Why we need uncertainty, breaking our consistency and delaying our 10,000 hours to become experts.

Hi friends,

My husband and I were planning to get a dog this year.

We had a name picked out, we bought a few supplies and everything was set in place for us to get him later this month. As I planned for this in 2021, I was so excited for what felt like our next chapter.

But we were forced to change our plans.

Our landlord told us that he’s selling our flat and we haven’t arranged where we’ll be living next. I also handed my notice in at work at the end of 2021. I'll be leaving dentistry in April (!!!).

It’s safe to say that now is not the right time for a dog.

2022 is set to be filled with a lot of change and I’ve been pretty stressed about it.

Naturally, I’m a creature of habit. I’m a home body who likes being surrounded by comfort and familiarity. I also have a tendency to over plan. I like knowing what lies ahead, and I hate it when my plans get disrupted.

As a result, since the start of this year, I’ve really been struggling with uncertainty.

But I’ve since had a revelation.

You know those beautiful, unexpected moments that happen by absolute chance? Those moments which feel like fate whispered to the universe and granted you something you didn’t even know you wanted? Those moments aren’t planned. They aren’t certain. And if they were certain, they wouldn't be as joyous. Those moments aren’t within your comfort zone either, otherwise you would have experienced them before.

I’ve realised that, in order for me to experience more of these moments, I have to stop planning so much and be more open to the unexpected.

This year, instead of trying to control and plan for everything.

I’m going to let things unfold naturally. I’m going to open my arms to uncertainty so that I can embrace serendipity.

👣 On finding a better pace

The worst piece of productivity advice I've ever come across is that you need to wake up at 5am to be successful.

Some people are night owls. Forcing themselves to work in the morning would not only feel unnatural to them, but it would probably lower their productivity.

This idea is reinforced by chronotypes.

Chronotypes are a classification based on our sleeping patterns and behaviours.

There’s 4 chronotypes- the bear, wolf, lion, and dolphin.

Each chronotype has different traits, peak productivity times and ideal sleep routines.

Instead of fighting our body’s own natural rhythm with a sleep and work schedule dictated by productivity gurus, we can use our chronotype to determine a schedule that's best for us.

I’m a dolphin. I find it hard to fall asleep, which can really affect my productivity and creativity the next day.

Since reading up on my chronotype, I’ve practised some awareness for how I feel throughout the day. Based on this, I've created this schedule which I’m currently trying to follow on my creative weekdays outside of the dental practice:

• 6:30–7:30 am wake up and go for a run

• 7.30-9am shower, breakfast and have a slow morning

• 9–12pm have my first cup of tea and do creative tasks

• 12–1pm lunch

• 1-4pm complete less demanding tasks

• 4-6pm productivity peak, focus on demanding tasks

• 6-6.30pm yoga

• 6.30-8pm dinner

• 8-10.30pm relax and unwind eg watching TV with hubby, time on social media

• 10.30-11.30pm turn off all devices, read or draw

• 11.30pm bed time

You can take the test here to find out your chronotype.

I recommend that instead of following the exact schedules shared online for each chronotype, you reflect on your chronotype and how you feel during the day. In that way you can optimise your routine to how you feel and work with your body’s own rhythm.

🎨 A creator’s thoughts

Over Christmas I went to Abu Dhabi.

I wanted to enjoy my 2 week holiday without having to film or edit YouTube videos, but I still wanted to post every week to remain consistent.

In order to do that, I had to work extra hard before we left to get ahead of myself. I managed to get 3 videos scheduled ahead of time despite breaking my finger a week before we were due to fly out.

Then we came back from holiday and I caught Covid. I was exhausted but pushed through, making sure I got a video edited for that week. After that, I had no other videos scripted, filmed or edited.

I was no longer ahead of myself.

I felt stressed, rushed and behind. My initial instinct was to continue pushing through to maintain my consistency, but as someone who makes videos about slow living, I really had to check in with myself.

A common issue with creators is that we feel like we have to be switched on 24/7. We feel like we can only relax if we're ahead of our publishing schedule.

Consistency is important for the algorithm, but I’ve realised that this pressure I put on myself to be consistent stemmed from my fear of failure. After all, no one is going to care if I miss a week, nearly as much as I am.

I gave myself permission to take last week off. Sometimes we have to consider whether taking a break will contribute more to our creativity than pleasing an algorithm.

🔎 Good finds

Are you pursuing your goals, or just the “prerequisites.” by Eric Koester

This is quite an old article but it's still so accurate.

Rather than doing things that we want to do right now, a lot of us end up doing things that are prerequisites to what we eventually want to do.

Let me give you an example. One of my friends really wants to start a business, but he felt like he needed to do dentistry first so that he had a back up option.

Eric Koester argues that by doing this, we delay getting on with our 10,000 hours- the time it takes us for us to become an expert. So my friend missed out on gaining his 10,000 hours of expertise in business whilst he was at dental school.

Is there anything that you're delaying by ticking off your prerequisites?

💭 Made you think

- Duane Elgin

That's it for this week.

I'm really looking forward to having a creative week now that I've had a break and being more open to the changes that will unravel this year.

How has your 2022 been going? Has it met your expectations so far?

As always, thanks for sticking around and have an amazing week.

Love,

Akta