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Identify & Eliminate Distraction

distraction. Big idea here. Right? How do we work? Where do we work? I learned something about myself yesterday, day before? Because I've been here for a couple days, sitting in a little hotel room, working on this for you, and you and I realized I cannot work next to a window. I'm like working. Who is that? A more cycle. Oh, okay. Nothing. I can't sit next to a window and work. It's horrible. It's so distracting. I realized our my studio looks like this and there's a huge skylight. No motorcycles going by. You know, we're near the bridge, though. Can you know that could be weird. Bqool, um distractions. I work for myself. I have a live work situation. I live and work in the same place. I'm very disciplined, so I'm not going into the fridge aerator every five minutes. You know, what are your distractions? What? What, What? What? Right down and figure out and think about the things that distract you at work. The things that keep you from working. Some distractions, a great I mean, I thi...

nk distractions are awesome. You can't just like, work and work, work, work, work, work. You know all working. No play makes Jack a dull boy, right? You want to see the worst distraction in the world? This little piece of chocolate, right? Oh, my God. Who invented this crap? Curses, Right. Terrible working, working, working. Which is what? Flu? Oh, nothing. You know, like it's crazy. We love our phones so much. Yeah, um, looking around, you know, he said, looking up and looking down. That's awesome. Who goes to these portfolio sites? Just look, I'm just looking, looking looking, scrolling through tons and tons of the computer has made everything available to us, and we just spend tons of time Pope poring through it. That's a distraction. That's other people's concerns. You're not consitution and be concerned with other people what other people are doing. It's hard enough doing this. It's hard enough looking inside and being honest with myself going out. Oh likes use of orange. Oh, shoot. I should do orange, you know, because you'll never learn to yourself because you're too busy concentrating on other people. And this thing, this thing, when that rings, your email list and your Twitter feed on that, that's other people pulling you out of what you're doing That's like you're paying attention to other people's agenda. Think about it like that. There's a book, um called the Bhagavad Geeta. I don't know if any of you have read it. And it's a story of, um, Arjun, this warrior. And when you when you start reading the story, we find Arjun slumped down in his chariot, is about to go into battle. And the battle is between two families to royal families in Indian, of which he is one. And he slumped down full of self doubt, right? He's an archer. Luck has it for him. His charioteer is Krishna in disguise, and the and the book is a conversation. And in it there was a line that I've known for years. I never really figured out. And in it it says you are not entitled to the fruit of your labor. You're only entitled to the labour itself. Meaning? Meaning you're like, Wait a minute, huh? I'm doing all this work and I can't have the fruit. It's like, No, you're not entitled to the fruit of your labor. You're only entitled to the work itself. That means do the work. Don't worry about the outcome. do the work. You can't concern yourself with what happens. Because if you do, it will change the work and nets not what we're doing. Just do the work. Just concentrate. You know, just get your head out of your IPad. This is distraction Those sites or distract. You know what else is another really bad distraction? I don't know if you guys have it. I have it horrible. He's going on right now. He's talking in my head right now. Doubt the critic. Kill the critic. It takes practice. Makes a lot of practice kill the critic. So the big idea about about distraction Best idea about distraction. And this is the way I make it memorable for you. You guys know this philosopher Pogo? You never You never Pogo. Okay. Amazing philosopher Pogo is Ah, possum. He is a Walt Kelly cartoon started in 1949. Hilarious. And Pogo is a philosopher. And in the most famous thing pogo ever did or ever said, This is like my version of pogo. He looks a little bit like that. Um the best. The most important thing pogo ever said is we have met the enemy and he is us, and it's we just have to train ourselves and it's really hard, you know? And this is good for you. Taking classes is good. Doing the work is really important. You know, looking outside to a certain degree is important. Understanding good distractions versus bad distractions. Um, another Persian Hafeez Brilliant, brilliant book. There's these guys, the wonderful translator called Daniel Radinsky, and Radinsky has translated translated one collection of Huffy's and it's called the subject. Tonight is love. So if you got a girlfriend or boyfriend, get that book, read it to them. It's wonderful, and it's not like the the I thou though. Poetry. It's really straightforward. And he says this is just part of longer pieces, his habits or human nature. Why not create some that will mint gold meaning habits of human nature? You guys don't have assigned seats, do you hear? But you will leave for lunch and you will come back and sit in the same seat. You've like Boom, have it right there. You gotta have it the next two days. That's your habit. We do it all the time. We create habits, consciously create habits that will make gold consciously create habits that will lead you to greatness. To success, too. Whatever you want right down, be conscious of the habit that you have that do not mint gold, you know? What do you What do you What do you guys, guy? What's your What's your approach? What's your working day like kind of habits to you? Do you have a good habit? Let's talk about good habits first. Good habits do you have? They're easy. Like Like I meditate every day. Oh, my God. That's an amazing habit. I wish I could start that. I try. I get in there are like, I'm I got shit to do, You know, it's terrible walking outside. Awesome. Yesterday, Uh, do morning pages morning pages Just right out. You know, whatever I'm thinking. Oh, that's well, that's really good. Yeah. Excellent journals. All that stuff waking up and write your dreams down. Any of that stuff, that's all. Good. Have a good breakfast. Yeah. Yeah, I would say gluten free. Go from being help you more, but I cool. What else? New York Yoga. Excellent. It's a great habit. You do a home where you go to a special cool, even better special place where you gotta pay money toe like this. Oh, what else? Good habits reading anybody read? That's great. Don't read crap. Don't read crap. Don't, my friend. Awesome. Clean says don't finish bad books. What else? Good habits come up. Bad habits. What do you got? Check email first. That Z really bad one. That is a bad one. And that's the one. I don't point at me. Woman. Um, yeah, it's bad. It's bad. Same chicken, Some news. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Um, you know, it's a bad habit for me. Is Twitter an instagram? Because because I put out, I put out really good stuff. I put it really funny stuff. And, you know, I work at it and, um um, it becomes I become Arjun. I'm like, waiting for the fruit like a dude. You know, I don't do it the further reward, But then the reward is out there, like, just curious. Like, why hasn't anybody reading me back? Right? It's crazy. It's crazy how addictive that thing is. What other bad habits or addictions like watching TV? Well, working. Oh, yeah. What? What? Why is that so bad? A lot of people do it. Why Is it bad you don't get free? Yeah. You don't You don't you? You like multi tasking is Bolshoi. That means that means I'm doing three things horribly. Paul, who were bad, right? Crazy working late. Working late is a terrible habit. How many people work? Too much work, you know? And part of it. Part of this this, like, um, you're not allowed to raise your hand in the back there, You know? I know your boss saying, um, you know, I love my job, and I do. I do it a lot, you know? I mean, I work on planes, I work at home, I work. I've always got a pan, remember? But its play, I like I like it. I like it. But I am going to We're going to have a child. I know that I need toe will need to check that. Check that habit. Um, and I've got I've got I've got a friend who, um, the very, very first burning question that we ever did. The first question we answered was about, um, all nighters, but, you know, working late doing that. And I said I said the you know, the best way to get ideas. And the best way to generate new and the best way to make exciting work is to sleep is to sleep. And I had a friend who came, you know, dear friend of mine, Palamar, and came up to me. You know, we saw we had dinner together a couple a couple weeks later and he said, You know, I really disagree with you. I really disagree with that. You know, the sleeping thing he says He says He says 10,000 hours And how are you going to get your tip of Mel Gibson thing? And what what's his name was together with? Um hey says, you know Howard, Howard Howard, You're telling people that they should see How are they going to get their 10,000 hours in and for me? And I think it's true for for you guys because you're conscious and you're paying attention. My 10,000 hours of being creative This clock started ticking when I was five. All I have to do is pay attention. You know I don't have to do. Is is do what that kid would do. Be honest with myself, you know? So she s asleep is really important work. Doing a lot of work is really important. To sleep is really important. You're right, great, because the chat room, they're kind of sharing their habits, and this really resonates with them. We have so many people who have bad habits that they're trying to get rid of. Michelle B. Says that getting on my cell phone is a bad habit for me. Facebook texting, Pinterest, all of it on the phone for Beth. She says that Netflix is a downfall when she gets on Netflix and just starts going through it. Time flies by lots of people saying, going to bed too late, Procrastinating graphic says. I finally have stopped doing all nighters because I realize that they're not productive, just kind of. It's really just a guess. Procrastinating that leads to that. Also a bad habit from Natalie staring at the clock, kind of paying attention to the time and getting distracted there rather than focus. Yeah, well, Natalie, the pain of paying attention the clock thing is funny because if you really were excited, then you would want the clock to slow down, right? That's important. If you really were doing something that you really enjoyed? You know, you want the clock to slow down. Interesting ideas. And those air, all those air. All awesome. The best habit is to just learn and practice, Remember, create some that will mint gold. The best habit is to just learn to trust yourself. And it's really hard. It's really hard. You should have seen me ask Laura. You should have seen me yesterday. I was a mess. I was a mess. I was I was so in my head. I was so Yeah, so full of so riddled with self doubt and fear about this, like, Oh, I just do this funny. This stupid thing was gonna wanna would Oh, my gosh. It's so hard to kind of like, Put your shoulders back, Straighten your spine. Stick out your chin like No, this is awesome. I can do this. I trust myself. I trust myself. And what happens is is it's confidence. You know what caught my definition of confidence is just being there, just being this. Like you walk into a bar, you see a cute girl, right? Franco? You walk in Bari. Secret. Cute girl. First thing is like lost. Talk to that's the first. The first idea that comes your head. The second idea that comes your head is she's too pretty. I'm to this Dale, blah, blah, right conferences just being there. And, you know, it's also about confidence. It's attractive, you know, saying Scott Scott is going to be the guy who walks in the meetings. People like Scott's here, right? The world wants more. Scott World wants more Andy More Marina. Everybody, you guys, you just don't know it yet. You were born enlightened and wildly creative, and you just forgot. It's cool. Trust yourself. The next great way to come up with interesting ideas is your right to eat. Let's see, we have one here from Jeannie Bowman, and we had five people vote on this genie they want to know a little bit about. You know, you talked about looking at things to find inspiration. Jenny wants to know if you can't look at other people's work, but you also learn from other people. How do you personally balance it so that you don't get drowned by comparison, comparing yourself to other people's work and that becoming okay, you can't look at other people's where he can't look at your peers work. That's why we have museums. That's where we have galleries. You have to look at great. If you look at online, there's no curating. There's no you, just like it's just a glom of everything. And you can't tell Mark Rothko from From James Victoria from one of James Victoria's crappy students, there's just all it's all presented the same. You know, um, you have to go. We have to go to the places where they keep all the information, like bookstores, right or or or museums or look at great stuff. I can't look at everything in the Web is filled with a lot of stuff, and some of it's really awesome. Um, and that's a little bit of the differences. It's no, it's it's It's called shit from Shinola and knowing the difference between the two. But that's an excellent question. What other questions that we got? We've got some more here online. If anybody has was God's got Scott first God, how do you keep from just perpetually waiting for the perfect time to do something like It's my trap. My bad habit is waiting, trying to wait for the right time to do something or for inspiration to strike instead of chasing after it. Or we're making it happen myself. You know, there's kind of again there's kind of no, there's no rules. First of all, um, and you're gonna have to find out how you work. Like, I know that I work in thirds like I get a phone call or a brief, and I'll like jot some ideas down immediately. And then I just Then I don't touch the job. And maybe two days later, three days later, I go, Oh, yeah, I got that thing and I wake up early and have a cup of coffee, and I'll sit down and I'll read the thing and I'll make some notes, goes, has some funny ideas, okay? And I'll put it aside and then I'll get a, you know, a phone call and say, Hey, James, when we're gonna see that schedule. Okay, Uh, in an hour, right. So I work in thirds for me. That just kind of the flow. So how do you do it? You're gonna have to figure that out, Like in your what's your M o for working. Right. Um, so that's that's kind of part of it. Um um, you know, everybody's gonna have their own way. What are they? What are they? One of the questions. We got another question here online. This one comes from Hector Hot. And we had 16 people vote on this people. Really curious question. Yeah. You know, you mentioned that. I think you're always working that you're always prepared for these ideas, but Hector wants to know when you get a new assignment. How do you start discussing, sketching, researching etcetera? What yields the best results in your experience. So if you're kind of working at all times, how do you break it down and be productive in all these different steps? Um, I try not to discuss with anybody. I don't that there's a There's a bad habit. There's a bad habit and jelly one morning when my students have assignments and they've got You were saying you were hanging out with some friends working. OK, that's a really bad thing, because your friends are going to say, Well, he wants to do and you can't listen to that, so I don't does. I don't show the only person who has any say about my work whatsoever is my wife, because she's sees things very clearly for, you know, and I sometimes get too, too involved in these things. Um, Chris, what other aspects of that question should I Not if I'm missing, you know, I think that you covered it there. You just your personal experience. But we have some similar questions to touch on that we have another one here from Gallico. We have 14 votes on this one, and you talked a little bit about you know, the difference between those passion jobs, the God jobs and the money jobs. And Alico wants to know, how do we get over the insecurity of wanting to pursue a career as an artist but afraid of not being successful financially? A part of me wants to do what I love, but the other part of me really wants to stay safe and based on all the votes, I think a lot of people out there okay, that's a brilliant That's a brilliant question on, and it's the It's the bodyguard. Bhagwat Geeta is well, it's the it's the you're not entitled to the fruit. You're only entitled to the work. You're not in control of the money that's gonna come down the road. You have no idea. You have no idea that if you actually took that chance, you have no idea that that might be hide. Lee rewarded. And I think I think the universe is going to reward you anyway for just taking the risk, right? We call that too much thinking. You know, people often say, Hey, you know, I've got a family, so I can't really take these chances because I need to be, you know, right, really secure. We got we got a burning question, one from some guy who had just bought, is just bought a new house, had a baby on the way. I had a very secure job of the 401 k and all this stuff and he says, and I drive home every night. Miserable anybody Stuckey literally was was was stuck. And I don't believe in stuck. I believe you always have a choice, and I said, Listen, you've got to go on a walkabout. You've got to go out for three days by yourself and just really figure out back out of that life and say we want what I want and I think like I'm not, we're not wealthy. We have a very simple studio. We keep a very spartan life, so we could be a little bit more nimble. Um, and I would rather be an example for my son for taking risks and being a nice guy and and and and doing interesting work than suffering in a job so I can pay his college. Listen, here there's a hiss is a huge idea for the online guys and for you guys. This is a huge idea I'm gonna put on you right now. Your job on this planet. Your purpose on this planet is not for success or to support a family. Your purpose on this planet is to find out who you are and do that. And I think if you can do that, success and supporting a family will come much easier. But your job is not to support a family, not to make money, not to assume some success. It's to figure out who you are. That's huge because you guys were awesome. You guys have such power. You just don't even know because you haven't put it out there. A lot of people in the online thing. You gotta put it out there, you know? You know, there's this. There's this There's this gospel song. Um um, this little light of mine. You guys know that this little light of mine, you guys have that light and you don't put it out. There's two reasons. One because it's too easy. You go. Oh, that What that people like? Do you like really good this, like now? Just this. Just something I dio. It's just like I know top and designers about to go on stage, hurling into the garbage cans, sweating bullets. You're, like, different. What's going on is like, I shouldn't be here. I just I just do this thing right, totally unaware of their gift because it's too easy just to ease in the second reason. It's too hard, because now I say, Franco, Andy, Marina, you guys are amazing. You have such a gift. You gotta put it out in the world. You're like, Wait, I gotta show people I got to get up and stand in front of people like this with my hands out arms akimbo, you know, and be brave. Who? This little light of mine You gotta let it shine. That's the best answer