WORKWORK5: There is Nothing Either Good or Bad, But Thinking Makes It So // Outer Work Book Recommendations
Inner Work
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." — William Shakespeare
This quote, a favorite of mine, summarizes so eloquently what might be the thing that makes us suffer the most on a daily basis. Our minds attach meaning to everything that occurs and tells us whether we think it’s good and worth rejoicing over or bad and worth agonizing about. Especially when you layer in the concept from WORKWORK3, where every idea is rooted in the past. You can start to see pretty easily how your mind attaches false meanings to things every day based on your past experiences and your worry about the future.
So how can we reduce this daily suffering that our own thoughts create for us? Shoshin (beginner’s mind). A beginner’s mind takes an I-don't-know-let-me-see frame of mind. It says, “this is a new moment and I can’t possibly know its full meaning. I am going to wait and see.” It tells us to stop before we immediately evaluate, judge, or try to control it. And that’s just the beginning of it. Once our mind has already placed a thought onto something, we have to question its truth. Is this thought actually true? Because the only way the thought can create suffering is if we believe it and feel attached to that.
Today, I encourage you to work with me to be a bit more conscious of your thoughts throughout the day and the way you identify things as good or bad. Question it, regardless of which way it skews, and ask yourself if it’s true? If you know enough? And if it’s worth attaching to you? Maybe we can just let it simply... be.
Outer Work
For Outer Work, I wanted to share a couple of book recommendations.
The Mom Test: I just started this on my drive to my parents for Thanksgiving last week. The purpose was to help me get better at customer interviews for product marketing and insights. So far, I think the element of the book can be summarized by a quote from Karim Atiyeh, the founder of Ramp, “If you're constantly looking to your users for answers, it’ll lead to a limited or disastrous product. Instead, you should listen to your customers’ needs and problems—not just their proposed solutions.” Essentially, it’s still your job to determine an innovative solution to your customer’s problems. What I like more about this book is the fact that it’s inspired me to be more curious and inquisitive in all conversations, not just the ones with customers.
The Art of Gathering: Right now, events and in-person forms of community building are super-HOT. Everyone wants to do them. I read this book a couple of years ago as a means of helping me be less anxious about bringing people together (it’s probably the biggest anxiety trigger for me). But it has come up recently as I see the frenzy to hold events and get people together. The book is incredible at making you start at the root purpose of gathering and throw away “how you are supposed to do it” to create more meaning, impact, and ingenuity. Highly recommend it to anyone in community/event planning.
Hey Erin :) new (but HUGE) fan of your newsletter! I am loving your idea of connecting the Inner Work with the Outer Work. As a work-addict in recovery and someone that is only a few years into doing the inner work, I hadn't really found a way to connect those two very important columns of my life and your writings have opened my eyes to a new way of seeing things.
As a digital product designer, I've had my fair amount of learning when it comes to talking to users and your quote by Karim Atiyeh reminded me of my favorite quote by Henry Ford– "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." Also, if you want to learn more about being practical and using user research to build the right thing in the most effective way, Just Enough Research by Erika Hall is a very insightful, quick read.
I'm excited about continuing to learn and have my mind blown by the WORKWORK archive and look forward to your future posts!
Best,
Andrea