Author: Satoru Hirose

 

Take care of your monkey mind.
「満たされない心」を手なづけよう。

 

Social media is not a trash box for our negative thoughts.

Not a few people use social media that way. I did the same in the past. I see some of my old peers doing the same.

Either consciously or unconsciously, we expect something from others when we post something on social media. Someone would agree with me. Someone would care about me. Someone would feel sympathy for me. Especially at tough times. But when expressing negative thoughts, none of them usually happens. People just think of you as a negative person. Instead of caring about you, they might unfollow or unfriend you.

“Don’t put your monkey on my shoulder”, one of my ex-bosses often told me. I don’t think that such attitude works in workplace, but his statement is true when it comes to our own thoughts and behavior. We should not make our emotional problems others. We should not let our monkey mind play with our social media accounts. That will never fill the void in our mind. After all, our monkey mind creates the void.

You are the only person who can handle your monkey mind. No one else can.

 

 

Make yourself uncomfortable.
「しっくりこない」状態にしよう。

 

“But you were a number guy.”

My ex-coworker texted me. He saw my doodles on Instagram. For him, it is extremely strange that I — who used to be a Finance Director of a company — enjoy drawing and share my doodles with the world.

We label people. We invent a narrative around a person. This is how our brain gets lazy; our labeling and narrative help our brain identify things easily and prevent it from suffering a burnout. They also can make us dumb because the system of our brain can easily keep us from finding new things and exploring new opportunities.

Our perception can be wrong. At any time. Especially in the Internet era – everything can change quickly. We can reinvent ourselves by making the best use of countless learning resources on the Internet.

Even when your perception is wrong, that doesn’t mean you are wrong. It’s not about your personality. It’s about your possibility.

Enjoy the situation that forces you to change your labeling and narrative. It gives you a great opportunity to broaden your horizons.

 

 

Don’t underestimate your creativity.
自分の想像力を見くびらない。

 

I always start from scratch. Every morning.

I’ve created more than 100 doodle cards and posted them on Instagram since May 2016. Creating something is now part of my morning routine.

When I wake up in the morning, I have no idea about what I am going to create. Once I start working on doodling, I try to finish it within 30 minutes. Sometimes it takes 60 minutes to finish. Even if it takes longer, I am not always satisfied with what I’ve created. People often prefer the craft I created in 15 minutes. But I keep creating anyway.

Quite often, our creativity gets lazy. We have to shake it up a bit. Our creativity is like our muscle. The more we use, the better it gets. The more tension we create within our creativity, the stronger it becomes.

Everyone has the power to create. All human beings. From ancient cave drawings to Space X. Although we are not Elon Musk, we have the power to create something that matters. We should not underestimate that.

Let us create something. Start small. Do it every day. Never stop creating.

 

 

Ignite enthusiasm.
熱意に火をつけよう。

 

No one has to work for you.

This is what we need to keep in mind when we do something with someone. People need to have a solid reason to do something with you. Even in workplace. Nowadays people don’t have to stick to one job to make a living.

I used to work under the boss who often said “someone has to do that” to force me to do something. That might be true, but his statement was too weak to convince me that I had to do that for him. Eventually I did all the things he mentioned, but I did them for ME. For my learning and growth. For the people I would help in the future by using what I just learned. I didn’t even care if he got all the credit for what I did. That’s what always happens when you work under losers.

People always need to be motivated by something. Something much bigger than a task in front of us. Something bigger than a pay check. Something bigger than themselves. It varies from person to person.

Find that thing. Ignite people’s interest and passion.

Our charisma or authority, even if any, doesn’t help in a long run.