Take the weight off of yourself

We must strip ourselves of the illusion that our next big goal will change our life entirely. It won’t. Achieving big goals almost never has the immediate life-changing impact that we expect. So stop expecting.

We even tend to look back on the good that we’ve done and attribute way too much credit to this or that thing for entirely changing our life.

Real growth and change come in the pursuit of the big goal. There are a thousand things that we need to do in pursuit of our goals and those things are what set change in motion in our life.

The pursuit of the goal should be the goal itself. The goal at the end is just a nice cherry to enjoy at the end before the process begins again.

The doing is often much more important than the outcome. Don’t stress about achieving that goal, just work day after day and the progress will follow slowly, consistently, and joyfully.

Transforming the content

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” How does a great artist steal and “get away with it?”

You steal, as an artist, by reaping the general idea or framework of the art, music, writing, video, etc… but by adding great transformative difference and value to the piece on which you’re working.

If you seek to add value (and actually add value) as any kind of artist, you are transforming all of the artwork you copy, steal, rip off, re-use, etc… because, while the structure of the original artwork is still there, the soul of the work has been transformed by you, the new artist.

Don’t copy artwork, steal artwork.

Self-help Charlatans (Dude, Shut Up)

Self-help style books, quotes, and way of life is a high-wire act of annoyance. If you don’t play off the concepts as something unimportant and completely up to the other person whether they accept or reject, it’s quite often one of the most annoying things to deal with.

Self-help charlatans who “know it all” might be the most irritating form of person I’ve ever interacted with. Just shut up, please.

That being said, I have started reading some of my older blog posts and I definitely come across as a self-help douche.

It’s low-hanging fruit to quickly bang out a blog post on working harder or being more kind or pursuing the truth above all else, etc… so I’ll work on writing about some not-so-low-hanging stuff in my future posts.

Self-help charlatans are annoying and I wouldn’t want to read them, so why would you?

Good pressure, no stress

What carries our dreams into reality? How do you change and stick with the new commitment? We fail because we don’t pursue our goals consistently. Instead of slow, consistent pressure moving forward, we slowly slide away from the change and back to the old habits. Then our dreams remain as just dreams.

Woah, forgot to write this morning.

This is what happens when the routine breaks. Routines are boring and repetitive, but they’re stable and efficient. Routines are good. If you want happier, better, more relaxed, and more fun in the not-routine parts of life, make routines and STICK TO THEM.

How do I start? Where do I begin?

We all want to make changes in our life, but usually, we don’t know where to begin. We have a thousand problems and a hundred that need fixing right away. So we close that box and pretend it doesn’t exist. There is too much to be worried about and more than we can do right now.

It’s an understandable feeling. It’s suffocating and overwhelming all at once.

The answer is that you begin by first doing the things that are necessary. Just do them. Don’t worry about doing them well, just get them done.

You do what is necessary, then you move on to the things that are possible–that is, the things you would like to do, but aren’t necessary to your essential living right now. (i.e. I've found a way to make enough money to eat and pay for my heat, now I can work on a more effective morning routine, practice writing more, etc...)

After a little while of that, you’ll see that you’ve entirely changed your life. There will still be much to do. But, once the toe-hold is established, you will understand that you have some time now to work through your other issues and goals. In this manner, we can progress from doing what is necessary to what is possible to eventually achieve what we once thought was impossible.

Necessary ➡️ Possible ➡️ Impossible. That's the progression.

Creating value

Why do you deserve a high-paying job where you’re free to explore the things you want to in a career field that is suited exactly to your preference?

I would contend that you don’t deserve that. None of us do. We may live in a historical bubble where that is loosely and generally the case, but it’s probably good if we don’t fall into the trap of insisting that we “deserve” that. It’s nice, and we can get it on some occasions, but it’s not a right.

Creating value is the name of the game. Can you create value and employ others? Or are you becoming another part of someone else’s machine?

In fairness, even the value creators are a part of a greater machine, but they generally have the independence in a field they love to a far greater degree than the average employee.

I have a theory that people who create value; whether physical, educational, or artistic, and do that in a morally-upstanding way, will be those who drive society and civilization forward.

Without getting into the arguments or ideas of what constitutes being morally upright, creating value stands firmly next to that as a way to ensure that you have some control, self-respect, efficacy, and good in the work you do.

Nothingness

We probably don’t value it enough. “Nothing” has a depth, a mystery, and a peacefulness that is incomparable.

Covering the mechanized world and its distractions with a dark shroud and focusing on each moment, as if nothing else existed, is simultaneously the most effective and efficient way to do your work, and it is also the most peaceful way to operate.

Nothingness seems pointless and stupid and vapid and pretentious-to-talk-about, but for being a whole lot of nothing, it’s quite valuable.

The future

“I don’t need to do it today, I can do that tomorrow.” It’s interesting that we often push the possibility of difficulty off onto “tomorrow.”

But today is the future we pushed stuff onto five years ago. Rent is due.

With the credit card swipe, the pill laden with side effects, the no-cash-down car lease, and procrastination, we push off the bad stuff until later. Interest accrues, your body slowly breaks down, and the distractions keeping you from important work are forgotten after the momentary pleasure.

We convince ourselves that some immediate satisfaction is worthwhile because all those nasty effects are way are in the future. Turning that lease in costs a bunch of money–three years from now.

It’s so difficult to connect with our future self, yet we’re all so ready to saddle him with untold burdens.

The numbers game

You should see some of the ridiculous emails I get. Stuff so crazy that I can’t believe anybody would respond or “fall” for the offers in some of these emails.

But then I kind of admire the tenacity and never-die attitude. No matter how often I ignore the emails, they keep sending them. Week after week for months (or years) at a time.

I can get angry that the emails keep coming, but I use them as a reminder that if they can be persistent and shameless with the spam, I should be excited to be shameless about putting out legitimate work and having no care for the criticisms of the peanut gallery.

Wasting time planning

Disorganized energy makes you a crazy zealot, while planning without energy makes you a dreamer.

Taking fifteen minutes to plan the day saves an incredible amount of time and effort throughout the day. It seems like a waste when you’re writing down the things you need to do, however, you have a plan and you know what you need to do in each block of time throughout the day.

Speaking of the structure of the day, I don’t like the rigidity of a schedule, but it is the most effective way to get stuff done.

To preserve flexibility and freedom for creativity, I typically block out certain chunks of the day that are “sprints” and leave the remainder free.

5:30am-7am free and clear.

7am-11am structured work.

11am-1pm free and clear.

1pm-6pm structured work.

6pm-8pm free and clear.

8pm-10pm structured work.

10pm-12am free and clear.

A balance of freedom and absolutely nothing that I need to do with more strict sprint periods seems to work pretty well for me (and be sustainable, to boot!)

So I don’t waste time planning. I plan, so that I don’t waste time.

When you work, work hard

Work hard when you set aside time that will be work hours.

When you have “slow days” or periods where things slow down, you don’t just stay still in a place where you can pick up and jump forward from later on. When you slow down or stop, you immediately begin falling behind.

But we need to be content with this reality and still take time to rest, relax, and recuperate from those seasons of really hard work.

It’s easy to cope with a moment of knowing that we will fall a little behind when we understand that in the seasons we work, we will work really hard.

Think of it like fitness, time off is necessary, but you do lose fitness during time off. Yet it’s absolutely necessary.

So when you rest and chill out, really rest and relax. When you work, really work (and if you work on something good and worthwhile, that’s even better!)

Leadership

An army of donkeys led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a donkey.

The tools you have in your toolbox are useless if you don’t wield them wisely.

Be a good leader to the people around you, and be a good leader of the gifts, skills, and qualities you personally possess.

Slightly late

I’m always slightly late. Five minutes. Ten minutes. I always think I can squeeze one more thing in. But I can’t. Somehow, 32 years into my life, I still have not found a way to convince myself to just get going now. It’s not that bad to be three minutes early.

That small task can wait and if you forgo “one more thing” it’s pleasant and stress-free heading to your appointment or deadline.

I want to be at the top

You can see people who are doing what you want to be doing. They’re doing it today. They have a bigger business, a bigger following, are more fit, are more well-read, have a better position at work, etc…

You see it and you want to be there. But you can’t. Not today, at least.

There is no shortcut and no get-rich-quick scheme. You have to work diligently and with a laser focus.

We must know and believe that it takes time to get there. We need to have the patience today to start working on the baby steps. The seeds you plant will blossom in a few years. Be patient. Start now.

Domain name transfer

I decided to transfer my domain name to a different provider and did so without any planning. So the site appears to be down. It isn’t “down” but rather the name that links to the website is simply broken from that connection making the site appear to be down.

I do too much planning on things not important, and way too little planning on things important. Strange.

The silence of our friends

You have to decide whose side you’re on. If you play both sides, the winner will have no respect for you and the loser will resent that you never stood by his side. Only the immoral or ultra-crafty man can get away with “straddling the fence.”

We don’t remember the mean things our enemies say or do, but we never forget the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King Jr. said something like that a while ago.

I don’t want to do the important work

It’s so strange that the work that will make the greatest impact in my life and also bring me the greatest sense of accomplishment is so often the work that I want to do the least.

I’m not sure why my brain does that. We’re on the same team! Shouldn’t my brain encourage me to do the valuable stuff instead of the trivial stuff? Or is this mindset merely me descending into a lower creature and craving dopamine now, instead of a payoff later?

Even knowing all that I know about deep and important work, somehow my brain still doesn’t crave doing it. But I’m working on it.

Physical work vs. Knowledge work

It’s easy to see how and why physical labor is hard work. It physically beats your body down over the course of years. I did manual construction labor for about half a decade and realized fairly quickly that I didn’t like the prospects of being a fifty-year-old guy who had done this work for 35 years and I was able to get out of physical labor by the time I was 20 years old.

I like physical labor. I like the idea of strengthening my body and developing that tough grittiness that only comes from working with your hands. I like the skills you learn and how incredibly useful it is to know how to build a wall, wire a light switch, fix a plumbing valve, and install hardwood flooring. But I don’t like the life that it takes from you.

Knowledge work, on the other hand, is easy to look at and assume that it’s easy to do. You just sit there all day and “work.” That’s what most people think (including those who do knowledge work.)

The difficulty of knowledge work is that it fatigues your mind to the point of physical exhaustion. If you’ve ever spent a day really studying, you probably know what I’m talking about. It also places the knowledge worker in a position of continual mental battles in trying to maintain focus.

With modern technology, any distraction you want is a click away. Just one click and you’ve lost your focus and that flow state in which you are extremely productive. With most physical labor, you can leave your phone in the truck and have many more steps (literally) between you and a distraction.

While physical work is physically taxing, knowledge work takes immense mental focus and strain with the temporary relief from that strain (all the distractions of the internet, social media, Netflix, etc…) dangling just one click away. And the more the knowledge worker gets distracted, the more difficult it becomes to focus.

This modern difficulty of knowledge work is self-inflicted, but social media, etc… are created in such a way to exploit this weakness in the human and most knowledge workers probably don’t even understand how deep the problem they have is.

It’s hard to compare physical and knowledge work, but it’s easy to write off knowledge work as if it’s easy. It’s not. Just because you can’t understand the difficulties, does not mean that the difficulties don’t exist.

For the knowledge worker, my advice is to disconnect as much as possible. Shut off your phone and block all social media and entertainment websites on your computer(s) and sink into the scary, uncomfortableness of having to do deep work. Once you’ve started doing it, you will love it and you’ll feel much more accomplished in the end.