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breaking through resistance & finding consistency

plus what do skincare and investing have in common?

Author

Karina
15 Apr

Hi human,

Welcome back to Mind club, a newsletter filled with insights to help you thrive in the modern world. Thanks for being here!

Here’s what’s on my mind this week:

🔮 Breaking through resistance

Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.

Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction. To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

If you ever struggle to do the things you say you’ll do, then you know exactly what resistance feels like.

In the book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield writes about the inner force that holds people back from achieving personal and creative goals. Resistance, as he calls it, is the enemy within. Resistance manifests in different ways, such as fear, perfectionism, self-doubt, and procrastination.

Before I launched this newsletter, the first edition sat in my drafts for over a month. And before that, the idea had been brewing for over a year. It took time for me to overcome resistance.

🫧 What is resistance?

  • 💭 Resistance comes from within. The ego within us seeks to protect the self-image. It fears growth, change, and uncertainty, and as a result, prevents us from doing the work.


  • 🌀 Resistance is experienced as fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, and fear of success—all of these can prevent us from taking action.

💡 How to overcome resistance

  1. Turn pro. Approaching your craft like a professional instead of an amateur means being committed to your work and showing up even on days when it’s hard. Turning pro is a mindset and behavior shift.

  2. Act in the face of fear. Pressfield writes that there’s no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist. They feel fear and do it anyway. Fear can also be a good sign that we’re pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone.

Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew everyday.

⚡️Finding consistency

I have a thing for habit streaks ⚡️ It started with Snapchat streaks in 2015. If an app shows me how long I’ve been doing something, I try to keep it going.

My longest streak right now is 155 weeks on Alo Moves. My secret to maintaining a 3-year streak is that I don’t work out intensely every day. I meditate or do a 10-minute class on some days.

I still struggle to find consistency in other areas of my life. Streaks and habit trackers haven’t helped as much, but letting go of the all-or-nothing mindset has.

☁️ How to find consistency:

  1. Set a clear direction. When it comes to building momentum, it’s important to have a clear sense of purpose, or a “specific why” behind one’s goals. In this essay, Isabel explores psychological momentum and highlights the value of setting a clear direction.

  2. Think about what you want. Consistency is not only a matter of discipline. In this solo episode, Due Diligence podcast host Dulma Altan touches on alignment and how there’s ease in doing something you actually want vs. something you think you should want.

  3. Fall in love with boredom. Passion and motivation are a myth. In this excerpt from the book Atomic Habits, James clear mentions that top performers fall in love with the process and the daily practice of their craft.


💸 Financial Wellness Corner

Financial wellness is all about developing healthy financial habits and a positive relationship with money.

This week’s topic is investing, the practice of putting your money to work to generate additional income or profit. Learning about investing can be complicated, so I thought it would be interesting to compare it with something familiar—skincare.

Skincare and investing are forms of self-care that involve taking action today to benefit your future self.

Although it doesn’t seem like it, they share more similarities than you might think.

✨ What do skincare and investing have in common?

  1. 📈 Consistency leads to better results. You won’t see results after using a skincare product just once. Investing works the same way. When you invest consistently, you can maximize returns and earn more money than if you were to invest sporadically.

  2. 💭 It’s different for everyone. You might have a 3-step skincare routine, while someone might prefer a 10-step regimen. People have different skin types and needs. When it comes to investing, people invest in certain assets because of their own goals and risk tolerance levels.

  3. 👩🏼‍💻 Research is key. Just as it’s important to know what you’re putting on your skin, it’s important to know about the assets you’re putting money in. One mistake I made when I first started investing was buying a stock just because someone talked about it. Do your own research to avoid getting burned.

💡 So, what can you invest in?

Here’s an overview of different types of investments:

types of investments

💫 Favorite resources for getting started

  • ⭐️ The Best One Yet. One of the best (& most entertaining) podcasts to listen to if you want to stay informed about current events in business and finance. TBOY delivers the top 3 business news stories everyday with a fun twist.

  • 🎧 The Morgan Housel Podcast. Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, recently launched a podcast where he talks about timeless lessons on money, wealth, greed, and human behavior all in under 30 minutes.


  • 🏹 Robinhood. An investing app that makes it easy to explore and buy stocks, option, ETFs, and crypto. I love how Robinhood provides guidance through educational content that pops up as you use the app.


  • 💜 Alinea. An app that makes investing exciting and accessible. Create a personalized stock playlist or discover Alinea playlists, which consist of a diverse basket of assets you can invest in.
    Learn about all things investing on their TikTok.

*You don’t need to add money to your account to explore the investing apps mentioned above.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this newsletter are for informational and recreational purposes only. Nothing contained in this newsletter should be construed as investment advice.

🪩 Internet Finds

  • Spotify DJ. Have you tried the new Spotify DJ? It’s a personalized DJ powered by AI that plays songs it thinks knows you’ll like. I’ve tried it a few times - DJ X provides commentary and even says my name. To find the DJ, search for “DJ” on the Spotify app and click on the playlist with a green circle.

Spotify DJ

  • Unsupervised. Refik Anadol turns data into art with the help of AI. It would be amazing to see this installation in real life. 👀

That’s all for now. If you want to chat about any part of this newsletter, let me know what’s on your mind by replying to this email. ᵕ̈

Karina

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