👋 Welcome to the 167th issue of Open Loops, a weekly letter on clarity, growth, and building a life that feels like yours.
My name is Reza, and each week I share what I'm reading, building, and working through to help you turn confusion into conviction in life and work.
☁️ On my mind
We tend to treat good listeners as people who were born that way, so we never work on it. But listening is something you can practice, like any other skill.
You build it in small ways:
close the laptop,
ask one more question than feels natural,
sit in the pause instead of rushing to fill it.
Pick one of those for your next conversation and see what the other person ends up telling you.
🔗 3 links
Some things hurt mostly because we keep pushing them to be different. Other people's choices, a door that closed, a question nobody's going to answer.
In bodybuilding shows, the judges decide what a winning body looks like, and they shift that look over time. Plenty of careers work the same way. Before you push harder at a game, ask whether you'd even want the prize.
Being in the top 10% at writing is useful, but plenty of people are. Add marketing, sales, and a way to share your ideas, and very few people can match the mix.
🧵 From Threads this week
💬 One quote
Find out who you are and do it on purpose.
📚 One book
If there’s one thing you should remember from this book, it’d be:
Every good thing comes with its own problems. Freedom brings uncertainty, and a close relationship brings hard conversations. Pick values whose problems you'd be glad to solve, and the hard parts stop feeling like proof you chose wrong.
Here’s another three:
Trying to feel good all the time makes you feel worse. The more you need to feel confident, the more you notice you don't. Let the feeling stay for ten minutes, then ask what's still worth doing with it there.
Fault and responsibility are different things. Something unfair can happen to you, and the next move is still yours. You can own the response without taking the blame.
Every real yes needs a few no's. Picking one path means turning others down, at least for a while. Choose one commitment and write down what you'll decline this season to make room for it.
→ Read my full bookshelf note on The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
❓ One question
Which feedback did you brush off that turned out to be right?
Till next time 👋
🤝 Should we work together?
Outside the newsletter, there are two ways to work together: Clarity Coaching for life and career decisions, and GTM advisory for startups that need a sharper story, more focused strategy, and a launch with more shape.
✨ Get Foundation 33 for free
Foundation 33 is my curated list of 33 books for clarity, identity, and building a life that feels like yours. A good place to start if you want a more intentional reading path.