Category: Inspiration

You Control Your Own Reality

Posted on by Greg

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The professional cannot allow the actions of others to define his reality.

This quote appears in The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It’s a must-own for creatives especially but will inspire anybody looking for some motivation. Slowly Pressfield explores the causes of creative resistance before urging you to “turn pro” and then guiding you through some pretty heady self-actualizing pondering. I can’t recommend the book enough and you’ll see Pressfield mentioned often on this blog and other personal development sites (in fact, an entry on his blog was a weekend reading suggestion of mine just last week). His ideas make sense and if his calls to action don’t mobilize you then, well, you may not have a pulse.

The quote of the moment falls in line with our Monday discussion about defining yourself. Once you’ve figured out who you are and what you want to be (and do), one of the hardest obstacles to overcome will be other people. In the age of social media and instant feedback (you could go to the comments right now and tell me how you feel about this article) everybody is a critic and some are less thoughtful about it than others.

Pressfield presents this quote after a story about Tiger Woods being distracted by a camera flash while playing in The Masters during his prime. Woods calmly stopped his swing, collected himself and drove the ball a mile down the fairway. Maybe the flash was a mistake, maybe it was intentional – but the reason wasn’t relevant to Woods and his reaction reflected that. The professional didn’t allow the action of another to enter the equation of his own success. Woods went on to win the tournament.

How often in the course of your day do the actions of another person threaten to derail your day? Or week? Or career? Are you willing to cede that kind of control to other people? Jerks and critics will come and go but – as Pressfield says – you will have to continue to show up or else you’ll never realize your dreams. Others only have the control that you grant them, so be very careful about who you give that kind of power to.

The next time somebody threatens to derail you – whether by accident or on purpose – remember that the only actions you can control absolutely are your own.

Reset the mechanism and go about your business.

Jellybeans Illustrate The Importance Of Maximizing Our Lives

Posted on by Greg

How do you spend your time?

There are many demands on our time these days and those demands only seem to be increasing in terms of both quantity and intensity. The Time You Have Left (In Jellybeans) by Ze Frank takes an interesting approach to breaking down how the average American will use their limited time: 28,835 jellybeans are used (one bean is one day) to illustrate your life and put your time in perspective. Slowly beans (and your living days) are raked away, destined to be spent sleeping, working, eating, traveling, cleaning the house, cleaning yourself, engaging in civil responsibilities or planted in front of the television (where the average American will spend 2,676 days of their life, despite the fact that there have been only two seasons of House of Cards).

In the end Frank concludes that you have 2,740 days all to yourself in which to pursue your passions – that’s less than ten percent of your entire life.

Steal Back Beans And Make The Most Of The Beans You Have

The takeaway here ties right into the thesis of Toward Vandalia – all of our time must be fully maximized! You’ll spend 3,202 days at work, so make sure you’re doing something you love or at least find some way to love what you’re doing. Prepare meals with loved ones to steal some precious moments. Take two minute showers to get even more beans back. Take public transport so travel time becomes leisure reading time. The numbers don’t lie, sure, but Frank has painted a picture of the average American and I’m betting you’re not interested in being merely average.

As we move forward, I aim to help you steal back precious beans and ensure that you’re allocating them toward the most satisfying life you can imagine for yourself. In the end, though, the hard work will be left up to you.

As Frank asks at the end of his video:

What are you going to do today?

Take The Road Less Traveled In All Aspects Of Your Life

Posted on by Greg

Skip the highway.

When considering travel to a neighboring city by car, the easiest route is usually the fastest route, as well. The highway. The freeway. The interstate. The bypass. The turnpike. These major roads go by many names and as convenience goes, they are a godsend. However, the highway is not the only way to get from Point A to Point B – any number of smaller roads connect the many smaller towns that highways have bypassed and forgotten. Sure, you’d have to endure intercity traffic and lower speed limits and traffic signals and the occasional tractor (or horse-drawn buggy!) but maybe it’s still a route worth consideration.

On the freeway, you limit your choices.

Lifehacker recently highlighted the above quote from David Klein – creator of Jelly Belly – as featured in Candyman, a documentary about Klein. It seems like common sense, but the implications are limitless and can extend to many parts of our day to day lives. Reading between the lines, it’s a statement about the sacrifices we make in the pursuit of convenience.

By zipping from town to town on the freeway, you may miss any number of interesting destinations in between. By choosing to shop at big box retailers that offer convenience and low prices by limiting their selection of items in each category you may be missing out on, say, a specialty shampoo that makes your hair look better than it ever has. By choosing to invest your energy in the CliffsNotes on Macbeth rather than reading the play itself, you’re missing the lyrical beauty of Shakespeare.

We’re all busy and little time savings get us back to House of Cards a bit faster, but maybe it’s worth taking the road less traveled here and there. Maybe in choosing the path of least resistance you’re missing out on something that would add unprecedented value to your life. Is that not worth slowing down for?

When Opportunity Knocks, Swing For The Fences

Posted on by Greg

Fernando Tatís has a unique claim to fame: he is the only Major League Baseball player to hit two grand slams in one inning of play. He accomplished this feat on April 23, 1999 against the Dodgers. Roll the footage:

What makes this feat all the more incredible is the fact that Tatís is the only player to have the opportunity to accomplish it – no other player has ever found themselves at the plate with the bases loaded twice in one inning. It’s the most impossibly perfect meeting of opportunity and execution you could ever hope to see and it offers an important takeaway: when opportunity knocks, dig in, wait for your pitch and swing for the fences.

We’ve all heard the phrase “success is when preparation meets opportunity” but Tatís shows us that sometimes history will open the door to you and you alone, so you have to be ready to step across the threshold.

[h/t]

Camus On Happiness, Experience and Gratitude

Posted on by Greg

IMG_1731 (1280x792)

I finished reading The Stranger this week, which has me thinking about Albert Camus. The author of many novels, essays and letters, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 and is remembered by many as one of the finest writers – and thinkers – of his generation. That his philosophy often informed his prose served only to make his stories even better. However, it is to his notes and letters that I thought we could turn today in search of inspiration.

Those who prefer their principles over their happiness, they refuse to be happy outside the conditions they seem to have attached to their happiness. If they are happy by surprise, they find themselves disabled, unhappy to be deprived of their unhappiness. (via)

Happiness has a tendency to be fleeting and can sometimes appear when we least expect it. Have you ever set out to achieve one goal but accidentally achieved a different, sometimes cooler result? The natural reaction for many in this situation is to deflect credit for this achievement. Some may even be annoyed by the accidental nature of the success. However, the final result would not have been attained had you not been out there giving things a go in the first place.

Take your happiness where you can get it.

You cannot create experience, you must undergo it. (via)

Once again, you have to be in it to win it. You could read about the Grand Canyon and look at pictures and watch videos and listen to your friends gush about their experiences there. Or, you could go there yourself and watch the sun set slowly over the lip of the canyon until you are alone in a silent darkness found in few other places. One option is undergoing experience, and I don’t think I have to tell you which one.

Get out there and live the life you want to live.

I don’t make too much of this sort of honour. But at least it gives me the opportunity to tell you what you have been and still are for me, and to assure you that your efforts, your work, and the generous heart you put into it still live in one of your little schoolboys who, despite the years, has never stopped being your grateful pupil. I embrace you with all my heart.

This quote is taken from a letter Camus wrote to Louis Germain upon receiving the Nobel Prize. Germain was Camus’ teacher and a father figure who offered invaluable encouragement in Camus’ formative years. It is a testament to the power of that encouragement that the only worth Camus could assign to such a prestigious honor is that it gave him an opportunity to show gratitude to Germain.

As we go through life, it is important to stay humble and remember those who helped us attain our grandest goals – to “embrace [them] with all [your] heart”. If we are fortunate, we may get the opportunity to show our gratitude – as Camus has done – through our work and by encouraging those who follow us.

The Stranger