybe, like me, after some introspection, you know what are the constant threads that have carried on from childhood into adulthood- those things that people might look at you with a sigh, and say, “yep, you haven’t changed one bit.”

Pay attention to those things. 

Lean into them. 

And then here’s what you do: explore. 

You explore not to dismiss your interests (which was my initial reason for exploring), but to refine them and incorporate them even more deeply. 

Finding every way I didn’t want to write.

For example, writing.

I love it, but there’s so many ways to apply it. So I tested it out.

I “combined” science and writing by trying science communication for a bit- contributing to science blogs and steering myself toward nonfiction. 

It didn’t hit the same as writing weird emo short stories at 3am.

Then I tried ditching that completely. 

Nope. 

So I’m back to writing weird emo short stories at 3am.

Exploring the natural world beyond hydroponics and pepper plants.

On the plants side, I tried marine biology, and it felt close, but not exactly right.

I tried materials science out by volunteering in a lab at Berkeley, and over my gap year I learned some AutoCAD.

Not quite there, but also some part of it felt good.

Back to earth sciences. 

Now we’re exploring geochemistry. 

So far, that feels good…

The Squiggly Process Of Exploration Through Play

The point is to identify what fits and what doesn’t, and each new experiment you do to test yourself is new information.

You are just growing a bigger and bigger body of evidence to use when you make decisions about how you spend each day.

The process is 100% a messy nonlinear squiggle that will confuse and overwhelm you.

Make no mistake.

But it’s also incredibly rewarding when you find key components to feeling like you are really pursuing something you care about, are good at, and that sustains your livelihood.

I know it’s hard because I’ve lived the squiggle. 

My life has been a squiggle for years.

So I wanted to share some musings that I’ve gained so far. Maybe they will help you find a little piece of yourself along the way.

#1: Tiny experiments. 

Am I the only person who hates that phrase “I just knew”?

Maybe it’s that I have never “just known” anything, or that when I “know”, it’s not a “just knowing” it, but rather a “knowing, but…”

For me, knowing is laced with doubt, and I find myself going back and forth in a game of existential table tennis all the time. 

“I know I like X, but what if once I experience Y, I like it better?”

The eternal struggle of a chronic overthinker. 

Instead of the impossible advice to “trust my gut”, I create a portfolio of irrefutable evidence. 

I test the possibilities in small ways and scale commitment to that option accordingly. 

Then, my decisions don’t dwell in the realm of hypothetically what I would prefer to do, or what I would prefer to spend my time on. 

It’s actually based on the actions I have already taken. 

Before you commit to spending your life in a particular field, ask yourself, “Do I even like to learn about this?” Would you enjoy listening to even a single podcast on it? Do you want to get better at the skills involved?

Then, would you independently pursue experience by starting a passion project there or pursuing an internship in this field? 

(If the answer is probably no, but you still find it interesting to learn about passively, you’ve got yourself a new hobby!)

Scale your commitment alongside the evidence that what you’ve chosen actually fits. 

See it as many tiny experiments, not a decision you make overnight. 

#2: Learn to play again. 

I have an embarrassing secret: I forgot how to have fun. 

Somewhere along the way, everything I did in my free time had to be “justified”, connected with this singular thread of profound purpose. 

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. 

No…really. Listen to me. It doesn’t have to be that way. 

You can actually just play to play, laugh to laugh, and enjoy for enjoyment’s sake. 

So whatever it means for you, go out there and play. 

Does it mean taking yourself out for ice cream and choosing horrendous flavors you only enjoy in secret? Maybe it means learning how to roller skate and falling on your face?

No, don’t look up “cardiovascular benefits to…” or “how to start an etsy shop selling…” before you decide. 

Make fun a good enough reason.

This is how I learned my own passions as a child, not by thinking about productivity, but by thinking about what actually felt good to do.

Play is natural. 

That’s why kids are so good at it.

It’s growing up when we unlearn it, and in the name of being “practical” we actually end up sacrificing all the things that bring us the most joy.

Let yourself go back to the basics. 

Play is where we meet the rawest version of ourselves, and only in knowing the rawest version of yourself can you make those more “serious”, “adult” decisions about how to spend your life.

Ah, the beauty of paradox.

#3: Finish what you start. 

I’m a strong advocate for quitting, with one important caveat. 

Only quit after you’ve given that book/person/sport/ice cream flavor/music genre/game a fair shot. 

Try learning how to code before deciding with certainty that software engineering isn’t for you. 

Travel to new places before deciding you never want to live outside your home town. 

Read at least the first 10 pages before deciding to put down the book. 

When we decide to give up, we often do it when we face friction. 

It’s when the romance of a new pursuit wears off and we actually have to work, that we decide with dramatic exhaustion that we’ve had enough. 

The climb is too steep. 

Our legs are too tired. 

The task is just too hard. 

Instead, know you can do it regardless of the friction, and finish what you started. 

Then decide, once you have conquered the mountain, finished the race, read the first few pages, or listened to the first 30 seconds of the new song. 

Do the thing you thought you couldn’t do.

Only then will you have enough information to truly know whether you’re quitting because you felt overwhelmed in the moment, or something actually doesn’t resonate. 

Discouragement because it’s hard right now does not equal misalignment forever. 

#4: Listen to your jealousy.

Let’s not pretend you haven’t felt it too- the sting of a fake smile when you’re trying (and shouldn’t we get credit for trying?) so hard – soooo hard- to be happy for someone else when you feel like a complete loser.

No really, how can you not feel jealous? 

When you feel more single than the number 1, and you’re so poor you have -$7 in your checking account, what are you supposed to feel about yourself when others succeed?

Good?!

Please.

It sucks to be left behind, and when we are all on different timelines, there always manages to be someone ahead of you in some way.

Either it’s that you’re single and they just met the love of their life. 

Or it’s that you just got fired but they got into grad school.

They got a promotion and you got fined $500 when you can barely afford groceries. 

It’s a normal feeling, yet we all try to swallow it shamefully. 

But jealousy is also information, and it’s very important information.

We get jealous because other people have something we want, something we don’t feel we have already.

So you need to listen to it.

What is your jealousy telling you? How does your life need to change so that you can feel happy for others instead of annoyed?

Once you know what you want, you can actually work towards it.

So start listening. 

#5: Have the courage to admit you don’t know.

There is a quote attributed to Peter Seeger, the American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist known for singing “Goodnight, Irene”.

It goes, “The first step in solving a problem is admitting there is a problem to be solved.”

In a similar vein, the first step to finding that perfect intersection of skill, salary, and societal need we call ‘ikigai’ is to acknowledge that you haven’t found it yet. 

There is so much pressure to know, to have a plan, and to carve out certainty in a world that thoroughly denies it. 

However, when you say you don’t know, you get bombarded with unsolicited advice, pity, and disappointed frowns. 

Now let’s be honest, there is no way to avoid the way people respond to your (totally justified) lack of certainty. 

Maybe you cannot control it if part of being an interdisciplinary iconoclast is letting people down in the moment. 

That’s why it takes courage to admit what you don’t know.

It takes courage to bravely test the uncharted waters that might just be exactly right for you. 

Yes, you will have to stray from everyone else and face the doubts head on. 

It will feel lonely sometimes.

But don’t let that dissuade you! 

Once you find that uncharted territory where being your exact flavor of weird makes perfect sense, saying “I don’t know” will not be shameful, but liberating. 

It will be your license to explore, your passport to designing your life with ruthless precision. 

Pay attention to what you pay attention to.

It’s so easy to dismiss the things we naturally lean towards. 

I used to think everyone could nerd out over a monthly issue of National Geographic. Obviously, all my friends would find that one Scientific American article fascinating. And of course they would rather get lost hiking on an active volcano than sit in a dark room watching cat videos. 

(On that note, please see this Scientific American article about a team of scientists who invented a smart underwear that can count how many times the average person farts per day.)

However, realizing I had unique interests that weren’t shared universally ended up being one of the most liberating epiphanies of my life. 

After zooming in on the things I wanted to learn about already, and the skills I wanted to get good at, I found that I could make a living out of all the activities I already saw as “play”.

In the end, we don’t have to torture ourselves, squeeze ourselves into a mold that someone else came up with and presented to us in a PowerPoint in high school. 

It’s actually not as simple as “doctor, engineer, lawyer… and everything else”. 

In fact, it’s not even as simple as choosing only one thing. 

Your life is a canvas that you get to fill with exactly the colors and shades and brush strokes that perfectly suit you. 

The only question that remains is whether you’re going to be holding the brush, or whether you will hand it to someone else. 

Thought to Action

1. Track Energy, Not Interests: For one week, note what gives you energy and what drains it. Patterns reveal more than labels.
2. Run a Passion Experiment: Choose one small action that tests a curiosity (not a career decision). Give it a deadline.
3. Separate Skill From Identity: You don’t need to be “good” at something for it to matter to you.
4. Design a Tiny Version of the Dream: Ask: what would the smallest, cheapest version of this life look like right now?
5. Let Passion Be Built: Treat interest as something you cultivate, not something you wait to discover.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post 5 Easy Ways To Turn Play Into Your Dream Career appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Simplicity carried to an extreme becomes elegance.” -Jon Franklin, American author and Pulitzer Prize winner

Design is small tweaks over a long time.

For several months, I have been staring at my laptop screen, knowing I had to talk about evolutionary biology and design, but not knowing exactly what shape to make the words and what angle to enter into the topic. 

I first got the inspiration to write about it when completing an assignment for an evolutionary biology class. As part of this project, I had to conduct a phylogenetic analysis, using software to construct a sort of “family tree” of related species, called a phylogeny. 

Through it, we could see how species have evolved, where they branched in the evolutionary tree, and when certain traits adaptively radiated. 

It was fascinating, with lots of crossover to how ideas evolve, or how etymology shapes, or even how culture spreads across geography. 

But nowadays, we seldom make the link between biology and other domains. 

So I thought about this. For months. 

Then, as I munched on a bag of highly addictive caramel popcorn, it hit me: design is not about the idea coming to you all at once. 

It’s about riffing, iterating, and building something better than what you had before. 

And guess what?

That’s also exactly how design works in biology. 

Much like in evolution, it’s not about starting out perfect. It’s about making many small tweaks over a long period of time until you arrive at an end product you’re proud of. 

#1: The Underrated Power Of a Terrible First Draft

The idea of being struck by a bolt of lightning and suddenly having a stroke of creative genius is a widespread myth that afflicts millions of perfectionists and overthinkers worldwide each day. 

We are tormented by the fact that we will somehow blasphemize the idea in our head by putting it out into the world, and realizing it isn’t that great in real life. 

It’s the fear that we will turn potential into actuality, and in doing so, be confronted with so many mistakes and imperfections.

 And these mistakes? 

They will have the final say over what we are capable of on a deeper level. 

The sappy poem you wrote about your crush in seventh grade? Definitely nowhere near Jane Austen or Maya Angelou level. So your literary career is over. 

The lumpy scarf you knit three Thanksgivings ago, where you messed up the pattern and ran out of yarn? Yeah, you better give up knitting now. 

If you make that “cringe” post about that incredible passion project you’ve been working on, your cousin’s friend’s sister will not be impressed. 

And who are we if our cousin’s friend’s sister doesn’t approve of us?!

Maybe no one will care. They might think you’re being “performative”. 

Evolution doesn’t work this way. 

It throws out so many terrible first drafts it would make you dizzy. It leaves so many of its genetic “ideas” behind.

And yet?

And yet. 

Look around you. 

There is life everywhere, in the most impossible niches (check out this magnetic bacteria I heard about recently). This life is designed impeccably. Why? Because of those terrible drafts that paved the way. 

#2: Random Mutations 

The irony is that as much as we are creatures of habit, we are also built on randomness. 

While a lot of the traits we have as humans seem to make sense, they are also the product of random differences in our genetics being passed on because they help people survive and perpetuate the human race. 

But random mutations aren’t just biological. 

They also apply to the design process, where we not only ideate, but also iterate and test. 

For example, if you’re inventing a new pasta recipe, you might add some of the more “classic” ingredients (marinara sauce, cheese, basil…). 

Then, you separate the pasta, and decide to test out some ingredients you have never added before. For one bowl of pasta, you throw in some edamame beans. In the other, you add some chopped spinach. The last bowl gets some broccoli. 

You have tried something completely random that in all likelihood will end up tasting either neutral (i.e. you don’t mind whether it’s there or not) or worse (i.e. you will never add it to your pasta again).

However, if you do this enough times, you will also get the third outcome: realizing that your random new ingredient makes this dish taste better. 

After trying potatoes and corn on pizza (I condone it!), a flavor unique to audacious Japan, I have come to realize this is a tried and true approach to generating masterpieces. 

Creative genius isn’t about just knowing to put potatoes and corn on your pizza. 

It’s about having the courage to try pizza with a bunch of other weird toppings, knowing eventually, you will stumble across a great combination. 

#3: Steady Rivers Cut Through Immovable Mountains.

This is the age of doing everything all at once.

You must cram every big life milestone into a 5-year plan. Log it in your bullet journal. Post about it with a “candid” (but also totally staged) photo with a caption that reads “#blessed”.

We are in the “instant coffee”, “instant results”, and “instant progress”  world. 

Evolution doesn’t work that way. 

Instead, evolution makes the smallest changes you could imagine, but compounds them over millions, and even billions, of years. 

This act of compounding and iterating on tiny mutations is what has produced some of the best designs we know to occur within life. 

Consider the eye, which first evolved only as a light-sensing organ, and later developed the lens, retina, iris, and more. 

Across the animal kingdom, eyes take all sorts of weird and wonderful appearances. 

One of the common traits among all of them, however, is that they sense light, and have been knee-deep in the evolutionary design process for millions of years. 

So take it slow.

Small consistent changes will get you way farther that sporadic drastic steps.

#4: It’s not the strongest or smartest, but the most adaptable…

There is a beautiful quote attributed to Albert Einstein that goes, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” 

Isn’t that such a relief?

Maybe in second grade you did not always ace your spelling tests, and in third grade you weren’t the first to learn your times tables. 

In fact, maybe right now, you feel like kind of an idiot because you cracked an egg in a way that made the yolk break. You turned all your white clothes pink because one red sock snuck into the washing machine. Maybe you accidentally clicked “send” on an email before actually adding the attachment. 

If you have ever felt stupid, or weak, or incapable, or unworthy of success, there is good news: you don’t have to be perfect; you just have to be adaptable. 

When climate change strikes, or human beings destroy yet another vital habitat, the way species perpetuate is by adapting to change. 

If there is an extinction, they fill the empty niche. 

New mutations occur, and the old species adapt to the new habitat, food sources, and conditions. 

Evolutionary biology says that when Life (yes, with a capital ‘L’) happens, you adapt. 

Design should adapt the same way too.

Design is dynamic. 

The unifying theme connecting evolutionary biology with design thinking is that, contrary to what we might think about both domains, they are dynamic and evolving.

Both design and evolution are about responding to change and to need. 

Design is the space between stimulus and response where we decide what the next iteration will look like. 

It means saying “this next draft won’t be perfect, but it’ll be closer than what came before”. 

Thought to Action

1. Lower the Stakes on One Creative Act: Make something deliberately small, unfinished, or silly. Let it exist without optimizing it.
2. Feed Your Imagination Intentionally: Consume one strange or delightful input today—a poem, a walk, a conversation, a Wikipedia rabbit hole.
3. Create Without Explaining: Make something you won’t post, monetize, or justify. Let curiosity be the reason.
4. Keep an “Idea Garden”: Write down half-formed ideas without judging them. Growth likes space.
5. Practice Creative Permission: Before starting, say: “I’m allowed to explore this.” Then begin.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post. 

The post The 4 Design Secrets From Evolutionary Biology That Unlock Results appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” ­— Paul Tournier

Growing up never ends.

There is nothing like the disgusting and raw feeling of emotional and spiritual growing pains to reshape the way confidence looks for you. 

For my younger self, confidence used to mean looking and behaving with power. 

It was Beyoncé-superbowl-halftime-showing your whole life, every single day. Confidence was a sick leather jacket and red lipstick that could slice through steel. 

It was denim, or ripped denim better yet. 

Confidence used to mean being loud, fiery, and unstoppable.

Then, I had what I will lovingly refer to as “character-building experiences”, which are, of course, the parts of growing up that we all wish we could fast-forward through. 

It’s the friendship breakups, the romantic breakups, the moving-aways, the not getting to say goodbye to your favorite family pet, the getting rejected from cool opportunities and being jealous of your friends, hating that you’re jealous of your friends, feeling like no one else is getting rejected like you’re getting rejected, the constant FOMO because you haven’t done X thing yet. 

Life happened, I guess, and every time “life happened”, my idea of what confidence actually was shifted.

Confidence As A System For Building A Life Others Haven’t Seen Yet.

In theory, we all want to lead big lives and do amazing things. 

The trouble is, you often can’t get there by doing exactly the same thing as everyone else. Duh, you’re thinking. 

The thing is, doing something different is actually really really hard. 

That’s why now, I think of confidence not as an unchanging emotional state, but as a series of systems you put into your life to mitigate those emotions and increase your chances of success. 

What does that mean?

It means you can be confident, and still heartbroken. 

You can be confident and still afraid. 

You can be confident, and still feel overwhelmed. 

And here’s a crazy one- you can be confident and still shy. 

Ultimately, confidence is about how you move through those emotions, and what your response looks like. 

Steal this confidence hack. 

My most recent “character-building” experience was a few months ago, and involved a lot of crying and angry ranting. 

It is then that I developed a beautiful new hack to build back my confidence and get me through the subsequent months of healing: sending my future self pep talk emails.

Um…what??

Okay, I know it sounds weird. I won’t sit here and tell you that it isn’t. 

But weird works. 

When I send my future self emails, it has two effects. 

Firstly, it’s forcing me to imagine myself in the future and think about where I want to be then (emotionally, professionally, academically, etc.). Simply realizing there will be a time when my current challenges are removed already helps me feel like the world isn’t ending. 

Secondly, receiving emails from my past self- whether it was a month ago, a week ago, or a day ago- highlights to me how much progress I have actually made.

A lot of times, it’s easy to overlook this because we are caught up in what we need to do now, and on how big the gap is between our current and desired states. 

Nevertheless, it’s still valuable to remember that you’re probably currently in the desired state of some past version of yourself. 

Celebrating that can give you the energy to give your future self the same gift. 

How It Works

#1: Write the email using the following template:

To: [insert here either the same email you’re sending it from, or another email address that goes to you. I send these emails from my personal email to my school email.]

Subject: [It can be whatever you want. Subject lines like “Letter From You 10 Days Ago” or “Keep up the great work! I’m proud of you.” all work.

Message:

Dear [insert here your name] from [insert here the date your future self will receive the message],

[Insert here the body of the message. Make it 5-7 sentences long ideally, and write something you know your future self will need to hear. For example, at the end of a busy semester, I told my future self (now past self) that she was doing great, and I was proud of her.]

Love,

You from [Insert here the date you sent the message.]

#2: Right next to the send button, press the arrow that allows you to do a scheduled send. Click it, and click the date you want your future self to receive the email. 

#3: Now forget about it. Later on, when you see the message in your inbox, you will have a nice time hearing from yourself. I know it sounds silly, but it works.

Confidence is a system, not an emotional state. (But it’s a system which will create an emotional state!)

One of the beautiful things that happen when you finally let go of this idea that confidence is about always feeling a certain way is that you turn your focus onto habits that naturally create those feelings as a byproduct. 

Sending myself emails is by no means the only habit I incorporate into my life to feel better when things are hard.

Nor does it make the sadness, heartbreak, or sense of overwhelm magically disappear. 

Here’s what it does accomplish: hope. 

And sometimes, a little nudge of hope from your past self is all you need to invest in those tiny decisions that cumulatively get you out of a rut. 

Thought to Action

1. Pause and Write Your “Failure Archive”: List three things you tried that didn’t go as planned this year. Don’t fix them. Instead, just name them and how they made you feel.
2. Reframe Effort as Evidence: Track one kind of effort for two weeks (reading time, daily creative minutes, meaningful talks). Let the action be the metric, not just the outcome.
3. Create a “Growth Pause”: Pick one thing you’ll do less of (doomscrolling, chores as avoidance). Put a boundary around it and note what space that creates for something nourishing. 
4. Rediscover Joy in the Small and Slow: Read one short piece of writing without pressure—no speed goals, no expectations.
5. Set One “Next Try Intent”: Choose one thing from your failure archive and decide a small, doable step you’ll try next quarter — no perfection, just continuation.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post Sending Myself Emails Is The Embarrassing Life Hack I Didn’t Know Would 10x My Confidence. appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Doubt never announces itself with loud footsteps or broken doors; it slips quietly into the room, carrying the dust of old memories, unfinished healing, and fears you believed you’d already outgrown. It knows precisely where you’re tender, exactly where to press, and how to make you question the very ground you stand on.” – Cyndi Stuart

When you’re a kid, you can be anything.

When you’re five, it’s cute if you want to be a doctor, artist, mom, Arctic explorer, and rock star. It’s one for each weekday, and then you can take the weekends off, right? 

All it takes to make new friends is to show them what you just pulled out of your nose.

It’s okay to say things like “I don’t know”, or to change your mind. One day, you can want to be a Michelin chef, and another day, an astronaut. 

You have freedom, encouragement, and options in abundance. 

In fact, when I was still in pre-adolescence, I remember feeling the same way. 

And why not?

I loved to write stories, put on plays with my cousins, tend to my own little garden after school, and “rescue” bugs that had fallen into my grandparents’ swimming pool.

Enter: the corruption of adolescence. 

Then something happened, and I suppose it happened gradually. 

As I started to move from my pre-teen middle school years into high school, people started to ask the “what do you want to do when you grow up” question a lot more seriously. 

Now, it wasn’t cute to have five answers. It was actually an existential problem. 

Now, I had to choose classes. I had to write college applications that indicated my future plans. Most intimidatingly, I had to have an answer for everyone who asked me these questions. 

Oh, and if the honest answer was “I don’t know”? You better believe I was about to have an entire audiobook’s-worth of unsolicited advice dumped on my already-overwhelmed head. 

The overwhelm made me shrink.

I have no problem now diagnosing my seventeen-year-old self as a diehard people-pleaser. 

Ultimately, my grades were fine (and actually kinda good if I do say so myself), but I was still afraid I had fundamentally not done enough over the years. After all, I hadn’t cured cancer, gone to the moon, or the like. 

I was struggling with making big decisions. So the pressure of “reality” forced me into feeling like everything must have its justification in my life. 

Why was I studying?

To get good grades so high-ranking schools would accept me. 

Why was I pursuing X extracurricular?

Because “clever students” pursue it, and I need to show I’m one of them. 

Et cetera, and so on. 

I asked the “why” question about creative writing too. However, for this thing that had been a passion since I was a mere pipsqueak, my justification was too weak. 

“Because it’s what lights my soul on fire and cures all my heartaches” wouldn’t cut it for the college essays. 

Well… that was stupid.

Ever since I was a little kid writing stories about my grandmother’s dog and tending to the plants in my garden, I was an artist. 

There are no “if”s or “but”s about it. 

It’s who I was at my very core, and for some reason, I sought to deny it so I could turn myself into someone I thought the rest of the world wanted. 

What I thought I should be is still unclear, but it mostly involved not doing the things I actually liked because I thought the friction of pursuing things that didn’t “set my soul on fire” would somehow make me more worthy of success. 

#1: Choosing to suffer didn’t make me more worthy.

Since that time in my life, I have been on the slow, humbling path of creative recovery, gradually growing back what I tried to squash during those years with the help of figures like Rick Rubin(The Creative Act: A Way Of Being) and Julia Cameron(The Artist’s Way), and learning so much about myself in the process. 

The biggest lesson for me, however, has been to stop choosing suffering for suffering’s sake. 

With some introspection and willingness to explore different options, it’s entirely possible (some might even say inevitable), to eventually stumble upon that much-coveted ikigai. That is, you will find the convergence of what you love, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you’re good at. 

#2: Listen to your jealousy.

Now, this path was not paved with good intentions I’m sorry to say. 

In fact, a lot of times, I find change is fueled by feelings like anger and jealousy, which tell us “something is missing here”, and “they have what I’m missing”. 

Being an artist is really about how you live your life, and prioritizing creativity regularly. 

If you find yourself jealous over the extent to which others are able to publicly express themselves creatively, or jealous because they actually have creative projects they’re working on, then maybe you should start working on something too. 

Your jealousy is telling you what you want your life to look like. 

Listen. 

#3: There doesn’t have to be a “point” for you to start exploring.

Of all the best things that have happened in my life, few emerged from a clear “plan”, in which there was a predetermined “reason” for every minute spent. 

In fact, I think that kind of spontaneity is part of what makes life beautiful. 

“Wanting” to write a short story, “wanting” to wear your clothes differently, “wanting” to try a new recipe, “wanting” to listen to a new genre of music, and even “wanting” to try out a life in which you are an artist is enough. 

It doesn’t always have to be about how much money you will make doing it, or how “aesthetic” it will look on your Instagram story. 

Do it because you want to. Wanting to is enough. 

The Courage To Be Like A Kid Again

There is a quote attributed to Deepak Chopra that goes, “The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself.” 

It means that to be an artist, you also have to live like one, and apply that creativity to embodying the identity of who you want to be. 

For me, that has meant tuning into those expansive, hopeful dreams of Little Me, and asking, “Wait…how can I make her excited about the life I’m building?”

In doing just that, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that a life of a scientist-artist-author-explorer actually is possible for me. 

In fact, it’s a lot more accessible than I once imagined. 

Thought To Action 

1. Pause and Write Your “Failure Archive”: List three things you tried that didn’t go as planned this year. Don’t fix them. Instead, just name them and how they made you feel.
2. Reframe Effort as Evidence: Track one kind of effort for two weeks (reading time, daily creative minutes, meaningful talks). Let the action be the metric, not just the outcome.
3. Create a “Growth Pause”: Pick one thing you’ll do less of (doomscrolling, chores as avoidance). Put a boundary around it and note what space that creates for something nourishing. 
4. Rediscover Joy in the Small and Slow: Read one short piece of writing without pressure—no speed goals, no expectations.
5. Set One “Next Try Intent”: Choose one thing from your failure archive and decide a small, doable step you’ll try next quarter — no perfection, just continuation.

Sources 

No external sources were used for this post. 

The post How To Stop Asking For Permission To Be An Artist appeared first on Green Also Green.

“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.