Lessons

Lesson Info

Develop Your Systems

Step one of this process that I talk 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 'cause nothing happens without a plan. It's great to look to my old dear friend, Picasso. Our goals can only be reached through the vehicle of a plan in which we must fervently believe and vigorously act. There is no other route to success. No one has found success without a plan. Even if, you've heard of 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 accomplished with a plan. 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, low and behold, a lot of action later, you found the fulfillment that you sought. You filled the gap between where you are right now and where you wanna be. Nothing happens without a plan. And this is a ...

myth that we are taught about creators. We are also taught that creator's a star of the starving artist. That silly thing was a myth that was made up that came out of this cafe in Paris called Les Deux Magot, 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 we use that myth in our culture, which is one of the reasons that your parents didn't want you to be here today. (students laughing) 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 this section of the book is very, very much, there's a lot of detail about how to build plans. And class, I wanna show you basically a foundation of framework for some things that are going to get you from where you are to where you wanna be. In a sense, it's a little bit of a, it's a device, it's a mechanism. And I framed it around this triangle here. This 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 you 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 our path, our calling, to becoming the creator, the human being that we want. So I'm gonna start with mindset. Actually. I'm gonna flip the script. I'm gonna stop talking about mindset and I'm gonna start with goals, because I actually believe that the goal is the easiest part. You know, curve ball there, right? We got all kinds of shapes. Now we got a pyramid, we got a ball, we got triangles. (students laughing) Now, a goal, there are entire books about goals, we have entire classes on creative life, about goal setting. I don't think that I am the person to run a class about goal setting. I think I'd dispose of it rather quickly in the book, but I wanna make some time for it here today because a goal without a plan is just a dream, right? We need to put some action behind that. So that's what we're gonna 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. Isn't that fun, that's cool. It's like round number, right? Now we got circle, squares, we got round numbers. (chuckles) (students laughing) You'd think I was a math guy. I wanna 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. Some of you weren't, that's fine. We talked about our values, that's good you're getting those down. These are all exercises. We talked about the perfect day. Now I want you to think of one goal. I make my bed every morning. Sometimes it doesn't look very good. And it's like I'm qualified to do this, and I'm like, good enough, but I make my bed every day 'cause it's a little thing that I did. You can never take that away from me. I made my bed. So do one goal from this class, one thing. Write it down on your hand or on your phone. Now, we're gonna go forward one step. I think we're gonna go forward one step. Yup, 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? 'cause 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 I'll remember the relationship between those three things. It's weird, 'cause if I just set a mindset and I didn't have any goals, I don't know really what I'm thinking about, or if I did a bunch of habits, maybe my habit is run every day, and my goal is to be able to, nevermind, it's not working, I'm not gonna go there. (chuckles) (students laughing) Yours is to do an online class. Let's help you figure out a couple of habits. So in my mind, you would want to own a class that tell you how to do that. You can 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 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 recurs, that as I do this every day. That is what a habit is. A habit is not I'm gonna look this up once on the internet and then go away, 'cause then you're not building a- Muscle. That was so sad. You're not building a- Muscle. Nice. So what else might a habit be that this gentleman who's gonna do an online course would wanna do? You can just shout it out. Watch online courses. 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 maybe not for you, and doing it over and again. 'Cause you're not just gonna make one course, you're gonna make a lot, I promise you. You're gonna make your first one 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, "I'm like I'm a photographer, (students laughing) give me inspiration," you know? Okay, so that's another good habit. What would yet a third habit be? Anything. (student speaking faintly) Boom, where are you writing them down? He holds up a notebook. Yeah, he held up a notebook right there. He's got a notebook. He's, so my habit is going to be, I'm gonna contribute to this notebook of what shape my online course is gonna take every day. We're making a plan and we're creating a set of habits. If I want to be able to do 100 pushups, what's the habit that I'm gonna start doing? Pushups. I'm gonna do pushups every day. Some of this stuff is really linear, some of it is a little bit messy, but here's the takeaway, here's the tip. Try making your goals, or sorry, 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 be able to up the alley, 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. I'm gonna say, 'Hey, today we're gonna talk about my online,'" You're literally recording one every day. If you set that as your habit, you're recording the same lesson three or four times, then you get to pick the best one. The first one sucks, the third one's okay, the fifth one's 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, (students laughing) 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 unlock for habits that most people have a habit of doing pushups but I'm gonna do an online course. Hmm, there's a gap between your actions and what you aspire to do. Now I'm gonna talk about mindset. Because mindset to me, if you remember, I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna 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. I want you to spend a lot of time with the book on meditation and mindfulness. 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 this set of beliefs to work. Think you're creative? Great, then prove it by creating something. Remember, you have to be the verb to get to claim the noun. That's all you have to do. You wanna be a creator, create something. Only 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, only when you have a creative mindset, 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 launchpad for a very virtuous cycle. If you think that you are gonna achieve your goals by just putting it out there, writing it down on a piece of paper and putting it in a drawer, you're mistaken," okay? There's all kinds of details in there, but I wanna impress upon how important mindset is. Okay, I'm gonna go to page 108. "I call 'em creativity boosters and creativity zappers." I'm not gonna read all of them but I wanna touch on a couple of them. I have under zappers, social media. 'Cause 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 Insta." And 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 opened today with my parking ticket and I spilled coffee, all that stuff's real, and if you start your day like I did? And then you looked 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. 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, you checked a box, you made you your bed, you get it. Create before you consume. Social media can be a creativity zapper. There's so many in here, I'm trying to just pick a few. News, don't need to cover a lot of this because it's really obvious. Everyone just let out a heavy sigh, and 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 watch a live broadcast, that means you are connected to the internet. You have a safe, I wanna acknowledge that not every everybody has this, there's a million 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. I promise, it is a creativity zapper. It 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 wanna put attention to. Movement, moving your body. If you can, if you're able-bodied, it's good. It motivates, it inspires, it provides health. You do not have to live the life of James Morrison, Jim Morrison, I call him Jim. I don't know if you know him, the Doors. You do not have to live a rockstar, drug and alcohol filled life to be inspired. Those things generally make you feel worse than better. Creative cross training. It's a booster. You're a 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 and my photography career. In fact, "Chase Jarvis LIVE," the podcast, started because I wanted outside influences to photography. I didn't wanna just keep talking about photography with other photographers in 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.