Newsletter – Sinead Huskisson

Belief Building December 2024

This time of the year is often associated with a review or look back at movies, music or books released during the year.

I like hearing and reading about what others have enjoyed, so this month I’ll share some of my highlights from 2024.

Perhaps a wrap-up is also timely, as I intend taking a break from writing this newsletter in 2025. I have created 36 Belief Building newsletters over the last 3 years. I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have enjoyed putting them together.

Thanks to everyone who shared and recommended inspiring people, ideas, blogs, social media clips, newspaper articles, books or poems. Thanks for your feedback and thanks for reading.

Best wishes for 2025.
Sinead

According to Spotify Wrapped, the top 3 artists I listened to this year were Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Sia. I was a bit surprised by Sia but it seems she features on a lot of the songs that I like!

The 3 books that had the most influence on me in 2024 were:
Chris Hadfield “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth”
Marie Kondo “Spark Joy”
Oliver Burkeman “Meditations for Mortals”.

I enjoyed Chris’ book as it expanded my knowledge of space in a very easily digestible way. It was interesting to read about exercising in zero gravity and the other challenges faced by Chris and his team-mates.

Marie’s book has had a practical affect in terms of how I store my clothes. Folding them and putting them away takes a little longer than usual but it is worth the effort.

Oliver’s book “Meditations for Mortals” has impacted me in terms of how I think about time and success. If I had to sum up his message, I’d say; “Life is for living right now and we shouldn’t wait until we’ve cleared the decks of all the things we intend doing first so we can have the perfect run at what we think will be our perfect life. There is no perfection, what we have is just now, just this moment, in all its imperfection.”

I enjoy many different newsletters but I have picked these as my top 3:
Oliver Burkeman The Imperfectionist
Page Grossman: do5ive
Padraig O’Morain Daily Bell

Oliver’s newsletter is quite infrequent, perhaps one every 2 months or so but generally an interesting reflection on time and productivity.

Page’s do5ive is usually sent fortnightly on Tuesdays and Page offers 5 different things to ponder, often on similar themes to Oliver’s newsletter or often related to the time of the year. She also usually includes The Other 5 which is a short and snappy list of what Page is reading or perhaps a link to a podcast or recipe.

Padraig’s Daily Bell email arrives in my inbox every day. It is usually just a paragraph long but always a nice reminder of mindfulness or taking a breath or pressing pause on unhelpful thinking.

I didn’t include movies or TV shows in the lists above as it is difficult to think of 3 that left a lasting impression on me in 2024.

So whilst it’s not from 2024, I’m going to mention just one TV show, Ted Lasso. Given this newsletter is called Belief Building, I particularly enjoyed the message in the show, epitomised by the poster in the dressing room that said “Believe”.

I’m not giving anything away when I mention that there’s a part in Ted Lasso that includes Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. But mentioning this allows me a segue into a side story regarding Rick Astley which is from a Financial Times article of 28 September 2024 written by Emma Jacobs “What Rick Astley can teach us about giving up”

The article begins with the line “Rick Astley is famous for two things. His 1987 hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up”. And giving up.” It goes onto elaborate that Rick feels lucky to have had the career trajectory that allowed him return to music 20 years after taking a break. The article ends with Rick’s words where he advises that he would recommend a year off rather than quitting completely. I read the article in September around the time that I was thinking about taking a break from writing this newsletter. If I met Rick, I think I would say that I might take a year off or I might take less or I might take more. But I will keep reading Oliver’s advice to live in the moment and enjoy what I have without trying to be perfect about anything.

“I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that alot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.” Anne Lamott

“It may not work out how you think it will or how you hope it does. But believe me, it will all work out.” Ted Lasso

“Things don’t have to be perfect to be a success.” Chris McCausland, Comedian and Winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2024

Belief Building November 2024

Usually October is the month I write about time as the clocks change, but last month was dedicated to Autumn cleaning. So November is getting a turn on the time topic.

I attended a course in September where we were asked to choose 3 pictures from an array of pictures. Almost everyone at my table chose the picture of the clock as it represented constant rushing and racing and not having enough time.

I also chose the clock but I shared that I am really trying to change my relationship with time (it’s a big challenge!). I try to catch myself when I say I’m busy. My re-frame is around being grateful for all the time I have and being grateful for all the opportunities I have to use my time in meaningful ways.

I have often mentioned the writer, Oliver Burkeman, in this newsletter. Oliver writes his own newsletter called “The Imperfectionist” and has written a number of books. His areas of interest include our relationship with time and what can be an obsession with productivity.

In his newsletter of 3rd October 2024, Oliver mentions the Unproductivity Challenge, which he describes as learning to stop after we have dedicated a fixed amount of time to something. He draws upon research into the output of writers who confined themselves to writing for just 3 or 4 hours per day.

Oliver argues that our need to keep going to get something finished can reflect an insecurity in ourselves that we are somehow lacking if we haven’t reached the (unrealistic) pinnacle of having meet all our targets, done everything we said we’d do and marked everything off our to-do lists.

Most of us know reaching this pinnacle is highly unlikely but yet we keep trying; exhausting ourselves in the process.

Oliver suggests we try an alternative approach. We stop at a certain time or after a certain amount of work.

He says we’ll feel uncomfortable about it initially but gradually we’ll feel better and may in fact become more productive as a result of this change.

He poses the “Unproductivity Challenge” as follows: “find an hour or two next week when you expect to have time to yourself. Mark it in your calendar. When that moment comes, the rule is simple: you can’t do anything productive.”

It’s not just time off from work, it also means no household chores, doing grocery shopping etc. Oliver says he indulges his hobbies of reading for pleasure, hiking or playing the piano. Oliver recommends this as a way to leave behind the insecure feelings that accompany not getting everything done and instead embrace this right to enjoy your existence, whatever your productivity levels.

Page Grossman, who I also like to quote from wrote about the same topic in her September newsletter.

Many of us tend to have a start time for our work but not a finish time as our finish time often relates to how much we think we need to get completed and we keep going trying to squeeze in one more task.

Page recommends setting a time to stop work.

That time shouldn’t be when she has finished something or when she has to stop because she’s rushing out to complete another obligation. It should be the time that she set in the morning that she is allowing herself to stop at because she has done enough work for that day. (Page is self employed so has more flexibility than some of us, however, I think the point is still relevant – we can all be guilty of just doing one more thing before logging off in the evenings.)

I’m going to add some wisdom from Padraig O Morain here because I think if we want to follow the approach set out by Oliver and Page then we should try to stay focused on work when we are working and not get too easily distracted.

Padraig shares this analogy “You are waiting for a train to a certain place. Trains from and to all destinations come and go. Would it make sense to get onto the first random train that comes along? Of course not. Following every mental distraction is like getting onto these random trains. It’s worth practising staying on the platform by giving attention to the present moment, even if it isn’t exciting.”

“The fulllness of being alive isn’t something that’s coming later,once all the things are done. It’s something you can experience right here while you’re doing them.” Oliver Burkeman

“I’d like to set a time boundary…And, instead of rushing through one more task, I want to pause and reflect on what I accomplished during the day.” Page Grossman

“When tempted to follow distractions (‘I’ll just check Instagram, no I’ll check the news, no I’ll check my email’) tell yourself, at least sometimes, to stay put.“ Padraig O’Morain

Belief Building October 2024

I know it’s Autumn, but I want to mention Spring cleaning.

I have been reading Marie Kondo’s book “Spark Joy” and even if I didn’t take any action, I think I would be enjoying the book as it appeals to my inner organiser. But the added bonus is that it has prompted me to clear out old clothes and books. I’ve even delved into organising paperwork and admin!

Maybe this newsletter will spark some enthusiasm for Autumn cleaning!
Enjoy😊
Sinead

Marie Kondo is best known as a Japanese tidying expert. She has trademarked her unique approach to decluttering, calling it the KonMari Method. Marie was influenced by her grandmother’s careful attention to her home and belongings as a child and always had a love of being organised and tidy. As a 19 year old University student in Tokyo, Marie started her tidying consultancy business.

Essentially Marie’s method focuses on keeping what you love, “sparks joy”, in Marie’s words. Marie has written numerous books, appeared in a Netflix documentary, been featured in many magazines and TV shows. She comes across as polite, modest and helpful. Her “tidying-up” movement has millions of followers worldwide.

I have just read her book, “Spark Joy” and I felt joy just reading the book. It’s easy to read and Marie’s gentle encouragement did help me declutter clothes and books. Also, her words instill a sense of respect for our possessions, even things we don’t normally give much attention to, like socks!

“Your feet bear your weight and help you live your life, and it is your socks that cradle those feet. The socks you wear at home are particularly important because thy are the contact point between you and your house, so choose ones that will make the time you spend there even more enjoyable.”

Marie offers caring advice on the best way to fold and store socks, proclaiming that “Balling your socks and stockings, or tying them into knots is cruel. Please put an end to this practice today.”

I loved Marie’s message about books.

“The energy of book titles and the words inside them are very powerful. In Japan, we say that ‘words make our reality’. The words we see and with which we come into contact tend to bring about events of the same nature. In that sense you will become the person who matches the books you have kept. What kind of books would you want in your bookcase to reflect the kind of person you aspire to be?”

Marie advises looking along the spines of the books in your shelves to see what words jump out at you. She goes so far as to suggest that someone who is looking for a partner may be unconsciously thwarting themselves if many of the words staring out of them include “single” or have messages like “cooking for one”.

This overlaps with areas of positive psychology and thoughts related to the Law of Attraction and other ideas as proposed by books such as “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne and “Manifest” by Roxie Nafousi. Given the recent popularity of concepts about the power of our thinking, I think Marie’s book advice is worth noting.

“The best way to find out what we really need, is to get rid of what we don’t.” Marie Kondo

“Clutter obscures what’s most important. Discarding that which doesn’t support your ideal lifestyle creates space for treasured possessions to truly shine — and leaves room for future joy-sparking additions.” Marie Kondo

“If you’re not using the stuff in your home, get rid of it. You’re not going to start using it more by shoving it in a closet somewhere.” Joshua Becker

Belief Building September 2024

Are you concerned about the use of artificial intelligence?

I recently watched a clip of a bar chart being explained by an Australian academic who I follow on social media. I’ve seen him present before at an online conference. He occasionally does stand up comedy so often includes a joke when presenting and didn’t disappoint as he explained the bar chart on the screen.

But guess what? – it wasn’t him ! He had prompted AI to clone his voice, explain the bar chart and include a joke!

Read on for some thoughts on AI.
Have a good month!
Sinead

Joseph Fasano is an American writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before switching to philosophy and language. He is well known for his poetry as well as other writing endeavours.

He recently offered the following poem as feedback to a student who had used AI to complete coursework.

For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper

Now I send it back
Into your own hands.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now.
I know your days are precious
on this earth.
But what are you trying to be free of?
The living? The miraculous task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.

I saw this on social media and the discussion that followed raised some important questions (I paraphrase) – For what purpose are we trying to rush through our work? To make it easier? What are we going to do with the brain cells we haven’t used? Surely there’s satisfaction and joy in completing the work ourselves?

Oliver Burkeman in his The Imperfectionist May 2024 newsletter entitled “it’s the human connection, stupid”, argues that we don’t need to worry about AI taking over our jobs.

His view is that creativity and connection are about human to human interaction and that replacing one human with artificial intelligence will not give the remaining human the same feeling or experience.

He hopes there will always be a market for human connection and that “simulated novelists, pretend therapy and fake musicians” will never replace real people.

He’s not anti-AI and sees its use as a tool to make some of our routine tasks easier (he gives the example of transcribing spoken word to written text). However, he wants to remain like a thinking human, thinking like a human and not a human who thinks in AI prompts.

What he enjoys about his writing is the effort to do it and what he thinks readers enjoy is connecting with the effort that the writer put in to create the article, story or chapter.

I’ll end this with a quote from Oliver, “If I could press a button that generated a book chapter or a newsletter like this, so that nobody could tell the difference, I’d have eliminated all the effort involved – and also the entire point of doing it in the first place.”

“Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought” Albert Einstein

“Using ChatGPT to complete assignments is like bringing a forklift into the weight room; you will never improve your cognitive fitness that way.” Ted Chiang in The New Yorker 31 August 2024 “Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art” paraphrasing the work of Emily M Bender (thank you B for highlighting the article to me)

“The joy of creating something from nothing will never go away. AI will simply become part of the creation process just like spell check and the calculator did.” Ross Simmonds

Belief Building August 2024

Whilst in Dublin recently, I visited the portal to New York. It was unveiled in May 2024 and after some early hiccups which caused it to close, it has re-opened. There are now 4 global locations hosting portals, Lithuania, Poland, New York and Dublin, with more to come.

I found it fascinating. I was there around 1pm Dublin time (9am in New York) and there was a small crowd of people watching our New York counterparts busying on their way to work (many just waved as they hurried past). Then a guy on a bicycle pulled up and started doing dance moves. Within a few minutes, he had the Dublin crowd copying his moves and we were all laughing and dancing.

Aside from the wonderful novelty of being taught dance moves from New York, it made me think about the power of movement.

I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter!
Sinead

We have seen lots of movement at the recent Olympics. I was in awe of speed, flexibility, strength and talent every time I turned on the TV coverage. And there’s more to come as the Paralympics has got underway this week.

An athlete that caught attention on social media was Australian Rachael Gunn. Rachael, known as b-girl RayGun when competing, represented Australia at the Olympics inaugural break-dancing competition.

Rachael, aged 36 works as a lecturer at Macquarie University, Sydney. She scored zero points in her heats in Paris and was ridiculed for her unique style of break-dancing.

However, Rachael, who earned a PhD in 2017 researching cultural and gender based aspects of break-dancing, rose above the criticism to urge people to be different, creative and represent themselves.

I read an article recently where the actress Miranda Hart shared that she chooses to dance to one of her favourite songs when she is in a bad mood and that usually cheers her up.

She also says that when she is highly stressed, she tries to walk and move as slowly as possible and generally if she can succeed with that, she can calm herself down.

To mention an Olympian again, diver Jake Passmore uses another type of movement to help him focus and manage stress. He taught himself to juggle as a type of meditation before his competitions.

The benefits of movement are far reaching!

“Don’t be afraid to be different. Go out there and represent yourself, you never know where that’s gonna take you.” Rachael Gunn, Olympian

“You’re not getting up every morning thinking, ‘Olympic gold medal — I have to go and win that and if I don’t train hard, I won’t.’ You’d kind of, I dunno, lose your mind if you were thinking that every day. Mostly, what motivates us is just that we enjoy actually training every day — or more often than not, anyway, certainly.” Paul O’Donovan, Olympian

“Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Albert Einstein

Belief Building July 2024

Whilst the Irish summer has not brought the weather we have been hoping for just yet, we have been spoilt with high profile sporting events.

Wimbledon’s tennis, the Euro’s soccer, Tour de France cycle race, and the Open golf tournament in Scotland have just recently come to a close.

In Cork, the county is wearing red and white proudly and although our hurlers didn’t get to bring the Liam McCarthy cup home, the Cork camogie team continue to carry our hopes.

There is lots more sport in store as the Olympics has just begun in Paris.

Sport brings tremendous enjoyment and passion but what all these athletes have in common is belief.

As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”

A sport I didn’t mention yet is table tennis, read on for its relevance…

Zhiying Zeng played table tennis at an elite level in China throughout her teenage years. A change in rules introducing a bi-coloured table tennis bat, caused her to quit when she was 20 in 1986, as the new requirement didn’t suit her style of play.

She thought her dream of competing in the Olympics was over.

She moved to Chile to work as a coach in 1989; set up a furniture business, married, had a family and made Chile her new home.

During the Covid19 lockdown, Zhiying, (or Tania as she is known in Chile), found her way back to table tennis. With restrictions lifted, she started competing again and more significantly winning almost all the tournaments she entered.

Within a short time, she had gained a place on Chile’s national team. Zhiying turned 58 this month and will be one of the oldest competitors at the Paris Olympics where she will represent Chile playing table tennis!

Remaining with the topic of table tennis, I want to mention the book “You Are Awesome” by Matthew Syed. The book is aimed at children but in my opinion, everyone would benefit from reading it.

Matthew Syed, an accomplished author, represented Great Britain at the Olympics playing table tennis in 1992 and 2000.

His book, whilst based on how he became good at table tennis, is about mindset and belief.

He gives an easy to understand explanation of the concept of fixed versus growth mindset as expounded by Carol Dweck.

A self described non-sporty person, Matthew adopted a growth mindset by believing he could improve his table tennis.

“A growth mindset is the belief that your ability is not fixed. You are not handed out a fixed pot of brilliance at birth. Instead you can grow and change your ability with practice, determination and effort.”

Matthew, now primarily an author rather than a table tennis player, goes on to explain how he breaks down his goals into separate elements and examines how he can make marginal gains in each area.

It’s a useful book for anyone looking to inspire a friend or family member or offer self-encouragement, if in pursuit of a challenging goal.

“Some people say I have attitude – maybe I do… but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there.” Venus Williams

“If we drop out when we hit problems, progress is scuppered, no matter how talented we are. If we interpret difficulties as indictments of who we are, rather than as pathways to progress, we will run a mile from failure. Grit, then, is strongly related to the Growth Mindset; it is about the way we conceptualise success and failure.” Matthew Syed

“I am the greatest. I said that before I even knew I was.” Muhammad Ali

Belief Building June 2024

In Ireland, June heralds the start of holiday season as schools close and the weather improves (we hope), we think about taking a break from work and catching up on all those things we have been meaning to get to.

If you are hoping to create a reset for yourself this summer, you might take some inspiration from the thoughts and advice below.

Time is precious and we all want to do what’s best for us with whatever minutes we have…

Enjoy!
Sinead

Perhaps June has snuck up on you because you have been busy.

Maybe you have 20+ unread emails everyday or things on a to-do list that get carried over to the next week, every week! It would be a nice feeling to have cleared the decks before you take annual leave.

I liked this advice (which I paraphrase) from Page Grossman.

1. You don’t have to read all the emails you are subscribed to every time you receive them. In fact, Page set up an email filter rule so that the 5 morning news updates she receives every day go into a separate folder. I did this at the start of June. I haven’t read any of those news updates yet, but my inbox looked less demanding every morning. I’ve been fine without that news, although I know where to find it if necessary.

2. Unsubscribe from messages that you only read less than 50% of the time, you don’t need them. Unsubscribe from my email newsletter if you like. I won’t be offended, if the newsletter doesn’t resonate with you anymore, you don’t need it.

3. Drop some items from your to-do list. If they are not urgent and not important, maybe you never need to do them. If you have proactively added items to your list thinking they “should” be done by you but they don’t really motivate you, drop them. Maybe someone else would enjoy them and unless someone comes and specifically asks you to do them, leave them off your list and don’t feel guilty.

I read one more piece of advice today that I liked (it was in an article in the Irish Examiner called “Workplace Wellbeing: Break free from work emails and calls” by Sharon Ní Chonchúir). This is the link.

4. The tip is shared by clinical psychologist Dr. Vincent McDarby. It is also referenced in a 2014 TIME magazine article which advises that the German car manufacturer Daimler have a policy that emails received whilst you are on holiday are automatically deleted. The sender gets a message advising to get in touch again when you are back or contact another staff member, so no unread emails waiting for you when you return. You could implement this yourself by setting an autoreply which advises emails received while you are on leave will be deleted, asking the sender to get in touch again. Then you would need to resist the temptation to check emails while on holiday and be disciplined enough to delete when you return to work. I must admit I haven’t done this myself but it’s an interesting idea in the age of email overload!

In line with the theme of making the most of our time and living our best lives. I liked this analogy from Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO: The 33 laws of business and life”.

Steven likens life to a game of roulette where every chip we place represents an hour of our time. Of course, we have a limited number of chips as life is finite. Although, we actually don’t know how many chips we have.

We place a chip on the roulette wheel every hour and we never get that chip back. However, we have control over where we place the chips so we can influence our health, relationships, work etc. by where we place our limited chips.

Steven recommends placing the chips consciously and on things that bring us joy.

“You’ll probably surprise yourself with what you can accomplish- if you are focused one thing. You’ll probably frustrate yourself with what you fail to accomplish-if you’re doing 5 or 7 or 12 things. Nobody performs well if stretched in a half dozen directions.” James Clear

“You don’t have to answer every email…, you don’t have to keep up with group texts,…you don’t have to engage with social media groups that you’re part of, …you don’t have to do Wordle just because you have a streak.” Page Grossman

“Time is both free and priceless. The person you are now is a consequence of how you used your time in the past. The person you’ll become in the future is a consequence of how you use your time in the present. Spend your time wisely, gamble it intrinsically and save it diligently.” Steven Bartlett

Belief Building May 2024

May is a beautiful month of growth.

There are beech trees near where I live and they start the month as dry branches with brown, crepey, curled-up leaves. They end the month with soft, unfurled, green leaves, that are so lush and abundant, the branches are hidden.

Nature doesn’t resist change, but sometimes we do.

I know some students who are finishing college and others who are finishing secondary school this month. Some are excited for the next chapter, some are nervous and would like to stay put. Endings are difficult as we don’t always want to let go of where we are.

As we get older, people find aging difficult, looking back wistfully at the vibrancy of their youth.

But every stage has something new for us and we would become stale if we never changed and moved forward. Read on for more on this topic…

Have a good month!
Sinead

I recently finished Dr. Maureen Gaffney’s book, “Your One Wild and Precious Life: An inspiring guide to becoming your best self at any age.” Each chapter describes a different stage of life, going from infancy to old age.

Some friends advised me to dive in and start reading from the stage that I was at myself but I read the whole book, cover to cover. I found it easy to read and it left me feeling uplifted about growing older. Every stage in life has its own purpose and we are always learning and developing. As Maureen outlines, we have 3 main drivers; 1. closeness, 2. competence and 3. autonomy and the importance of each one varies over our life stages.

I enjoyed the optimism in the book which showed it is possible to liberate yourself from past beliefs or limiting messages that you tell yourself and embrace every new day, regardless of your age.

In psychologist Maureen’s own words “At any stage, you are never fully formed. The story is never over. The story is always of a life in progress.”

If we are always holding onto the past, we don’t make space for the future.

A couple of months ago, I met a lady who had just published her first book of poetry. She had let go of previous beliefs about her writing and took a risk. Here’s one of her poems about a beech tree that let go of its past to become something new!

Dreamboat by Mary P. O’Sullivan

Miles away from the sea, it grew,
The beech tree in Greenhill.
From seed to sapling
Loving the sun
Loving the rain
Longing and reaching for the light.
Bowing and bending
Curving it’s lovely limbs
While a crookedness took hold.
Down to it’s very roots
where it’s dreams were audible
To nodding neighbours
For they were kind.
A dream, impossible dream maybe,
To maybe, just once,
Be launched, set free
Transformed into a different beauty.

So long years it waited
Until the appointed day
When a master carpenter stopped by
And two dreams fused
Still held within the heart
His artist’s eye recognised
Within the imagined flaw
The curving lines of his dreamboat
The perfect prow, the sturdy hull
A vision of genius and beauty
Launched upon the waves
Carrying it’s cargo of life’s memories
And proud achievements.
It’s precious store of stories
Of faith and love and trust
Of those who bravely took the boats
The ships to sail far away
In search of a new life
Silently holding the broken hearts
Of those still standing on the shore
Waving their tear drenched handkerchiefs,
Praying, believing in their safe homecoming
Once again reunited in laughing joy.

“This realization that neither time nor choices are limitless is both daunting and exciting. This is the moment to take stock and figure out how to make the best of every precious moment of the rest of your life.” Maureen Gaffney

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” John Maynard Keynes

“The Trees” Philip Larkin (if you would like another poem related to this month’s theme)

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

Belief Building April 2024

For the last couple of months, this newsletter hasn’t had the time dedicated to it that I would have liked. I was busy and thought once I finish tasks x and y, I’ll have more opportunity to work on the newsletter. In February and March, the newsletter writing was definitely a rush job.

Fittingly, the topic that I want to cover this month is the struggle between product and process. Or another way of putting it might be the push to achieve something (the output or product or newsletter) versus enjoying the journey of getting there (the process of doing and creating).

In my rush to tick the box of having a newsletter ready to send, I stopped enjoying the process of creating it. I even felt that my inspiration was drying up whereas previously there was always a light bulb moment or a serendipitous encounter or something that helped the newsletter writing to just flow.

What changed this month was I read a short article from author Simone Stolzoff – read on for more…

Simone Stolzoff is an American author. His book “The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work” will be released in the UK and Ireland next month. He also writes a newsletter, contributes to various publications, teaches an online course and speaks at conferences.

His book was released in the US about a year ago and Simo (rhymes with Nemo – as Simone introduces himself on his website) wrote an article about his disappointment in not making the New York Times Best Seller list.

He acknowledges himself the irony that his book is about separating self worth from work based achievements and yet he was invested in this ambitious goal.

Simo writes “The greatest risk of a goal-oriented life is that we remove ourselves from our present experience. If we are always striving to grab the next rung on the career ladder or to achieve the next life milestone, we can miss out on where we are today. Lasting fulfillment is the result of presence, not checking off boxes from some achievement rubric.”

He goes on to elaborate that process based goals (taking the daily actions and being in the moment rather than being obsessed about the outcome) are actually good for us, precisely because we never finish with them. Also, we can’t control outcomes like making the New York Times Best Sellers list but we can control our daily mindset and actions.

Simo’s article concludes with this advice, “Process oriented goals keep the focus on what you can control. Write most days, eat whole foods, move your body -they’re great precisely because they are never “reachable”.”

In Page Grossman’s do5ive February newsletter, she mentions seeing a TikTok video about how unsatisfying doing laundry is. Just as you get to the end of the dirty washing basket, more dirty clothes go in. She makes the point that we’ll never be satisfied if we focus on outcome oriented goals.

She offers the suggestion of replacing writing a to-do list that you might never get to the bottom of every day, with setting an intention of how you wish to feel throughout the day. This might help us be less focused on “doing” and better able to embrace just “being”.

Reading this helped me switch my thinking. I moved away from the box ticking approach of must create a newsletter to being open for inspiration to strike. I set my mindset to be one of listening and absorbing whilst I tried to move away from the frantic running out of time thoughts. Then I read Simo’s article and this newsletter clicked into place for me. It has been more enjoyable to write than previous months and I hope you like it too.

“I know plenty of people who have achieved incredible ambitious goals, only to keep pushing the goalposts further out. They spend their lives chasing carrots without ever feeling full.” Simone Stolzoff

“We humans were not meant to produce constantly. We were also meant to rest, restore, take-in and absorb.” Page Grossman

“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running” James Clear

Belief Building March 2024

The clocks change at the end of March, but as I referenced the concept of time last month, I have a different focus for this newsletter.

I am going to mention two Nobel Prize for Economics winners.

Whilst acknowledging the incredible success of Nobel prize laureates, I want to add balance with wisdom from Padraig O’Morain.

As nature is starting it’s Spring flourish, Padraig reminds us that for all its wonderfulness, nature is not striving to be a Nobel prize winner.

“Trees, shrubbery, flowers and other plants are not worrying about improving themselves today. A garden is never perfect no matter how much you work on it. So you have to be willing to sit and enjoy your imperfect garden. You can bring this attitude to yourself also.”

Happy Easter 🐰🐣

Claudia Goldin was the first solo female recipient and only one of three women in total who have won the Nobel Prize for Economics. That prize has been awarded to 90 men.

She won in 2023 and I mention her as we celebrated International Women’s Day on the 8th March. Her research relates to the role of females in the labour market.

Claudia was born in the Bronx in New York to a middle class family. Initially she intended studying microbiology at university but an inspiring teacher led to her to economics instead.

Her contribution to the field is very significant for women, especially those in the workforce. She looks at the challenges that face female graduates when it comes to advancing their careers whilst also managing the challenges of being a care-giver in family life.

Seeing her work recognised is an important step towards increasing equality and inclusion.

Daniel Kahneman died this week. He was 90 years old and most well known for his work in Behavioural Economics. He was one of 2 recipients of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002.

“Thinking Fast and Slow” is his most famous book. Daniel sets out many examples based on his research that demonstrate how humans tend not to make rational decisions. The book is not an easy or quick read but it’s certainly informative if you’re interested in the overlap between psychology and economics.

“Men are able to have a family and step up because women step back from their careers to provide more time for the family, but both are deprived. Men forgo time with the family, and women forgo career.” — Claudia Goldin

“Nothing is as important as we think it is while we are thinking about it.” — Daniel Kahneman

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” – Gabriel García Márquez Nobel Prize for Literature 1982