💎 Friday Gems (Layers, Perfectionism, Hard Things, Pronouncing Names, and much more!)
You are enough! 💜

Hello,
This week I have been experimenting with taking notes through Zettelkasten, an intricate note taking system to help create new ideas and can be created through organizing physical index cards or digital tools like Obsidian.
I’m going through a lot of trial and error to see what works for me and what doesn’t, which can lead to feelings of overwhelm but then catching myself and reminding myself to keep an experimentation mindset to see what works and what doesn’t.
Having a good note-taking system to help take in new knowledge to be able to use it and share it is worth the time it takes.
Do you have a note-taking system? I would love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments!
On to the gems!
In this week’s edition:
Creativity: February's Theme is LAYERS
Personal Growth: Perfectionism holding you back? 3 ways to shift the habit
Mindset: Why doing hard things matter?
Wisdom: Give it your all!
Manifesto: I WILL
Creativity
💎 February's Theme is LAYERS
CreativeMornings is a creative community. It hosts local chapter events in cities around the world. Each month, a Creative Mornings chapter picks a theme and this month’s theme picked by the Lausanne, Switzerland chapter is Layers. The theme resonated with me because the idea of layers shows up in many different contexts.
Simplicity provides clarity, but layers give our work a richer complexity and depth.
There are layers in our creative work.
There are layers in the art we make.
There are layers of flavor in the food we cook.
There are layers in our communication.
There are layers in the music we listen to.
And then there are the layers within us.
Because people have layers too. Just like a collage is created by overlapping layers of found materials, we pile up experiences that form our beliefs and reactions.
Each layer a remnant of a past we lived through, survived, and which we made the best of yet we still keep on. These layers are heavy yet we have a hard time shedding. These layers keep our deeper truths hidden. Peeling off these layers is not easy but we must let them go if we are to become lighter and move towards our new selves, who we were meant to be.
Sometimes we need help shedding those layers because we are so used to them and that’s ok.
Whatever it takes to connect with our deeper truths is our life’s work. ✊🏽
Source: Creative Mornings - Weekly Highlights
Personal Growth
💎 Perfectionism holding you back? 3 ways to shift the habit
“Perfectionism is a symptom of something, it’s not the disease.” - Thomas Greenspan PhD
The quote above is eye opening for me. I thought perfectionism is a trait we need to deal with but now I realize that it’s a symptom of something else that is going on within us.
Perfectionism is a subtle foe which can rob us of the joy of living the way we want to and can stunt our personal growth. As Thomas Greenspan puts it,
“Perfectionism is more than pushing yourself to do your best to achieve a goal; it’s a reflection of an inner self mired in anxiety.”
Over a time with our anxiety can become comfortable habit and we believe the inner voice that powers our perfectionism to be true.
But we are not destined to be victims of perfectionism forever.
We can fight back.
Morra Aarons-Mele shares three strategies to help drop this bad habit once and for all:
Find you motivation - Ask yourself this question, “What am I missing out on because I am scared to be less than perfect?”
For me, being worried about being rejected kept me from applying to present my talk at conferences. Once I changed my perspective from fear of failing to I am sharing helpful information with my audience, my perfectionism disappeared. I love speaking at conferences so I will use that as my motivation to overcome perfectionism.
Identify and name the experience you are missing out on and use it as your motivation.
Isolate your inner critic - What flavor is your self-talk? Is it mind-reading, labeling, avoidance, catastrophizing, our “should statements”?
Remind yourself that you don’t need to be the best at everything, all the time.
You are allowed bad days.
You are allowed to take your foot off the gas.
You are allowed to sit it out.
Learn to set enough goals - This is a big one. Instead of overworking on our goals, what if we worked just enough? Instead of pushing ourselves in every single goal or task for the day what if we dialed it back a little on just one of the tasks to make time for ourselves and to bring more calm into our daily lives.
The next time you feel our old friend perfectionism show up, we will be armed with the tools we need to stand up to it and take our peace of mind back. ✊🏽
Source: Morra Aarons-Mele on Ideas.Ted.com
Mindset
💎 Why doing hard things matter?
it's super tempting to take the path of least resistance. scrolling through insta, avoiding anything too challenging, staying in the comfort zone. but here's the thing: the more you avoid hard things, the harder life actually becomes. even the smallest challenges can feel overwhelming when you're not used to pushing yourself.
i recently decided to relearn math-linear algebra, calculus, stats-not because my day-to-day job requires it right now neither i am preparing for an interview, but because it's challenging, it's been a while since i've pushed my brain in that way. maybe you could say i have been on an autopilot mode. but the ongoing journey has been refreshing. it's like going to the gym, but for your mind. the process of working through tough problems, forcing myself to sit with discomfort, has reminded me how important it is to stay sharp and disciplined, even if i don't know exactly when i'll need it.
doing hard things trains you. it helps you to take the control of your mind. it builds this mental toughness that sticks with you, no matter what you're doing. you know how people go to the gym even when they don't feel like it? it's not easy for them either, but they still do it, for themselves, their body, their health, out of habit, out of sheer discipline. when you consistently push yourself to take on challenges, you start to see yourself differently. once you've proven to yourself that you can handle the tough stuff, everything else starts feeling a little more manageable. it's not just about being good at math or work or just navigating life-it's about building a mindset where you know you can figure things out, no matter how tough they seem.
but when you avoid hard things, you're essentially telling your mind to stay on autopilot. and the problem with autopilot is that it doesn't help you grow. when life throws something challenging your way, you're more likely to crumble because you haven't built up that mental toughness. discomfort will always feel like an intruder if you're not used to facing it.
so next time you feel like avoiding something because it seems hard, lean into it. push yourself to do the difficult thing. that's where the growth happens. discipline isn't built by staying comfy-it's built by showing up, especially when things get tough and proving to yourself that you're capable of more than you think.
I couldn’t agree more. The more we lean into the uncomfortable moments, the more we learn about ourselves and what we are capable of and challenge ourselves to get out of our comfort zone.
Whether it’s raising your hand to give a talk in front many people, going for a run in the dark, or learning math again, we are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for.
I’m a big believer in the idea that how we do one thing is how we do anything so if we push ourselves in one area of our lives we will reap the rewards in other parts of our lives so use that knowledge to your advantage.
Practice nudging yourself out of your comfort zone with activities outside of your job to gain the benefits in your job.
✊🏽
Source: Antaripa Saha (@doesdatmaksense) on X
Wisdom
💎 Give it your all!
“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all,
shoot it,
play it,
lose it, right away, every time.
Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book;
give it, give it all, give it now.
The impulse to save something good for a better place later is a signal to spend it now.
Something more will arise later,
something better.
These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water.”
― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Manifesto
💎 I WILL
Lately I have been seeing an eruption of posts around Zines on Substack. Maybe it’s because of the Frequency Illusion or maybe I’m just coming to the Zine party late, either way it has piqued my curiosity and I’m loving it. I’m diving into the world of Zines as a way to express creativity through tangible hand-made things.
This zine by designer and teacher
from his newsletter caught my eye and specifically this panel about learning students names which reads:I will learn the name of every student and pronounce it correctly
The intentionality behind this statement is something we all can strive for. It only takes a few minutes to ask a person how they pronounce their name so that they feel included and so we can open the door to build a connection with them.
Check out the full zine about teaching design.
Source: Mitchell’s Newsletter
That’s it for this week’s gems!
If you are enjoying this newsletter, please feel free to let me know. It’s always nice to know that people are out there. 💜
Curiosity will save us,