💎 Friday Gems (Showcase your value, Boost your concentration, Practicing deep work)
A deep life is a good life.
Low Fidelity is a free weekly newsletter that provides fresh insights on mindset, mindfulness, and personal growth. Empowering you to show up, thrive, and achieve your full creative potential.
Hi everyone!
In this edition of Friday Gems:
💥 How to Showcase Your Value Without Bragging
🎧 What is deep work? 7 ways to boost your concentration
🧠 Practicing Deep Work
🏃♀️ A gem of wisdom: Just Start!
🎵 A gem of a tune: Pianoloco by The Golden Boy
Enjoy!
💎 How to Showcase Your Value Without Bragging
You own skills, your capabilities, your expertise, your values, your behaviors, your personal energy, your time, your loyalty. You’re the owner of this human capital, and you decide when, how, and where to invest it. You hold the key to value creation. Therefore, create value, preserve that value, and always anticipate value. The journey from success to significance begins with you.
— Benjamin Kofi Quansah
The term “brag” has negative connotations, but done tactfully and honestly, it is a powerful way to make our impact known and appreciated within our teams.
Bragging and asking for attention are two big challenges for introverts who dislike getting the spotlight.
I know this because I am one of them.
From childhood, it has been hammered into us that bragging is not a good quality to possess, so when the moment arises, and we need to brag to let others know of the value we bring, we shy away and can’t bring ourselves even to accept a compliment.
In this article, Vinita Bansal shares five practices to help you share the value you bring and the impact you make within your team without appearing boastful:
Don’t wait for your turn - If you have an idea or a thought, say it! Speak up without being asked. There is no guarantee that your idea will be accepted but at least you will have spoken your mind. Practice this in smaller settings and build you way up to larger meetings.
Help others build valuable skills — This is where having an abundance mindset is crucial. When we give openly, we help lift up those around us, which in turn builds our own confidence and gains the trust of others.
Document your learnings and make them accessible to everyone - Writing down our experiences, both big and small, is a great way to make the learnings stick with us and recall them when our quarterly/yearly review comes around. That is the perfect moment to highlight your wins. This is an area I need to improve as well, so if you have a system that works, I would love to learn about it. Please share it in the comments.
Instead of providing answers, ask relevant questions - It’s easy to fall into the trap of showing a person how to do something instead of helping them think and solve their own problems. Our goal is to promote empowerment instead of dependency. Ask good questions to promote their own critical thinking skills.
Optimize your time to do work that matters - Value creation does not mean being busy and being everywhere all the time. Prioritize your time so that you have the mental space to work on the activities that matter.
It’s time to get off the sidelines to share the value you bring so you can be recognized for your impact.
💪
Source: Tech Tello
💎 What is deep work? 7 ways to boost your concentration
I’m on a quest to get to the holy grail of “deep work”. It’s a big challenge because of one my phone, and two me checking my Teams chat and email constantly. I know I can overcome this challenge with the right mindset and process. This is where the concept of deep work comes in.
What is deep work?
Deep work is a state of peak concentration that lets you learn hard things and create quality work quickly.
Coined by Cal Newport, author of “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World”
I like Cal Newport’s definition of deep work
A state of distraction-free concentration when your brain works at its maximum potential.
I’m done with the distractions and constantly checking phone/email/Teams/fill-in-the-blank app that keeps me on the surface and doing “shallow work.”
“A deep life is a good life.”
Cal Newport
I want to spend my time distraction-free, interruption-free, and multi-tasking-free to get into a flow state easily.
Some of the benefits of doing deep work are:
Deep work helps you avoid distractions
Deep work rewires your brain
Deep work helps you learn hard things fast
Deep work helps you create quality work at speed
Deep work helps you feel energized
Deep work helps you feel empowered to accomplish challenging tasks each day
Sign me up for each one of these!
Do you practice deep work? What has worked or not worked for you?
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Asana
💎 Practicing Deep Work
Speaking of deep work, I think the universe heard my call to help me stop being distracted and also noticed me struggling during my focus sessions, so last week, right on cue, I came across
’s note below about ’s invite to join him for a 2-hour virtual co-work session.This was an opportunity I couldn’t let go of, so I signed up immediately. I had joined a focus previously session during the pandemic, so I had a faint idea of what to expect, but what I experienced during this session blew me away.
After setting my intention for the session, which was to work on my newsletter, I was in the focus session with Seth and Sam, ready to go. As soon as the session started, I was focused on the task without being distracted. Knowing I had an intention and a commitment to complete my goal during that time, I could tune everything else out and pay full attention to working on my task.
The time flew by, and I achieved my goal for this focus session. I’m excited to have a path to develop my own deep work practice.
So, if you’re looking to do deep work, give Flown, the platform we used for this focus session, a try and bring more focus and intention to your days.
Thank you, Sam and Seth! 🙏🏽
💎 Gem of Wisdom: Just Start!
“There will always be constraints—time, budget, materials and equipment. If you’re waiting for all of the roadblocks to be cleared before you begin, you might be waiting all your life. So stop waiting. Just do your best to put something into the world that wasn't there yesterday.
We can do that.
I hope you begin something today, maybe something you’ve been putting off or waiting on the just-right conditions for. Forget just right and try right now instead. You don’t have to know what you’re doing or how it will turn out. Just start.”
I love this advice Maggie Smith learned by attending a film screening for high-school students. It’s easy to fall into the procrastination traps of waiting for the right time, thinking we don’t have the time to pursue our art and creativity, or not having the perfect tools. The list of excuses goes on and on. I know this because I have used each one. But there comes a time we have to be real with ourselves and realize that we will make time for what is important to us.
If you find yourself at a similar point, then as with any behavior change, start small.
What you can do in just 5 minutes of focused time is amazing but the key is to start.
Just start!
Source: The Writer's Hour
💎 A Gem of a Tune: Pianoloco by The Golden Boy
This week, I have the heart-pounding tune Pianoloco by The Golden Boy. This song is also on my Race Ready playlist because it gets me pumped up and ready to get into the zone, whether it’s a race or a focus session during the day.
Feel free to send any recommendations for songs to include in the Low Fidelity playlist my way.
Enjoy!
That’s it for this week’s gems. Do you have a gem you would like to share? Press reply and share, or DM me.
I’m thankful that you read this far.
Have a fantastic weekend!