Outside my bubble, the impossible is possible: Real things I used to think were fake
Originally published on Substack
As a 90s kid, I grew up on the 80s. I watched Happy Days, The Jeffersons, Full House , Good Times and daydreamed about wearing oversized sweatshirts, tights, and ballet flats. I read books featuring kids from the 80s and avidly followed their 80s neighborhood adventures.
Being a savvy reader, I knew not everything I saw or read was real. So you can excuse me, Dear Reader, for thinking the following list of activities was also fiction. I’ve discovered over time that these were very real activities that happened outside of my limited 90s-2000s suburban apartment life.
It’s funny to see the list but it makes me think: we each can live in our own little world, not realizing what’s possible. It’s so important to get out of that bubble to see our own impossible being achieved by others.
Things I used to think were invented for entertainment purposes:
Basements - Texas homes don’t have basements so I didn’t fully realize their reality until visiting a friend’s home in Philadelphia and hanging out in their basement. Basements are so cool!
Children riding a bike around town without adult supervision - Most of my outside time as a child had an adult nearby so I couldn’t imagine this
Children walking to a friend’s house to play - I never lived by the kids I knew and you needed a car to go anywhere.
Children asking to play with neighbor kid - We didn’t hang out with our neighbors so I had no idea who had a kid or not. Life is lived indoors in the suburbs.
Cliques - I always thought this was an exaggerated stereotype of school. And then I grew up and discovered adults have way more intense cliques than children do.
Neighbors greeting you and coming to say hi when you move in to the neighborhood - I have no memory of this happening when we move to a new place. Ever. And my family moved a lot. I’ve never seen it happen in the suburban neighborhoods I lived in, either.
What I Explored This Month - February 2025: Personal and business updates, 2025 goals, civilization, and more books
Originally published on Substack
Once a month, I share my future works in progress by sharing what I’m learning, exploring, and currently curious about.
WHAT I CREATED
MY PODCAST
Did you know I had a podcast? Well, it’s gone through a lot of changes. I started it because, well, just because I wanted to. But then felt like I needed a more concrete reason so I copied what I saw other people do: I made it a podcast to share business and life lessons. For now, my bookkeeping business Yellow Sky Business Services (another change, more later) sponsors the podcast and I mention my bookkeeping services at the end of each episode.
But the name What I Tried, What I Learned didn’t feel right anymore. Not everything I want to share is a tidy lesson, sometimes it’s an observation. So I changed the name to Invitation to Wonder. Then changed it to Patterns in Progress, the current name.
The latest podcast episode explores the business idea sparked by car trouble: What if I could create a bookkeeping review that's as clear and straightforward as a car repair report?
MY BLOG
More changes - I changed this blog’s name from Aneisha’s Substack to What I Noticed on the Way. The change was mostly because I wanted a more descriptive name for new readers to know what to expect.
My latest blog post: Tell Me Your Story and I’ll Find the Lesson: Why advice is better in a story
Due to productive procrastination, I also started a new blog under my Substack profile called The Stories We Find where I’m posting old essays and stories I wrote. I started trying to write the book idea that’s in me but got stuck, so this is my “sideways” method to keep writing and get unstuck. And it worked; I realized I was trying to write something too serious. If you know my writing voice, it’s not totally serious. We like our satire.
MY BUSINESS
The last change: I updated my business name with a DBA from Yellow Sky Bookkeeping to Yellow Sky Business Services, because I want to do more than bookkeeping.
NEW GOAL - MEET 50 NEW PEOPLE IN 2025
I have a new goal, partially inspired by Kate from Bookkeeping Side Hustle - I want to connect/coffee chat one-to-one in person or virtually with 50 new people in 2025.
This might sound strange if you know me as a quiet person, but I’m good at meeting new people. Why? I think it’s because I’m comfortable with awkwardness and I’ve been the new person so many times that I was forced to learn how to meet new people. Plus, I’ve always enjoyed getting to know new people and their background. And I’ve already chatted with 12 people so far! 38 more people to go.
DREAM GOAL - GUEST ON MORE PODCASTS
I was a guest on 3 podcasts in 2024 (link to playlist of those podcast appearances). I loved being a guest and this year, I’d love to be a guest on more.
But I don’t know what my talking points are.
Like I know I can talk about bookkeeping, but I feel like I haven’t discovered how me, Aneisha, talks about bookkeeping. And I can talk about neurodiversity but again, how do I, Aneisha talk about it, like what’s my perspective? Not sure. I know that’s important and would love to discover my talking points this year.
WHAT I WATCHED
Career Coach Mandy Just start your creative business already! the 7 (no-BS) stages of entrepreneurial growth
I found Career Coach Mandy’s channel in 2024. I love her take on the 7 levels of business. I’m on level 3 and I’ve never done level 0. (Fun fact: this channel and Goobie and Doobie’s channel inspired me to finally start my podcast.)
WHAT I LEARNED
Revolution Now! with Peter Joseph Ep 54
This is a heavy video, a systems-based look at the effect of climate change and social problems on society. It’s also a discussion about the negative effects of competition on productivity and development. This matches my own research about the harmful effect of grades on student performance in school.
Acorn Land Labs Preparing for the End of Growth
Another heavy topic, but a good summary of what I’m currently learning about the limits to the growth of civilization.
WHAT I READ
NONFICTION
The Talent Code - Loved this book and learned so much about how to nurture talent.
A quote I saved: “When you're practicing deeply, the world's usual rules are suspended. You use time more efficiently. Your small efforts produce big, lasting results. You have positioned yourself at a place of leverage where you can capture failure and turn it into skill. The trick is to choose a goal just beyond your present abilities; to target the struggle. Thrashing blindly doesn't help. Reaching does.”
This quote inspired me to use ChatGPT to give me stories in Japanese and Spanish, stories just hard enough that I struggled and learned faster than just using Duolingo for practice.
The Culture Code - (Yes, same author as the book above. I like his style!) Loved LOVED this book even more and learned what makes a group great. Saved so many quotes, but I’ll share just 2:
“The funny thing is, when I visited leaders of successful creative cultures, I didn’t meet many artists. Instead, I met a different type, a type who spoke quietly and tended to spend a lot of time observing, who had an introverted vibe and liked to talk about systems. I started to think of this type of person as a Creative Engineer.”
For anyone who hates Sandwich feedback like I do - “Avoid Giving Sandwich Feedback: In many organizations, leaders tend to deliver feedback using the traditional sandwich method: You talk about a positive, then address an area that needs improvement, then finish with a positive. This makes sense in theory, but in practice it often leads to confusion, as people tend to focus either entirely on the positive or entirely on the negative.”
Women in White Coats - Interesting (and often angry-making) history about the first 3 women doctors.
FICTION
Some Like it Cold - A small-town romance featuring an autistic main character written by an autistic author → the MC is the only reason I read this since I’m not a romance book kind of person. Also I love this author’s books. (I also loved Cassandra in Reverse, another adult book with an autistic main character, written by another autistic author)
Thanks for reading about my learning explorations for the month. Take care!
Tell me your story and I’ll find the lesson: Why advice is better in a story
Originally published on Substack
Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean I can too.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot during my personal discovery journey. I like to share my experiences, but not in a “You can do it too!” way. I want to share the story of what I do, because I learn more from stories than a 10-step done-for-you process.
No two people are exactly alike. Even genetically identical twins don’t think exactly the same. We have different sets of strengths and weaknesses. So using a successful entrepreneur’s 10-step process might not work for me. It might even fail horribly.
Because the 10-step process - while detailed - isn’t enough information.
I need the whole story of the success.
Did you succeed because you aligned a generic process to yourself? I CAN do that. My aligned process might look different from yours because it’s aligned to me, not you.
Did you succeed because you didn’t give up and kept going even when it got hard? I CAN do that. My version of “don’t give up” might look different but we get to the same place in the end.
Did you succeed because you got help? I CAN do that. Maybe your version of getting help is to hire a coach. My version is to read helpful books.
And this is why I want the whole story.
When asked the secret to your success, you’ll attribute it to a coach. And if we stopped at this quick advice, I miss the real lesson. But when I hear your full story, the importance of getting help is obvious.
That’s the cool thing about stories.
We can take away the different lessons we need.
And that’s why the advice I want -and need - is not a 10-step done-for-you process. I want the story behind its creation.
Tell me more.
What I Explored This Month 1/10 - 1/31: Indigenous food, healing, and otherish givers
Originally published on Substack
I’m sharing my future works in progress, things I’m in the middle of, by sharing what I’m learning, exploring, and currently curious about.
I also decided I’m going to share these updates once a month instead of weekly. It’s easier to keep track and more sustainable so that I can also publish a regular blog post at least once a month.
WHAT I LEARNED
How to write a book
I’ve always wanted to write a book but didn’t feel that would be possible until this last year. And this month, I listened to a video from Self Publishing School about how to write a book. I actually knew these steps - I’d heard them before at a bookkeeping conference - but I liked hearing them again. It made me feel I could do this, like I could actually get the rough draft of my book done.
Video: Building Fire Resilience
This video was filmed about a month ago and, due to the LA wildfires, it felt timely. I was curious about how to build fire resilience and the specific tips did help calm my fears.
Video: Sean Sherman: Why aren’t there more Native American restaurants?
This video made me realize that I like indigenous foods. It would make sense to have them because what’s more local than the food developed by the land’s original inhabitants?
MORE ABOUT MY SPECIAL INTEREST - HEALTH OF THE HUMAN BODY
Video: Thomas Myers - Why does massage hurt?
A life-long interest has been in the human body, how it works, how our minds work, how disease works. I loved biology classes in school and read science books for fun. But I never wanted to be a doctor or a nurse. I don’t know why, but medical careers never called to me.
What does call to me is traditional medicine, being a healer. And so I read about different methods as they enter my radar and over the years learned about face massage, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, qigong, epigenetics, polyvagal theory, etc etc etc and fascia - the point of this video. Fascia trains are new for me but they make so much sense. It also reminds me of when I learned about how awful regular shoes are for our feet and anatomy (even regular running shoes, not just high heels).
Anyways, I could go on about this topic but I normally don’t outside of my close friends and family because I respect that everyone has different needs and knowledge. And the right knowledge at the wrong time can be harmful.
If you want to know more, here’s a longer video about anatomy trains:
Video: Spiral line release
I tried this stretch and omg, it finally released some of my persistent right side tightness.
Podcast: Networking & Beyond: Unlocking the Full Potential of the Nervous System with Dr. Scherina Alli
I follow Dr. Scherina Alli on Instagram and love seeing her posts about the nervous system and how she helps her patients. I enjoyed listening to this podcast and hearing more about the behind the scenes of running her practice and how she got focused on the nervous system.
WHAT I READ
Book: New Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
I saw this book recommended somewhere in one of the many homestead or homestead-adjacent threads I’ve read. It sounded interesting so I decided to read it. To be honest, none of the book was shocking - growing up Black in the US meant growing up hearing “conspiracy theories” in casual conversation - but it was good background on the US’s economic involvement in other countries.
It reminded me of another book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong that was, again, not shocking but valuable for filling in the gaps of history omitted from my AP US History classes.
Book: Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World by John Vaillant
I saw this book recommended in a subreddit post discussing climate change. It’s a nonfiction account of a major fire that hit a Canadian city in 2016. The author explains the circumstances on the fire’s origins, and why wildfires are getting worse due to climate change.
I already knew that the oil companies knew about climate change before the 1990s. But the book detailed that they knew since 1950/60s, were researching its effects, and wanted to help at first - that was surprising to me. I enjoyed the book. The storytelling pacing reminded me of my favorite book Seabiscuit.
Book: Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant
I originally read this book before the pandemic and enjoyed it. So I decided to re-read it and found so many gems. The author uses psychological studies to show that givers, people who give without expectations, end up better off than takers. And he shows how to be a healthy “otherish giver”, and avoid being a giver who burns out.
This quote perfectly expresses my philosophy in life and business: “I want to create an experience to benefit everyone, not just me.”
Thanks for reading about my learning explorations for the month. Take care!
This little black girl wanted to dance but life happens: Three stories I can tell and the one I choose
Originally published on Substack
When I was little, I really wanted to learn ballet but I didn’t go to ballet classes.
I could tell you 2 stories about that, but I don’t like them. So I created a third story, because why get stuck in a story I don’t like?
The first story I can tell you is about that we couldn’t afford ballet classes. My mom was a single mom working nights to take care of 3 girls. We spent our early years living with relatives and in apartments until she bought a house. While my classmates couldn’t wait for summer vacation, I couldn’t wait for back to school and the fun activities I got to do there versus being stuck at home all day.
In this story, I was an underprivileged minority who lacked resources and ballet class was the symbol of all I missed out on.
That’s one story.
The second story I can tell you is about the oldest daughter who squashed her dreams.
I never (and still haven’t) told my mom I wanted to take ballet classes. Before 10 years old, I already knew we didn’t have money. We were poor. And anytime my sisters asked for anything that cost money, I glared at them and shook my head, warning them not to ask and stress our mom out even more. She was already tired from working all night. She had no help from our dad and wasn’t good at asking for help so it all fell on her. I was just a kid but I could help by needing less. I could help by taking care of my sisters, even though I was only 1.5 to 3 years older than my little sisters.
I didn’t need ballet classes, after all.
In this story, I’m the parentified victim, who has to learn to be a child and dream again as an adult. If I really wanted to commit to this storyline, I could take adult ballet classes and realize this long-held dream (and I did consider it).
Those are 2 stories I told myself about my childhood.
But I didn’t like them.
So I made a new one.
The story I’m telling is I wanted to learn ballet and thought “How can I do ballet if I don’t go to ballet class?”
And the answer was in my absolute favorite place - the public library. (Yes, this was before YouTube existed). So I went to the library, checked out books on ballet, and took them home to read. I practiced the 5 positions in the living room. I stretched and walked on my toes (something I did anyway so now it was intentional ballet practice, not just a weird quirk). I learned about the Russian Ballet and the hierarchy of dance companies. I read Ballet Shoes and wondered which orphan’s ending I preferred. I danced in house slippers that looked like ballet slippers.
I didn’t go to ballet class but I still danced.
The point was expression, to dance, and I did. I danced so I was a dancer.
That’s the story I choose.
Because if you give me 2 options I don’t like, I’m going to create a third one I like better.
Why get stuck in stories we don’t like when we can make a new one?
What I Explored This Week 12/27/2024 - 01/09/2025: Paper planners, homesteading, and more Japanese music
I’m sharing my future works in progress, things I’m in the middle of, by sharing what I’m learning, exploring, and currently curious about.
And I know, this post covers more than one week. I’m keeping the title the same though, because I like consistency.
CURRENT EXPERIMENT - FIGURING OUT HOW TO USE PAPER AND PEN (AGAIN) FOR PERSONAL PLANNING
This video has good tips on how to find your experimental planner style. I’m transitioning back to paper planners for personal tasks and am looking for how to do this in a way that works for me and all my tasks.
This is another video I found helpful for my transition back to paper planners. He’s actually using paper then going to an app, but I found the way he thinks about planning projects helpful, because it’s what works for my work tasks. I plan the project, all the tasks and when they need to be done, and then schedule time to work on the project.
That’s easier for my brain and I started to do this for personal tasks in the last few months but not consistently. This video inspired me to be more consistent and actually use projects for planning.
CURRENT RESEARCH TOPIC - HOMESTEADING, OFFGRID LIVING, PRACTICAL LIFE SKILLS
I’ve watched so many videos about homesteading. My husband is really interested in it and I am too. Not sure it’s for us but I’m gathering information anyway. My brain likes to plan way way way ahead so I’m watching and looking for ways to do it that fits us. I’m not sharing all the videos we’ve seen because it’s just too many. But I like this channel because she has the same flexible and practical way of managing her life that I do. (And funnily enough, her family is going to Southeast Asia for extended travel in 2025, similar to what we did in 2023.)
WHAT I’M READING
“We should get together” book by Kay Vellos
This book is about how to make and keep friends as an adult. I was kind of done with this topic after researching it for years and years as a teenager - because I wanted to know how to make friends even back then - and all the information and advice was starting to sound the same.
But this book piqued my interest. Instead of giving advice, the author went looking for the answer to share the results of her research and what she did with it. I finished the book and my biggest takeaways were to treat friendship as seriously as a romantic relationship, be clear on what you want from a friendship, and a good friendship takes effort.
RANDOM GREAT FINDS
Crayon Advisory Behind the Scenes
Doing the Things for the Communication
Historically, the last two weeks after extension season has been a slow wind-down from extension season. Wrap up the last few returns that didn’t get done by the deadline. Update workpapers that were tossed by the wayside. Catch up on emails ignored during extension season…
Read more
4 years ago · 1 like · 2 comments · Megan Justice
I found Megan Justice’s Substack Crayon Advisory Behind the Scenes when I checked on who liked a Threads post I made recently. (I check who liked my posts to see if I want to follow them. Sometimes I find interesting people and this was one of those times.)
Megan Justice has a newsletter looking behind the scenes of her tax advisory practice. And this article “Doing the Things for the Communication” reminded me that I want to make infographics for my clients to have clearer communication of deadlines. And it gave me an idea of what the infographic can look like, so thank you!!
Atarashi Gakko! - Tokyo calling
This is another great Japanese song. My husband heard it first and showed this to me, thinking I would like it. And I did! The music video is so fun. I caught a few references like to Dragon Ball and Godzilla and I’m sure there were more I don’t know about. And of course, I had to watch all their other music videos and songs (all great too!)
Paul Scrivens https://talentedunderachiever.com/unfinished-projects/
I discovered Paul Scrivens on Threads and his concept of World building. And it called to me, I think this is what I want to do. What I am doing without knowing.
This phrase is really inspiring me to be more me: “Track insight density instead. Which ventures consistently generate new patterns? Which combinations create the most breakthrough potential? Let these guide your portfolio decisions.”
And this phrase reminds me of my weekly snapshot of what I’m working on. This sounds like what I’m doing: “Remember, documentation serves pattern recognition, not the other way around. When capture methods feel heavy or slow, simplify them. The goal isn’t perfect records. It’s maintaining a living library of insights your pattern processor can access for breakthrough combinations.”
I’m still interested in frameworks and experimenting with making my own to clarify my thinking into clear ideas.
And what Mel says in this video reminds me of the world building that Paul Scrivens mentioned. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is but I’m sensing a connection there.
Thanks for reading about my learning explorations for the week. Take care!
Why I call myself a chaos whisperer: Showing love to my natural skills
Originally published on Substack
I’ve been on a personal development journey and a big part of that is realizing my natural skills are Actually Skills. Because it’s easy for me, I thought it was easy for everyone. But it’s not.
And my main skill?
I’m a chaos whisperer. I coax meaning out of the chaos. I see the chaos as ignored energy waiting for us to pay attention and do something about it.
And I like doing something about it using my pattern recognition. I like the process of taking overwhelming masses of info and deciphering meaning into clear concepts.
I’m still realizing the power of my pattern recognition.
I used that skill when I Konmari’d my belongings years ago. I used that skill to study in college without late night or weekend study sessions and without giving up my personal activities.
I use it now
to ruin movies - I can predict what’s going to happen next
to grow my natural hair - I note what’s working and what isn’t to update my routine
to write - I read widely and synthesize info into one idea
to cleanup messy bookkeeping - I can see what‘s wrong and what needs to be cleaned up
to manage my business - I can see what to improve for it to run better
So now I know my pattern recognition is a skill.
Now what?
At this point in my personal journey, I’m shifting from discovery to experimentation. What else can I do?
What I Explored This Week 12/19/2024 - 12/26/2024: Health, planning, and Ado
Originally published on Substack
Backstory to this new series
I want to share more about my works in progress, what’s not finished yet, things I’m in the middle of. And most of those things start with what I’m learning, exploring, and currently curious about.
So this is my first “What I explored this week” post. Ideally this will be shared weekly but I’m still experimenting so we’ll see if that’s sustainable for me.
On to the post!
What I explored this week
I have a life long interest in health and how the mind affects the body. So I was glad to find this video because it connects more dots between trauma and why the body gets autoimmune disease. I like to get a multi-faceted view of a topic so this is like The Body Keeps the Score plus extra.
Random video find on YouTube of someone else using the idea of levels to describe how complex you can make something!! Love this. I’m not going to use Notion as a habit tracker, though, just sticking with a basic habit tracker.
Realized I need to record my personal tasks on paper and that includes my habit tracker. This video inspired me to use habit tracker on paper with a score.
Link to song on Spotify:
I discovered the singer Ado this week!
I was listening to a Japanese pop music playlist one morning to practice listening to Japanese and one song stuck out to me immediately. I looked up the artist and it was Ado.
And now I’m an Ado fan.
I’m excited because when I was first leaning Spanish, I translated and sang Spanish songs I liked. It was a fun way to learn Spanish. So glad I’ve found Japanese music I like enough to do the same thing!
Thanks for reading about my learning explorations for the week. Take care!
I’ve been following my intuition all along: What curiosity taught me about not knowing the outcome
Someone asked me what I’m doing with my blog writing and I paused before saying what might be the hardest words for a conventionally educated adult to say: “I don’t know.”
It took years to be able to say that. And longer to say it confidently, even excitedly.
I don’t know where I want my writing to go. I just know I want to do it. Let’s see what happens.
I’m following my curiosity, the way I now realize I always do.
In elementary school, I wrote stories because I wanted to.
In high school, I checked out manga drawing books from the library and taught myself to draw that style for fun.
In middle to high school, I took Spanish classes because I was curious. The state required 2 years of foreign language credit but I did 4 extra years, even opting out of high school senior year English class - I had fulfilled my English credits - to take Spanish 5 and read classical Spanish literature. That just sounded way more interesting than English lit.
Now, as an adult looking back, I can see how that curiosity helped me in unexpected ways.
Did I know as a 12 year old that, in my 20s, I was going to spend a month in Ecuador? I didn’t. I just wanted to learn a language.
Did I know that manga knowledge would be useful as Japanese culture became really popular? Nope, I just thought the stories were cool.
Did I know that my husband and I planning a 3 month long trip to Thailand would become 6 months of travel in Southeast Asia? And that experience would get me featured on 2 different podcasts in 2024? And start another year-long experiment that I may write about next year? I had NO idea.
And did I know I would put those writing skills to use to write online? Definitely not.
Curiosity usually works out.
Even the “failures”, like the 2 mini-businesses I started before my bookkeeping business. One lasted a few months and the other lasted about 1.5 years. But I don’t consider those businesses failures, just finished experiments. They gave me experiences I still use to understand the businesses I help now as a bookkeeper.
The data has convinced this reformed Type A personality - keep following my curiosity. It’s fun and useful. It usually leads to the “or something better” that only the universe can dream up for us.
I wonder where my curiosity takes me in 2025?