kaja's korner🌴
the harada method + i'm back in mexico!
Welcome to Kaja’s Korner✨: my personal, more informal little catch up series that I send out every month or so! Happy to have you here🌞!
Hello friends and family! How’ve you all been? I’m writing to you today from MEXICO🌴, where I’ve been for the last bit celebrating my three year anniversary with my partner🤍!
This is one of our happy places, and I am so lucky to be back here!! I’m soaking up as much of the warm air, tropical birdsong, and sunrises as I can!
Speaking of, if you’d like to read and see “my favourite little thing of the day✨”, feel free to check out the Notes section of my substack here: https://www.thelittlethingslife.com/notes
Before I get into what I’ve been mentally working through the last few weeks, I want to give you a little recap of what you may have missed here on The Little Things Life since my last Kaja’s Korner!
“ride the métro like a parisian🇫🇷”: “do”s, faux pas, and all the tips you’d need for navigating the métro like a local!
“how the paris métro 🇫🇷 can make your brain bigger💡”: a short intro to the hippocampus and how travelling is perfect for our mental fitness!
“✨ my free paris map!!! 🇫🇷”: I think this is one of my most valuable posts! If you or anyone you know is going to Paris, just download my free Paris Google Map (always up to date!) and voilà! You have all of my recs with my very own descriptions as if I was there with you!
“could curious george be the key to a better life? 🐒”: my partner said this might be his favourite post so far! I shared my history of one of my favourite book series growing up, along with lots of easy neuropsychology hacks to keep our brains sharp!
“why is Paris called Paris?🇫🇷”: have you ever wondered? Read this post for a brief history of the city of light!
“if you have trouble making decisions...”: the information in this post has been ESSENTIAL (get it?) for me in getting the most important sh*t done!
“what I got wrong about the “Year of Yes”👀”: have you ever heard of Shondaland? Read about how one of television’s most powerful producers got over her fears, and how you can too!
The post that’s still been on my mind is #6: I’ve really been trying to prioritize only “one thing” in my career goal[s!], which can be hard when you’re not working a “traditional job”; without a boss telling you what to do, you end up with so many options/paths that it’s hard to choose which one to take!
For example: Social media or no social media? If social media, which one? What are the topics? What are the subtopics? Where should I get my research? What is my organization system? What are my tools? Should I get my work or workout done first? What is my ideal schedule in sync with my energy? Or in sync with my menstrual cycle? Etc. etc.- The paths are endless!
One thing we can do is look at what works for people in other non-traditional careers. Apparently this roadmap system called the “Harada Method” was used by the Dodgers baseball star Shohei Ohtani in his freshman year of high school to break down his goal into smaller steps (and obviously worked for him!):
As you can see, you simply put your goal in the middle and then further breakdown each general goal into smaller steps. If you’d like to learn about it further, click here.
Does this system calm you or give you anxiety? Personally, I can’t really decide…
Even though I do break down my goals into smaller actionable steps, I think the Harada Method has too many small steps for me to be able to prioritize them😂.
I end up having an inner dialogue like this with my number of small steps already:
“Is this the best use of my time?”
“Am I doing this at the right time of day?”
“Am I prioritizing the right sub-task?”
“Is this really bringing me closer to my main goal?”
Am I alone in this or does anyone else have trouble committing with confidence to their career to-dos?
However, I think I’ve come up with a solution for myself. This week I’ve created the motto“trust the to-do list” to have more confidence in my past self’s decisions; I have to trust that my past self’s prioritization was correct in order to stop my inner chatter:
Anytime my inner dialogue starts doubting my task at hand I shut it up by saying “trust the to-do list, trust the to-do list, trust the to-do list” like a mantra.
This helps me reduce the any anxieties or unnecessary inner saboteurs, so that I can be fully in the moment during my task/work (aka “flow state”).
Cool 🧠 fact: once you enter “flow state”, your brain releases an amazing combination of feel-good chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins among others!
Sometimes my motto/mantra works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I assume with some practice (neuroplasticity!) it’ll get easier!
Are there any mottos/mantras you’ve been using lately that works for you?
Hope you’re having a great week and thank you so much for being here and taking the time to read my newsletter❤️. See you next week😘!