How moving to a 4 day working week improves your focus w/ Karaminder Ghuman

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Welcome to episode 54 of the Mindful & Driven podcast! It's all about how to not lose sight of what really matters whilst chasing your dreams.

Episode 54’s guest is Karaminder Ghuman. He is a polymath by trade. He’s a headshot photographer, a course builder, a community leader, a writer, a storyteller, and a filmmaker amongst many other things. 

I know Karaminder through the course side and I’ve seen much he’s obsessed with making sure the community is as good as possible and how important that human connection is wherever you go. 

This is a really interesting discussion and it goes to lots of different directions. 

I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation! I'd love it if you could subscribe, leave me a review and follow me on social channels. 

• You can find all my work and socials here: http://amardeep.co
• Download my free Anti-Burnout Toolkit here: http://antiburnout.mindfuldriven.com
• United for Global Mental Health: https://unitedgmh.org/mental-health-support
• Karaminder’s Website: https://karaminderghuman.com/
• Follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karaminder/
• Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karaminderghuman/

 Keynotes:

• Introduction (0:00)
• The truth inside the story and conformation bias (1:26)
• Treasure relationships (5:51)
• Mistakes and failures (8:13)
• Setting a target for yourself (16:17) 
• Being present (18:47)
• Taking care of your mental health  (21:55)
• Setting up a system (23:30)
• The ideal work week (25:39) 
• You have to live life (30:15)
• Hug your mum (31:26)

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Intro Music:
"Himalayas" by Mona Wonderlick — bit.ly/youtube-monawonderlick
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free download: bit.ly/himalayas-download
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[00:00:00] Karaminder: I want to generate time because time is freedom for me. And, you know, new year's is, again it's just another, just, it's just a calendar going on another day. Right. But why is it that we use that time opportunity to reflect? Give myself permission to be happy on the journey, right? Eight hours of work, eight hours of recreation, eight hours of rest.

[00:00:29] Amardeep: Welcome to Mindful and Driven podcast, all about how to chase your dreams whilst not losing sight of what's really important along the way. Today's guest is Karaminder Ghuman, who's a polymath by trade. He's a headshot photographer, a course builder, a community leader, a writer, a storyteller, a filmmaker, amongst many other things. So how I know Karaminder is through the course side and I've seen how much he's obsessed with making sure that the community is as good as possible and how important our human connection is at wherever you go. This is a really interesting discussion and it goes in lots of different directions. I really hope you enjoy. Let's get to the show.

[00:01:12] Welcome Karaminder. It's a pleasure to have you on the podcast.

[00:01:14] Karaminder: Thank you. Thank you for having me Amardeep.

[00:01:16] Amardeep: I know you've taken a lot of courses in the past and like, you really love having communities, but along that way, you'd have heard so many different pieces of advice from different experts from all over the world. What is something you hear often, that you now disagree with and you think that it takes people down the wrong path?

[00:01:30] Karaminder: There's definitely a lot of, kind of advice given for like, oh, you just, you just got to do this. Right. And you're like, why can't I do that? Like, that's the thing that I'm told to do and I can't do it. And then, you know, the truth is very trite, right? And oftentimes you can give it to somebody else but it doesn't land, but when you put that truth inside of a story, inside of a lesson, then the person who's listening to, the story gets to be in the story, gets to become the story, right? And then that way it becomes internalized. This is the way I understand it. How all of our say ancestors and how stories were passed along, and we remember stories, whereas again, the truth is trite. So that's kind of how I see things as a how, oh, okay, this is the truth, but the method of how to say execute or how to become whatever that truth is requires requires a story, requires a journey, requires a process, and I'm trying to think of something specific. I mean, it could be as simple as, you know, I don't, as writing every day. Right. And that seems very simple. Like, oh, you should just be able to write every day. Keep it up. Keep doing. Yeah, I don't. I write when I need to, it's almost like a just in time learning. That kind of process of like, well, I need to learn this, so I'll learn it now. Right. And oftentimes I think about intrinsic motivation, you can see how much rabbit holing and side quest were going, but this is important. the intrinsic motivation is one of those core like, values, core truths, if you will, cause without an intrinsic motivation to do something or to learn something you will not. And oftentimes it's that, and that's where the just in time learning or just in time doing comes into play and it's so helpful to understand and respect that, but then you also kind of have to build your life around that, where you allow yourself those pockets, those, that time to be able to skill up in those regards. Probably not specific to the, do I have specific advice or something that I can think of besides like say writing every day? Because a lot of that is I look at okay, just writing every day. Okay. Well what's, how do I actually get there? Okay. I've got to look at how I design my day. What time of the day am I most productive? Like this is the story that I needed to know and go through in order to get to a point of being able to say write every day. And even then, I still don't write every day. But at least I've created the environment and the tools and the support around me, my systems around me to be able to support that. And I didn't have that before, but when someone just says write every day, that's an example of something like, uh, maybe I disagree with that, this is why, but I see what you're saying, but we need to, we need to share the story.

[00:04:10] Amardeep: And unpacking that a bit. I think when you say you disagree with different device, it's about how, when people try to make something too simple, because for example, how do you get fit? You eat less and you exercise more. Yeah, that's correct. But it's not very useful. Is it?

[00:04:29] Karaminder: Well, what happens if you have a thyroid problem? Like as I do, and then I barely eat.

[00:04:34] Amardeep: You see these truisms and people post them online, all that kind of thing about, oh, you just have to do this, and often those accounts can be very popular, saying that kind of advice because it's that confirmation bias, or people are already doing that, or think they're already doing that. We then share it and be like, oh, this is so profound. But in that tweet, it's very difficult to actually get the nuance behind it. So writing every day, for example, I disagree with completely and I'm, well, I say a successful writer, but I've been able to build a career based on my writing. I don't write every day for myself because I write when I'm inspired. I work in a way that works for me. But if you say the answer is simple, if you want become successful, you just need to write every day. People often want to follow that because it's an easy solution to a complex world. And if you had that kind of experience in the past where somebody's told you some simple advice that hasn't worked for you, and it's taken you like a long time to realize that actually you need to do things differently for yourself.

[00:05:39] Karaminder: I think back to a time where I met a fellow course creator, and he had a course in, he calls it three day weekend, right? Like three day weekend, like this is for people who are working a regular job and they find they don't have enough time that they want to be able to have three day weekends. The idea being that yeah, you work four days and who's had a bad three day weekend? Not many people, but the idea is that three day weekends are good and fun. And so when he told me that I'm like, that's so logical. That makes so much sense. And I was able to very quickly make sure that no one could book me as far as say one-to-ones or even for my photography appointments on Fridays, just so that way I could have three day weekends. And now if I want to take a job because they want me to work on Fridays, that's my choice. I get to do that, but at least by default, my people get to the automated calendar kind of approach, no one gets to take that time away from me. And what I found is, yeah, I get more time because my wife has Fridays off. I get more time with her. I also get more time to just kind of be a bit more quiet and build because oftentimes like you mentioned, when we are consuming, say even on Twitter and we're like inspired, like yeah. That's, that's what I think as well. Right. It's great. But what about when we need to express, when we need to write, when we need to put something out there, when do we need to build. Right? And I like that for Fridays. And I went back to him. He's like, yeah, so many people I tell this idea to, and they're able to just, they don't need me. They just, they're off and running. And his name is Wade Galt by the way, to give a shout to him. And he said that what he's found is those people who take off and running with the idea that they don't need his course is because those people understand their values. And absolutely, my values are that I treasure relationships between my friends, my family. It's the time that we spend together. I treasure, I value that because I want to you know, with the businesses I have, I want to generate time because time is freedom for me. Right? A lot of people feel financial freedom is freedom and that's, that is free as well. But for me, it's being able to be present with the people I care about, I love, and spend time. That's for me. What life is.

[00:07:55] Amardeep: Was there a time in the past where you were really off balance? Because was the four day weekend switch, was that because you were unhappy? Or was it because you just thought it would improve your life that was already doing pretty well? Was there a time where you kind of had a breaking point in the past?

[00:08:12] Karaminder: Oh, several. Oh my God. Like, I feel like, what do I say? I say, I don't know if I've got this from anyone or I just came up with myself. I don't remember, but mistakes are our best teachers. Failures are our best professors. But absolutely the, it's those, the failures really kind of teach you so much and kind of mold you the way I kind of view life is that we all start out as marble slabs, if you will. And good things that happen to us kind of get a little chip away from, you know, with the hammer and the chisel. It's just a little chip away, but the negative things that happen to us, the things that really shape us, they are big swings of that hammer with that chisel. They are big swings and especially failures. Failures, almost like you do that one whack and like a big chunk of stone comes right off. Right. And what's left behind is us, is our character, is who we are. That's how we learn who we are. We don't know who we are until we go through life and experience things and kind of see what we are made of. And it makes sense when we use these words, see what we're made of. Right? And then we'll, yeah, we're being chiseled on a marble here, so we can kind of see the shape that's being left behind. And so many of these. So let's say for example, I specifically think of, I started an online wine business, selling wine on the internet at the age of 21, and my dad had a wine shop that was where the inventory was from, and no didn't spend any money on ads or, or even on staff. It was just me and my dad. And that for a few years did, in two years, I think it did, it was starting to do more business than our retail sales. So it was already taking off and then we sold all of that and then moved the family to a different, nicer location. And then I'm like, all right, I did it once, I can do it again. So we built up a new space, a new shop and everything. But you know, bigger, much more of an endeavor, much more of like, this is my vision of how say a wine shop and selling online should be. And then the economy tanked in 2008 and took it all with it, because it was only open for like, open in July of '08 and the economy tanked in October of '08. So barely any time to grow. And I always was working so hard because I knew that I just need to get to a, you know, profitable evenness to support my family, for everyone, before I can like, let myself be, let myself be happy, let myself enjoy things like it's hard work and this is going to set us up. You. Know, us being a family, set us up for our futures. And then when it failed, I was very down, very depressed. I had left school with two semesters left from graduating just to pursue this cause I had a fire for it. And that lesson was, that there is no happiness, say at the end of the rainbow or the end of the journey, the happiness is actually is now. It's to give yourself a mission because there's always, we're always going to be on journeys. We're always going to be in that journey. We're always going to be transforming. That's just who we are as, that's our nature. But there's nothing to say that you can't be happy now. And I know some of you may trade speed, right? For like, well, if I just sacrifice this, this, this, now I can get there two months quicker or whatever you want say, whatever timeframe. The biggest lesson I learned there was give myself permission to be happy on the journey, right? Just give myself permission, and in that way you could be happy like along it because the really the sweetest part is almost the chase, if you will. The journey, the fun destination isn't actually as rewarding as you think. You just, you accomplish it, yeah. Great. You can celebrate, celebrate your wins. Very important. Even the small ones. That is important. But then, you know, the next day you'll write back at it. Right? And other things I've learned from this is that whenever a goal is tied to a number, just, you know, a million Twitter followers or a million YouTube subscribers, and I make I put a million dollars in the bank account. Whenever it's tied to a number or the stock or Bitcoin hits, a million something, I'm always going to use the word a million, but what happens when it does reach it? Does your life change? Doesn't, right? But the motivation that you had to achieve that, like you're just focusing on this number. This number increases. This number's changing. Like I just had a birthday. I turned 41. How different is that from 40? Not much, really. Just, you know, from 40 years old, with 364 days under my belt, did that really just suddenly change once I reached 41? No, it's very much the same. 41 looks very much the same as late forties, if you were late 40. So tying happiness or tying a goal to a number is never, it's never a really great thing. It's more so because that's when people chase money. When they get money, but there's no happiness. Whereas if you chase something a little bit more, say ambiguous, where I want my house, I want the house for my family taken care of, paid for, right? Yeah. There's a number to that, but it's usually much more than that because okay, great mortgage is taken care of, but then what else? What about, you know, we've got the little changes we need to make in the house. Little fixes here and little repairs. What can we do to make, or we need to add more solar, you know, have a battery backup for the whole house. It's little things like that, but at least the goal there is taking care of the family. It's not reach X amount of numbers in the bank to fulfill and pay down all the debts, all that. Right? Same thing, that's what I see with charity work as well that if you care more about the, we're doing this, we're doing this for a social good, a social, I would say social good outcome. If you will. Like charity work, that that keeps you going much more than trying to hit some sort of number threshold, right? So that's one lesson there, right? The old African proverb, right? There's the, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go further, go together. Right. And alongside another phrase, which is in order to go fast, you have to go slow. Right? And a lot of that is just looking after yourself, because you are human at the end of the day, you're not a robot and you can't treat yourself like a robot because you are still skin and bones and you still need to look after yourself. That was one of the biggest challenges I've always had, which was I remember telling myself, when I met my wife, I was like, my biggest challenge is learning how to chill at the end of the day, meaning, cause I just keep working, but I'm like, why can't I just break away and do this? and at the time I was also piecing together a little home cinema. Right. And it was a room we had in the house that all we did was we watch films in it, but it was set up like a living room where nobody would visit and we'd use it as a living room, cause we already had downstairs living room. So this is an upstairs place. So instead, I'm like, well the only, since it's the only thing we do here is watch movies, why don't we just focus this this room on watching movies. That's the point. Got rid of the coffee table, put in like two rows of seats, just really rejigged the couches, if you will. Just to mock it up to see like, does this work and set things like TV in the center of this room, so that's the focal point, put speakers around so we can actually have surround sound because before the TV was in the corner and a TV in a corner is never really ideal for like, how many cinemas do you go to where the cinema screens in the corner of the room? It doesn't work, right? It doesn't work that way. The thing I learned is that because I made it an event. I made chilling out an event. That helped me so much more because that's, I can stop. I can relax. I can let go. And by having recreation time, not that I just sit there all the time. Exercise is important too guys, come on. But it really does help unwind. And I always remember this phrase from [unintelligible], he says, In order to rock the internet, you got to get off the Internet.

[00:15:40] Amardeep: Just unpacking some of the stuff you said there, where I thought for example, the goal setting is I've gone back and forth with this with myself about, is it good to set goals? Is it bad to set goals? Is it actually helping me? Is it not helping me? And I think what I've found is that reaching the goal isn't really the point. So for example, when I was younger, I wanted to become a black belt. Becoming a black belt didn't actually matter. What mattered is the journey I had to take to get there. And that's what I think the different goals are set now. For example, I want make a million dollars in a year, not because I need that money, not because that money matters to me, but the different skills I have to learn and the different ways I have to adapt in order to make that money. That's an interesting challenge for me. That's something I want learn how to do. So for me, it's driving that curiosity. If you set a target for yourself, this obviously comes at different points, right? If you've got the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, where once you've got to a certain stage where you are relatively comfortable, then you can start looking at well, how do I make myself satisfied? What do I enjoy the most? And I enjoy the most of taking on different challenges, and for example, you mentioned there about like make the million dollars. It's not that the money is what matters. It's not that it's going to make you happy, and that's why you do need to set a different target afterwards. But you need to go into that, knowing that you're not chasing that target because it's going to make you happy. You're chasing it because you love the chase. And then when you set yourself a new target, it's less upsetting because it's now you've got a new opportunity to do something else which you love, to have that challenge again. And that's an exciting thing. So it's all about the way you perceive that and whether or not you can take the positives in that or not. Whereas if you think, this is it, this is going to make me happy. You're probably going to be disappointed.

[00:17:33] Amardeep: Hi everyone. I hope you're enjoying the episode so far. I want to take a quick break to ask you to check in with yourself. There's many people struggling with balance and it's nothing to be ashamed about. It's tips that my guests might share can hopefully help you along the way, but if you already feel overwhelmed or burnt out, it's probably best that you ask somebody for help too. For some, this might be a friend or family member, while others might feel like they have nobody they can talk to. If you're one of these people, check out the link in the show notes, it's for United for Global Mental Health. They've got health plans all across the world, with people willing to listen on the other side. It's important to let somebody know how you're feeling. Now, back to the show.

[00:18:08] Amardeep: With where you are today, do you feel like you have the balance, right? Or are you putting too much pressure on yourself still? Or swinging the other way?

[00:18:16] Karaminder: I would say now with the level of experience I've had of say ups and downs, I feel much, much better about my balance. Where, you know, riding that edge, that knife edge, if you will, of burnout where you just kind of keep going, you're like, ah, so I'm closer. I'm closer. I just got to get it. Just go do this, go to do that, just go do this, and you keep doing that. You don't look after yourself and then you crash. It also doesn't feel great. And now it's lovely I get to spend time with my dog. I get to spend time with my wife, my family. I get to go outside. I get to ride my bike. Right. These are little things, but enjoying, you know, we're human beings and we haven't found another planet with human beings so far that we are aware of, or we're told. Okay. There's another thing there, but yes. The miracle of life that we are on this planet, you know, enjoying nature, enjoying the sunshine, enjoying the sea, enjoying the sweet things, if you will, because that, that's kind of what keeps me going, because what is a life full of work? Oh, great. I died while improving optimization 17.6, 6%. Right? Now I've died, a happy life. No, you haven't. No, you don't. No one, you can't, you can't take it with you when you die either. Right. So what do you leave behind? What is it? I think about these things and I find a good balance approach, I remember, I think this is a talk from Aaron Draplin for Adobe max, and he found a union pin in his, like dad's toolbox. And this little pin said eight hours of work, eight hours of recreation, eight hours of rest. So recreation, I also see that as play and that is the balance, right? 8 8 8. It's pretty, pretty simple, pretty straightforward, and you kind of, do I get eight outta sleep? No, get a little bit less. That's all right. Do I work more than more than eight hours? Yeah. But do I also spend time away just to have fun? Just to kind of refocus to be outside? Yes, absolutely. And. I'm hoping it's probably, it probably feels like six to eight hours, probably by the time I get to sleep, it probably eight hours. But it's a great, it's a lovely balance because I'm able to be much more present. I'm not worrying. Right. I'm also not feeling the effects of overwhelm and the fact of feeling like, oh, don't you always feel like you're always behind. Yeah. But you kind of like make friends with it, in a way. Like you're like, ah, it's okay. I'm behind. That's alright. So someone else may get there first, but it's not about being better. It's about being different. It's about being who you are.

[00:20:40] Amardeep: Is there anything new that you've introduced to your life that you've found is helping you with this balance? Like any new systems or any new tricks that you could share with the audience?

[00:20:50] Karaminder: I remember what I needed to talk about before, and I want answer this. So the new thing that introduced in my life was my puppy. He has just turned a little bit past two years. He just only knows the world of COVID. His name is Mogley, little Yorkshire terrier. I swear that that little guy has done more for my mental health than any medicine I've ever tried, any therapy, any, and I go to therapy twice a week, and I've seen so many different ones, but having a puppy, a little guy, it's just the best. You see him, you cannot feel bad or sad. You cannot. You just, he's just, he'll scratch on my door and I'll know like, okay, he wants me to take a break. I'll take a break. I get down on all fours, I get down flat on the floor and we interact with play. And it's so rejuvenating. It's so lovely. And he's this little creature of just love. He just loves, he wants everybody around all the time. He's always checking everyone, doing a bit of an inventory. But I love that. That is, that's one, I'll say that one. And then I got back into biking, you know, during COVID, because the last time I biking was geez, I was I think 15 years old, I fell off my bike, the downhill, and I got gnarly scars to show for it. I never rode bike after that. So I don't know why. I just didn't. And then getting back into that lovely feeling of mobile freedom, if you will. It's just wonderful. My wife and I had a new year's holiday in the little island of Catalina, just off of Los Angeles, just off the coast. And we took our little folding bikes, little Bromptons, right? If you guys know what those are, love those things. And we just rode around the whole island and it was just the best. You know, you see other people renting their golf carts going here and there and I'm like, Hmm, we got to enjoy it much more slowly, and we really, almost also when we got to eat, we felt like we earned it as well. It was very nice, very kind of natural and you get to stop and talk to a lot of people. That's great. I remember now the advice that we've been given that I disagree with and it has to do with goals. And I'll be, I'll be honest. I'm completely shit at goals, but I think I know why. And I also know what works. So instead of goals, I look at it of how can I set up a system that helps me get there. So oftentimes I'm working backwards, but I'm also kind to myself. It's not say a deadline that I need to hit this, but it's more so, like you said, what is that journey of the, what is the mindset one needs to evolve into in order to attain and play at that level. So goals are something that people are like, oh, set goals. And I still see it. And it works for some people, right? Works for a lot of people, perhaps. But for me it doesn't. But I know that it's much better for me building a system, so you know, let's you go back to the example of writing every day. Once I had built a writing system, which I only just did recently, last few months, I have a place for my ideas. I have a place where I can quickly see what direction of what I want write about next and what is the fire and desire in my heart of different subjects and topics that I do want to write about, and where am I going to publish them? And then seeing how that aligns with my greater goal of where I want to be, where I want to kind of accomplish, and I can kind of see it all together, but once I built that system, it wasn't about writing every day, it was actually a bit more about being strategic in using writing to get me to where I need to go. Instead of like, I need to write every day or I need to write a 5,000 word piece and publish it every week. So I believe in, I'm a huge believer in systems because if I haven't done something, then I stop myself and think, okay, why haven't I done it? And the answer is always the same, Amardeep. It's because I haven't built a system or I haven't built it into my system. You know, it's so easy to go to three day weekends because I kind of had systems set up where I can quickly allow for that. I'm already managing my time with, you know, with [unintelligible] with [unintelligible] scheduling for headshot clients that very easy to say, yeah. Yeah. I don't have a working hours on Friday. I still list them as I work, so if you call me and you want me, I I'll do it, but you cannot auto book me for a Friday.

[00:24:43] Amardeep: I'm curious about the four day week you have in the moment. Do you think that's your ideal working week or in the future, do you want reduce it even further? Do you think it's the right balance? Like let's say, you don't need the money anymore, or you've got to a position where like, it's not a financial decision at all, it's just about what's the balance between play and work?

[00:25:05] Karaminder: I think that will fluctuate and I think it will change, and I think there are a number of factors, number of variables that will contribute to the answer of that question. One is, you know, where am I at in my life? And, you know, cause ideally I think I actually would work to work three days a week, but then I'm thinking, when I'm away from my, when I'm away from work for at least maybe two or more days, I get a bit antsy. Like I get, like, I need to make, I need to create, I need to do something I need to, I need to push. I just want to be, you know, my hands in the stew, if you will, in the ingredients and making things happen. So I know that. So I'm going to look at that of like, where's my personal, how do you say achievement balance? My personal, like ambitious balance of, I feel comfortable here, I like working. I like creating things. And then versus like, okay, I'm on holiday, so now I'm going to take a big break. And then I wonder, like, do I get to a point where, I hope to get to a point where I have great staff, a great team behind me. And that I only have to maybe speak to them, I mean, the luxurious once a week. What's going on, what's happening, what's the overview, and anything I need to be made aware of, quickly do that and maybe see them, speak with them for, I would hope not just an hour, maybe a couple hours or maybe half a day, and not only that, but to inspire them. And what am I doing with my time away from that? Then that means just like that quote I said before which is, in order to rock the internet, you've got to off the internet. So whether I'm reading books, whether I'm enjoying new experiences, but I'm, I'm taking those, I'm collecting those, I'm bringing it back, and then expressing that in whatever way, shape or form. You do video, written piece, tweet thread even, if that is appropriate for that, and enable to kind of build upon those things. That's an, I wouldn't say an ideal, but it, it would be nice to see if I can get there so that way I can spend more time exploring, but I know it's always going to be a healthy balance because I love teaching. I love being able to share my wisdom, my advice. And so I kind of see it in a bit more like seasons, Amardeep, right? Like, you know, like in the winter season, when things are cold, we often have actually events where we get together, right? We have Christmas. In America with Thanksgiving. And I love these as like little anchor, little anchor events of one's year that we can kind of hang our hat on, and it, and these events often rejuvenate us. At least it does for me, love spending time with my family when it's colder outside, right? And it's Christmas, and we go to watch movies, play games, eat. Right. And then the end of year reflection, what did we get done this year? What did we like? What do we want to do next year? It's all nice that happens around that time, you know, new years is again, it's just another, it's just a calendar going on another day, right? But why is it that we use that time and opportunity to reflect and then to plan forward? So I see things as seasonal and I don't see why we shouldn't be seasonal either in terms of our growth, in terms of how we choose to spend our time. So I've written it down somewhere, but something like where spring, spring is like a realignment, like, all right, let's get back into the groove. Let's get back into the game. All right. What is it that we, what is the direction we want to go in? and what is the realignment there? And I'm kind of very like diverging, very open to new ideas, new concepts, and then say in the summer, then it begins to like, all right, let's execute, and it becomes more like let's execute and build and then also lift off and take a break because it's summertime. Let's enjoy outside. Right. and fall is a bit more like, all right, let's get back into the swing of things. Let's keep building, have a nice, good push towards the end of the year, and then end of year is a bit like summertime where I'm going to leave off the throtle and enjoy time with family and kind of reflect as well. So you see what I mean by seasons? You can, I plan my community, my community course grader to this as well, so each dashboard I have is quarterly and with a different focus because as much as I'm trying to be aligned with this, as much of our human seasons now, I mean, northern hemisphere, I know southern hemisphere, sorry. But that's kind of where I'm based and that's where I kind of align things up that way.

[00:29:07] Amardeep: I assume like this in terms of the way you've mentioned how the seasons work for you and it's something I'm coming to terms with myself at the moment is that we've had nice weather here recently, which I know is very surprising for London. But now that I work for myself, I find when it's nice outside, I don't really want work. I want go outside, sit in the sun. I want socialize, and something I think about in the future is how do I build my work and everything I do around that? How do I give myself the summer off essentially? And can I get that kind of position? And with other podcasts, I know that this is what they do. They take the summer months off and often it's because they've got kids, for example. So they have the school vacation period. So they align it with that, but that's what I'm doing for this podcast. So there'll be a few more episodes until the end of July. And we have break for August and September, which I can refresh, and like you said, in order to create good content and to help people, you've also got to be living life because why would anyone want take advice from me or you, if all we did all the time was work? You've got to have a life. You've got to have things that have meaning to you outside of work, to then be able to help other people to live their lives that are meaningful to them. And if you could give like one message that you really want people listening right now to take hold of, and you think they'll make a positive difference to their lives, what would that one message be?

[00:30:31] Karaminder: There are so many racing through my head. I'm going to try and choose just one. First thing I think of is just kiss your loved ones. Like let them know how you feel about them. Cause we don't often say that. I think that's really important. Call your mom. Even better, hug your mom. And we don't often express how we feel about each other, like you know, I can tell you how I feel. I feel this way, and I can see, I can talk to you about how you feel. But once we talk about how we feel about each other, about say our relationship, that is a level of depth that is not, it's not an everyday thing, but it is a very sweet and it, and you know, what's the phrase? Where people will never remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel. And this goes along with my values of treasuring relationships. It's the level of depth of conversation and intimacy of words we use with each. It's the one thing I want you to take away from is don't be afraid to tell people how you feel about the relationship between you two.

[00:31:34] Amardeep: It's been great to talk to you today. Where can people listening, who want learn more about you and what you're up, where should they go?

[00:31:41] Karaminder: You know, my wife makes fun of me as well, she's like, you can't even keep up with yourself. I'm like, I know that is so true. Right. So first thing is my Twitter, right? So my first name is Karaminder. I do own the domain ifyoucanspellmyname.com which will take you to my webpage, where I have my writing and that's kind of where I'm building my epicenter, my HQ. So my courses, community, all things related to me is there and enjoy my newsletter. So I'm really just kind of keeping this focused to Twitter for like the small talk and newsletters for the communication of like, what's happening? What am I doing? How am I living life? But I always love hearing new voices, always love hearing like, if you enjoyed this, just you can just tweet me, just say what your takeaway was. What little piece of advice or piece of words I used that you enjoyed. I love hearing that, and I treasure that. That would literally make my day, no matter day, whatever day you do that, I would be beaming and I would be showing it to my wife and be like, look, see, someone else thinks I'm cool.

[00:32:42] Amardeep: The final thing I ask all of my guests is what's one small thing that's brought you joy recently?

[00:32:48] Karaminder: One thing, one small thing then, it is a bit small is, so I was talking about my bikes earlier, right? Folding bikes. Now I'm a huge fan of these Brompton folding bikes. Right. They came out with a titanium bike and not just any cause normally the folding bikes, they're a bit heavy. It's like 25 pounds, what 12, 14 kilos, something like that. And I know this is an object, right? This is something you pay money for. It's stuff. I get that. But what it kind of represents to me, and what it's really allowed me to feel is, this is the first Brompton by the way that I paid for brand new. Everything else, I always purchased second hand, and I always ride it with my dog. So my dog gets in a little basket I attach, and we go on a little adventure and it is the, that brings me so much joy and happiness. And I love that it's stupid light. It's almost unfathomably light. And there was only like 500 made this year, 200 in London, 200 to the east, like Singapore, Asia, and a hundred came to the US and I was lucky enough to get one of them, so I feel lucky in that regards and it's not just some beauty piece. I use it. I ride it. I love it. And it's funny, you know, Steve Jobs always said bicycle for the mind, right? The computer is a bicycle for the mind, but you know what? Bicycle is it's also for the mind as well. And it helps. It helps me with just thinking clearly and just being outside. It's just, it's a wonderful little device that I hope more of us get to have an experience. Just any bike, doesn't, not necessarily this one, but just, just go outside and be around the people you share this patch of earth with.

[00:34:27] Amardeep: If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, I’d love it If you could leave me a five star review, it really helps get the message out further. Wherever you're listening, it would be awesome If you could subscribe and share in your social media channels. If you want to see more of my work and advice, you can find all of the links in the show notes.

Thank you again for listening and I hope you have a lovely day.