One of the unique things about 2020 is that it exposed me to many new experiences. That also enabled me to meet and work with a lot of different groups of people. The more I engage with new endeavors, the more I think about specific concepts on a recurring basis. Here is a top 10 list I made earlier today(random order): 1. Power 2. Corruption 3. Bias 4. Cognitive dissonance 5. Leadership 6. Decision making 7. Influence/Persuasion 8. Failure 9. Fear 10 Placebo effect I don't want to think randomly about these topics. I want to deliberately learn more about it. From my observations so far, understanding these concepts can go very far in being effective at doing things especially in groups. Things like power and corruption aren't the far off concepts that I used to think I can only find in movies and books. At a very small scale, it is present everywhere. I want to be able to recognize the symptoms early - both in myself and in others that I am forced to work with. All the 10 topics are complex and I doubt there are many people who are experts. But I like the idea of dedicating my attention into improving my understanding of them. 2021 goals.

These beautiful creatures are effective decision making tools. How? By checking if one should do a task/goal/adventure based on butterflies. In the stomach. I heard a remarkable toastmasters speech last week. The speaker spoke about an experience she felt afraid to do and asked, “If you don’t get butterflies in the stomach, is it worth it?” I loved it instantly. Beautiful way to assess a situation and turn fear into excitement. What have I done this year where I felt like I had butterflies? As intense as 2019 has been so far, there are only two things remotely exciting that I had done this year. That is LOW. I would like to experience butterflies at the rate of one per week. For a grand total of 40 butterflies for the rest of 2019. So going forward, I will deliberately look for things that will involve me experiencing butterflies. Before I decide to do something - I will have a quick butterfly check. If the task involves butterflies, it will get more weight - until I complete at least one per week. If this experiment leads to interesting experiences, I will share the details here. So when was the last time you felt butterflies? This was the post I wrote on 200wordsAday close to a year and a half ago. I was very excited to find this hack to face my fears more often. I had even created a folder in my personal drive where I documented the butterfly moments in 2019 and early 2020. Then COVID happened and all such goals went out the window. I had almost forgotten about this until Sir Abe commented on someone’s post about moments. Chasing butterfly moments was one of the reason 2019 was spectacular. This experiment shouldn’t have an end date. I think it is time for a reset. New 2021 folder for chasing more butterflies.