I was quite surprised at the unexpectedly positive response I received for my blogpost, My Cold Email “Template”, I wrote a month back. From DMs by you, my curious readers, and my friends. A great question some of you brought up was:
“What if I have to write a longer email to get my point across?”
It happens. As some of you may already know from this post and my Contact page, I don’t believe that all cold emails have to be short. I, myself, am guilty of writing longer messages sometimes just because I can’t figure out a shorter way to express my interest in that person in a cold email. Regardless, if I think they have the time to read it or not.
In the past two weeks, through conversations on my birthday resolution and what my success metrics are, my friends inspired me to write this post . That’s when you know I’m in Silicon Valley! Or startup Disneyland.
So, how do I measure my progress? This is by no means proprietary or original. In an annual email exchange, my mentor had me ask myself one question:
How ashamed do I feel about myself one year prior?
Although not comprehensive, I find it to be a great litmus test for evaluating personal development. If I don’t scoff at my former self for being dumb, I’ll know I haven’t progressed. At the same time, I put myself in the shoes of my future self, abstracting myself from my status quo, and ask two questions:
What aspects of my past self am I embarrassed to see?
What strengths of my past self would I find extremely unimpressive to show off?
This acts as an ego check and helps me look at myself more objectively.
I started this practice two years ago where I keep a checklist (on Google Keep) of wins I keep track of throughout the year. It included any magnitude of achievement, like:
A successful deal close;
Joining as a guest on a podcast;
An art piece I’m proud of drawing;
Cooking a meal that pleased my parents;
And, sleeping 8 hours a night.
Then one week prior to my birthday, Google Calendar reminds me to go through that checklist and review what I still feel proud of and what I find to be ‘normal’. I check all the ones I no longer gain contentment from. All that’s left are “My Proudest Moments at Age XX”. Then my goal for the following year is to make those moments feel ‘normal’. I’ll get to this step eventually. But I plan to review the annual lists every 5 years to see if I still feel the same.
In a way, this blog is also designed for me to reflect on earlier iterations of myself through my writing. As much as this one question has enlightened me, I hope it may act as your heuristic for your growth.
