#77 - Fulfillment and thinking like a Sketchnoter
How personal meaningful goal can lead to what we seek today
Every hour I get a new idea and think of working on it. But it doesn’t go anywhere.
Has it happened with you?
Here’s my story.
I had always been a dreamer. I imagined building successful businesses, traveling the world, and making a real impact. But no matter how excited I was at the beginning, I always seemed stuck in the same place. I’d start projects with passion, but as time passed, my energy would fade, and the goal would slip further out of reach.
One evening, I found myself venting to a mentor about my frustrations. He listened quietly, then said something that changed everything: "Kumar, your ideas are brilliant, but ideas alone don’t bring success. Here’s a simple formula: set a meaningful goal, tie it to a deadline, create a clear plan, and take consistent action every day."
At first, I was skeptical. I’d set goals before, but this approach felt different. So I gave it a try. I set a deadline, created a plan, and stuck to it, even on days when I didn’t feel like it. Weeks went by, and I started to see real progress.
For the first time, I felt like I was truly moving forward. Looking back, the difference wasn’t just in having goals, but in combining them with deadlines, a plan, and relentless action. That was the key to my momentum.
65% of people simply learn better visually
Yapton, 1998
While scrolling (droom) I came across this interesting post. Doesn’t this look similar to my story? I had serendipity reading this.
I also got curious into thinking if vice versa is true and can help in checking what we are doing. For example think of all the things you get fulfillment from and analyze it for goal, deadline, plan, and action you have been taking. If any of the above things are missing may mean it’s not a fulfillment but something else.
I am not saying this can be a compass but it can be a good guideline to be aware of what we are working on and how aligned is it to our goals (the one with deadline, plan, actions).
Thinking like a Sketchnoter
Now that I have been sketchnoting for more than 6 years, ahem, I can call myself a Sketchnoter. So here I went into reflection how I think, and how Sketchnoting has influenced my thinking. These nuggets are nothing short of those gems, at least to me.
Multiple Intelligences
In the ongoing Reflective October cohort we are playing with different exercises that help us to be self aware. The sessions are conducted by one of our community members Kanupriya.
She introduced the concept of multiple intelligences that we all have.
We all are born with all of these intelligences just that some of gets developed and some remain dormant. And it shapes our perspective and opinions. So whenever we are stuck on some problem we awaken other intelligence and think from that point of view. Who knows the solution is lying in that domant intelligence.
I just want to introduce to you all.
Find out which of your intelligence is prominent by taking this assessment.
That’s all I have for today.
Happy Sketchnoting.
—Kumar
P.S. Parts of this article are rephrased and grammatically corrected using AI (chatgpt).