What you need is oxygen.
What you have is comfort.
What you want is luxury.
Month: June 2016
You can look around and notice that there are five rectangles that are dominating our lives:
- smart phones
- televisions
- work computers
- personal laptops
- tablets
When we look up from these rectangles we begin to notice the subtle things around us (collecting data). With enough data we can develop a level of prajna – seeing the world for what it actually is.
Unfortunately, data is mostly consumed visiting the rectangles rather than collected. We can change that.
Many of us are born with extraordinary opportunities. We are completely in charge of our future and dreams.
Someone is always doing more with less:
- Albert Einstein was able to develop the Theory of Relativity with only 10 digits.
- Michelangelo was able to complete the Sistine Chapel and yet there are only 3 pure colors.
- Abraham Lincoln was able to write and deliver the Gettysburg Address in 272 words using 26 letters.
- Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin with only having 118 chemical elements available.
In each of these examples: the sum is greater than all the parts.
Do we see constraints as a way to avoid the work? Or an opportunity to make art?
What is your Sistine Chapel look like?
There is no such thing as a shortcut.
People, like water, naturally find the path of least resistance – faster, cheaper, more convenient and inevitably unremarkable.
If there is a shortcut someone much smarter than us would have found it by now.
The ultimate shortcut is fighting through the Resistance, not going around it – slower, at times expensive (not just money) and inconvenient is what leads us to be remarkable.
What is interesting about email is that if you are the only one to have email it is completely useless. There is no one to share data with if you have the only email. The more that use it the better it works. It is the same with the telegraph and Twitter.
Art is the same way. It needs to be shared. It shouldn’t be sold but gifted. Too often I hear a great idea but with the disclaimer at the beginning, “Please don’t steal this idea.” Why?
When ideas are spread that is when we all have a chance to change someones life for the better.
If we were to walk into a bar in 1872, chances are we would be sitting around arguing over whether or not if a horse that is galloping, would have all four hooves leave the ground at the same time?
Conventional wisdom at the time said that horses leave at least one hoof on the ground at all times.
Legend has it that Leland Stanford, the Governor of California, wanted to settle a bet so he hired a photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, to find the answer.
Over the next six years after losing negative images, a murder (yep, true story), and some experimenting; by improving the shutter speed, Muybridge was able to prove that horses do leave the ground with all four hooves when galloping. Along the way, Muybridge created the zoopraxiscope, the first early movie projector in this process.
A lot of work to solve a bet.
Fast forward to today, if you wanted to settle a bet within a few minutes someone will inevitably exclaim, “I’ll google it.” Where is the fun in that? It is the ultimate trump card. No more back and forth bickering, no more tension. Google has ended the bet.
What’s interesting about this is Muybridge did not start out by developing the first early movie projector – he started out by looking for a solution to Stanford’s problem. It was the tension that created the itch for Stanford which lead to Muybridge’s invention. The itch is still there today but we need more tension if we are going to make innovations and inventions like Muybridge. Don’t let Google release the tension. Scratch harder, dig deeper. There is a whole world of possibility out there.
Listening is a difficult skill to develop.
When someone is speaking to us (feedback), instead of listening our brain is already thinking about what we are going to say (reaction) without actually listening to what the person is saying.
Our brains cannot multitask, instead we are switching from one task to another very quickly.
In other words, we cannot listen to someone while at the same time think about what we are going to say next.
Better to listen. Absorb. Then think of a proper response (avoid reacting). Initiate.
The second law of thermodynamics states that closed systems tend to maximize entropy (measure of disorder).
Basically, if we are not working on one area of our lives it will eventually become disorganized, cluttered and scattered. So we re-double our efforts and swear we never let this fall between the cracks again. Then we see a different area of our lives begin to become disorganized. So we work hard to fix this area of concern, swear we will never let this slip through our hands again and the cycle continues.
We have learned to reverse the law of disorder we have to put energy into it. The problem is energy is finite. We do not have an infinite supply. The energy put into preventing disorder in one place simultaneously increases it somewhere else. Entropy will continue to grow and grow.
So what does that mean for us?
Pick seven areas in your life that you want to work on.
Focus on one area and another one will begin to be disorganized. That is okay. Over the years you want to be able to look back and have an overall balance but never let these particular seven areas slip into entropy; let them become your core principles.
Give yourself permission to be whatever it is that you want to be. No one is waiting to anoint you as a professional writer, musician, poet, designer or blogger.
Giving yourself permission will you give you confidence. It will give you a chance to be an artist, someone who changes how we think, what we feel and how we do. You don’t need credentials to be an artist. You don’t need to sell a platinum album to be a musician. Just start being one and start creating art to change the hearts and minds of people.
Reader’s first reaction: I am not an artist. I can’t paint a picture.
You are an artist when you spend emotional labor to deliver a project in a generous way.
Blogger: I made this blog for you. Here. Read this. I hope it helps you find what you are looking for.
Be generous with your gift. No need to sell it for money (it’s too valuable). When we sell our gift for money, it is no longer a gift but a commodity and when it turns into a commodity it is no longer art.
Be an artist. Paint the picture of the future you want then go there.
Better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Create a ruckus. Be bold. Be unpredictable and unusual.
Put aside the mundane work. Start something new and exciting. Start something that comes out of left field. Start something that shakes up the establishment. Start something that doesn’t follow the recipe, the checklist, the order of operations. Start that book you always wanted to write or post that blog that you were always too scared to share. Surprise your spouse by making that dish you always wanted to try. Grab that camera and start taking pictures. Start creating art.
Start today. Right now. Start small and finish it today. Go. Then tomorrow start a ruckus again.
Josh Allred's Blog 