Warning: If you don’t practice Internal Family Systems (IFS), this article may not make any sense to you! 😂😎

For seconds, minutes, or maybe hours after first noticing it, I was pretty confused. Is this another part of me? I thought it was me? Is it not?

What does that say about me, if that’s not me? Then who is “me”? Does that mean that I will be unhappy, sad, and miserable?

Or

Does that mean that I can more easily stay with other people’s pain and sadness if I unburden it? …

I posted the above quote on my instagram a few days ago and a good friend of mine commented “👏 The power of reframing reality.”

The comment got me really thinking. All of my life I’ve been a big fan of reframing negative (non-constructive) thoughts to positive (growth-oriented) thoughts.

Once when Josh Waftzkin was preparing for the national competition, all-of-a-sudden his hand breaks 6 weeks before the competition. His doctor tells him there’s no way he can fight in this condition. As opposed to abandoning the competition, he trains himself on how to fight with one arm.

After a few weeks and a lot of painful and frustrating practices, he gets so good at fighting with one hand that he feels like having a second hand is just like having an unfair luxury.

4 days before the nationals the doctor checks his arm again, and tells him he’s completely healed! …

Note: I originally wrote this in 2015 and it got published in the Mixpanel blog. Then I realized this only work for “distinct ids” that are multiples of 3 digits. Since Mixpanel hasn’t created a feature for this yet, we are still using this tactic. Therefore, I thought, it can still be useful for other companies as well. So I’m republishing it:

If you’re using Mixpanel to send email notifications, then you’re probably wondering how to track which variation of the emails have more click through rates. …

My name is Sasha, & I’m the co-founder of Eversnap Photography.

This was a surprisingly interesting biography of a Canadian astronaut who decided to become an astronaut when he was 9 years old and did every possible decision in his life towards his goal. Here are some of my learnings:

Perched atop the Elephant, the Rider holds the reins and seems to be the leader. But the Rider’s control is precarious because the Rider is so small relative to the Elephant. Anytime the six-ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the Rider is going to lose. He’s completely over-matched.

Most of us are all too familiar with situations in which our Elephant (emotional brain) overpowers our Rider (rational brain). You’ve experienced this if you’ve ever slept in, overeaten, dialed up your ex at midnight, procrastinated, tried to quit smoking and failed, skipped the gym, gotten angry and said something you regretted, abandoned your Spanish or piano lessons, refused to speak up in a meeting because you were scared, and so on. …

The difference between a mediocre and a great team will quickly become apparent after the inevitable test of self-doubt: “Can we do it?”

That’s where a mediocre team will shake and tumble over time. But, a great team will look at their values and courageously decide the path forward.

At Eversnap we have three simple but essential values:

- Team First
- Make it Happen
- Over-Communicate

1) Team First

means, no matter what happens first, we think about what’s the best long-term solution for our immediate team members. …

It was May 2011. My co-founder, Davide, & I did not have nearly enough money to survive daily life. Through a friend we found out about AirBnB, so we immediately Davide & I decided to rent out both of our rooms and share a futon in the middle of our living room for the next 6 months.

In those days I ended up “sleeping” with my co-founder more than I was sleeping with my girlfriend: as I learned the hard way, not the best way to earn points with a girl! …