Notice or thought

Once the idea comes, you start without a moment’s notice, without a moment’s thought.

You don’t even think about it.

Now all that’s left is creating the conditions in which you can do that. Or at least, making sure they exist.

Let your creative juices flow

You can feel the creative juices beginning to boil

When you work on something over a long period of time, it eventually reaches a boiling point. Eventually it just has to come out some way or another. The most productive way to let it out is to keep the steam boiling just enough each and every day. Every day, release at least some of the steam.

Some days it’s a leaky tap. Other days it’s a volcano. We need the leaky taps just as much as the volcanoes so we have some knowledge of how to control the flow when it comes, when it reaches a boiling point.

Be ok to start with suboptimal

Take the creative process down to its core elements.

Then get creative.

You don’t need fancy technology or advanced designs or anything to make stuff. All you need is your brain, and a canvas of some sort. That and some sort of deadline or incentive to make sure you are pumping stuff out on a regular basis.

If your infatuation with the technology or design means you aren’t pumping stuff out on a regular basis, then it is hindering your creativity and needs to be ignored.

It may be suboptimal, at first at least, but regular production is paramount when it comes to getting to optimal.

Increase the frequency of production to a sustainable level and then all you need to focus on is incremental improvements in quality.

Soon enough you will get to better quality but this time with the added benefit of quantity to give you that all important boost.

Suboptimal to optimal, in other words.

As soon as possible

Have an idea? Get it out of your system as soon as you can.

It might be a really bad one. That way you can get it off your chest and be done with it.

On the other hand, it might be miraculous. That way you can get it off your chest, and work some magic.

You mean like now?

Now will never happen again. It’s gone, and that means we aren’t getting it back no matter how hard we try.

A once in a lifetime moment happens at every moment.

But will you treat it as such??

Is not a bad thing

The hard part is remembering that it’s always an option. Find yourself with a little downtime away from any form of stimulation?

Take it as a chance to meditate. Take it as a chance to stop and pause and take in the world around you.

That’s all it takes, and it doesn’t even need to be forced either.

Is increasingly becoming us

The barrier to entry is getting lower by the day. You could equally say the barrier to entry is becoming increasingly, well us.

These days it’s becoming exponentially easier to create stuff. Not only with AI, but also with the devices that we have right at our fingertips.

Don’t you think it’s time we did something about that?

Not perfect, just is.

Perfection begins with ‘out the door”. It doesn’t begin stuck inside your brain, nor at the tips of your fingertips. It begins at the word go. It begins once it’s out in the world. That’s the only way to have any chance at getting perfection. Sure perfection may not be possible every time, but every time put out in the world is one more chance to get closer to perfection.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. But it does have to be.

See where it takes you

Try new stuff just for the sake of it. Try new stuff so that you can know for sure whether it is as people say it is, or whether your current path is the right one for you. Try new stuff to keep things curious and fresh, and keep you wanting more. Not in an attachment kind of way, but as a way to challenge and better yourself. Try new stuff and see where it takes you.

Then do it all again

Take a moment to take a moment, think about the moment, and then let the moment go by. Then start all over again.

This is your chance to take a breather, and to simply appreciate what you have. This moment will never be the same as another, so enjoy it. Take a moment to savour the moment, and then do it all again.

Guilty as charged.

When tensions are high, when we are under stress and things aren’t going our way, it’s all too easy to think the worst. It’s all too easy to think ‘woe is me’. And it’s all too easy to think of tiny problems as much larger than they really are.

You may well be turning your molehill into a mountain completely unnecessarily and this just goes to compound the problem.

Take a step back. Take stock of the situation. Give yourself a break, and look at the problem with fresh eyes.

Everything is cumulative

Everything is cumulative. No experience can be discounted as it all comes together to form who we are as people.

We can’t always win. This means we can always learn.

It all counts.

Experiment. Experiment. Experiment.

Today I tried something familiar but new. I had written a draft for my newsletter, and while it was still fresh in my head, I recorded it on video.

My newsletter was originally a way to share my blog. I quickly started to use it to generate ideas and test them. These seem to be well-received, relatively speaking, of course. Eventually, I want to take all of these ideas and turn them into videos.

Eventually.

But eventually turned into ’I’ll do it when I can’ too many times. It’s gotten to the point where this year I’ve only produced two videos, despite having multiple in the pipeline.

So I’m switching things around. I’m focusing on output and turnaround, on getting the videos out into the world as soon as possible after coming up with the idea.

Hence today. And hence the rather rash approach.

The truth is, with YouTube, you need to be producing content. There’s no two ways about it. I haven’t been producing content. I’ve been stuck in a vortex of ‘when I get around to it’, and never getting around to it.

So I’m getting around to it. This may well be at the cost of the editing, but out in the world is the only way to push things forward. Editing can wait.

It’s about increasing your chances, learning, and then applying what you’ve learned to your videos. Without videos, you have nothing to base your progress on. And more videos give you more chances to learn.

The time for procrastination is over. Now is the time of action. Action that starts by filming, in my case, like I did today.

Take it.

It’s the same chance, only it’s different. It’s the same chance, only you are a different person. It’s the same chance, only the challenges are different. It’s the same chance to have a good day, and all you have to do is take it.

We notice it when we do

Invest in yourself. It makes it much easier for us to tag along. Not only that, it’s more worthwhile for everyone involved.

Invest in yourself. We notice it when you do.

Right for who?

I recently had a mother tell me they were worried that their child spent too much time playing music. Too much time on one instrument or another, and that this was getting in the way of their schoolwork.

I’d be more worried if they didn’t have any other way of spending the time.

The chid already knows at least one thing they want to, that is a big challenge for a lot of people. Sure it might not be easy at first to make a living out of it, what I guess is the main concern, but they have their whole life to figure something out. And if they are so obsessed, one way or another, they will.

Parents don’t make decisions for their children. Children make decisions for children. That’s the only way to have a chance at true satisfaction.

Should it be?

There are times when we absolutely need to prioritise ourselves, but when you’re looking after someone else or in charge of something bigger than yourself, you have to ask yourself whether something being in your best interests is in their best interests.

Again this comes down to simply stopping and pausing, well, any chance you get.

It’s easier on your later self

It’s something that once you notice, you can’t unnotice. I could be wrong, but nine times out of ten, Japanese people reverse into their car park.

The theory goes, and remember it’s just a theory, that you’re going to have to reverse in sometime, so why not make it easier for yourself later? I.e. when you leave? If you have to leave in a hurry, say there’s an emergency, this way you’ll more easily be able to start driving again. It’s easier on your later self, in other words.

Because your actions say otherwise

If you were serious about it, your actions would follow.

Why aren’t they?

How serious are you actually?

Patiently or not?

For newcomers to yamabushi, waiting for the conch can be a true challenge.

The conch is used kind of like an alarm clock, only you don’t know when it’s going to go off.

If you get caught up in waiting for the conch, you can very easily literally lose sleep over it.

The key is to essentially forget it exists. Know in advance what you need to do when it does, even do ‘image training’ when you picture yourself doing it, and then just sit back and relax.

Or enjoy the moment before it is blown.

Up to you really.

When it rains it pours

When it rains, it pours.

This is all the more reason to take your emotions out of it. It’s not the thing itself that affects us, it’s how we perceive it. And if we perceive things as having an exponential effect on us, just because of luck, we become adversely affected.

Nip it in the bud. Take the emotion out of the reaction.

It’s a shame about your face

I learned Mandarin at university for about 9 months. I have since forgotten upwards of 99% of what I learned, but there is one phrase I still remember.

Ni de liao zao gao.

’It’s a shame about your face.’

In all honesty I’m not sure if this sentence is grammatically correct, but it did help me remember the phrase for ‘it’s a shame’ (zao gao).

Things that are memorable are by definition easy to remember. Ridiculousness, for the most part, is memorable. If you’re not hurting anybody by doing it, and if it can in fact help you learn, be ridiculous.

It’s part of my life.

Escapes are good. A place to check your head. A place for a spot of mind maintenance. But if you find yourself wanting to escape too much, it can be cause for concern.

Know what your escapes are. Know when they are taking control of your life.

Take a step back. Take a breather. Make this a regular part of your schedule. Or if you can, make your escape your life.

Zero to something.

It’s amazing the difference one single step can make; that first step. The one from inaction to action.

Once taken, your only focus is to keep the ball rolling until it meets its logical conclusion.

Just one step, and you can make huge change.

Is ’out the door’

Your first standard is ‘out the door’. If things don’t quite meet your other standards, that doesn’t matter. This standard has to be met for anything else to make a difference.

Make a difference with your first standard, and you give your other standards a chance to make a difference.

This is what it takes to win

And this is what I’m going to do.

You know what it takes. You know you have it in you.

No more excuses, get it done.