I heard this at a podcast Derek Sivers was a guest. Since last week, I have been thinking, whatever scares me, aykut go do it.

I mostly do things that are not my expertise or have never been tried before. So the real growth actually comes from something unexplored.

Abraham Maslow said so well “Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.”

List your daily activities which one of them is under the safety bucket which one of them is under the risk/growth bucket.

Being new is a great situation to learn new things every day.

Or, it can be a nightmare. Because you left your comfort zone.

If you are new to your neighborhood, you can discover new things every day. This new experience makes you either exciting or home-sick.

If you are new to the English language, every book/movie/music/podcast is a great teacher to you. This new skill-building process makes you either motivated or tired.

New to “marriage, fatherhood, country, job, running, home cooking”. The list goes on and on…

It’s all about perspective. The key is to keep reminding yourself, “ Is this situation helps me to learn new things or just the same things over and over?

We don’t want to convince. We want to win!

We don’t want to learn from each other. We want to dictate our opinion!

We don’t want to move on. We want fight!

There is no need to explain who you are. You are what you did.

Action speaks itself.

Don’t tell me more about yourself. Show me what you delivered. It does not matter good or bad. We want to see “the effort”.

Yes, I remind myself from time to time. Why?

-Makes me motivated: The life I live in my childhood dream. Age of 13, I promised myself to start a company in Silicon Valley and have friends/customers/users worldwide. I’m not doing this for something or someone else.

It keeps me motivated and driven.

-Makes me proud: I think my 13 years old who sees me today can say, “Well done, Aykut!, You came from a pretty long way. What a ride!”

I finally have everything I need. I’m good. It’s enough.

But, I want to keep growing and try new things. The more I try, the more I learn. And my knowledge, source, and connections can be helpful to people around me physically & virtually. That makes me proud.

If you are running a restaurant or barbershop, you have to accept whoever comes through the door. Because you are in the service business.

That’s why service businesses can not scale. It is only “one” of you.

You are the server. They are the customer.

In your personal life, you should be more selective. You need to ask:

Are we serving our purpose mutually?

Healthy relationships can scale and grow if both parties are winning at the same time.

When there is no growth, there is no change. Growth comes with change.

Growth is always positive meaning in my perspective. Even in the situation growing pain is unbearable still, you have reason to stay calm and move on.

Who is going to take the initiative to drive everyone to the “growth” phase?

The person who has a growth mindset and never settles down short team gains.

Who’s your ideal person?

Famous people you follow on social media?

They look good because they act to look good.

How much do you know about them?

They only show their exciting part.

Is it wise to “be like him or her” knowing that little about them?

Your ideal person is your ideal self.

That’s it!

We don’t know anything until we try it. The best way to learn?

Try it.

Where do I should start?

Anywhere.

Do you want to live in a place nearby forest/outdoor activities? And, you are not sure do you like it or not?

Rent a house for a couple of weeks and live like a local.

Don’t commit anything before trying.

Life goes on! We can’t stop our lives.

Good days and bad days for people.

Great things happen every day. We only need to change our perspective.

One aim, one goal.

Do not try to stop your life!