Month: May 2016

Four Lifestyle Practices

This week for Fantastic Friday I want to peel back the curtain a bit and share some personal notes.

I didn’t fully realize it until this week when it really hit me, but for the past several weeks (at least) I’ve been living with quite a bit of stress.

This morning I sat down and journaled out all the big projects going on right now.

Seeing each one listed out next to the others was eye opening.

The first thing I said to myself was: “Shawn, what were you thinking!?”

Now, people tell me that I write a lot about living a focused life. And so, in lieu of those topics, I think it’s important for me to share both sides of the coin: the things I do well and the things that I don’t.

(That’s why I shared about my own laziness.)

And so, today, for Fantastic Friday, I want to share with you a few of the small things I do to help keep my laziness in check.

Moreover, what I love about these things is that they also help during seasons of stress.

When you’re dealing with overwhelm, there are two responses. You either need to reclaim some margin back into your life, or you’ve just got to press on until you get the breakthrough.

If the latter, it’s helpful to have a few “lifestyle practices” to help keep you on track. Below are a few of mine.

Thanks, and enjoy your weekend!

— Shawn

 

1. Reading Daily

I read quite a bit during the work day, but also in the evenings. My routine is that every evening between 7 and 8pm I do something useful or productive. Such as reading, spending time with friends or family, or doing handy work around the house. That hour isn’t for cramming in yet more office work, but neither is it for zoning out.

(Side note: Right now I’m re-reading The Lean Startup. Highly recommended if you find yourself in the position of trying to build something of value while in the midst of extreme uncertainty.)

 

2. Writing Daily

When I start my work day, I make myself write before I do anything else.

 

3. Family Time and Weekly Date Night

As a type-A creative entrepreneur, it can be so easy for me to have work on the brain at all times. And combine that with a to-do list is literally never ending, and there’s always a reason to work long hours.

But I refuse to look back in 5-10 years from now and wish I would have spent more time with my family. Having boundaries around my work time and family time is a pretty no-brainer way of making sure work life doesn’t take over family life.

 

4. Journaling

I journal for the sake of recognizing and celebrating progress. It’s one of the best ways to build and keep momentum in your life.

 

* * *

Okay, one more tidbit…

Here are two quotes I use often throughout The Focus Course:

“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” — F.M. Alexander

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” — John C. Maxwell

By far and away, the best way to keep the needle moving forward in life is to have smarter “defaults” for how to spend your time and energy.

If you choose the right actions and attitudes long enough, they begin to choose you back. And you find yourself naturally gravitating toward the behaviors you want to do as a lifestyle rather than the things you feel like doing in the moment.

You can get clarity about your own “lifestyle practices” by going through the Focus Course. There’s a group (including yours truly) that are going through it together this summer. I hope you’ll join us.

Four Lifestyle Practices

A Confession

I’m lazy.

And I’ll tell you why in a minute.

If you recall, last Wednesday I wrote about why you should show up every day.

And then on Friday, I shared some thoughts on Hustle.

(As a side note, I received more feedback from last Friday’s article about hustle than on any other article in recent memory.)

Which is why today, and over the coming weeks, if you’ll permit me, I’d like to continue on in this conversation…

There are three projects in the works right now. All of which are designed to help you show up every day.

  1. Focus Camp: A group of hundreds of folks who’ll all be going through The Focus Course together.

  2. A special project I’ve been working on with my friend Brett Kelly (of Evernote Essentials fame) that we’ll be giving away for free to everyone that signs up for Focus Camp.

  3. Something else that I’m not ready to announce just yet.

* * *

Now, as I said, I’m lazy.

And I’m not being hyperbolic.

Every evening after my two boys go to bed all I want to do is eat ice cream and watch Netflix.

Or, in the morning, when I sit down to my desk with coffee in hand, ready to work. So often I’d prefer to browse the Internet until lunchtime.

But if I spent the first half of my work day surfing the web, I’d never get around to writing.

Which is why diligence is so critical to living a focused life and doing our best creative work.

Now…

What if I told you that you could “automate” hustle?

Or, in less nerdy terms…

What if showing up every day was a natural part of your routine?

Good news: it can be.

It’s hard at first because inertia is working against you. But it gets easier as you build momentum.

Diligence is a muscle you can strengthen. It’s a skill you can learn. A character trait you can cultivate.

If you choose something long enough, eventually it will choose you back.

On Friday I’ll share with you a few of the small things I do to help keep my laziness in check so that showing up every day is simply a part of my routine.

* * *

By the way, getting clarity and diligence is what The Focus Course is all about.

If you go through the course with a group of people I promise you it’ll be way more fun and it will be much harder to quit.

Please join me and several hundred more folks as we go through the course together starting June 8th.

A Confession

Hustle Friday

You can’t throw a rock at the internet without hitting a webpage where someone is talking about hustle.

Ask Gary Vaynerchuk how he defines hustle and he’ll tell you it’s “maximizing the energy you put into what you are passionate about.”

In his book, he says that hustle is the one tangible thing people can do to change the direction of their lives.

“If you want to turn up the hustle, you just have to spend more time doing whatever it is that takes you where you want to go.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

And, well… I simultaneously do and don’t agree with Gary’s definition of hustle.

Yes, I’m all for showing up every day and I adore focusing on that which that matters.

However, the term hustle also carries a bit of baggage within some circles — because there’s this idea that sleep and rest are the enemy.

For me, I gravitate toward the word diligence, even though, really, I see diligence and hustle as close to synonymous.

The truth is, we only have (at best) a capacity of 3-4 hours per day that we can spend on deep and focused work.

And so, in order to maximize the energy we put into what we are passionate about, we need to live a healthy (a.k.a. balanced) life so that the time which we dedicate to our work is as efficient and impactful as possible.

In a nut: checking email 30 times per day is not “hustling”.

For me, to make every minute count, means:

To make every minute count you’ve got to make every future minute count also.

And that means living a life today that won’t leave you burnt out, sick, and broke in 5 or 10 years.

— Shawn

 

Greg McKeown on Working Smarter, Not Harder

From his book, Essentialism:

What is the obstacle that is keeping you back from achieving what really matters to you? By systematically identifying and removing this “constraint” you’ll be able to significantly reduce the friction seeing you from executing what is essential.

Before we just try to throw more hours at something, consider first what obstacles may be keeping us back?

For example, if someone is watching 5 hours of TV every night, there’s a pretty huge opportunity for reclaiming that time to spend it on more valuable things.

 

Fizzle Show: Anti-Hustle →

The crew at Fizzle recently put out an excellent podcast episode regarding “why hustle hurts you”. It’s a balanced and thoughtful discussion about the value of resting well and being okay with not-yet-breakthrough results in our business or side project.

 

Why Srinivas Rao writes 1,000 words every day →

In short: momentum. But that’s just one of the plethora of benefits of having a deep work activity that you show up every day for.

 

Your’s Truly, Regarding Goals

This little tidbit is adapted from one of the days in Module Two of The Focus Course.

There are two “camps” when it comes to goal setting.

  1. On one side are those who champion for clear goal setting with a very intense, daily system for tracking your progress. This can be extremely helpful for the professional athlete, but it’s not always practical for everyone.

  2. On the other side are those who champion for little to no goal setting at all. The mantra here is that it’s all about the joy in the journey.

There is value and truth in both of these camps. When we have a clear goal, it’s a way to define what the fruit of our life’s values and vision may look like, and this gives us something to be motivated toward and work for. That motivated state helps us make progress toward the things that are important in life.

If you spin the phrases of “qualitative” and “quantitative”, you get this dual-sided approach to goal setting.

By defining your goals you’re giving yourself something quantitative to attain. And then you can build a quality-of-life-centric lifestyle that is based on the foundation of your vision and values.

In short, you’re not only moving forward in the aim of attaining a tangible goal, but you’re also finding joy in the process.

It works like this: Decisiveness brings motivation for action; action brings clarity; clarity helps us make future decisions.

To me, this is what hustle is all about. Working hard to reach for a goal while also taking great joy in the process. Casting off as many distractions as possible and living a focused (and healthy) life.

Hustle Friday

Why You Should Show Up Every Day

Because if you do, you’ll be more creative, you’ll make more money, you’ll improve at your craft, and you’ll build an audience. And gosh-darnit, people will like you!

I’m completely serious.

You may never write a NYT Best Seller or have a billion dollar exit. But showing up every day to do your best work will absolutely leave you better off.

Diligence is the single most important component to creativity and building a business.

Just ask these clever guys:

“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.” — Ray Bradbury, hard-working writer

“The keys to success are patience, persistence, and obsessive attention to detail.” — Jeff Bezos, hard-working entrepreneur

“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.” — Chuck Close, hard-working painter

Do you see why diligence is more important than money, talent, relationships, audience, tools, or anything else?

It’s through your diligence (your persistence) that you build those assets.

Showing up every day is how you go about making money, developing your skills, building relationships, growing your audience, and mastering your tools.

Showing up every day means you have passion and focus. Why else would you do what you’re doing?

(Of course, there’s more to it than just showing up. You’ve got to be intentional about how you’re spending your time. (Work smarter, not harder.) But that’s a topic for we’ll get to later.)

* * *

Here are a few other advantages to showing up every day:

  • By showing up every day, you’ve stopped waiting passively for inspiration to mosey on by. Instead you’ve turned the act of doing your your best work into part of your daily routine. Now you’re playing offense.

  • Doing focused, creative work every day is challenging and, at times, even mundane. Your diligence helps you build a resistance so you don’t quit when it gets difficult.

  • The consistency of showing up every day, providing value, and showing your work is one of the best ways to build a relationship with your audience and establish true fans.

  • After a few years of showing up every day to do the work, you’ll have invaluable experience and perspective about how seasons of life go up and down. You’ll have a better story to tell about your work. (This goes hand-in-hand with developing your resistance to the mundane.)

  • Diligence in one area of your life will bleed over into other areas. It’s a skill you can learn.

  • Quantity leads to quality.

  • Quantity also breeds confidence. The more you do something, the more confident you become. Stick with it and you’ll slowly take ownership. You’ll realize you’re a writer and not just someone who writes; a photographer and not just someone who bought a camera; an entrepreneur, not an imposter.

  • Showing up every day removes the pressure of having to have a huge breakthrough ASAP. No single day becomes more or less important than any other day — the value is in the aggregate.

* * *

Isn’t it silly to think that as creative and entrepreneurial folks we should live without routine, discipline, or accountability?

Showing up every day is the best thing you can do for your business, your creativity, and your platform.

Give your ideas and your goals a fighting chance.

Why You Should Show Up Every Day

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* * *

My thanks to MailButler for sponsoring the site this week. Sponsorship via The Syndicate.

​MailButler — Your Personal Assistant for Apple Mail (Sponsor)

Focus Camp  →

The silliness of the name is (I hope) inversely proportional to the awesomeness of what we’re doing…

In a couple of weeks I’m leading a group through The Focus Course. I’ll be doing the course myself — sharing my daily progress on the community forums — and so will hundreds of other folks.

Click here to find out more and RSVP.

Focus Camp

The Longest Shortest Distance  →

Kyle Steed:

There is never any secret to someones success. There is only one foot in front of the other. There will always be someone ahead of and behind you. There will always be an unfair advantage. There will always be an excuse not to do it.

Back in 2012, I went to the first Circles Conference, and Kyle gave the opening talk. He spoke about the challenges of design from both a skill standpoint and a philosophical standpoint. His point, in a nutshell, was that learning Photoshop is easy compared to learning how to solve problems.

The Longest Shortest Distance

Quality is a Probabilistic Function of Quantity (Part 7)

(Or: Why The Fastest Route to Doing Your Best Creative Work is to Show Up Every Day, Ship Early, and Ship Often.)

This is part seven in a series on creativity and entrepreneurship. You can find the previous articles here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

* * *

As people who care deeply about what we do and what we create, our goal is always quality. We’re aiming to write or design or record the best work we can; always seeking to get better.

Like I said last week, as a creative person, it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the end product. You have this idea — this clever, beautiful, amazing thing you see in your mind. You want to make that, and anything less is unacceptable.

But, when you’re there, in the mire of your own work, it usually feels like anything but quality. It usually feels like crap.

As a writer, I never cease to amaze myself at my inability to find the words I am looking for. And then, when I can’t find them, I have no choice but to use the less-exciting words which have come to mind rather than those perfect ones which always seem to escape me.

It is in those moments where I have to remember that quantity leads to quality. Or, put another way, I’ve become comfortable with falling short of my own lofty expectations.

Today, the goal isn’t perfection. It’s far more simple: The goal is to show up and do the best work that I can.

Don’t believe that you must chose between creating a lot of something, or creating one thing that is a masterpiece. The former leads to the latter.

Yes, I want to be a fantastic writer. Yes, I want to write engaging, clever, and quotable works. Yes, I want my articles to be insightful and memorable. But I’ll never reach it if I quit while things seem poor. I cannot allow myself to only write when it feels inspired and en route to greatness.

If we sit around and wait for quality it won’t come.

Quality must be pursued.

In an article in The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell cited psychologist Dean Simonton and brings up Simonton’s argument that quantity does, in fact, lead to quality:

The psychologist Dean Simonton argues that this fecundity is often at the heart of what distinguishes the truly gifted. The difference between Bach and his forgotten peers isn’t necessarily that he had a better ration of hits to misses. The difference is that the mediocre might have a dozen ideas, while Bach, in his lifetime, created more than a thousand full-fledged musical compositions. A genius is a genius, Simonton maintains, because he can put together such a staggering number of insights, ideas, theories, and observations, and unexpected connections that he almost inevitably ends up with something great. “Quality,” Simonton writes, is “a probabilistic function of quantity.”

In his book, Deep Work, Cal Newport also argues that along with the ability to focus, quality is a byproduct of quantity.

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

He then goes on to say that, “unless your talent and skills absolutely dwarf those of your competition, the deep workers among them will outproduce you.”

Moreover, the idea that quantity leads to quality is the same case Geoff Colvin makes in his book, Talent is Overrated. Stating that the world’s top performers are, for the most part, people just like you and I but who have (a) put in far more hours practicing their craft and (b) made the most of their practice time by practicing with intentionality and deep focus.

“One day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple, but it isn’t easy. It requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.” — Russell Brand

* * *

Consider the fairytale of Goldilocks and the three bears.

Goldilocks happens upon the home of three bears while they’re out on a walk. She comes in and tastes their porridge, sits in their chairs, and sleeps in their beds.

The first bowl of porridge was too hot; the second, too cold; but the third was just right. And likewise for the chairs she sat in and the beds she napped in.

So it is in our pursuit of quality, excellence, and breakthrough…

At first we feel like intruders; imposters. Everything we put our hand to is not quite right. Too hot, too cold, to big, too small, hard, soft.

But then, after enough perseverance and focus, eventually, we create something that’s just right.

Quality is a Probabilistic Function of Quantity (Part 7)

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* * *

*My thanks to Elgato for sponsoring the site this week. [Sponsorship by The Syndicate.](http://synd.co/)*

Elgato Eve Energy — Switch & Power Meter (Sponsor)

Fantastic Friday: Books and music and podcasts

Here we are, the first Fantastic Friday of May. Welcome!

On a personal note, my wife and I are almost done unpacking! It’s been 3.5 weeks since we moved in to our new home. We’re down to just the last few boxes — I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

As any of you who have moved can surely attest to, it’s not easy to keep going. Each day I try to do at least one if not two projects around the house — even if they’re small projects. Such as yesterday: I (finally) put up a hand towel holder in our master bathroom.

In other news, I’ve got something awesome planned for The Focus Course that we’ll be doing in June. I’ll share more information with you in just a few days. But here’s a hint: it may or may not involve a cowboy hat…

nice-hat

— Shawn

 

1. 11/22/63

I’m a huge fan of Stephen King’s book, On Writing, but I’m not a fan of horror fiction. So I haven’t read any of King’s fiction books until now… 11/22/63 is about a man who travels back in time. It’s not horror fiction, and the storytelling is fantastic. I’m still early on in the book, so don’t tell me what happens.

 

2. Unemployable Podcast

Last week I linked to one of the episodes of Unemployable featuring Austin Kleon. Since then I’ve listened to about a dozen more episodes of the show. It’s fantastic. The episodes are short (usually just 20-30 minutes) and full of inspiration.

 

3. Paradise Valley by John Mayer

This is the album I’m listening to right now as I type up this week’s Fantastic Friday.

 

4. My iMac’s Desktop Wallpaper

May is here, the seasons are changing, and it’s as good a time as any for a fresh desktop wallpaper. For this one I just went to Unsplash and searched for “mountains”.

Fantastic Friday: Books and music and podcasts

Creative Goals (Part 6)

Pre-S. This is part six in a series on creativity and entrepreneurship. You can find the previous articles here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

There are two types of creative goals.

  1. The first type of goal is the goal a project that you’re building. Something you’re making. A goal of something that does not exist and that you are in process of creating.

  2. The second is a goal related to your creative output. Your skill set, your talent, your ideas, inspiration, motivation.

The two go hand in hand. Each one needs the other.

Because, as we’ll dive in to next week, quantity leads to quality. The more you do the work and the more you learn by shipping — then, in turn, the more you will grow in your skills. And, the more you grow in your skills the more you’ll be able to reach your goals for the work you create.

Loving the Process

How much do you enjoy the journey of creativity?

What if there was no end result? What if it was just a process of day in and day out. Showing up and showing your work?

Are you content in the creative process?

Are you content with your creative process?

When I think back to the building and launching of The Focus Course, what I remember most is the whole story and all the work leading up to the launch.

It started with a few dozen podcast episodes for the Shawn Today members. Those episodes turned into chapters of a book that never got published because I changed my mind about the book and began creating an online course instead. I mapped the whole thing out on my floor with index cards. I then led a small pilot group through the course using an email list…

That whole process, that year-long creative journey, was so much fun. It was exhilarating.

The launch of the Focus Course was just a one-day event. One day.

Then, I went back to creating. I started working on the next version of the course.

Baby

Perhaps what’s most difficult is that feeling of overwhelm when you’re on the threshold of a new project and you see where you are right now and you compare it to where you hope to go, and it feels unsurmountable.

Ira Glass explains this so well. Take a few minutes to watch this video:

Remember this: start with the simplest step first.

You never outgrow that bit of advice.

No matter how advanced you are in your craft, how much experience you have, etc. You always have to start with the first step.

As a creative person, it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the end product. You have this idea — this clever, beautiful, amazing thing you see in your mind. And you want to make that. Anything less is unacceptable.

The problem, however, is that this clever, beautiful, amazing thing you see is completely unreasonable as the first version.

The first version is the baby version…

It’s small. It’s naked. It’s crying at first contact with the real world. It needs to be nursed and continually cared for and swaddled. It poops its pants whenever you’re not looking. It won’t even let you sleep through the night.

But with proper care and feeding, your baby will grow up. It will mature. And, over time, it will learn to stand on its own.

If you’re in it for the long run, be encouraged…

Starting small isn’t something you “settle” for. Rather, it’s the proper way to get going. And when you commit your time and energy to your creative goals, you will see progress.

As we’ll talk about more next week, a commitment to quality is what gives motivation to show up every day. And showing up every day — that quantity of work — is what leads to creating with quality.

 

Read the next article here »

Creative Goals (Part 6)