Good Problems To Have

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It’s been two years since I found my budgeting rhythm and achieved the goal of tracking and planning expenses. That’s why I had tax payment as an item in my annual budget planned and ready to go. Like every April, I filed my taxes for last year a couple of weeks ago, only to discover that my due tax amount doubled compared to the previous year because my income improved and, of course, due to the crazy local tax jumps we have.

At first, I was mortified; I felt it was unfair for a third-world resident like myself to pay this much tax. Then I remembered a reading from the Daily Stoic; which said:

“You think you’re so special? People have been complaining about their taxes for thousands of years, and now they’re dead. Get over it. This is a good problem to have. Far better than, say, making so little there is nothing left to pay the government.

Income taxes are not the only taxes you pay in life. They are just the financial form. Everything we do has a toll attached to it. Waiting around is a tax on traveling. Rumors and gossip are the taxes that come from acquiring a public persona. Disagreements and occasional frustration are taxes placed on even the happiest of relationships. Theft is a tax on abundance and having things that other people want. Stress and problems are tariffs that come attached to success.”

I also felt grateful (it took a while) for the idea that more taxes means more income. I get to pay taxes. Just like I improved my income last year, I can do it again. This year, however, I will be smarter, keep a tax calculator handy, and budget better for next April.

My favorite sentence in the quote I shared from the book is, “Tax is a good problem to have.” Jon Acuff reminded me of the same idea in one of his courses: Sometimes, we avoid starting a goal because we are worried we will be unable to handle the “problems” resulting from our success. 

Examples of good problems to have:

  • Clothes that get too loose after you lose weight.
  • You’re in high demand to speak at events because you’re excellent at public speaking.
  • Your shop stock might sell out because of the outstanding quality and marketing, and you would apologize to potential buyers.

Yes, you may still need to gain a new skill set to handle your anticipated great success, but you are also growing, learning, and changing every day and acquiring knowledge and experience that will help you solve anything you might face.

Don’t let worrying about the good problems be an excuse for not starting goals. Having good problems means you have succeeded in achieving your goals. Most importantly, trust yourself. You can handle good problems just as you can handle bad ones.

Good Problems To Have

Have You Watered The Forest?

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Have you watered the forest?

This will be my new relationships mantra! I loved it when I heard it mentioned by the author and podcaster Shane Parrish in his interview with Tim Ferris. He said he always asked himself this question to check if he’s making deposits into the key relationships in his life, his kids and his wife: 

Have you watered the forest enough, or would a little spark set it on fire?

If we nurture our relationships enough, if we water them with little acts of kindness and care, then little problems would stay that way, little, and not turn into big fires that wipe them out.

Best Relationship metaphor I have heard in a while. 

Watering relationship forests is not only about avoiding fires; it’s also about turning the leaves of the forest trees into lavish, luscious greens and growing resilient branches and deep roots that would withstand storms.

Reflecting on this, I also thought that we could say water the garden, but first, it’s not as cool as saying water the forest; second, watering forests is a better reminder because it is an act of God, so we think it will happen naturally, but that’s not how relationships work. We need to be intentional about growing our relationships. We need to make time for calls, texts, and getting together. It does not just happen.

Review your planned goals for this year and check how many are relationship-related. Only a few, if not at all, yes? Although many studies have proved that humans thrive on connection and nurturing relationships, we still do not act on this.

Let’s be wiser and let watering the forest be a goal for us this year.

Have You Watered The Forest?

Seize the Season

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I bring good news.

The most productive weeks of the year are upon us. Starting now, you have 8 of them to do your best work.

Why 8 weeks?

Because this is how seasons work.

Let me explain.

We started the year with a season of setting and planning goals. Some of us started working on them, while others have not yet moved the needle on any of their goals. Then we had the season of Ramadan, which just ended, and it changed the daily routines and productivity for most of us. And now we are all almost definitely back to our rhythms and have the advantage of warmer weather and longer days. And the end of the 8 weeks marks the holiday of Eid Al-Adha and the start of the kids’ summer break. So, the opportunity to start something or finish something is golden now.

How will you use this window of time?

What will you choose to work on that you will be proud of in 8 weeks?

Please spend some time planning your goals for the 8 weeks and then make a copy of them to see them at your office and home. Make sure you read them every day. Otherwise, life’s busy work will take you somewhere you probably don’t intend to be, and you will forget that you wanted to do these things.

Staying in touch with your goals every day substantially increases the chance of achieving them.

Let’s go!

-This post was first shared in my weekly newsletter The Sunday Spark. Subscribe here.

Seize the Season

The Subtle Signals: How to Know When You’re Off Track

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How do you know you are off track? 

What are the signs that you are not at your best, out of shape, or not doing well?

This is a list of what my goals group shared when I asked this question, and I added some of my own: 

  • Clutter at home or office.
  • Food rotting in the fridge.
  • Ordering Junk Food/Takeout.
  • Laundry accumulates and, if done, remains on the couch for days.
  • Skipping positive practices like gratitude journaling.
  • Forgetfulness.
  • Pains in your body.
  • Getting sick again.
  • Not going out in the sun.
  • Not walking or moving body.
  • Feeling sleepy most of the time and dragging oneself to places.
  • Skipping skin routines.
  • Skipping showers.
  • Oversleeping more than usual.
  • Not answering other people’s messages for days.
  • Not initiating contact with other people.
  • Forgetting what it means to feel inspired by an idea.
  • No curiosity or excitement.
  • No music in your life.
  • Easily irritable.
  • Snapping at others.
  • Road rage.

What are your signs that you are off track? 

Define your list, and when you notice one of the signs, let it trigger you to ask yourself, “What do you need?” over and over, and then wait for the answer.

After that, take action.

I love to ask myself this question on paper and write whatever comes to mind.

Sometimes, the answer is to ask for help. 

The Subtle Signals: How to Know When You’re Off Track

Twenty-Five Words To Conquer Thieves of Time

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I listened to author Juliet Funt as she summarized the big ideas from her book A Minute To Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busynss and Do Your Best Work on the Next Big Idea app, and this part resonated:

“There are four key drivers that cause companies, teams, and human beings to become overloaded. They are actually all assets that simply overgrow. We call them the Thieves of Time: drive, excellence, information, and activity. Despite being positive and helpful in their basic nature, these forces are also the biggest reason that white space disappears.

When taken to extremes, the Thieves of Time become corrupted:

  • Drive becomes overdrive. 
  • Excellence becomes perfectionism. 
  • Information becomes information overload. 
  • Activity becomes downright frenzy. 

Our job is to notice which one or ones tend to carry us away, and then reclaim control of that process. We want them to serve us.

We need a tool that will directly disarm them. That reductive tool is Simplification Questions. They are twenty-five words that I use just about every week, and each question maps back to one of the Thieves’ risks and becomes its remedy:

  • Drive: Is there anything I can let go of?
  • Excellence: Where is “good enough,” good enough?
  • Information: What do I truly need to know?
  • Activity: What deserves my attention?

Each person finds resonance with a different question and that’s their charm. We’re drawn to the ones we need most. The questions can be used at the individual level or at the team and organizational level. They endlessly and nimbly allow us to amplify the best by removing the rest.”

Twenty-Five Words To Conquer Thieves of Time

Decluttering: A Daily Practice, Not An Annual Project

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Last year, my friend moved into a new house and shared a lot about the tremendous amount of decluttering she went through before moving. She only took what she thought she would be happy to have in her new home.

This year, her family came for a one-week visit, so she embarked on another decluttering journey in preparation for the visit. It was funny when she reminded me of the clutter vision we acquire when we think of someone visiting us; we suddenly see items that don’t belong, which we overlooked before.

Continue reading “Decluttering: A Daily Practice, Not An Annual Project” →
Decluttering: A Daily Practice, Not An Annual Project

Take a moment to cool down

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Here is a question I liked in The Daily Stoic Journal and my answer to it:

What would happen if I took a second to cool down?

  • Feelings would be saved.
  • Words that shouldn’t be spoken would be silenced.
  • Trust would be maintained.
  • Regret would be unnecessary. 
  • Guilt would be spared.
  • Relationships would be preserved.
  • Judgment would be deferred.
  • Love would be honored.
  • Day would be made.
  • Pride would be deserved.
  • Self would be disciplined.
Take a moment to cool down

Enhance Your Downtime: Try Effortful Fun

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I read Tranquility by Tuesday last year, and this idea stuck with me: “Effortful Fun Before Effortless Fun.”

The most straightforward kind of leisure time is, of course, scrolling on our phones or watching something, so Laura Venderkam argues that we can add a little bit of effortful fun when we feel too exhausted to do anything productive before using our screens every evening. For example, why not read a book for a few minutes, work on a puzzle, or get some crochet stitches done before? It’s like a small pre-requisite; you can’t check social media until you read a little. After your effortful fun activity, you will feel good, and those minutes will add up with time. 

One effortful fun activity that I do is tracking some metrics on an app called Exist that provides nice analytics for me. I track my waking up time, for instance, and my writing and publishing habits, and most importantly, I set a rating for the day with some notes about it, just like a mini digital journal. Mood tracking has been my favorite part of this simple app since I started using it years ago. So, after I do all this tracking at night, I open social media or watch my favorite series.

Another effortful fun activity that I do is checking my book highlights on the Readwise app, which reminds me of favorite passages I highlighted on Kindle books I read, which Readwise directly imports from my Kindle, or famous quotes from audiobooks or paper books I read, which Readwise offers the option to manually add to my library. I feel inspired whenever I read these quotes and often share them with friends and family on WhatsApp or save them for my Sunday Spark readers.

I genuinely love these apps, and recommend trying them for some effortful fun or finding activities you would like to do more and placing them before these effortless scrolling/watching sessions.

Please note that the links provided in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through them.

Enhance Your Downtime: Try Effortful Fun

Win Your Day: Start Strong with This Question

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I have been applying the highlight-of-the-day idea, which I learned from the book (Make Time), with my goals group members for around six months, and it has been wildly successful in helping them focus during the day.

How do we do it?

At the start of the day I encourage them to share the goal of the day, which is one thing that, if they finish, would call the day successful. And then, at the end of the day, the group members share the status of their goals.

This daily goal habit helps them define “a successful day” on their own terms and not leave this evaluation to chance. In addition, they get to avoid the feeling of a wasted day many of us have if we don’t start it with intention. I also usually encourage them to share a maximum of three goals as they are sometimes inclined to share their entire to-do list.

My friend and group member told me that this daily goal habit helps her fine-tune her estimate of the time it takes to finish a task and improve it gradually to avoid the planning fallacy we humans are so prone to.

I also share my daily goals with the group because I love the accountability we create; I need to do it because I said I would, and if tasks do not get done, I provide reasons.

Sharing daily goals is also an excellent way to offer mini-coaching sessions if I notice a pattern. For example, a group member set a goal to “finish studying the material.” Some questions I asked:

  • What do you mean? Does it mean you want to stay up all night to finish it, no matter what? (the answer was no)
  • How much time do you really have to finish it?
  • Why not change the goal from “finish studying the material” to “Allocate 120 focused minutes to study” This goal? You can achieve!

When it comes to goals, time is usually the most critical factor in achieving them. How much time can you allocate to do what you say you want to do? Setting the goal this way helps you win, and we all need to feel these wins adding up, or else we will give up on planning before it becomes a habit.

At the beginning of every day, ask: What’s your one goal today? or, what are your top three goals? Remember, any other tasks you come up with need to go to a “Might Do” list; do them if you have time and energy, as author Ali Abdaal advises.

Win Your Day: Start Strong with This Question

Did you walk today?

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The highlight of the previous week was moving my body more than the week before.

I started with a short Wednesday walk right after work. I planned this walk by bringing the appropriate shoes and socks.

On Thursday, I participated in a fantastic team-building event with my work colleagues. I played, moved, and laughed.

On Friday morning, I walked while my kids were in their weekly math class, and later in the day, I walked some more during our family trip to Ajloun Teleferic (highly recommended).

Seeing those steps add up on my watch made me feel great as I was using my body for what it was built for: movement, as opposed to the unnatural sedentary life most of us lead by working at office desks for long hours.

Last week, I distinctly felt the need to move, like I had an excess of negative energy that journaling could not help me let out. Walking was what I needed. I was right.

Walking has been a part of my life since the quarantine days. Although many things could come in the way of taking a nice walk, like the shortage of pavements, there are good places to safely walk and enjoy the beautiful architecture of houses and the splendor of trees, especially at this time of year.

I don’t walk every day as I wish, but even if I start on Wednesdays, it’s still way better than walking zero times during the week.

When will you walk this week? 

Did you walk today?