Say “hi”

Everyone is shy. Other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them, they are waiting for you to send them an email, they are waiting for you to ask them on a date. Go ahead. Be the one who says “hi.”

Just this moment

Everything doesn’t always have to be about the future. Sometimes to goal needs to be simple. Complete today. Do your work well just this moment. Survive another moment. Do what you’re doing right this moment with full focus and attention.

The effect we have on the people around us

We should all ask ourselves what value do we have that can serve the world. The effect you can have on the people around you is the most valuable currency imaginable. Do you treat everything you do as important?

The little things we do affect everyone around us, so take pride in the little things when people aren’t looking and you’ll behave much better when people are looking.

Say it with fewer words

I am the classical over-explainer. I say many words and I write many words. Too many words.

Ideas are best conveyed with fewer words. Write your sentence. Read it back. Re-write it with half the number of words. This is good.

Yielding a partial right of way?

A driver yielded his right of way and waved me on through the intersection yesterday. When he waved, he waved very vigorously and angrily. He repeated this about three more times before I had completed my left-hand turn through the intersection.

It made me think about yielding the right of way, not just in traffic, but in any part of life.

When you yield, or defer, to another person, you give up the right to also tell them how to do the thing you’re yielding to them. You can’t yield your right of way in traffic and then expect me to move at your pace. If you’re in a rush, don’t yield the right of way. But if you do yield, let the other person go about it however fast or slow, however cleanly or sloppily, and however intelligently or stupidly they wish to do it.

Otherwise, you haven’t really yielded at all.

Only fear fear itself

The famous quote says that the only thing we should fear is fear itself. The reason we ought to have a fear of fear itself is because fear disables our ability to think critically. When we lose that ability, we practically lose our ability to make choices and do things that we decided. We do as others wish or demand and we convince ourselves that it’s the best thing we could do.

Respond or despond

Life happens and we respond to it.

When bad things happen, that’s life happening, too. None of us can control life how life happens. We can only observe when it happens and control our reaction and contribution to the things that happen around us.

When life happens, we respond because that’s all we can do. Will you respond or despond?

Risk being seen

Your need for acceptance will make you invisible in this world. You need to have the courage to risk being seen if you want to make an impact. That naturally comes with the risk of being rejected, or maybe more scary, the realization that you’re not good enough, not skilled enough, or not interesting enough.

At least you or I can work on getting better at those things, but we must first be willing to risk being seen.

Talent is distributed unfairly

There is no limit on how much better we can get. Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much you or I can improve upon what we start with. Don’t limit yourself, the limitations will appear, but make sure that they aren’t coming from yourself.

You can’t catch up

When you start falling behind you can’t catch up. Actually, you can catch up, but you can’t allow yourself to believe that.

You must keep producing and contributing value. Rent is due every day. What you did yesterday doesn’t mean you worked hard today. So you must drill into your mindset that if you begin to fall behind, you won’t catch up. So don’t slack and pay the rent due every day.

This is annoying

About an hour ago I had such a great idea come to me for this blog post. It was really a great idea and I was excited to write about it.

The idea was so good that I almost wrote it down, but I decided not to because I was sure I’d remember it later.

Now I’m sitting here and I have no idea what that good idea was. I only remember the excitement I had thinking about it. And now it’s gone.

Always write your ideas down because they’re not material and they’re always in motion. When we write, we seal ideas physically and keep them still for later.

How to become a better artist

To be a better artist you must make yourself a more interesting person. Interesting people are better painters, photographers, storytellers, designers, and writers.

Be genuinely interested in other people if you wish to become an interesting person. The more you are interested in others, the more interesting they find you. To be interesting, be interested.

My three-step process to becoming more interesting is:

1. Read books.

2. Step out of your comfort zone.

3. Be interested in others.

Remember the rule of 7

There is a “Rule of 7” in research. It states that you can find out anything if you are willing to go seven levels deep. If the first source you ask doesn’t know, ask them whom you should ask next, and so on down the line. If you are willing to go to the 7th source, you’ll almost always get your answer.

Never stop pressing forward at the first roadblock. Keep digging and there is usually a way around or through it.

People tend to be strange

Never assume that other people make the same decision as you for the same reason you would have made it. People do regular things for strange reasons and it’s seldom what for reasons we think.

The elite and the almost-elite

The professional finishes and the amateur fades.

The extraordinary people possess the extra 5% that separates them from the very good.

The elite are the innovators, the level just below them are imitators.

There is great stability and plenty of money to be made in the “very good” or “imitator” level, but if you yearn for more, focus on the details. Marginal gains usually make up the 5% difference between you and the best. Also, a willingness to venture into the unknown to be the innovator is a must.

Creative tools that destroy creativity

Our tools have the potential to make us more creative or less creative. Do we use digital tools like Photoshop to make our job easier? Do we use AI to augment and help us create in ways we haven’t before? Or do we use these tools to replace our creative process?

Every computer is limited by human input. If you are allowing the computer to do the creative work for you, somebody else is creating and you’re just organizing things.

Don’t forget today

Don’t forget the process. Don’t forget the moment. Right now. The things we do today. We get lost in our day-to-day operations and wake up and realize we’re 70 years old and our life has passed us by.

Seemingly more and more we have an inability to slow down, put our distractions down, and focus on what is happening right now.

We get distracted by the things we still have to do, our lofty goals, or our devices and we let life happen while we hardly take notice.

Never trade living today for the vague future we dream of. That day will come, too, and then we may enjoy it, but not at the cost of today.