Discipline and strengthening your mind

Want to break the endless scrolling habits we possess? We scroll from Facebook right to Instagram right to Twitter right to Reddit and back to Facebook again.

The answer is to strengthen the mind and teach it to focus on one thing each moment without craving that next dopamine hit (the moment we see the next post, image, tweet, news article, comment, etc... we get a little hit of this stuff to our brain).

To focus on the thing you need to work on right now without fear of missing out on all that other stuff out there.

To develop the discipline to actually start making yourself focus and just do it requires a strengthening of the mind.

To strengthen the mind you mush push hardest when you really want to quit. The days you don't want to show up need to be the days you show up longest and hardest.

To suffer this discomfort as we develop our self-discipline (so that we may be disciplined enough to practice focusing without distraction, etc...) requires that we know why we're putting ourselves through this. You must know what you want and, most importantly, why you want it.

Your “why” needs to be short and sweet. You need to ingrain it into your mind so in that difficult moment of distraction, laziness, or weakness you can quickly recite in your mind why you're doing this.

You must show up and do your best work when you're least motivated. Slay the beast and start doing what you want without regret and for the reasons you want to do them.

“1. Find your “why”.
2. Force yourself through discomfort to strengthen your mind.
3. Use the discipline gained in that to practice focusing on one thing at a time.
4. Use your discipline and singular focus combined with your “why” to execute high-level work reliably.
5. Keep working on yourself.”

How much can you take?

I'm reading "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins at the moment and as I read his incredible story, I'm left wondering just how much the human body can handle.

How much further could I run if I REALLY tried and didn't give up when breathing got difficult?

How much more could I lift if I pushed a little harder?

How much more could I lift 6 weeks from today if I pushed a little harder every time I go to the gym?

How much more could I focus if I ruthlessly cut out all distractions?

Cancel Netflix. Shut off my phone and lock it in a cabinet. Block Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and any websites that distract me throughout the day.

Run even when it’s freezing cold outside. Jump on the bicycle when it’s rainy and cold. Push harder and let nothing stand in the way. Build THAT mindset.

How much more could I focus if I really gave it an honest effort? Because it's not really about what I think my body can handle. It's about what my mind can handle and how much I'm willing to push it.

The book has been a great reminder to stop complaining and work my way out and work my way up. It's up to you and nobody else. So no excuses, no shortcuts, and certainly not taking it easy on yourself. Choose the hard and painful way and learn to love it.

Wasted potential is sad (I'm selfish)

You have things to do and the potential is great. Don't waste it your life being comfortable. Don't tell yourself that it couldn't be you. There is nothing special about the big stars, the famous people, the rich ones.

I heard someone say recently that the easiest way to live a short and unimportant life is to consume the world around you rather than contribute to it.

The consumer lets the world happen to them and they don't realize their potential.

The artist happens to the world and pushes the envelope searching for the limits to their potential.

Lift yourself up and search for limits, but never believe you have any. To watch great potential wasted is a sad thing. Create, contribute, and share.

Only be a little better

Be better than you were yesterday.

Be better than you were last week.

Be better than you were last month.

Just keep track of what you do and work on being a little better. Speed doesn't matter, direction does.

Why do I always want what I can't get?

The "Scarcity Principle" dictates that the more somebody has access to something, the less they will come to value it. It seems to be a biological thing.

When we over-share people get annoyed. If we could never get away from our significant other we'd breed resentment. If we spoil our kids, receiving a gift or present becomes the norm.

But by withholding just enough we breed interest, desire, and fascination.

When Snapchat makes a message that disappears in 24 hours, you want to make sure you see that thing before it's gone forever.

When your product will only be available for 72 hours, you make it more desirable.

When the sofa you're looking at has been sold to someone else, you find that it just happens to be the one you REALLY wanted.

We're after the forbidden fruit, not the fruit that is right beside it and very much available.

It's a funny thing, that "Scarcity Principle" and it's as old as mankind himself.

Expert vs. amateur

I like to read and explore ideas. This often ends of setting a trap (that I often fall into) in which I'm tricked into thinking that I know more about a given subject than I do. Because I read ONE book about it.

What is the difference between somebody who reads a few books about a topic and maybe watch a Skillshare course or two and a real expert?

I have a theory that anyone can watch a few Skillshare courses on photography, we might have a rudimentary idea of how a shutter speed or aperture helps them get a better (or worse) picture.

On the other hand, an expert treats the camera as an extension as his hand. He can walk into a new photo location and immediately see what shutter, what ISO, what aperture will work best. He can see his subject and immediately understand how and why he will light the subject. The expert takes action and reacts with an intuitive-like speed where they immediately just know.

The Skillshare savant has the information, but not the speed of access to make the knowledge apply in real time in the real world.

Imagine a master of psychology. She can share all of her information and knowledge with you or me in a week, but she can also have a conversation and recognize the psychological traits on the fly and react as she sees fit moment by moment and no matter how different each conversation is from the last one.

You or I would have the information, but could we apply it to 10 patients over the course of an afternoon?

Therein, I think, lies the biggest difference between a guy like me who reads a few books about something and somebody who has dedicated their life to a skill.

Getting started is the hardest part

A rocket doesn’t think about lifting of, it just does. Starting is what rockets do and they’re really good at it.

I am an unrepentant procrastination machine. I want to be reformed of it, but I am never quite as focused as I know I really could be.

I want to change, but do I? If you really want to change it is #1 in your mind and you do make the change. So maybe I don't want to change as much as I know I should.

Anyway, I noticed this morning that right before I start a couple of different tasks that I've agreed with myself I would start doing each morning, there was a little moment where I started making an excuse.

I started to look for a reason to NOT do the thing. I didn't have anything better to do. I probably would have just wasted the time.

I did end up doing all three tasks, each of which I hesitated for a moment before starting.

I crushed the thought in its infancy and jumped into each task.

Because the hardest part is getting started, so get started quickly. Once you start it's easy. At least, that's what I've come to realize.

So be the rocket. Get started and don’t hesitate.

You're special, but not unique

If you aren't familiar with the tragedy of Jonestown that took place in 1978, it's really a striking moment in American history.

Over 900 people "drank the Kool-aid" (literally) and committed mass suicide in the middle of the jungle in Guyana near the northern coast of South America.

Why? How? and WHAT?!

I have a theory that groupthink will lead more people into/out of a movement than any inherently good thing about the movement.

For instance, when you're isolated in a jungle with 900+ people and everyone else is drinking the Kool Aid and laying down to sleep peacefully, you tend to follow and do it yourself. Even to that extreme.

This also stands true for people making purchases. Think of the cult-like following that Apple foster over the past decade. The phones aren't the best ever and they aren't cheap, but they're safe and most other people have them so it's easy to jump on board and feel good about it.

About 95% of people are followers and only 5% (or so) are the "initiators".

This is valuable information for any salesperson or marketing guru. Do for that first 500 followers or customers what you won't be able to for the following 5,000.

The first 500 are the spearhead, the influencers, the ones who initiate a movement. The more you make them feel special and welcomed, they elevate from customer to brand ambassador.

Again, think of what happened to Apple. People camped out for those phones and iPods, etc...

They also shared with their friends and validated the decisions they made.

They build the "social proof" if-you-will that their friends would look at and think "OK when I need a new phone, this iPhone thing seems really cool!"

Decision made. Brand accelerated. Apple becomes one of the most valuable companies in the world.

There are heaps of ways we can see ourselves and those around us influenced by this principle of "social proof".

Nobody wants to look stupid and most of us care what others think about us. We also seek safety especially when facing the unknown. Therein is the power of this principle.

Some organization goes a long way

A little planning goes a long way. It's well worth it to invest the time upfront and work more efficiently later.

You just have to believe it will work that way to convince yourself to actually do the planning.

Planning and organization also give you substantial peace of mind and can be a procrastination-buster (because you have a plan to follow and you can see the steps it takes to complete the project).

Try spending a few hours planning and a few hours working instead of many, many hours working with no plan.

Fat, juicy days ahead

Make this week a good week. Forget about any failures of last week. There are six fat and juicy days ahead of us and we're in this thing together. Let's use these days to the best of our ability.

Be proud of who you were today, tomorrow. Or... in this case, next week.

Threatening is easy, teaching is effective

It's better to teach why a thing is good or bad, right or wrong rather than threaten or coerce someone into doing something.

To coerce makes the situation better in the immediate moment, but as soon as you're gone resentment begins to breed and your rules or ideas are cast aside with a vengeance.

To teach why a thing is good, bad, right, or wrong will help your subject to make the inner-decision to choose the right or good thing and that is a constraining force that is not only still effective when you're no longer around but will leave everyone feeling much better about the decision in the long run.

In terms of sales, if you undercut or offer "killer" deals to rope somebody into buying a product, sure you got the sale, but not the customer.

As soon as they realize what you did, the jig is up. Why do we all think car salesmen and lawyers are slimy? Because we never feel like we have the power to make the final decision due to the near constant manipulation that takes place in those transactions.

When your customer realizes why they should buy your product, they can make that decision and purchase what you offer no matter the price. They also grow to love you and your product instead of growing jaded and disillusioned to your machinations.

Teaching is better than tricks and threats.

Here is a link to a study that speaks to this psychological idea in children.

Brilliance is uncomfortable

When you have a moment of creative insight, a moment of brilliance, it's exciting and the natural urge is to jump at the solution and consider the job finished.

Except great creative minds rarely settle with the first solution they happen upon.

They are comfortable with living in the unknown. Comfortable with being uncomfortable. By NOT taking the quick creative solution that first appears, they instead opt to continue searching and probing the abyss for other brilliant ideas. And they often find them.

This allows them to operate in a realm reserved for the elite. Those are the amazing people we look at and wonder how they're so good at what they do and why everything seems so easy for them.

This scarcity of willingness to float in the scary unknown of creative darkness makes that ability more valuable (as long as it's effectively used.)

It's uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.

It's uncomfortable to start work and invest time in art that might look horrible.

And it's uncomfortable to avoid settling for the easy way out or the first solution.

If you're comfortable doing what you're doing, the likelihood is that you are nowhere near your potential. Lewis and Clarke did not choose the easy path when they set out, but they discovered a whole new world in the American West.

I'll leave you with this brilliant talk by John Cleese where he has some interesting and powerful ideas about creativity and even talks about resisting the urge to settle. You're going to love it.

Distraction is our kryptonite

With the proliferation with the "Instagram lifestyle" becoming so popular, I see many young business-owners and entrepreneurs chasing what others are doing and trying to get the perfect picture to share with the unknown masses online or tweet the perfect set of words to get more likes and retweets. To get popularity becomes the "why" behind what many of us do.

But does those likes, follows, retweets, etc... do much to build your business? Do they build your social standing? And if so, does that help you make more sales? Do those "likers" turn into customers?

Are we even able to be honest with ourselves when we answer that question?

We'll probably just find some way to justify spending more time on social media instead of honing our business to a perfect machine or making the process and service(s) we offer our customers even better.

My generation seems to be shackled with endless distractions. We're browsing social media for hours, consuming endless amounts of Netflix, Hulu, etc..., and wasting our time away with video games.

As business owners, this chasing popularity is just another distraction we add to an already distracted existence.

I think I still have it in myself to a certain extent.

I know that I could still be more focused on business, more focused on delivering a better experience, more focused on being more responsive to clients, and more hungry to test and practice my craft and becoming a better photographer.

I could also spend more time improving myself with more fitness, healthier eating, and reading/studying things I want to learn more.

Don't mistake popularity for success especially if popularity isn't the success itself. Work hard and build your business.

Eliminate distractions. All of them.

No matter how scary, keep going

Even when it's tough, never give up. Become more tenacious.

No matter how dire, how scary, how improbable, no matter how much you're losing; never give up, never give in.

Never lose hope, work on getting better every day, and try to surround yourself with gritty people.

Never give up. Never.

"But I'm not as talented as he is..."

If you can't be as talented as someone else, if you can't sell for cheaper than someone else, if you don't have the resources that the other guy does, you can still do well by providing a better human experience.

Build a boutique when you can't compete with the megamall. Specialize in special. Be more thoughtful. Be more empathetic. Show them you care and the ones that care about that will become your greatest advocates.

Don't be afraid to repeat what works

When I find something that works I do it once and think that I need to reinvent the wheel.

It's one of the things that I get most frustrated with myself about. I find it hard to stick to one style of photography because I want to do one and then try all the others, too.

But when you find success, stick to it and make 100 of those images even if they're pretty similar.

Larry King didn't build a new set for each show he did. He just replaced the subject and let the artwork flow from his mouth.

Be more like Larry King, not me.

Just ask

It's hard to ask for what we want for fear of being rejected or fear of appearing vulnerable.

But it's better to not take everything so seriously. Call your cable company and tell them in a fun and relaxed tone of voice that you don't want to pay as much and that, as a loyal customer who paid on time for years, you would like some kind of discount. You'll probably get one.

Often we don't get the things we want because we hype them up in our own mind to the point where it's terrifying to think about being rejected so it's easier to just sit still and not try at all.

Try asking for everything. Ask for a lollipop at the grocery store checkout, ask for a discount when you want one, ask for a higher price for your work, ask for time, ask for funding to pursue your latest corporate venture.

You'll probably get it just because you asked. The dirty secret is that almost everyone is afraid to ask so you're not even bothering anyone when you do.

They want the credit, but not the risk

Staying the same and never moving feels safest. Saying "no" to every opportunity that arises feels like a warm hug. It's easy to say "no" and hard to say "yes" when opportunity knocks.

But to say "yes" and step away from your comfort zone is a mark of leadership. Leaders blaze a trail, they don't follow a path.

Where are they going? Nobody knows because nobody has gone there before. If the trail was blazed, they would no longer be a leader but a follower.

You don't always need to know exactly where you're going or how it's all going to work out. You do need to have faith, imagination, and initiative to make it work out.

Those who are too afraid to risk leading follow and content themselves with mediocrity. They also tend to criticize those who wish to lead.

They offer an opinion or make changes to your work. They're ready to meddle in your work just as long as they don't have to face the risk of failure.

Stick to your convictions and do what you think is best for the trail you're blazing.

So take risks, take initiative even when you don't know the details, and hold fast your convictions. You're the leader, the risk-taker, and the one who see things a little differently. Don't lose that specialness in a world that prefers the safety of mediocrity.

Which surgeon do you want?

Would you rather the surgeon have two amazing days of perfect surgeries each week, or spend seven days sweeping the halls?

Which is a more successful and productive week?

I often get caught in the trap of thinking more work = more production.

The reality for most of us is that more work done intelligently is more productive. Remember that saying "work smarter, not harder"?

Yeah, more of that.

Am I more productive if I manually lift all the wood boards to the upstairs bedroom, or take the time to rent a crane and have it all lifted up there by lunchtime?

The first method takes much more physical labor and therefore may seem like it's the better day of work, but the second method gets the job done, preserves your body, and the rest of the day is free to continue being productive.

Pace yourself and work more intelligently and you'll get more done while having more time to do the other things you love.

Show up every single day

If you've read any of my older blog posts you know how I subscribe to the theory of showing up day after day after day.

Even if all you actually do is the "show up" part.

I've been (surprisingly) pretty consistent posting here since November 2018 when I was sure that I'd only write for a couple days before forgetting about it.

Instead, a habit has been formed and it's turned into something I MUST do every morning.

Showing up every day buys me the equity to mail in a blog post like this on a day like today. I'm busy and I need to pound out a quick post just to make sure I do this.

I don't really even care about the quality of this blog entry, I just want it done. Usually, that means I'll actually run into something interesting.

So that's it. Show up. Every single day. That makes it easier to show up and the people you show up for will give you the benefit of the doubt when you show up like I have today.

I showed up, but not much else. But I did show up.