Why are we so scared and lazy?

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of comfort and complacency. We start to believe our own hype or we begin to think everything will always be as good as it is today. We tell ourselves, “I’ll always be taken care of!”

Our success is the combined result of courage, hard work, and persistence in both of those things.

It’s not “luck” or “chance.” It’s what you put into it and how consistent you are putting in that effort.

This is why the end result is not important. The effort is important. When you consistently put forth the effort, the results will come.

Costly distractions

An hour scrolling social media in the morning doesn’t cost you only one hour of time. It starts your day by rewarding you for no work done on your part. This sets the table for your entire day to be slow and dragging. You’ll be far less motivated to get your stuff done and have a productive day.

That hour scrolling social media costs you 4-5x in lost hours of effort throughout your day.

Wake up, stay away from screens, get the morning routine done, and get to work.

Creative confidence and overcoming the unknown

One of the biggest steps of growth any creative professional can see is great self-confidence that the ideas will come and the skills you’ve acquired will be there to craft something when needed.

It’s humble self-confidence, not arrogance. It’s there, but you’re still on edge while the creativity seems to flow from your fingertips. It’s a magical experience.

I just finished a photography project that was full of unknowns and not much could be done to plan for what would happen. Yet I stepped back earlier today from the project and looked at what we made. It’s really good stuff.

Yet I don’t derive satisfaction from the good finished product. I feel satisfied because I did the work. I trusted in my skills and walked into a situation that was scary and delivered great work because I trusted my work and put in the time.

Modern celebrity

Do you ever wonder why our biggest celebrities are actors, singers, or athletes? Why aren’t geniuses, great scientists, literary masters, courageous generals, or wise philosophers our celebrities? Is this some kind of mark on our generation?

The grass might look greener, but usually, it’s not

Isn’t it interesting that you can die of thirst in the ocean just as much in a desert? That having the wrong thing is almost the same as having nothing at all.

Just because the grass looks greener from here doesn’t mean it’s not an illusion.

Don’t think too much

While it is important to “work smarter, not harder,” it interesting to note that people who do things, just go and do them. Dreamers and procrastinators sit around and make plans and talk about the best way of doing them.

Plans and optimization are important, but periods of decline in your work are probably characterized by overthinking and becoming too much of an intellectual about the things you do.

It makes me wonder if my productivity woes have been made worse by the books about productivity that I’ve read. Do the work and don’t think about it too much.

Being dedicated to discussion and debate (even if only within yourself) seems to destroy the power of action.

We need something to get up for

The power of getting up and doing the work is that when you taste that success and accomplishment, you want more. But if you never get started, you can never understand the depth of this motivation. All you need is one taste and you’ll always demand more of it. We would probably all have better health if we spent less time in bed, but we need something to get up for.

Fearless initiative

Great empires in history and great companies have one thing in common. They rise from small beginnings by way of fearless initiative. In fact, the fearlessness that they exhibit goes beyond just rising to power or greatness.

There is fearlessness these visionaries exhibit in all endeavors. But as companies (or empires) grow, there is a gradual shift from a fearless pressing forward to a purely defensive mindset. “Protect our market share at all costs!” When they should be seeking ways to expand and fearlessly venture into new territory.

Look at Apple’s great pivot in the early 2000s toward the iPod when they had been a middling computer and software company. They dared to venture and they became great. How can we be more fearless in our ventures? How can we take action, rather than theory, as our solution?

The systems are all around you

Throughout our life, there are methods we use to get things done. The little routine to put your clothes on, brushing your teeth, the way you walk through the grocery store, and the preparation of pulling out your wallet (or purse) before the cashier gives you a total are all systems in your life that you use to get things done.

These are more unconscious to us and they are things we take for granted. However, imagine if you think about every system in your life and work that could be optimized and tweaked and made better. How much more free time might you have? How much less stress would there be when you know how things are getting done?

These 1-2-3 systems are all around us and it’s up to you and me to build them in our lives and businesses.

Consuming makes you weaker

I constantly fight the battle of consuming more than I create. The more you create, the more power and leverage you have. (You also feel much better about yourself.)

However, the more you consume, the more power you give to others. You become the vessel of their effort and they gain while you fall behind.

Creating requires effort and gives you a future. Consuming is the short-term pleasure fulfillment with a long-term debt that crushes you later.

The more you create, the more powerful you become.

The more you consume, the more powerful others become.

— James Clear (@JamesClear) July 15, 2021

Thoughts about children and parents

If you raise your children, you can spoil your grandchildren. But if you spoil your children, you’ll have to raise your grandchildren. Children without the guidance, restraint, and critique of parents are left rudderless. Thus begins an inter-generational impact felt for decades.

No shortcuts

There has never been a dearth of productivity in my life more than when I fell into the “four-hour work week” trap about ten years ago. I think I still suffer from some of the aftershocks of that earthquake.

The experts don’t have shortcuts, work isn’t easy for 99% of people, and the four-hour work week only becomes feasible after you’ve built and established a valuable company.

Life gets harder as you try to make things easier. Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder. Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder. Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder. Easy has a cost.

Humans thrive in the lack of abundance. Having everything you could ever want only causes you to thirst for more and yet be satisfied less by each thing you get.

Don’t look for the shortcut and don’t worry about working hard vs. working smart. Just work and refine a little bit at a time and everything will be OK.

Closest friends and harshest critics

If your closest friends are your harshest critics, what happens when you push them away? Is a freedom from the criticism of caring people a good thing? Well, you first have to convince yourself that they’re not caring people, then it becomes possible to walk away.

Personal decisions vs. business decisions

In personal decisions, we’re concerned about how things feel right now so we make radical changes without deep consideration of how things will be in five or ten years. Running off to start a new life is fun for the first 18 months, miserable for the next half-decade, and simple suffering thereafter. The concern was only about the feelings at the moment, and not where you will be in ten years. A fatal flaw.

With business decisions, we often have the exact opposite approach. We let great opportunities slip by because we're afraid of the future. What if the company revenue is bad in the next five years? Should I still sign that new lease? Should I approve that new budget?

Business decisions should be made with a focus on the now with only a slight peek at the future. Things good for business now, are typically good long-term. However, personal decisions should be looking primarily at the future, with only a slight look at this exact moment. Suffer or do uncomfortable work now for peace and stability later.

Interestingly, they both follow the general axiom of suffering now for a reward later. (Short-term pleasure always comes at a cost. Always.) Business requires hard work, focus, and commitment now. Personal decisions require personal sacrifice now for ease later.

Funny how we make decisions.

Living your life for others

The best version of yourself is a disciplined version of yourself. The best version of yourself can find self-restraint when the future requires it. Don’t focus on what makes the crowds cheer, rather, focus on rightness in the moment. That will bring stability in the future (and maybe some cheers from the crowd, too.)

Keep moving (even when you’re afraid)

Keep moving especially when you're afraid. Standing still is the worst thing you can do.

There is an uncomfortable feeling that comes along with fear. The way fear makes your body feel. The hyperventilation and the coldness that washes over you.

The strange thing is that it’s not just life and safety that people might fear for, it's usually the small stuff. Things which are tiny in the grand scheme of things, yet sometimes we are stricken with a paralyzing fear in the face of these things.

The only chance of overcoming these fears is to genuinely believe that by standing still, we only guarantee that we will fail. We must know that and believe it because it is true.

There is nearly no circumstance into which you will be placed in your life where making the wrong decision means certain death. It simply doesn’t happen in normal life.

Overcome fear by ripping the mask off, examining the thing(s) you fear, and doing something. Do anything. Make a move and get going in some direction. Standing still means you’ve lost by default, so move as if everything depends on it (because it does.)

Opinion: It’s not about how early you wake up

If we have a solid morning, we will have a solid day. A chaotic morning will bleed into a chaotic day. This is the real reason behind the idea that people who get up early are more productive.

It’s not the time, it’s just that at that time, our bodies have been trained to get up and get rolling into our day. Whereas waking up at 11am feels like you’ve lost half the day and we tend to rush through a jumbled mess of rushing to get started with our work to make up for the lost time. Then we have a terrible and unfocused day.

If we agree that we each get eight hours of sleep every night, who cares if you get to bed at 9pm and wake up at 5am and I prefer going to sleep at 2am and waking up at 10am?

Without getting into the science surrounding the circadian rhythm, I tend to believe that it is the solid morning routine that sets you on course for a productive day, NOT the hour at which you awake.

Things I struggle with

I know, I know, the title should say “Things with which I struggle” but I have a hard time writing grammatically correct.

This whole blogging/writing experiment that I began back in 2018 has highlighted to me just how much I think about and know to be the better and right and good way to go about doing things, yet I struggle with so much of what I write about.

The struggle is worth it, to me. If I’m struggling, it means I’m still trying and as long as I’m trying, there is a chance I’ll have some success.

The struggle in pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal also gives depth and meaning to my working life. It motivates and tells me to get up and try again.

I am learning to only promise progress, not perfection. I’ll chase perfection, but be content with my progress in the interim.

Inaction is almost always the wrong choice

Been feeling a little sick the past two days. There's a stomach bug going through my kids and it finally got me for a day or two.

I’ll show up in today’s post with a quote I love from Norman Vincent Peale.

“Action is a greater restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.”

It seems that the plague of inaction has been a problem that men of all types have struggled with.

Turning creativity on and off

I think the most challenging part of doing creative work is being able to turn the creative part of your mind on and off when needed. The most brilliant artists throughout the history of the world were weird people because the creative mind is weird. It doesn’t take the obvious stuff for granted. Everything is possible and nothing is a guarantee.

I’m content being a moderately good artist and not being seen as that much of a weird person. Moderate creativity will have to do.

Turning my creative mind on is usually as simple as shutting off distractions of life, family, the news, social media, and stress, and taking half an hour to disengage from the world. Forget everything I assume and embrace a world of possibility.

Once you have a good idea, you have to get to work. Time to drink your coffee and become a boring structured adult like everyone else. Boring is stable and efficient. But boring isn’t creative. But boring allows you to make creative ideas become physical.

The creative artist that can travel between creative freedom to the focus and structure of real life is the creative that will have pretty good ideas and get a ton of work done over the course of their life.