Simple pleasures make life beautiful

Autumn arriving

The leaves are beginning to turn red and yellow, the wind and rain are making them glossy and helping them to fall gently to the ground.

Sometimes the sun peeps through between the otherwise gray sky and turns the leaves into pure gold.

Water drips everywhere and tries to find its way into your coat, making you shiver and long for a hot cup of tea.

At home, when it’s already dark outside and only a few candles and a warm lamp light your room, and your feet are safely protected from the cold by a cozy blanket, you finally get out the book you’ve been thinking about all day.

You open it and begin to read. Absorbed in another world, you stop noticing your surroundings and leave this world for another – without any sense of body or time. Only the sounds of the turning pages occasionally reach your ears.

With the arrival of fall here in Berlin, the year is coming to an end. There’s an irresistible desire to spend my afternoons reading and curling up on the couch with a soft blanket.

This is my reminder that simple pleasures make life beautiful.

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In today’s Retro and Planning, let’s think about the things that gave and give you joy and energy. Without further ado, let’s get started!

✏️ Retro

(Like always, you can download the Notion template to take structured notes.)

What goals did you set for yourself last month, and how well did you achieve them?

Make a list of your goals (even if they were only implicit) and score them from 1 (low) to 10 (high). You are not allowed to pick a 7. Take notes as you go.

Is there something that is blocking you?

What held you back last month? What can you do to avoid this next month?

What did you learn?

Did you learn something about yourself, your environment, or about the work you do?

🔭 Planning

What are your top 3 priorities next month?

Why are they important to you?

What goals do you set for yourself in light of these priorities?

To beat procrastination, make sure to split every higher-level goal into small subgoals.

What are potential obstacles or challenges you may face?

How can you prepare for them?

🌈 Bonus

What books do you want to read next month?

How can you set aside time for reading? In what ways can you make yourself super comfortable?

🙏 Thanks!

Thank you for being a part of Mental Garden. I sincerely hope you found this email useful.

The book I’m currently reading is The Tyranny of the Butterfly (only available in German), a novel about the possibilities and dangers of artificial intelligence. It was published in 2018 by the famous author Frank Schätzing, who also wrote the fascinating book The Swarm. If you don’t have any books to read yet, I can highly recommend these two.

Wishing you a cozy weekend 🍁

With gratitude,
Marc