In our design, photography, and communication we must make complex things simple. Things that are obvious to us are usually not even on the radar of people who aren’t buried in the design or photography world.
Think of teaching a group of brand new medical students about medicine. Start with the bones and blood and not something like the effects that a rare genetic disease might have on your blood’s structure or the immune system’s response.
Don’t plan every tiny detail and don’t plan too far into the future. Plan just enough so you know the work that needs to be done today and maybe tomorrow. No more.
Dream about the future and plan vague ideas of where you want to steer your company or project, but don’t nickel and dime the future. The future will present challenges unforeseen and detailed planning much beyond the next 24 hours is generally a waste.
If you don’t get started quickly, the day dwindles away and before you know it, it’s 5:30pm and you wonder what has happened.
I’ve been guilty of a morning routine that takes 4 hours to finish before I start my work. That’s unacceptable. My goal these days is to be awake and through my entire morning routine within 90minutes and then get right into work.
I think of it like an airplane taking off. You want it to be fast and smooth. If something gets in the way, the airplane can crash. If you throw distractions and unnecessary tasks in and sabotage your own takeoff, you might be crazy. Smooth and fast takeoff is the best formula for getting the day started right.
The thing that is distracting you right now feels so captivating, so important, and so comfortable. When you step away from it, you clearly see how much of a waste of time it was and you’re annoyed that you wasted 5 hours doing something that was utterly useless.
Therein we see the highlights and shadows of distraction. The highlights are like flashes of light, but the shadows are like caves that can swallow you up and never let go.
Do you want credit, or do you want to have an impact? They rarely come together. If you spend your life chasing fame and credit and praise, it’s a distraction from making a real impact.
If you make an incredible impact, you’ll not only make an impact, but you usually get some credit that long outlives you.
Credit and accolades are fleeting, but impact is long-lasting.
Do you wish to be famous or do things that make an impact? To be or to do.
We must be sure that we are committed if we say “yes” to engagements, jobs, projects, etc… If we don’t say yes enthusiastically and with authenticity, we’re saying yes because we feel pressured to do so. This breeds resentment.
When we live or work filled with resentment, that is going to cause us far more problems than just saying no when we’re not happy with or prepared to take on the project.
Instead of adding an epic task to your to-do list, add the task of breaking that epic project into small tasks that can be completed more quickly.
When we begin a project, we work twice as quickly when we can see the end up ahead. If no end is in sight, we begin to meander and productivity goes into the wood chipper.
Small bites, small stories, small tasks. Small is the way to get big things done.
I’ve been thinking about the way we think about what we do. The compartmentalization of our life. Everything wrapped in beautiful little boxes. Then all these boxes get stacked together and that’s our life. Sure, everything is together, but it’s all kind of apart at the same time.
Life appears to be far different than what we perceive, however. Everything is connected. Everything.
History connects us to the past like a scarlet thread. Our decisions in business don’t stand alone, they touch and influence massive parts of life. Our health is more than taking 15 different pills to make us healthy. The pills all must work together–and work with the make-up of our body.
Everything has side effects and nothing lives in a vacuum. Our decisions today will affect/change the rest of our life. We won’t see the impact of most of our decisions, but it’s always there even when we ignore it or don't realize it. (i.e. You may have bought a red car. That red color may have caught someone's eye before they pulled out in front of you. Who knows what injury or financial hassle would have followed such an event. But it never happened because they noticed your car.)
Nothing lives only in the present moment without regard to the rest of our life. I’m starting to see how this is true for all aspects of history, science, art, business, family, health, religion, and all beliefs and decisions we make.
Practice is the key to becoming the master of your craft. However, there needs to be talent there, to begin with.
There is a certain baseline you’re born with and you can sharpen that with practice. Practice can’t make you Michael Jordan, you need to be born with that. But Jordan wouldn’t be Jordan without practice.
The two go together and ultimate success isn’t there without both. Practice without the natural talent is a futile life of busting your chops trying and wondering why you never quite get to that legendary status. Talent without practice is a life filled with untapped potential and regret.
Find what you’re good at doing and practice until you’re great at doing it.
A dream without a plan remains just a dream. Action without a plan often will turn into a nightmare.
But the act of planning can become so seductive, that planning becomes the primary focus. It becomes for fun, more rewarding (in the moment), and more seemingly important to plan rather than to do the work.
Planning should never become more important than the plan itself.
Dream, plan, and DO.
Most people stop writing as soon as they make their point. For professional writers, that is when the real writing starts.
Most joke writers stop writing once they get a good punchline. For the professional comedian, that is when the real writing starts.
Most designers build the logo as soon as they draw a neat concept. For the professional designer, that is just when things start heating up.
Most photographers settle for the first pretty good image they make. For the professional, that’s when they know they’re getting close to the truly epic shot.
It’s so tempting to take the first “out” you get. That first great idea pops up and you take it instead of marinating in it and discovering a dozen ideas right alongside it.
For the best creativity, soak in the process and take the time. that’s where the really great ideas and art are to be found.
Life could end right now for you or me. You could die tomorrow when everything seems perfect today. It should be a reminder to do what is right, right now! No waiting. No excuses. No taking tomorrow for granted.
When you feel tired or lazy or like sitting around and wasting what you’ve been given. This should be a reminder that you are still feeling and you have the gift of life and you only get one shot at this thing. And it could all be finished tomorrow. So why waste today because you don’t feel like getting up and moving?
It could all be gone tomorrow, so don’t take it for granted today. Remember the Latin saying "memento mori"
The things we fear are almost always the very things we should be doing the most. If you’re afraid of it, it’s probably the right decision. The world works that way for some reason.
Within reason, of course. When standing on the lip of the Grand Canyon and you’re afraid to fall, don’t jump. That would just be stupid.
I forgot to write a blog post yesterday. It was a great day and a very busy day. Didn’t get to everything I wanted to do and had to leave a few things until today. It’s bad for the business and makes me look like a flake, but I’ve been wildly inconsistent for the past five weeks because I was sick for the entire month of August, and working double-time to catch up isn’t my strongest suit.
That’s a long, drawn-out way to say that I didn’t even have time to write this post so I’m banging out some words now and letting the river of my mind flow for a couple of minutes before the caffeine kicks in and I grind my face into the ground again today.
Work is good and makes me happy.
Optimism doesn’t come naturally, not as naturally as pessimism and doubt, at least.
If you’re pessimistic, everything is a roadblock. When something does go wrong, you’re quick to pull a “see! I told you so!” and feel validated in your concern. It’s a low-risk life, but one fraught with stress about a million things that never actually happen.
Optimistic people are the ones who build things and see the future as bright and something worth investing in. They believe it deeply enough to invest time, energy, and money into building something for the future.
Problems will arise, but it’s an opportunity to innovate, streamline, and make your project more robust and anti-fragile.
We’d all be a bit better off if we remembered that pessimism is easy but usually destructive. On the other hand, optimism is difficult but will usually help us to be very productive.
Don’t let yourself down. There is no shortcut. Work. No matter how many self-help books you read or how much motivation you manage to conjure up for a moment, you must work. Work is the key to everything you wish for the future. You must work. Even if it’s not fun, you still must work.
Set aside blocks of time beforehand that are strictly for work. Those hours are now gone and you might as well get the work done in the time you set aside.
Do your work, admire your work, be happy and satisfied with the work you accomplish. But by all means, get to work.
The innocent child sees adults as faultless superheroes.
Eventually, that innocence is faded into adolescence as the child sees that adults are indeed imperfect.
Next, the adolescent grows into an adult when he forgives the adults for their missteps and imperfections.
Finally, the adult finds a sense of wisdom and peace when he sees his own imperfections and forgives and encourages himself.
If we cannot find it within ourselves to be humble and meek, it will be impossible to pass from the youthful volatility into a more stable peaceful adulthood.
Great, you’ve taken a risk. That’s the safest thing you could have done. After all, taking no risk is the most dangerous way to conduct yourself.
Once you take a risk, find a way to identify the worst risks within the risky project and wipe those out.
Just like that, you take risks, but you eliminate wastefulness and damage that would scare you away from taking risks in the future.
So risk, but once you risk, find ways to eliminate risks within that greater risky project.
Set boundaries and say “no”. The only people who will be angry that you say “no” are the people who gained so much at your expense because you would never say “no”.
The highlights that we see everywhere on TV and social media are not what leads to success. They are the end product. Sports, business, lifestyle, everything. All we see are the highlights.
This is the procrastinator’s dream. Intense action leads to awesome fame and riches! Right? RIGHT!? Wrong.
But it doesn’t. Intense action leads to desperation and pain while you wonder how your life is slipping away.
High performers are the product of consistent action (which naturally leads to moments of intense action) rather than just doing moments of intense action and trying to sustain that–spoiler: you can't sustain that energy.
You think you can cram all that studying and paper writing into the last 30 hours before a paper is due. It’s an awful way to live–even if you get that paper finished.
Consistent action every day feels amazing and is incredibly effective. It naturally leads to the “highlight” moments that you see everywhere.
Start simple, do that simple thing every day for 30 days, and commit to consistently doing that action every single day rather than doing it intensely.
Too much intensity early in a habit-building phase will make it impossible to build better behavior. Let the intensity build naturally. For now, just work on consistency! Every day. Every day. Every day.