Lessons

Lesson Info

Develop Your Systems

Step one of this process and I talked about in the book. Step one is imagining what's possible. We thought about how to break that stuff down. Step two is designing a plan to get there because nothing happens without a plan. Great to look to my my old dear friend Picasso. Our goals could only be reached through the vehicle of a plan in which we must fervently believe in vigorously act. There is no other route to success you. No one has found success without a plan. Even if you've heard a one hit wonders, I wouldn't call that prolonged success or prolonged fulfillment, right? That's a one hit wonder. Everything else you see was a comment for the plant. Even if you didn't know the plan when you started, you started walking. You had a plan for the next five minutes. Five weeks, five years, lo and behold, a lot of action Later, you found the fulfillment that you saw it. You filled the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be. So when I first declared that I was a creato...

r, I realized that I wanted nothing more than to get paid to take pictures. I want you to insert yourself into my story here because you've all got I want nothing more than to be able to fill in that blank. Whatever it is doesn't require that you become a professional. I want to even if you want to state your the job, that does you right right now. And I want to have more time for my ceramics on the side. Whatever that gap is right now. When I said I wanted to become a photographer, the first thing I did you know that schedule? That's the man trying to keep me down. I wanted to sleep in. I wanted to wait till inspiration, slap me upside the head like a brick, and then I would just wildly kick into action and everything was gonna be great. But you know what? About three months in and I heard Drew Drew talking about my lovely wife, Kate, who's back here somewhere. She's like, You know, you really haven't contributed much to the rent yet this month for the last month, and it was really right. We were poorer graduate students at the time, and I needed to contribute and the reality of time, pressure of financial pressure. It made me get serious about my craft. And it's nice to not be serious because we know we talked about this in the early section. That's really fun. Like, Oh, man, I just gonna explore. I'm gonna do these things. I want to do everything. Soon as you try and do everything you into being able to do nothing, I had to focus. So this idea of the man's plans trying to keep me down nothing happens without a plan. And this is a myth that were taught about. Creators were also taught that creators star of the starving artist. That silly thing was a myth that was made up from this came out of this cafe in Paris called the Doom Ago, where Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre, that's a story that they told themselves to feel better, and it became a myth and now used that myth in our culture, which is one of the reasons that your parents didn't want you to be here today. We know that's a myth, but we also know from my own experience and from yours that we gotta have some plans And so the section of the book is very, very much a lot of detail about how to build plans and in the class, I want to show you basically a foundation of framework for some things that are going to get you from where you want to be, toe where you reorder where you want to be. In a sense, it's a little bit of Ah, it's ah, device. It's a mechanism and a frame it around this triangle here pyramid, if you will. And it's very, very natural to start at the top because this is the shiny pinnacle in the sky, right? This is the base only exists to get to the top. The Egyptians knew, though, that the foundation was the most important part of any pyramid. And I believe this to be true as well, with all of the things in life specifically are path are calling to becoming the creator of the human being that we want. So I'm going to start with mindset. Actually, I'm gonna flip the script. I'm gonna stop in my mind that I'm gonna start with goals because I actually believe that the goal is the easiest part. Curveball there, Right? We got all kinds of shapes. Now we've got a pyramid, we get a ball, We got triangles now a goal. Um, their entire books about goals. We have entire classes on creativelive about goal setting. I don't think that I am the person to run a class about goal setting. I think I dispose of it rather quickly in the book. But I want to make some time for it here today because ah, goal without a plan is just a dream, right? We need to put some action behind that. So that's what we're going to do. We're gonna sort of deconstruct or peel back the layers of the onion to find out how we actually make it all happen. So I would like you to think right now about one goal. Everyone in this room, there's exactly 100 people here. Is that fund that school? It's like round number right now. We got circles, squares, we got round numbers. You'd think I was a math guy. I want to think of one goal right now. We talked about imagining, and some of you were able to say what it is that you want to do with your next project, Or maybe even with your life, somebody weren't. That's fine. We talked about our values. That's good. You're getting those down these RL exercise of talk about the perfect day. Now I want you to think of one goal, some attributes of goals. I would like it to be measurable. It doesn't mean I just want to be a better painter is not a goal. I want to paint a four foot by six foot canvas by October 30th is a goal notice. I said nothing about what it looked like, what was on that canvas. So if it's the 29th and it's, you know, uh, or it's the 30th and it's 11 PM and you haven't done it yet, I want you to get that campus. I want you to be able to paint it and put a red dot on it and call it good, because I want you to accomplish this goal. But I wanted to be one thing who is willing to share their goal. I love it. Let's bring in Mike up to her, please. And I want to hear at least one or two other goals and you don't have to have a right this second, but you're thinking about it and try and listen to her. But try and think about this goal. I want everyone in the room to have a goal. And if you're the person saying like I'm not gonna is gonna play along and pretend to have a goal, have a goal. Tell us who you are. My name is Cheryl. Renee Long. Hi, Cheryl. That was pretty soft. High share? Uh, yes. Okay. What's your goal? OK, Mike. I'm a professional artist and painter, and Michael is By the first of November, I will have a 16 by 20. Meaning very realistic of a great blue here. A great blue heron. That is a great goal. Nice job. Okay. Thank you for sharing. That's a flood, That gold. What I like about goals is the clearer the better. I want to have an image in this magazine by this date. And there's things you have to realize. There's things outside of your control when you set some goals. And so that's a little bit risky, but I'm OK with that because you don't have to actually hit every goal. I like goals. where you can like you are. Ah, 100% in charge of that one, Aren't you right? That's it. I'm not saying don't set goals like I want to be on the cover of National Geographic by next week. It's gonna be hard to do, but I do like that. I need to other goals. Please. Let's hear for two of the goals. Yes, you, sir. In the blue shirt with the white collar. I'm Tommy. Hi, Tom. A. Yes. I want to create an online course by January 31st. Yes, that is the best kind of goal. Nice job. Okay. I want to create an online gold by what was the January 31st? It's a great time to do it. New Year. New. You okay? We know a lot about that around here. So you're gonna create an online course? Fantastic. We actually have courses about how to create an online course. Awesome. Yeah, it sounds good. Um, clear. Measurable. Either did it or you didn't date fear anyone Fear, you know? Yeah. I'm scared for some of you do. One more. One more goal. Yes, I'm coming to you. Mike is coming in 32 and one, Mac magically appears. Thank you, John. Stand up. So I'll see you Are what you go. Hi. My name is Amy. Uh hey. Thanks. Hi, everyone. Um, I run a niche woodworking company, and I haven't been doing so much creative things because I'm filled with the day to day filling orders, and Michael is to build a coffee table that I've designed by November 31st and publish it on my instagram. Well, don't sit down yet. Don't sit down yet. Here's the really cool thing. This class is gonna be in our library for years on end. So what I want is I want your instagram handle and I want to be able to In the first, I want to build a scroll and look at this. And you know what? Here's the cool thing. I actually do this. I have. Right now, someone in my team is putting this in my calendar. Just so you know, accountability. Yeah, and I'm gonna comment on it, Okay. It's wood shop. Girl would shop girl. One word would shop, girl. And you're gonna do what? One more time. I'm gonna build a coffee table that I've designed by November 31st or 30th or their 30 or 31 days. Oh, I have to do a weird thing with by the end of November the first we'll check it out. A random applause. Thank you very much. Now we all set a goal. Those of you didn't set a goal. I'm watching. I can in your ears right now. You don't know, but I know if you set a goal. You didn't like Santa Claus thing, right? Set a goal. It's a really good exercise to just set a goal. And do it just one thing, because you know what does It builds momentum. I make my bed every morning. Sometimes it doesn't look very good. I qualified. I do this and I'm like, Good enough. But I make my bed every day because it's a It's a little thing that I did. You could never take that away from me. I made my bed. And so do one goal from this class. One thing. Write it down on your hand and your phone. Now we're gonna go forward one step. I think we're gonna go forward one step yet. We're gonna identify the habit to get there, so let's go to an online class. What habits would you need in order to fulfill that goal? Because here's what I do. I set a goal and then I define a set of habits, and then I make sure that I have the mindset and all remember the relationship between those three things. It's weird because if I just said a mindset and how many goals, I don't know, really, what I'm thinking about did a bunch of habits. Maybe I'm My habit is run every day, and my goal is to be able to, um, never mind. It's not working. I'm not gonna go there. Yours is to do an online class. Let's let's help you figure out a couple of habits. So in my mind you would want to own a class that tells you how to do that. You could watch over and over and over again, and whether we're doing it, you know, whether it's creativelive or some other place. So the habit I would be it would be to subscribe to an online learning platform that provided this value and identify the YouTubers that make classes or whatever the vehicle is and study them, fill in the blank every day, every week. Whatever. Okay, That is a habit. Notice that Rikers. What did they do this every day? That is what habit is. Habit is not. I'm gonna look this up once on the Internet and then go away, because then you're not building a That was so sad. You're not building a nice. So what else might a habit be? That this gentleman who's going on the course we want to do, You're gonna shout it out, watch other online courses. Now, this is a tricky one. Because if you're all spending all your time watching online courses, it's a little bit lean back. I love that. She said that because that is deconstructing the work of other people emulating them, analyzing what's working for them and not maybe not for you and doing it over and over again. You know, I just gonna make one course. You're gonna make a lot. I promise you, you're gonna make your 1st 1 by the date that you set. But you should consume the content of others. Just don't do it at the expense of doing other work. I find that people like scroll instagram on like I'm a photographer getting inspiration, you know? OK, so that's another good habit. What would yet 1/3 habit be anything? Boom. Where you writing them? Down. He holds up a notebook. Yeah, he held up a notebook. Great. There. He's got a notebook. He's trapped. So my habit is going to be I'm going to contribute to this notebook of what shape my online course is going to take every day. You might even want to contribute to something that morning. Pages. I'm gonna spend the 1st 5 to 8 minutes every morning when I wake up fresh writing my best ideas down from my class, refining the ideas from yesterday. I am making this up in real time. But you know what we're like halfway there in that call, this idea is like, Oh, my God, I don't even know where to start. We're half way. It's the easy half, but we're halfway there were making a plan and we're creating a set of habits. If I want to be able to do 100 push ups, what's the habit that I'm going to start doing? I'm going to push ups every day. Some of this stuff is really linear. Some of it is a little bit messy, but here's the take away. Here is the tip. Try making your goals. So shut your habits such that if you did those things every day or on whatever interval that you couldn't not hit your goal, we might build up the ante like I'm going to record one lesson every day in front of my camera. I'm gonna turn it on, I'm gonna get that. And I might say, Hey, today we're gonna talk about my on my on my court. You're literally recording one every day. If you set that as your habit, you're recording the same less than three or four times. Then you get to pick the best one. The 1st 1 sucks. The third one's okay. The fifth once pretty good. That is a habit such that if you did those things, you couldn't possibly end up without the thing you could decide not to hit publish. Then I would call you soft. But you understand what I'm saying about habits make the habits such that if you did the things that you couldn't possibly miss your goal that is the big unlocked for habits that most people have a habit of doing pushups. But I'm going to do an online course, huh? There's a gap between your actions and what you aspired to do. Now I'm gonna talk about mindset because mindset to me, If you remember, I'm gonna go back when I click, Click, click, Click Back to our Foundation for Achievement Fulfillment. I find that mindset is critical. I think that the most important words in the world that we say are the ones that we say to ourselves every day. Your mindset literally equals your experience of life. Happy mindset. Happy life. Not a happy mindset, not a happy life. This is not a stretch, but this is brutally honest. It's very, very simple way of looking. The quality of your thoughts equals the quality of your life. So if you are not sure how important mindset is, it's the foundation of everything. That's why I put it at the bottom of the pyramid. And that's why I would like you to spend a lot of time. I will not preach in this class of what to do, how to do it. There's a lot in the book I like to show a bunch of different options and let you choose. But I want you to choose wisely because it matters deeply what you say to yourself. So I'm gonna give you an example of what I do. I'm gonna run through it very quickly. I start every day with a cold plunge. I did that this morning. 5 I was in 50 degree water up to my neck. I get out of that water, I immediately meditate. I did not do that today. I visualized instead I visualized exactly what's happening right now. I could see all of your faces. I'm standing right here and visualized it. Then I thought about the things that I want some beautiful moments that I have wanted to happen. That actually happened. Then I thought of some beautiful things that I want for myself. It had not happened. This is a visualization exercise. Then I thought of some things and some people for whom I want an amazing outcome for them. These your peers and friends. I have a friend whose child is not well visioning them doing well. And then I said to myself, I can't wait for this day I got really, really excited about it. And you know how long that took me? Take a guess, I think, I guess. Yes. Take a guess. Two minutes Close. Three. I'm pretty good at this. I practice it a lot, but I didn't have a lot of times when I remember I punted. My meditation practice, which is something is really hard for me to do. Not beat myself up. I'm getting back to it. But I did make three minutes to make sure my mindset was solid. Whether you call it prime in your visualization or meditation or some version of the all of those things, I do that every single morning. And the thing I don't do is that reach for my phone today. I reached for my phone and I put it in my back pocket and I walked out the door that all the other stuff first, despite having a bunch of people texting me because there's a lot happening. I don't if you noticed, I think that we should talk about. So I think I want you to spend a lot of time with the book on meditation and mindfulness. I'm gonna I'm gonna read page about the creative mindset. You are a creative person. The world is abundant and full of possibility. Your situation can always be changed. You can use your creativity to create the change that you seek. Creativity is natural and healthy but requires practice. Creativity is ultimate personal power. Here's the kicker, though. Unfortunately, you can't actually adopt a creative mindset just by reading this book or these words repetition of the actions that correspond is necessary to develop this mindset. Changing your mindset requires the consistent effort of putting the set of beliefs toe work. Think you're creative, great, then prove it by creating something. Remember, you have to be the verb to get to claim the Now that's all you have to do is going to be a creator. Create something Onley. When you commit to a program of creative development, will your old ideas about talent that you have to have some and that destiny is required? Onley. When you have a creative minds, will those melt away and beware? The stronger your creative muscles get the deeper and richer your work, and by extension, your life will become. This is potent medicine. The creative mindset is the launch pad for a very virtuous cycle. If you think that you are going to achieve your goals by just putting it out there, writing it down a piece of paper and putting it in a drawer, you're you're mistaken. Okay, There's all kinds of details in there, but I want you. I want to impress upon how important mindset is. Now I do want to cover because it will be personal for each of us. How I do want t to uncover. I've done a bunch of research on myself. Unlike the human guinea pig. Uh, I've done it on, uh, probably 150 people that I've had on a podcast, maybe 100 or so in structures that have been on creativelive. What are things that empower us that give us more creativity that open us? And what are things that close us? Okay, I'm gonna go to to page 100 and eight. I call him creativity, boosters and creativity zappers. I'm not going to read all of them, but I want to touch on a couple of them. I have under zappers social media because right now you're going like wait a minute. Social media. That's how I get my work out there to get my clients on. Instant. All that's true. But what is your predominant feeling when you stop scrolling through social media and put your phone in your pocket? It's a negative emotion, isn't it? It's a negative emotion. Most of that is because we compare the work that we're doing with the work of others. And what you're really doing is remember how I open today with my parking ticket and I spilled coffee. All that stuffs riel. And if you start your day like I did and then you look at someone else's highlight reel, which is a very manufactured slice of their life, what does that make you feel? It makes you feel terrible. I think it's a creativity zapper. That's why, like my friend re for Leo, I advocate creating before you consumed the work of others. If you took a photograph, worked it up and shared it before you started doing this, then this is inspiration, cause you've already put something out in the world. You've done a thing to check the box. You made your bed, you get it create before you consume social media could be a creativity zapper there. So many in here. I'm trying to piss. Pick a few news. I don't need to cover a lot of this because it's really obvious. Everyone was slotted. A heavy sign shook their head. It's uncomfortable. The belief that you have to stay informed is a. It is a myth. You will not be not informed. If you are able to sit in this room or are watch a live broadcast, that means you are connected to the Internet. You have a safe play own. Acknowledge that not every everybody has this. There's a 1,000,000 people who don't have clean drinking water every day. But if you are watching this broadcast, you're sitting in a home where the heat is on and you can watch this. Then you will find a way to be informed. I do believe that you should educate yourself around things like elections. I think you should. But 24 7 plugged into the news is not helpful. Promise. It is a creativity zapper makes you feel bad. Meditation. How does that make you feel bad or good? Because it's just a practice of bringing your attention to the thing that you want to put attention to movement, moving your body, if you can. If you're able bodied, it's good. It motivates and inspires it. Provides health. You do not have to live the life of James Morrison. Jim Morrison. I call him Jim. If you know the doors, you do not have to live a rock star drug and alcohol fueled life to be inspired. Those things generally make you feel worse than better. Creative cross training. It's a booster. Your photographer paint. Go to see a film creative film. Go dancing. This is creative cross training. This is what it feels like. The best things in my creative career. My photography career. In fact, Chase Service live. The podcast started because I wanted outside influences to photography. I didn't want to just keep talking about photography with other photographers and the photography community in Seattle here. Photography, photography, photography. Okay, bring in outside influences. This is a booster. This makes you feel great. You get ideas from other mediums. You connect with other artists, other like minded people, and you learn adventure and play. I shared a story about going to Europe and traipsing through the the mountains of the Dolomites of Italy With my wife, it sounded very romantic. I want to be careful because I was really sleeping in a sleeping bag, sometimes on the streets, sometimes in a park, eating cans of tuna and beans to make it happen. It was amazing was one of the best moments of this times of my life. It is not required. You do not have to go on a mission. You do not have to do the eat, pray, love thing in order to be inspired. A walk in the park, some adventure, some play. What is the what is the foundation of creativity? It's life experience. Okay, so sitting at home in your parents basement, playing Xbox or not doing the thing that you are called to do is not an actual mechanism for being inspired. The opposite is living life, and I think when some of us get block, it's an amazing way to get unblocked. Is set the project down and go do something else can be very inspiring to get out and move your body. And my friend Charlie Hoehn wrote a great book about managing anxiety in this day and age where everybody I know has it called Play It Away his version of finding joy as a kid, he used to go love to go to the batting cages, so he bought a bat for $30. He bought, like, 50 balls, 50 hardballs and a bucket, and he goes with a buddy and they hit balls all over a park early morning and there's one friend pitches. The other friend hits and they just spray baseball's all over an open park, and they love it, and it takes him, like, 30 minutes. They get together that is completely unrelated to his work as a writer. But that play engages a different part of our brain, brings a little bit of levity and a little bit of joy. I don't need to go into any more because I think you got the picture. There's a lot of them. I give you a lot of ideas in the book, but here's the deal is that they all matter, and I also believe that you don't have to actually do all of them right. And if you're worried about some of the negative ones, you ever heard that the concept of crowding When you put more of the good stuff in your life, the negative stuff can't actually hang around cause there's none of time and space for it. So I really like replacing a negative habit with a positive one. Okay, most importantly, just do something instead of doing nothing.