Hello my friends! This “weekly” newsletter has become a bit of a monthly thing now – I love it ♡ these days I’m trying to be very intentional with the ways I show up online.
Ah and it feels so good in this world full of noise. There’s a difference between just sending content out vs leading a conversation.
Why has it become so difficult to prioritize what matters and dedicate time to it these days?
You might remember this question from the welcome e-mail when you signed up for About Blank:
What is standing between your current life and the life you want to be living?
Through this year I’ve gotten many answers, and I’ve realized almost every reply is the same when you read between lines: finding leverage. Every time I get a reply, I type out an e-mail with tools and resources, so I thought I might compile my some of my thoughts here.
Some answers in your own words: prioritizing what matters and dedicating time to it / identifying the actions that actually move the needle / understanding what are the next steps / focusing on the big picture / on and on.
You can see that in essence, they all represent a unique perspective on the same idea of finding a lever.
The Greek philosopher Archimedes once said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
Is "not having enough time" still a valid excuse for lack of meaning in one's life?
Why is it that prioritizing has become so difficult?
Your mind probably went: "uh, time" – but I bet that even if you found Aladdin's magic lamp and were given all the time in the world, you would still have a hard time prioritizing.
Prioritizing is tricky, because choosing to live intentionally is not our default.
Intentionality implies a conscious (and constant!) focus on what matters, rather than just going through the motions and ticking things off a to-do list.
The good news is that you can create your own default by learning how to blur out the noise.
Once the noise is gone, you can't unsee that lever.
The important, but not urgent: how do we tackle this area of our life?
You might be familiar with the Eisenhower matrix – I want you to pay close attention to the quadrant on the top right.
That’s the territory that becomes tricky is: important, but not urgent.
The “decide later” part of the matrix.
We all know the concept of a project – the idea of an end goal that you work towards.
What about those areas of your life that don’t have an end goal? The important, but not urgent bucket of core values, horizons, or domains, however you want to call them.
In other words: what always matters.
Those “projects” you never tick off your to-do list because they’re recurrent - things like your family, your health, learning a language, learning a skill, reading books.
Everything that matters, but that can't possibly fit into a to-do list.
So while projects usually have an end date and an outcome, these core values are ongoing, and can only be measured by your own standards. While projects are trackable, your core values are impossible to quantify; how can you possibly check “giving my loved ones my best energy” off a to-do list?
The question then becomes: what are the core values in your life that always matter? And what are the standards you want to maintain in those core values?
This is how you “tackle” the important, but not urgent piece of the matrix, and ensure that you're living a life grounded in intention.
Important, but not urgent: I’ll decide later…
Later never came.
When we begin to reflect on our lives as a whole, rather than individual segments of time (days, years, my twenties, summer holidays, etc) we realize that all of life is one long flow of time.
It's all a matter of perspective: if you only had a year to live, what would you change? What would you choose to focus on?
Instead of deciding later, decide to practice emulating that vision of your life each and every day.
All you need to do to find that lever to move the whole world, is to create your own life intentionally, instead of letting life create you.
In other words: prioritize life.
Here’s an invitation to:
- Make a list of those core values in your life.
- Write the standards you want to maintain for each (my health: I want to wake up energized, work out 3x a week and feel loved within my own skin / my relationship: prioritize time in the morning with him, cook a big meal together every day).
- Give attention and intention to the important, not urgent – because at the end of our lives, that's all that ever mattered.
Simple? Yes.
Easy? No.
Worth it? I’ll let you decide.
And! I ask you again if you haven't answered:
What is standing between your current life and the life you want to be living?
I’d love to read your answer and start a conversation around finding your leverage.
Thank you for reading! This issue is officially over and now you're tuning into:
A series of P.S that are absolutely unrelated to the topic. You can go on with your day, or stick around for some personal brain dumps.
P.S: I’m re-designing the website of my design studio 🫠. We all know how that goes. It’s been such a difficult task to be my own client, but it’s been very energizing coming up with an online home that’s 100% aligned with my current offerings. When I started Blank Page I was doing mostly branding and visual identities, and now I’m shifting (very organically and unexpectedly) into helping leaders and educators harness the power of community through an intentional communication strategy. Naturally, the services of my studio are drastically changing as I am prioritizing creating long format, slow consuming, thought provoking content and translating authentic perspectives in this world full of reels and AI. Anyway stay tooooned for Blank Page’s facelift.
P.S.S: Friday is my 28th birthday and as always I am feeling the unbearable lightness of being. A sweet and spicy existentialism that only comes around this time of the year – Making a lot of playlists and planning to spend the whole day surfing. What did you say? That you want to get me a present?! Here's the magic link to buy me a coffee. Beware, I might get an old fashioned instead 🍹
P.S.S.S: If you’ve never read the book The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is one of my top three books and I know it will become one of yours too.
Until next time,
Mucho amor
M🐇
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