13 Comments

My favorite part of this week's newsletter was you introducing us to your friend Leslie. There was something very touching, moving, and joyful about your sharing this friendship and what you like about this person and their presence in your life. BTW, Backstory Map co is brilliant. Love your designs, especially the minimalist posters.

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Thanks for the kind words as always, Rick!

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Hi Emily, it was great meeting you in WoP and glad you’re a fellow Mexico nomad! I didn’t know you had a design store on Shopify, I like your minimalist posters! I’ll be opening a Shopify store in January with some of my productivity posters so we’ll have to compare notes! Also thanks for the Octopus shoutout, glad you found that interesting!

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I didn't realize you were also in Mexico! Which part? And I'd love to compare notes on the Shopify front. Definitely reach back out when you get that project rolling.

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In San Miguel de Allende for the holidays, moving to CDMX in Jan!

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Love your framing on side quests. Also, it’s amazing that you’ve drawn all these designs by hand. Amazing!

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✨ Emily’s Ecomm Empire ✨

Okay, this is amazing. Love the side quest energy -- very inspired by you.

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My hype girl!! Thank you ☺️

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Loved this one - as a fellow 'octopus' lifer, a lot of your sentiments resonated. Read through a couple of your old posts too, and I think you would enjoy the newsletters of David Sasaki (The Time Capsule) and Michael Bateman (Passing Time).

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Just followed both. Thanks for the reccs!

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All too often, I wait for the "perfect" time to start a new endeavor. I wait to completely understand an obvious benefit, delay doing something until I think I've mastered it, hemmed and hawed about possible downsides ... Thank you for reminding us that sometimes just diving into something, without seeing a detailed map of all possible outcomes, is the way to go. Try that hobby. Write that essay. Jump into something as a total, wide-eyed newbie.

And speaking of maps, you're obviously a very talented designer. Good luck with your online store efforts, and keep creating!

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Exactly — plus, diving in without the detailed map helps us gather information faster. Even wrong decisions allow us to learn and course-correct. By intentionally and repeatedly pulling on threads, you’ll increase the likelihood of a positive outcome, even if it’s not on the first try.

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My M.O. has always been to delay (occasionally in a metaphorical fetal position) until I convince myself that taking action isn't the right idea or until the time to jump in has passed. Then one morning about four weeks ago, I woke up and said, "What's going on, Sparky?" Hopefully Write Hearted is a way to change this awful, self-defeating pattern. Gotta keep pulling on those threads!!

By the way, Nike's famous "Just Do It" line originally read, "Just Pull That Thread." (Okay, I made that up...)

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