Sabika Radjab

One of the biggest influences on how a memory gets retold is mood. The term for this is: mood-congruent memory. It means that your current mood decides which memories are easiest to access and how they get interpreted. When I’m feeling low, I can suddenly recall every rejection letter I ever received, every awkward conversation, every friendship... See more

Instead, I sat there wondering why I was so tired all the time. Part of the answer? I’m burned out from constantly consuming content about how to improve myself.

Because these questions make us vulnerable. They expose gaps in our intellect, they create self-doubt. It’s easier to simply consume answers that have been pre-packaged by someone else, rather than sitting with the discomfort of not knowing.

What you do in private eventually shows in public.

The books you read show up in conversations. Your diet shows in your energy. Your discipline shows in your confidence. Your focus shows in your results. You are shaped by what you do when no one’s watching.

Prioritize your time. Choose discipline. Choose consistency.

And somehow, that doesn’t make our connection less meaningful. It makes it more. Knowing I’ll never fully know anyone is what makes it feel like such a gift when someone lets me in, even a little. When they tell me the thing they didn’t post about. When they trust me with the part that doesn’t make a good story. When they let me see the mess behind... See more

And it’s not just strangers who get me like this. It’s my sister, too. We talk nearly every day, but sometimes I’ll catch myself realizing—truly realizing—that she has an entire interior world I’ll never fully enter. She has her own thoughts looping in the shower. Her own people who made her laugh that week. Her own worries she might not voice... See more

If you want to submit your writing to big publications but you’re putting it off for any reason ( I want to become even better first / it’s too competitive / I’d like to have better ideas ) you’re just placing obstacles in your own way. They don’t have to be there.