Notice your friction

Image credit: Akshat patni - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Directing Your Friction: A Lesson in Design Thinking from 11th Century Sculptors

My friend Veer recently shared an interesting story. He spoke of the old Jain temples, like those at Mount Abu, renowned for their impossibly intricate marble carvings. The secret to their beauty, he explained, wasn't just artistry, but a unique incentive system.

The sculptors were not paid for what they created, but for what they removed.

For every gram of marble dust they painstakingly carved away, they were given an equal weight in gold. The masterpiece was revealed by what was chipped away, stroke by stroke.

This idea can be repurposed for our modern lives to drive clarity. What if we applied this principle not to marble, but to the friction in our daily routines?

The most effective path to a well-designed life isn't by adding more, but by relentlessly removing what doesn't belong. What you don't want is visceral. It's the clunky process, the repetitive task, the low-grade annoyance. These are the marble dust of our lives, waiting to be carved away to reveal the elegant system beneath.

This requires a new kind of discipline: noticing your friction.

This is why, in Zehen, journaling isn't just for ideas; it's for irritations. What's annoying for me may not be annoying for you. Your journal—your unique record of friction—has no replacement. Capturing your annoyance the moment you feel it transforms it from a fleeting frustration into a valuable data point.

This habit is transformative. During a review of your own frustrations, a clear blueprint for what to carve away next almost always emerges. You aren't chasing an abstract vision; you are solving real, visceral problems.

This is the core of our Zevolve sessions with clients. We not only set new goals. We also identify the marble that needs to be removed. And having identified them, we chisel them away from your life using Zehen's unique tool box.

What's the one thing you don't like doing that you've accepted as "just the way it is"?