You get to choose
I tried a new coffee place a few weeks ago and felt underwhelmed at the service. I felt awkward like I was being a nuisance asking for coffee.
As I walked home I began thinking about telling my mum about this when she inevitably would ask. I even started coming up with ways I’d tell the story:
Things like “It’s not that hard to be nice, right!?” and “I’m paying YOU money, surely it’s not hard to crack a smile”.
I began to feel satisfied at the little collection of complaints I had compiled. Suddenly I realised how pointless it was.
Sure, the service sucked but whats the point in letting that live on? I could see already how the conversation would go:
“How was the cafe?”
“Oh don’t get me started…”
Why? What a boring thing to perpetuate. I can let the bad cafe die, never go back and move on with my life.
You get to choose the story and you get to choose what parts to tell (and not tell)
Make the action match the goal
If you want to be a guitar player don’t go out and buy a ukulele.
Sure, it looks like a guitar- but it’s not.
You might say “But Justin! It’s a mini guitar, isn’t it a good place to start?”
Maybe- but I think if you want to be a guitar player, go and get a guitar.
Make the action match the goal.
If you want to be a novelist, don’t write once a month and wonder why it’s not happening for you.
A novelist writes every day, reads, researches, ideates, moulds, drafts, publishes… you get the point.
Make the action match the goal.
Where do you want to be? Don’t shortchange yourself by playing small. There’s already a fair distance between where you are and where you’re going.
Don’t increase the distance by getting a ukulele.
Get the guitar. Play full out. Act as if you’re there now. You’ll be immediately closer.
Any moment
Isn’t it cool that at any moment you can choose to be different?
No matter how tired, fed up or out of ideas you are, you can- at any moment- choose a new story. Adopt a better physiology. Heck you could even just smile.
Every single second presents us with a new opportunity to live into exactly the reality that we want.
Don’t miss too many of them.
Example
How would you behave if your every action was being documented for your children and grandchildren to watch back?
What’s it for?
What are you trying to do with the thing you’re making?
What change do you seek to make?
How do you seek to increase the quality of life, lessen pain or provide value for a particular person?
Before you make, have a little conversation with yourself.
What’s most important right now?
What a powerful question. If you ask it (really ask it) you’ll get the answer.
It’s probably very simple.
It’ll cut through everything else if you ask it wholeheartedly.
What does it rhyme with?
People like things they can recognise.
It doesn’t mean you have to only make things that have existed before, but it does mean your art can build on whats come before.
Signal to people what they should expect.
Then you can play to it or subvert it.
What are you trying to make and what does it rhyme with that has come before?
The unsubscribe reframe
Yesterday the Youtube channel I use to post my daily films reached 100 subscribers! Yay!
I screenshotted it and everything.
Then today I went on and there was 99 subscribers, meaning ONE of my subscribers removed themselves.
Ouch.
I wondered why this might have happened. Are my videos not flashy enough? Don’t they think I’m funny or clever? Is a video a day too often for them?
The truth is it could have been all of these things- and none of them matter. Or all of them matter depending on how you look at it.
My videos are the way they are because I make them that way and they come out daily because that’s what I do.
This person unsubscribed because it’s not for them.
I realised immediately that them unsubscribing is actually preserving an equilibrium in the universe.
They don’t want what I’m cooking and I don’t wanna cook what they want!
Thank GOD they unsubscribed, we can each get on with the journeys we are on.
With each unsubscribe, you are closer to where you actually want to be.
No substitute
This evening I’ve enjoyed watching Dragon’s Den UK- this has been a favourite of mine since I was a kid.
It’s quite funny watching some of the pitches and the strange and unusual business structures of these offers.
One thing stands out to me: there is no substitute for value.
Nothing beats a straight up excellent product- most of the pitches I saw tonight were not that.
There’s no shortcuts, how can your thing just be really really (really) good?
I know it sounds simplistic but there really is no substitute.
Let the art speak for itself
I sat down to eat my lunch and thought I’d watch Jacob Collier’s tiny desk. Within a few minutes I was mid-bite and crying. The songs moved me deeply.
I think more than that though was how little he said about each song. He simply introduced and without saying much proceeded to play the song.
He then didn’t tell us why he wrote it or how to feel. He simply shared the art.
Maybe because words aren’t big enough for the emotions and meanings in the songs. But mostly I think because we don’t need introductions or appendicies.
We just need to listen.