“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.

“Cinema is a mirror that can change the world.” -Diego Luna

Go watch a Disney movie. 

There are basically two ways to learn life lessons in my book: 1) the hard way, by getting your heart broken and your dreams crushed, or 2), the easy way- by watching a Disney movie. 

I know you have Hakuna Matata memorized, and it’s the only Swahili phrase you can say. Your first exposure to talking furniture was probably Beauty and the Beast. 

And of course, you watched The Little Mermaid 14 times before the DVD mysteriously disappeared because your parents couldn’t take it anymore. 

If you’re like me, the first romances you ever idealized were also Disney romances, and maybe some of your first Halloween costumes were from the classic 90s and 2000s films too.

So if you grew up waiting to become a Disney princess or imagining your dog as an animated sidekick, this is for you.

All those hours you spent watching movies might just have taught you some incredible lessons about courage, joy, and how to stay true to yourself in a world that aggressively manufactures sameness. 

(Also, I tried to give minimal spoilers if you haven’t seen some of the films below!)

Me dressed as Elsa (Frozen) at 12 years old

#1: What Else Can I Do? (Learn from Encanto)

The very thing you are trying to suppress, hide, or change, is the path to becoming even more powerful if you lean into it.

One of the most powerful messages to learn from Encanto is to lean into your shadow self, mirroring some of what Robert Greene writes about in 48 Laws Of Power. 

But what do I mean by this?

Throughout all my high school years, I felt like I had to squeeze and contort myself to fit into a predetermined future box that contained a single career. There was a set list of jobs, and you were just supposed to pick one based on the class you did the best in. 

It was a pretty straightforward algorithm if you had one favorite class, or could easily clump your interests into a definitive job description. 

But for me it was a nightmare, because I loved all my classes, and found all the jobs super cool. 

My solution? 

Suppress, hide, and try to change. 

I loved creative writing with a passion, but this didn’t make sense in the context of science and math. People only saw the link between writing and science if you were planning on going into journalism or sci comm. 

I tried both on, but I knew there was still something missing. 

So what did I do?

Suppress even more. 

It got worse and worse until I took a gap year before college, where like a plant transplanted from a tiny plastic pot to a big wide-open field, my roots spread out wide and far, and I got to reinvigorate my love for writing in all its expansiveness. 

Now I don’t try to suppress; I try to explore. I ask what else can I do?

The answer is always a pleasant surprise. 

#2: When I’m Older (Learn from Frozen)

All the crazy things happening to you now will make sense in the future. Trust the process.

Olaf sings this song in Frozen II as a bunch of crazy things are happening in the plot and he is lost in the woods without the other characters. 

In short, he has every reason to panic.

However, the charming thing about Olaf is that instead of panic, the entire time, he is reassuring himself, “This will all make sense when I am older.”

What I love about this is the fact that while we might usually see Olaf as the naive, childlike comic relief in the film, he is actually right. 

When I was 13, I moved to England from Miami. 

Yes, from Miami, where you have to worry about wearing enough sunscreen, to England, where you have to take Vitamin D pills just to stay sane in the winter. 

As a 13-year-old already halfway through the social Rubix cube of middle school, moving to an entirely new continent and starting over was tough. 

The first year, I had almost zero friends, and was constantly lamenting the gray skies and strange new education system I had been transplanted into unwillingly. 

When my life didn’t play out how I wanted it to, one of the hardest things for me to do was to take a step back and go “This will make sense one day.”

And guess what?

Seven years later, I can confirm it made perfect sense. 

If I hadn’t moved to England, I wouldn’t be who I am today. 

That said, wouldn’t it be so much easier if we could learn from Olaf and walk through the woods when we feel lost, alone, and hopeless, and trust that yes, this will all make sense when I am older?

#3: Gaston (Learn from Beauty and the Beast)

No matter how amazing you are, there will always be people who reject you. Don’t try to make sense of it. 

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking: “But he’s the villain in the movie. Why are we learning from him?”

Hear me out: Yes, I know Gaston is the villain. I know he is self-absorbed. Maybe even a narcissist. 

Let’s take a step back, though. 

In this song, LeFou (Gaston’s bro, if you will) is trying to cheer up Gaston because he is feeling down and out about Belle rejecting him. So he lists off all the things about Gaston that are impressive. 

“Gosh, it disturbs me to see you, Gaston,” he says. “Looking so down in the dumps…There’s no man in town as admired as you. You’re ev’ryone’s favorite guy. Ev’ryone’s awed and inspired by you, and it’s not very hard to see why.”

Wow, so Gaston is a great guy to a lot of people. Yet for whatever reason, his insecurity is blinding him to this because he is hung up on the fact that Belle won’t marry him. 

Imagine how differently Beauty and the Beast would have gone if Gaston just had the emotional maturity to let Belle go, wish her the best, and marry any of the many women who really wanted to be with him. 

My ten-year-old sister once said something very wise, as children have a beautiful tendency to do. 

She said, “Sometimes you want to be friends with someone, but they don’t want to be friends with you. That’s okay.” 

It struck me, because she’s absolutely right.

In trying to bend over backwards for the people who don’t want what you have to offer, you miss out on appreciating the people who are your biggest fans. 

#4: We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Learn from Encanto)

We all have Brunos in the closet, even if we pretend we don’t. “Not talking” about something won’t make it go away. 

Can you tell I loved Encanto?

This song broke the charts because it’s catchy in every language, but really, it’s about being in a family that avoids talking about the hard stuff, in this case about what on earth happened to Uncle Bruno. 

But this doesn’t have to be about family. 

As individuals, we all have Brunos in the closet, and we refuse to talk about them, or even acknowledge them, until they blow up in our faces. 

You know how when you’re driving and your gas is low, your car will give you a little red warning?

50 miles becomes 20, 20 becomes 10. Sometimes, even at 0 miles, you can still go a little further before getting stranded. 

Well, once I got to 0 miles of gas in the tank, and I barely managed to get home. 

It’s easy to ignore a blinking red light telling you to stop at a gas station, but hard to ignore when you’re stranded in the middle of a winding mountain road. 

Address the thing before it becomes catastrophic. How?

It starts with talking about your Bruno.

#5: Spoonful Of Sugar (Learn from Mary Poppins)

Make the hard thing a little more fun. 

Perhaps the only thing more timeless than Mary Poppins is that universal groan right before you start the one long, boring task you’ve been avoiding all week. 

Disney’s solution is simple: take your medicine with a spoonful of sugar. 

Mary Poppins puts it this way: “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game, and every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake.”

About 2 months ago, I climbed Mt. Fuji with some friends. Before you climb, you are pumped with adrenaline, and at the top you have the wonderful sense of achievement.

In the middle, though, motivation is sparse. 

So what did we do?

We either sang musical number after musical number, or we listened to the rest of the group as they sang musical numbers. 

In the upper half of the mountain, I even came up with a game we all played together, where I would give a word like “boat”, and they would guess a musical number with that word in it. 

Did our legs still hurt? Absolutely, but our minds were on the likes of Hamilton, West Side Story, and Wicked instead.

Playing a game and singing songs didn’t make the climb effortless; it just kept us from dwelling on our sore feet, exhausted legs, and the sense that the mountain just kept getting taller. 

It works just like Mary Poppins claims: “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way.”

#6: How Far I’ll Go (Learn from Moana)

Trust the instinct telling you to try something random and new. It knows something you don’t yet. 

Moana is, like most princesses, unsatisfied with staying in her comfort zone. The difference between her and the rest though, is subtle. 

“I’ve been standing at the edge of the water, long as I can remember,” she says. “Never really knowing why.” Then, later in the song, she confesses, “I can lead with pride. I can make us strong. I’ll be satisfied if I play along, but the voice inside sings a different song. What is wrong with me?”

Nothing is wrong with you, Moana.

Much like Olaf trusts that everything will make sense later on, and like Isabela in Encanto has to lean into her shadow self to realize the true extent of her powers, Moana needs to trust that her urge to explore is telling her something important. 

Last Christmas, I got a small crafting kit under the tree. It came with two short, chunky wooden knitting needles, and a little clump of magenta-colored wool yarn. 

To my surprise, I spent all of Christmas Day knitting in my pajamas until I produced a mug cosy, completing the craft kit. 

In the week that followed, my mom and I went to the knitting shop to pick up more yarn so I could make a bigger project- a scarf.

I kept following that random new obsession, and almost a year later, I have also made a tote bag, hand warmers, and a scarf for my dog!!

Okay, maybe I didn’t defeat any evil demi-gods or giant crabs like Moana did, but I listened to the voice, and it told me I like this- let’s explore it. 

After all, you never know how far you’ll go…

#7: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman (Learn from Frozen)

Everyone has someone looking to them for love and support. Be there for them when it’s easy, but especially when it’s hard. 

Frozen is, ultimately, about sisterhood, and that’s one of my favorite things about it. 

It teaches us how to lean on others, especially in a world that trains women to see each other as competition. 

In this song, we see Anna begging her big sister, Elsa, to build a snowman for her, but it’s never really just about building a snowman. 

This is a plea for connection. 

The powerful message of this song, though, is that connection doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to make it about having a deep, existential conversation. In fact, you don’t even have to spend money.

For Anna and Elsa, it just means going outside together and building a snowman. 

As a proud big sister myself, one of my favorite things to do with my own little sisters is to bake. Whenever I visit, we make something tasty, and in the weeks and months leading up to a visit, we compare notes on what recipes to try. 

It’s not really about baking, although baking is lots of fun.

Really, it’s about connection.

We all have someone in our life who is the Anna to our Elsa, and could use our lova and support. 

Frozen just tells us it’s actually not as hard as we think to provide it. 

Apply What You Learn After The Movie.

Learning doesn’t stop after the credits finish rolling though. 

You can continue to engage with these Disney films by relistening to each of these songs using the links below:

1. What Else Can I Do?
2. When I’m Older
3. Gaston
4. We Don’t Talk About Bruno
5. Spoonful Of Sugar
6. How Far I’ll Go
7. Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

Thought To Action 

1. Upgrade Your Inputs: This week, read one thing that feels above your level—a book, essay, or paper that makes you slow down. Growth hides in friction.
2. Curate Your Feed: Audit your digital spaces—unfollow three accounts that shrink your thinking and replace them with three that expand it and help you learn.
3. Start a “Curiosity Thread”: Pick one question that won’t leave you alone and spend 15 minutes a day chasing it down. (Here’s how to build a personal learning ritual).
4. Try AI as a Reading Companion: Feed a dense article into an AI tool and ask it to explain it five ways—like a teacher, a friend, a skeptic, a poet, and a child. Notice what each version unlocks.
5. Share a Synthesis: Write a one-paragraph reflection and post it publicly or in your notes—learning cements when shared.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post- just my precious childhood memories. 

The post What Disney Songs Helped Me Learn (The Easy Way) appeared first on Green Also Green.

“The dream is not a drug but a way. Listen to where it can take you.” -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

It made me kind of jealous…

I started learning how to dream big about a year ago, when I started university. 

I was nineteen, a freshman moving into a San Francisco residence hall that was conveniently placed on a noisy street right across from Ikea, and well-equipped with a perpetually-disgusting shared kitchen. 

Overall, the first semester was something of a blur, and it was a period of adjustment- to academics, to life in SF, and to all the new relationships I was forming with friends, professors, and new connections in the city. 

But what really struck me was how incredibly successful so many of my peers were. Among them were entrepreneurs, researchers, activists, and even published authors, all from different walks of life. 

It made me feel lots of things, but most of all, it made me feel jealous.

I racked my brain for a single good reason for why I had never thought to become any of these myself. Why had I not even tried?  

When I thought about it more deeply, exploring this question through journaling, I realized the main reason was that I just never thought it was possible for me. 

It might sound sad, but it was the truth. I didn’t think I was smart enough, or organized enough, or cool enough, or capable enough, so I didn’t even bother to dream it. 

In essence, I trained myself to think small using beliefs I had no evidence for. 

Over the past year though, I have pushed myself to dream bigger. I have chosen to choose my beliefs and life with intention. 

The results have been incredible. 

So today I want to urge you to choose to choose. Dare to dream big dreams. Because, really, why not?

Okay. 

Now is when I talk to the person rolling their eyes because I sound like their hippie best friend’s Pinterest board. 

I wrote this for you. 

Me at the start of my freshman year.

7 reasons why it would be silly to do not dream big:

#1: You only have 4,000 weeks of being alive. 

Let’s do some math, inspired by one of my favorite self-help books of all time, 4000 Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman. 

There are 52 weeks in a year, and a typical human lives 80 years. 

80 52 = 4,160

So if you’re an infant, you have about 4,000 weeks of being alive (if you’re lucky enough to live a full 80 years). 

If you’re 20 years old like me, the math looks like this:

(80-20) 52 = 3,120

If you’re 35, it looks like this:

(80-35) 52 = 2,340

If you’re 50, it’s this:

(80-50) 52 = 1,560

At what point do you have less than a thousand weeks left? At 60.77 years old. 

(80 – ?) 52 < 1,000

It’s not a lot of time when you think about it. I think we should make it count, don’t you? 

#2: You gain more information by doing the thing than by not. 

If you don’t find math convincing, let’s instead talk about the practical matter of making life decisions, and how to make them well. 

Imagine if you only ever tried chocolate ice cream. For years, this was your go-to flavor because it was familiar, and you knew you liked it. 

Then, one day, your friend convinces you to try strawberry, and you find it disgusting. You think, “This is why I should have just stuck to chocolate.” So you do. 

Now, when someone asks if you like strawberry ice cream, you give a confident “ew, no”. 

However, it’s important to recognize that your decision to try strawberry only speaks to strawberry. 

Don’t use your dislike for strawberry to then justify not trying biscoff-flavored ice cream, or French vanilla, or cookies and cream. 

The more ice cream flavors you try, the more you know what you really like and what you don’t. With that knowledge, you will then be able to choose a really good flavor next time you go to an ice cream shop (and in the end, you might realize chocolate wasn’t the best flavor after all).

#3: You are way more capable than many of the people already doing the thing. 

Have you ever watched a TV show and thought “I could’ve written a better script”, or gone to a restaurant and found yourself saying “I could have made this better at home”?

If that’s you- criticizing the people who have put themselves out there and actually succeeded- then I hate to break it to you, but you’re the bigger loser. 

Truth be told, you could certainly do that thing you’ve always wanted to do. 

But the point isn’t whether you could do it, it’s whether you actually do. 

However, this is also good news. 

The fact that there are people with way less talent and skill than you who have done it before means there’s a chance. 

It means there is a playbook. There is a way. If they could figure it out, so can you. 

#4: You can still change your mind!

If you’re like me- a super indecisive person who is perpetually terrified at the opportunity cost that comes with actually making decisions- please listen up. 

There are very few things in life that aren’t reversible, and even within the category of reversible decisions, there are very few decisions that are difficult to reverse. 

Most daily decisions are actually so small we don’t even notice them: what you choose to have for lunch, whether you decide to read a new book or not, what podcast you turn on during the drive home, how you spend your Friday night…

Yet, these micro-decisions are what make up most of our life. 

When you dream big, it’s not all about making big all-or-nothing choices. It’s not about being as dramatic as possible when you realize you need a change. 

Instead, it is about experimentation, and sometimes the experiment reveals that you actually don’t want exactly what you thought. 

The beauty, though, is that at any point, you can still change your mind. 

If you start pursuing something, you can still walk away from it.

The key is to not be afraid of making small but frequent pivots on your way to the dream. 

Over time, these little pivots will lead you right to where you want to be.

#5: You will inspire the people watching. 

When I was a little kid, I used to take swimming lessons. Cautious from the very beginning, I resisted letting go of the ledge and swimming in the parts of the pool where I couldn’t reach the bottom. 

I simply didn’t want to flounder in the deep end and suffer the sharp sting of water rushing up my nose as I struggled to catch a breath. 

Enter: my baby brother. 

Two years younger than me, my brother was supposed to be helpless in the pool, or at least more helpless than me. 

This was not so. 

My brother learned to swim easily, and let go of the ledge with no problem. 

The whole thing was embarrassing, truth be told. 

However, in seeing him learn so quickly, I realized I was being ridiculous. 

Swimming wasn’t that hard. I just had to let go of the ledge and stop being a scaredy cat. 

The thing is, most of us are holding onto the ledge still, and all we need to let go is to see our baby brother waddle into the pool with his silly little swim diapers and show us how it’s done. 

When you dream big, you will become the person who makes everyone else realize how much their fear is holding them back. 

#6: It will probably give you amazing memories anyway.

Is ‘fun’ a good enough reason to live a big life and pursue crazy goals? 

Yes, I think it is. 

The thing holding us back from that, though, is the voice that rattles off all the logistical complications, all the disapproving stares, and tells us it’s “too late”, or you’re “too old”, or “no one has done it before”, and “there’s no time anyway”. 

To that, I say yes, it will be scary. 

Yes, you might have to hire a babysitter. 

And yes, it will cost you money or time or effort, and you might very well look stupid and feel stupid. 

I say, do it nevertheless, because once you get past the “figuring out how to make this work” stage, you will be so glad you now get to cherish those memories for the rest of your life.  

#7: You will become an even cooler person. 

I put this reason last to emphasize that the whole point of dreaming big isn’t necessarily to get what you want, but to become who you want.

By signing up for a marathon, not only can you say you did the marathon. You can also cast a vote every day for becoming the type of person who wakes up early to train.

Similarly, by travelling to a new country, not only can you say you ticked that country off your bucket list. You can also cast a vote for the version of you that is adventurous and curious. 

Every decision reinforces a part of your personality, so it makes perfect sense to act in a way that reinforces who you want to be. 

Chances are, when you really explore what you want from life, it will provide you with a clear step-by-step path to becoming the version of yourself you have always wanted to be. 

…So go for it!

There are hard decisions in life, but I hope I have convinced you that whether or not to really dream big isn’t one of them. 

Not only will it fill your 4000 weeks with joy and beauty, but it will also lead you right to where (and who) you want to be. 

…And who knows, maybe your crazy, impossibly-big dream will even become reality?

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

Burkeman, Oliver. Four Thousand Weeks :$BTime and How to Use It. London, Uk, Jonathan Cape, 2021.

The post 7 Reasons It’s Stupid Not To Dream Bigger 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.

“We can’t just consume our way to a more sustainable world.” – Jennifer Nini

Please steal these ideas. 

After spending a year diving deeper into the world of materials science and nanotech, one thing has become clear: sustainable materials are the future, and the future might make you rich. 

However, before we get ahead of ourselves, there are a few problems scientists, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers need to solve, and today I want to talk to you about those exactly. 

Where can we get leverage?

How can we scale up?

And who will be first?

#1: We don’t dispose of bioplastics effectively. 

We think a lot about how well materials can be used for one exact task: Can your grocery bag carry your groceries to the car and into the kitchen? Does your plastic shoe sole carry you very far? Will your eggs be cracked in their plastic container? 

Yes, that’s all very important, but there is still a big chunk we’re missing: what happens after?

In the surge of work done on biomaterials, we see an inspiring focus on using biodegradable materials like mycelium or algae. 

So, if they happen to end up in the compost, they will not release microplastics- which is great. 

But there is still a gap between (1) getting these materials to break down faster without compromising their main function, and (2) getting consumers to actually dispose of them correctly.  

#2: Plant-based materials can be too weak for high-stress applications.

There is good news and bad news for everyone looking to get rich on bio-plastics. 

The good news is research suggests it could be easier to improve the mechanical strength of the current family of bioplastics than it would be to make more “recalcitrant” plastics more biodegradable. 

(Don’t ask me who decided to call all the other plastics “recalcitrant”, as though they were a gaggle of rowdy teenagers. But they are.)

The bad news?

Well, we aren’t quite there yet. For a lot of more high-stress applications, petroleum-based plastics still perform better. 

Perhaps though, this is good news, because it means there’s an opportunity for anyone ready to innovate. 

#3: Recycled plastic is not valued as highly as virgin plastic. 

Okay, let’s take a break from talking about bioplastics, and talk about those “recalcitrant” petroleum-based plastics we all know so well. 

You know, the ones that are causing all these problems we keep hearing about. 

Specifically, let’s talk about recycling. 

Now, I have already ranted about this in another post, but to sum it up: just about the biggest issue with plastic as they exist now is their end-of-life management. 

That is to say, what happens after you’re done with plastic. 

We want to believe recycling is saving a lot of our plastic, but unfortunately even the majority of trash you choose to recycle doesn’t end up getting repurposed. 

And the lucky minority that does?

Well, in industry, recycled plastic just isn’t valued as highly as virgin plastic. 

Of course, there are reasons for this that boil down to the purity (or lack thereof) of recycled plastic, and the fact that we just can’t easily remove other additives to turn it back into its raw form. 

But ultimately, this fact acts as a huge disincentive for manufacturers to actually use our garbage as a raw material. 

#4: There is a lack of sustainable construction materials that meet safety requirements. 

One of the industries with a silently high carbon footprint is the construction industry. 

Many materials, such as steel and concrete, are incredibly energy-intensive to produce, but have not seen promising alternatives on the market. 

Some are emerging, such as Carbicrete, but there is still room for other alternatives that also match the performance of concrete and steel while also meeting safety requirements.

#5: Almost nobody is designing sustainable materials for circular disassembly.

We keep building objects that can’t be taken apart easily.

What’s the problem with this?

Well, to design without keeping disassembly in mind is to deny the materials you’re using another lifetime. 

I’ve also discussed this in other posts, but it bears repeating. 

When we design for disassembly, we create a circular economy instead of just adding to landfills. 

Furthermore, we open ourselves up to a whole new realm of raw materials that we initially wrote off as “trash”.

The materials of the future that will make you rich. 

There is a well-known quote from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” that goes, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.”

No, he wasn’t talking about materials science, I know. 

But still- we can think of this as another way to describe the bridge between reality and fantasy.

When you take your dreams, and turn them into the world around you, what is that world made of?

Who gets to decide?

If you walk away with one thing, just know, it doesn’t have to be someone else getting rich off the innovations of the future. 

It could be you.

Thought to Action

1. Ask “What If” Every Day: Start or end your day by writing one bold “What if…” question. What if your shoes were edible? What if your routines were designed for joy? These questions open space for unexpected insight.
2. Do a 5-Minute Redesign Challenge: Pick an object you use daily (a water bottle, backpack, phone case) and sketch or describe how you’d redesign it to be more circular, comfortable, or creative.
3. Make Space for Creative Input: Commit to one hour a week where you absorb inspiration—watch a documentary, visit a museum, or read outside your field. Creativity is fueled by unexpected collisions.
4. Redesign Something That’s Annoying You: Find one product, system, or space in your life that bugs you—and reimagine it. You don’t have to fix it in reality, just give yourself permission to sketch possibilities.
5. Start Your Future Job Library: Curate a mini reading list around your dream career or project. Not sure where to start? This post will show you how to learn from curiosity, not credentials.

Sources

https://response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DAnaerobic_degradation_of_bioplastics

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/13/2155

https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/271345/1-s2.0-S0144861723X00125/1-s2.0-S0144861723004393/am.pdf?X-Amz-Security-

https://www.erda.dk/vgrid/JJKK/pdfs/jjkk_38.pdf

https://www.mdpi.com/2313-4321/6/4/76

“Cradle to Cradle”

http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/62965/1/1205.pdf

The post 5 Problems With Sustainable Materials That Will Make You Rich appeared first on Green Also Green.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford

When Nothing Looks Like Your Mood Boards

In a world of Instagram filters, ugly things are rebellious. 

I have been in an ugly war with acne since I first dipped my timid little toe into the waters of puberty. 

Since then, I have tried just about everything short of accutane- Differin, tretinoin, antibiotics, spironolactone, pimple patches, various cleansers, not eating nutritional yeast, cutting down on dairy, and, of course, plain concealer. 

So many times, I have heard well-meaning internet-people with no dermatological qualifications sell me another easy fix, as though I haven’t already cried myself to sleep and searched the entire internet seventeen times over for solutions. 

Now, it has been almost a decade of pimples and acne scars, a decade of hearing people with clear skin complain about having “breakouts” which look 10 times milder than my face has been since I was maybe ten.

But there is one thing my acne taught me all these years that made me stronger. 

I learned that my reality will never fully match my “ideal”. 

Now, I continue to struggle with acne. 

I continue to struggle with bad days, and failures, and rejection, and insecurity. 

There are days when I feel like I’m losing this big race of achieving success as early as possible. 

There are days when I feel ugly, and stupid, and absolutely worthless. 

Acne made me confront this question: What if your reality is always imperfect?

No one starts with clarity.

We like to think we start with clarity, just because we made the mood board and announced our 5-step process to achieving success. 

The truth is a little murkier. 

While it helps to plan and visualize, clarity comes mostly from action. 

#1: Share the draft anyway.

Long-term consistency > short-term perfection, so don’t wait until everything is exactly perfect!

The longer you wait, the higher the bar will get for what it takes to finally be “ready”. 

When we train ourselves to have an excuse for what we do/don’t do, we form a habit of making excuses. 

Instead, take that first wobbly step. Open up that course you keep saying you want to take. 

Send those cold emails you’ve been meaning to pitch. Knock on the doors of people who will mostly reject you. 

Make bold requests that will likely get denied. 

Ask for feedback. Have the audacity to make mistakes publicly. 

Perfectionism is just another way fear manifests to protect us from the big scary monsters hiding behind true effort. 

So to start is not just about starting; it is about having the courage to face reality head-on, and realize that you are way more capable than you thought. 

#2: Keep a list of “Bad Ideas”.

How many times do we decide not to do something just because it might not work out?

Too often. 

Don’t get me wrong- we all have ideas that if we acted on them, we would regret it later, but what if we had better practice at getting our ideas out of our head, onto a list, and maybe even into conversation with someone else?

This is not about impulse-driven decision-making; it’s about getting your ideas out without the pressure to prove they’re amazing. 

Because let’s face it: most of your ideas will not be amazing.

But if you learn how to capture them and think them through, you will make sure that the day you have a real breakthrough, it doesn’t go by like just another “shower thought” or “daydream”. 

Trust me, that day will come, and it will only be possible because you took the time to take your ideas seriously. 

#3: Ask for accountability.

One of the single biggest motivators for me to make progress in my life is, sadly, the social pressure to follow through on my commitments. 

It is the people-pleaser in me that needs everyone to think she is in control of her life and doing great. 

For most of my life, this has been a shortcoming of mine that I have sought to overcome. 

That is, until I realized it could be turned into a strength. 

What if I leveraged people-pleasing to make sure I do what I say I’m going to do?

I put this idea to the test, and found that it was golden. When I use my career coach or a group of friends to make sure I complete a task or bring a project to success, I am ten times more likely to prioritize that thing and make sure it gets done. 

As sad as it may be, we often care more about what others think of us than what we think of ourselves. Yet, often we are also the only person who can say what tasks are the highest leverage at any given point. 

So bring someone else in on the loop, promise to text them when X is done and Y is submitted. Feel the pressure to not let them down, and soon, you will find it is impossible to let yourself down as well. 

You are free.

Having acne sucks, but it means you learn to stop defining yourself by the quality of your skin. 

Likewise, when you embrace the ugly beginning of a project, or the ugly rejection when you apply to dozens of opportunities that mostly tell you ‘no’, you free yourself to stop being defined by rejection and failure. 

Even more importantly than freeing yourself, you will know yourself. 

And isn’t that the mission of a lifetime? 

Becoming who you truly are.

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 o 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 Make Peace With The Ugly Beginning 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.

 “Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”-Samuel Johnson

The Secret Weapon No One Knows They Have.

Some schools of eschatological thought believe Hell is just an endless line of desks with people going through an endless email inbox– scrolling through spam, newsletters, ads, job adverts, events, and work queries for all eternity. 

Okay, maybe that’s not official theology, but I’m sure you’ve felt that way before.

Truth be told, most of us are wasting one of the most valuable tools we have been given in the modern day, and that is the ability to communicate electronically. 

In fact, this has been one of the single most impactful tools for me throughout my own life. 

Using electronic communication like email, LinkedIn, and even Instagram, I have secured opportunities volunteering in labs (even as a high schooler), writing for prolific blogs, and getting invaluable career advice from people in the fields I admire. 

Now, I’m going to tell you exactly how I leveraged these tools, specifically email, so that you can find opportunities like this too. 

#1: The Formula To The Perfect Cold Email.

Let’s address the elephant in the room, which is that simply sending an email is not enough. 

We all get emails- newsletters, updates, promos and ads, and communication with people in our sphere. 

We also don’t usually have too much extra time to spend sifting through it all. 

So what happens?

There end up being plenty of emails that people delete and maybe never even read. 

Why?

Because engaging with that email takes too much effort, too much time, and provides them with little to no reward. 

So let’s start with a few key criteria your cold email needs to meet to ensure you get a response (and don’t get ghosted). 

The Criteria

1. Short but sweet: Don’t make your email hard to read. Certainly don’t make it an entire essay, detailing every aspect of your life story plus everything you ate for lunch the past week. Furthermore, if you feel like there is a lot of relevant information to include, don’t bunch everything up into a giant paragraph. Make your email scannable. 

2. Personalize: Don’t you just hate it when you receive an email that makes you feel like you are just another name on a giant mailing list? Sure, your name is at the top, but the content of the message is generic and corporate. To personalize your email to the person you’re sending it to, be specific about why you’re reaching out to them, and why something they did/wrote/said/created stood out to you. 

3. Be a giver: Yes, you may want a job or internship. You may want opportunities and invites to exclusive conferences. Yes, you want something. I get it. But so does everyone else. When you reach out to someone as a taker and not a giver, they might be initially willing to help you, but ultimately, professional relationships are founded on some degree of reciprocity, and so the more value you give to others, the more they will probably be inclined to give back. If you feel like you have nothing valuable, consider the value of your time. Consider the skills you are learning. Don’t undersell yourself. 

4. Clear call to action: In concluding your email, make the next steps clear. My favorite CTA for a cold email is to ask for a short 20min video call. Offer a few times that you are available and say you will send the invite. All they have to do is confirm and show up. It’s easy, clear, and gets you through the door. 

Use this template. 

Subject: 

• Option 1: Eager To Help With [insert here a project of theirs you are interested in] 
• Option 2: Eager To Chat About [insert here a book, article, etc. of theirs that you are interested in exploring more deeply]

Message: 

Dear [Recipient’s Name],

I recently came across your [article/project/podcast/LinkedIn post] on [specific topic], and it really stood out to me. 

As someone currently learning more about [briefly mention your field or interest], your perspective on [specific insight] was both inspiring and practical — I saved it to refer back to.

I’m [Your Name], a [student/early-career professional] exploring opportunities at the intersection of [your interests]. 

I’m currently working on [quick one-liner about what you’re building, learning, or doing]. 

I’d love to offer help on anything you’re working on — whether it’s research, outreach, or even being a sounding board for ideas.

Would you be open to a quick 20-minute video call in the next two weeks? I’m available:

• [Option 1: e.g., Tuesday 10am PST]
  
• [Option 2]
  
• [Option 3]
  

If one works for you, I’ll send over a calendar invite. Thanks so much, and regardless, I’ll keep cheering on your work.

Warmly,
[Your Full Name]
[LinkedIn or website link]

#2: Follow-up. 

Even after sending the perfect email, you still might get lost in someone else’s inbox. 

That’s why it’s important to follow-up 2-3 times if you don’t get confirmation that someone received your message. 

Usually, replying has just slipped their mind or the message has gotten buried. 

#3: Connecting beyond email.

They received your email, and now you’re connecting beyond it, in real time. 

Maybe you are out getting coffee. Perhaps you’ve secured that 20-min Zoom call. 

But now you have to actually…talk. 

What do you say? How do you say it? What if they think you’re acting weird or that you’re being either too serious or too casual?

It’s easy to overthink this part of building inspiring connections. 

So I have compiled a list of question templates you can use to take away the friction and make these initial meets go smoothly.

Question Templates

• How did you navigate your first few internships or jobs in this field?
• Were there any unexpected turning points in your career that changed your direction?
• Is there a decision you made early on that you’re especially glad—or not so glad—you made?
• Given what you know about the field, are there specific skills or experiences you think are undervalued but essential?
• If you were me — interested in [X] and still early in your career — how would you go about exploring that interest?
• Are there any types of companies, roles, or environments you’d suggest I explore (or avoid) based on what I’ve shared?
• Who are the people or communities that have been most helpful or inspiring for you?
• If someone in your network is ever looking for [X], would you be open to connecting us?
• Are there any organizations, newsletters, or groups you’d recommend I plug into?
• Do you know of any projects or people that might be looking for someone with my interests or skills?
• I’m exploring how to combine [interest] and [skill] to make an impact in [field] — does anything come to mind that aligns with that intersection?
• I’m in the middle of [a project, a course, a decision] — would love to hear your take on it if you’re open to it.
• I’m interested in [X], but still figuring out what paths are possible. What would you do if you were exploring this today?

…But Make Sure To Always Ask:

• For suggestions on resources to read, listen to, or explore career development in your domain.
• If you can stay in touch beyond the initial meet 

Thank you, email.

Don’t let yourself get trapped into feeling like your dream career is out of reach. 

It’s probably way more accessible than you realize.

In fact, it is easier than ever before to connect with people doing incredible work.

So go ahead and open your email right now. 

Start typing a new message. Press send. 

I can’t wait to 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 odd, 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 resources were used for this post.

The post Cold Email To Make Nerdy Friends And Meet New Mentors appeared first on Green Also Green.

“I want to be a superhero, I want to be Spider-Man or Batman. Will you let me know if you have any connections? Let’s make it happen.” -Stephan James

LinkedIn is not the problem.

LinkedIn is not the problem; you are. 

Now, before you un-connect with me, hear me out.

So many of us are quick to say we hate LinkedIn. We hate how transactional it is, and how the way professional experience translates into a headline often feels like a sort of strange witchcraft. 

We hate that you can say one thing and be living another, and that it always somehow feels like the person you know IRL is not the one you see online. 

It feels fake, and we all know it.

There are lies, to be sure, and there is a lot of window-dressing. I’m not here to excuse that at all. 

But beneath all that, there is something else…

Today, I want to talk to you about the opportunity of LinkedIn, and by the time you have finished reading this post, you will wonder why you never took advantage of it. 

Furthermore, you will realize that 99% of us are using LinkedIn all wrong, and that with a few small changes, it can be transformed into your secret weapon for success. 

#1: LinkedIn arithmetic. 100 real connections > 500 random connections. 

Ah, the “500+ connections”. 

At the beginning of my freshman year of college, this was the Holy Grail of humblebrags. 

What surprised me, though, was that while everyone obsessed about the number, no one seemed too fussed about the quality. 

So in the end, what happened was that most of those “500+” connections were superficial and ultimately useless. 

They were not people rooting for you to succeed. They were not mentors or people you admired. In fact, lots of times, they were not even people whose profiles you had looked at. 

It was a status symbol more than a tool, and I quickly learned that seeing LinkedIn like this was a mistake. 

Since I downloaded LinkedIn less than I year ago, I eventually got to 500+ connections, but here are a few examples of bigger wins I achieved using the app:

• 9+ months of participating in a UC Berkeley lab focused on applications of carbon nanotubes
• 2 data analysis projects with a women’s health non-profit
• Free mentoring sessions with senior women in the fields I’m passionate about
• Doubling web traffic to my blog

How did I achieve these wins?

Firstly, by changing my mindset from quantity to quality. 

I sought to talk to people, to connect, and most of all, to learn. 

#2: Don’t ask for jobs. Ask for conversations. 

I am under no illusions; in almost every skill I could have honed, I am an amateur. 

I’m only a sophomore in college. 

I’ve only been alive on this planet for 20 years. 

Despite all that, I am armed with strong curiosity and genuine interest. 

So what do I do?

I give curiosity and interest. 

When you reach out on LinkedIn as someone hoping to advance and grow, people will line up to help you. 

When you reach out coldly, asking for a favor without having given one first, people will dismiss you with no guilt. 

#3: Give value to get value. 

Successful people get dizzying amounts of solicitations on LinkedIn. They are used to other people wanting something from them. 

So don’t try to take. Instead, try to give. 

Consider inquiring about what sorts of problems they face and whether they would let you help out. 

Maybe you have familiarity with a certain technical skill, like programming, Excel, or AutoCAD. Perhaps you know someone who could help them. 

Offer value to get value. 

Open LinkedIn & Leverage These Hacks Now.

Set a timer for five minutes. 

Ready?

Okay, first, scroll through all your connections, and pick 3 people who have recently been working on projects that you genuinely find cool. 

I’m talking projects you could fangirl about, maybe even projects you would dream about being a part of one day. 

Have you chosen your people?

Now it’s time to reach out. 

Tell them you are inspired by or interested in their work (be specific!), and then ask if they would be open to a 15-minute informal chat to discuss it more. 

Don’t ask about internships. Don’t ask about job openings. 

Just a chat.  

This isn’t about getting something for yourself. More so, it’s about connecting with people who truly inspire you. 

By connecting them, you will get insights into what they did to succeed and how you can get there too. Maybe it’s a reference to someone else in the field, or some reading material to explore.

Sometimes, you will even find that they need exactly the type of help you can provide, and an opportunity does emerge from the discussion. 

If it doesn’t, though, you have at least become a high-quality contact to reach out to in the future. 

What’s to say in a month that 20-minute chat hasn’t turned into a 10-week internship, a groundbreaking realization, or even a life-changing career pivot? 

The only way you’ll know for sure is if you give it a shot and finally stop hating LinkedIn. 

Thought To Action 

1. Ask “What If” Every Day: Start or end your day by writing one bold “What if…” question. What if your shoes were edible? What if your routines were designed for joy? These questions open space for unexpected insight.
2. Do a 5-Minute Redesign Challenge: Pick an object you use daily (a water bottle, backpack, phone case) and sketch or describe how you’d redesign it to be more circular, comfortable, or creative.
3. Make Space for Creative Input: Commit to one hour a week where you absorb inspiration—watch a documentary, visit a museum, or read outside your field. Creativity is fueled by unexpected collisions.
4. Redesign Something That’s Annoying You: Find one product, system, or space in your life that bugs you—and reimagine it. You don’t have to fix it in reality, just give yourself permission to sketch possibilities.
5. Start Your Future Job Library: Curate a mini reading list around your dream career or project. Not sure where to start? This post will show you how to learn from curiosity, not credentials.

Sources

No external resources were used for this post.

The post How To Not Hate LinkedIn (And Start Building *Real* Connections) appeared first on Green Also Green.

 “Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.” -Adam Hochschild

The Start Of My (Not) To Do List. 

6 months ago, I quit Instagram. 

Why?

I had been saying I wanted to read more for a long time, and the excuse was always the same: “I don’t have enough time.” 

So I crunched some numbers. 

We have 24 hours every day. 7-10 of those hours are usually spent sleeping. Students and full-time workers spend about 7-8 hours daily at a job, in class, or studying. Then there is unpaid work, like laundry, shopping, or cooking, and the time you spend showering, commuting, using the bathroom, or having meals. 

Altogether, according to estimates from 2024, paid work, housework, leisure, eating, and sleeping takes about 80-90% of every person’s day. 

So what takes up the remaining 10-20% of the day?

And how do we make sure there is time for the activities we care about?

We relentlessly cut out the time-wasters we don’t care about. 

That way, you can be empowered to go through each day with intention and purpose, and actually make room for what you care about most. 

(Not) To Do #1: Committing to anything that isn’t a “Hell yes”.

You know that networking event you feel like you “should” be interested in, but just aren’t?

You know that book you’re halfway through, but you can barely remember what you’ve even read?

Quitting is for winners, and if that makes you nervous, this one’s for you. 

(Not) To Do #2: Explaining your vision to those committed to misunderstanding it. 

When you’re on an incredible journey, you might feel tempted to share your excitement with everyone, all the time. 

Sometimes, though, there will be people who just don’t get it. 

That’s okay. 

Give yourself permission to keep your journey to yourself sometimes, until you are ready to filter out external opinions. 

But right at the beginning? 

Just focus on building. Sharing will come later.  

(Not) To Do #3: Scrolling through social media when task-switching. 

You finished classes, so time for a short break. Let’s check out what reels people sent me today- just really quick. 

Before you know it, one video turns into two, and two turns into ten. You think, “I’ve just been here for 5 minutes”, but it’s actually been 15.

Ever been there? Because I have. 

Most of us massively underestimate how much of our day goes just to social media between the other important tasks (sometimes even during). 

If you want to spend more time on the tasks you care about- bonding with family and friends, reading that book you haven’t gotten around to, starting that business, or launching that passion project- go into Setting right now and see what apps consume most of your screen time. 

If you can cut back on those, imagine what else you could do…

(Not) To Do #4: Sharing for praise. 

Have you ever asked someone what they think, hoping they will say what you want?

If that’s you, join the club. I can’t count the number of times I have shared information with someone hoping they will tell me what I want to hear. 

Honestly, if you already know what you want to hear, consider why you bother to ask. Do you need permission to follow your intuition? Are you afraid to make the decision without external approval?  

Be courageous in your conviction, or ask for feedback that is specific and structured. 

When you’re building, too much praise can keep you trapped in your comfort zone rather than focused on making real progress. 

(Not) To Do #5: Taking advice from someone who hasn’t achieved what you aspire to.

I’m talking financial advice from someone who’s broke, parenting advice from the person with no kids, and business advice from the person who has never run their own business. 

I don’t mean we can’t learn from other people’s failures. I mean, we can’t learn from the person who hasn’t even tried. 

If you ever suffer from advice overload, remember this: the people who know what they’re talking about are the people who have done it, tried it, failed, or succeeded. 

(Not) To Do #6: Measuring your worth in productivity. 

When you’re starting a new journey- whether it’s a new hobby, side project, or even a new fitness journey- it can be easy to get discouraged by the fact that your time seems to get filled with seemingly wasted effort. 

You don’t see the output yet, so it becomes hard to feel like what you’re doing will even amount to something. 

I have definitely felt this way before, and I know it can be incredibly disheartening. 

Just think of all those New Year’s resolutions that only lasted a month because we didn’t see the results by February 1st. 

If you are looking for progress and don’t see any, but are doing all the “right things”, consider this: your progress isn’t linear; it’s exponential. 

This means that at the beginning, improvements will be barely noticeable, but the more you keep it up, the more significant the changes. 

So, how do you give yourself grace?

By redefining what it means to win. 

Instead of saying “if I read 20 pages today, I have met my goal”, I say “I need to read for 1 hour”. 

Some days, I can fill an hour of reading with 50 pages, and other days, I am preoccupied and can only get through 15.

Ultimately, though, if I showed up, I have succeeded. I have made progress. I have cast a vote for the person I want to be. 

Thought To Action 

1. Design a Life You’d Want to Live In: List three feelings or values (e.g., curiosity, calm, freedom) you want to feel more often. Now ask: What would a day designed around these look like?
2. Choose One Thing to Repair or Repurpose This Week: Whether it’s sewing a hole in your sock or reusing packaging in a creative way, practice seeing value where others see waste.
3. Imagine a Future Without Trash: Write a short paragraph or draw what your neighborhood would look like if nothing was disposable. What would change?
4. Audit Your Footprint (Literally): Check the label on your most-used shoes or clothes. What are they made of? Could a more sustainable material work instead?
5. Read About the Next-Gen Materials: Check out mushroom leather, mycelium bricks, or algae packaging. Explore how artists and engineers are already building that future.

Sources

Ortiz‑Ospina, E., Herre, B., Acisu, T., Giattino, C., & Roser, M. (2020, November; updated February 2024). Time use. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/time-use

The post The Ultimate Not To Do List To Reclaim Your Dreams appeared first on Green Also Green.