Daily Yamabushi

The rest will take care of itself

Working for money is a temporary solution. Working for impact, however, has lasting effects that should be prioritised.

Impact on self is one thing. Impact on others is another thing entirely.

Focus on the impact. The rest will take care of itself.

The fool’s game

Therein lies the problem. We don’t wait for the magic. We do what we can to make it happen, and if that doesn’t work, we do it again.

Waiting is a fool’s game.

Your first priority for any creative endeavour

Your first aim at any form of creation should be producing something. It should be making something and getting it out the door.

Production, when you work to improve on what you are producing, comes next.

With enough producing, production comes naturally. Unfortunately, or not, the reverse is not true. You need to be producing to get production. Do that enough, and you’re onto a winner.

Confrontation be damned.

I tried the Japanese thing today, and it worked quite well. I wanted to make some suggestions about how to improve something, and I started by apologising for not thinking of something earlier. I could have gone any way, by getting angry at the other person, or just going ahead and doing things my way, but I needed the other person on board, and for the sake of harmony, I started with an apology.

This technique probably won’t go down well in other cultures. There’s too much pressure and everyone does what they can to avoid the blame, but avoiding the blame is simply one way to cover the issue up. Best to get it out in the open, and best to push things forward, which in the case of Japanese culture can come in the form of an apology.

Confrontation be damned.

Build confidence in others, build confidence in yourself

The benefit of the doubt is a powerful force. With it, you are placing your trust in others and assuming the best in them, which you should be at least aiming to do anyway.

There may be times when this trust is tested, and in those times you have to be brave enough to know the difference. But for everything else, the trust built from the benefit of the doubt leads to confidence which leads to greater potential for better.

Build confidence in others, build confidence in yourself with the benefit of the doubt.

Not some other one

This me. This one right here. Not some other me. This me is the one who’s going to get things done. This me is the one who’s going to follow my passions and do what’s true to myself.

Because what’s the alternative?

Yamabushi training as a metaphor for life

Yamabushi training is not a walk in the park. Well, it kind of is, but you’re constantly taking orders, you can’t talk back, you don’t know what’s going to happen next, and you have no real way of keeping track of the time, besides night and day.

You simply have to accept everything that happens to you and get on with it.

Just like as in life.

An inkling is an obligation

You’ll find you can do quite well, if you just give it the chance.

In our daily lives we have many inklings to do something different with what we’ve got. We have many inklings, but for whatever reason we’re thrown off simply because we either think we’re not good enough, or someone says we aren’t.

Screw that.

If you have an inkling, you also have an obligation to see it through. Sure your or the other person’s opinion may well be right, but until you try, you have no idea.

And who knows where your inkling will lead you! If you only follow through.

Get your ideas out the door

Good enough is good enough. If that’s not good enough, well, then we might have a problem.

Don’t sit on your ideas too long. If it’s good enough, it’s out the door.

Don’t let you get in the way of you

You have to do what you can to do what you can.

This isn’t always easy. Often if we aren’t careful, we get in the way of ourselves. We stop our own progress through self doubt and at times, anxiety.

We have to do what we can to avoid this. This is why self discipline is so important. Building a habit each day, however big or small, that you do regardless of circumstances. Making sure that you put one foot in front of the other and keep pushing forward. Incremental progress.

That’s how we can guarantee we don’t get in our own way (at least most of the time), and that’s how we can do what we can do.

Only say what needs to be said

What is it you need to say? What is it you most want to say? What is it people most need to hear?

Filter it down into only what needs to be said.

Say it. And leave out everything else.

Seth Godin was right.

Seth Godin was right. Writer’s block doesn’t exist.

Writing is an extension of our thoughts.

If writer’s block did exist, we would be able to shut off our brains. However, as anyone who’s tried meditation would tell you, that’s impossible.

If you truly have writer’s block, can you share with me how you switch off your brain?

It’s more likely that we’re being lazy, or simply afraid our ideas aren’t good enough.

They may not be right now, but I assure you, with a bit of practice (i.e. ignoring the whole writer’s block thing), you’ll notice a difference.

Don’t worry about anything else

You do what you can do, because by definition, that’s all you can do.

Worry about doing what you can.

Anything else is not worth worrying about.

Getting Things Done

People who ever get anything done all have the same thing in common: They acted on an inkling.

An idea, however small, acted upon becomes fuel for the fire. It becomes a cause in and of itself.

And it all starts with an inkling.

Put yourself in a position whereby you not only have inklings, but you have the ability to act on them. One easy way to do this is to go where all the inklings come. It’s to spend time with people who make you think, and it’s to expose yourself to new ideas on a regular basis.

And then act on them. Take that inkling one step further and get it out into the world.

That’s how you become someone who gets things done.

Do everything you can to fight the resistance

The resistance is there to fight you. It doesn’t want you to produce that artwork, to post that post, to make that thing you’ve always wanted to make. The resistance is there to make things tough for you just because.

But the resistance is also there to push you. The resistance is there to force you to do better. To get you to do the things that you never thought possible.

The resistance is the resistance. It pushes you back when you want to go forward. We have to do all we can to stop it. We have to keep moving forward, and we have to beat the resistance.

How do we do that?

By producing day in day out. By putting our ideas out in the world and doing it on a regular basis. Everything else is just resistance training.

Make things better for all

If you have a realisation, you don’t only owe it to yourself, you also owe it to others to see it through. When you see things in a better light, when you see how things could be better, act on it. Act on your whim to make things better for all.

Naturally

If you were to do it, and do it well, what would it look like?

In as much detail as possible please.

Then, naturally, the only question left is, why aren’t you doing it?

We all need one

In this modern age where working from home is the norm for many, we have to remember our off switch. We have to remember that humans aren’t designed to be at work all the time. That rest is just as important, even more so, than extended periods at work.

Not only that, periods of rest can be extremely beneficial at building creativity or simply getting things done. No wonder why Bill Gates takes off a few weeks each year.

So, what do you do to switch off? What strategies do you have in place so that when you do switch off, you switch off properly, and switch off well?

Make switching off a regular part of your daily life. Give it a boost by making getting out into nature an added requirement. But most of all, make sure you do switch off, and make sure you do it well!

Fake it until you make it

“We’ll figure it out as we go along.” “We’ll play it by ear.”

“We’ll fake it till we make it.”

Sound familiar? If it doesn’t, it means you haven’t taken that crucial first step.

Getting started.

You can have all the dreams you want in that head of yours, but until you put the pedal to the metal, until the rubber meets the road, it’s all simply speculation.

Turn that speculation into the spectacular. Take that crucial first step, and see for yourself what works.

And if it doesn’t quite go as well as expected, well, figure it out as you go along.

Play it by ear.

Fake it until you make it.

The difference between inspiration and aspiration

Yamabushi enter the mountains in search of questions, not answers. If we had the answers, we wouldn’t need to enter the mountains.

The right question at the right time could be the difference between inspiration and aspiration. The right question at the right time leads to action, which leads to insight, which leads to more questions.

We shouldn’t be afraid of questions. We should seek them out.

The only way to know for sure

Do, do, do! It’s the only way to know for sure. Who knows how much longer we have on this earth, don’t spend your life waiting for the answer to appear. Get out there and find the answer for yourself in the only way that’s possible.

Doing it!

Follow your curiosity with ‘stupid’ questions.

You have a question because you have curiosity. You have a question because something inside of you is longing for information you currently lack.

Questions are you trying to follow your curiosities, and your curiosities are exactly what you should be following.

Stupid questions remain stupid questions when they stay inside your head, and stupid questions quit being stupid when you follow your curiosity by letting them out.

Live true to your own values

‘Do as I say, not as I do’ has as many repercussions for adults as it does for children. People see you for what you do, and that determines who you are, no matter what you say.

The way to be an inspiration then is to live true to your own values. It’s to take leadership, if only for yourself, and to forge your own path.

If you want to be an inspiration, don’t do what’s right in the eyes of society. Do what’s right in your eyes.

That’s how we can do what we say, then say what we do. And that determines who we are.

Why you should make your own map

Maps are helpful at getting you to the general location. However, maps can only ever have information from the past. The guidance given is stuff that worked before. There’s no guarantee it will work again.

Use the map to get as far as you can. Know, however, that to go the distance, the only way is to make your own map.

Your energy source in one package

What is it about you that makes you interesting? What is it about you that makes you unique? What is it about you that makes you, you?

Your bread and butter is what you do on the regular to be you. It’s what you define yourself as for that moment of time. Your bread and butter is a constant source of energy. It is constantly replenished, and it constantly replenishes itself.

And the best part is, you just need to be, well, you!

Doing something for longer often leads to better results

Runners know it. Cyclists too. And you can firmly put me in the same camp as a swimmer. In fact, endurance athletes of all kinds understand it well.

Your aim isn’t simply to do it. Your aim is to do it more. To get to the position where you can do more. And I don’t mean more often, although that is part of it.

I mean longer. And longer.

Good things take time, so the saying goes.

Let them.

Results come from time on task. Often the longer you can do something, the better it gets.

They don’t call it a runner’s high for nothing.

Get the discipline down. The rest will fall into place.

We constantly strive for discipline. And we constantly fall short.

Or so it seems.

Without discipline, we’d never get anything done. We’d never find out what we are capable of. We’d never have a chance at reaching our potential.

The key to discipline is creating systems. Systems, like the Japanese Do, the path or the way, are never-ending. This needn’t be a discouraging factor. Systems can be constantly worked on and improved. Systems keep pushing us forward.

Some systems can make use of tricks. A system focused on building a streak is a good one. Streaks come entirely from having systems.

Systems we can create. And from those systems, discipline builds.

Embrace the system, embrace the discipline.