“What would this look like if it were easy?” is a question author and investor Tim Ferriss routinely asks himself before starting a project.
It’s not about avoiding hard work or running away from obstacles.
It’s about setting yourself up to succeed. Being efficient. Building an elegant system and process that will sustain and inspire you.
When it looks easy, that just means an incredible amount of care, love, thought, precision and hard work was behind it.
The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap…
A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep
Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear:
Although I love you, you will have to leap;
Our dream of safety has to disappear. (excerpt from W.H. Auden’s poem “Leap Before You Look“)
Just like you can’t control who you fall in love with, you can’t control when a project seizes you so much that you just have to do it.
But falling in love is just the first step.
After that, it’s a decision. Will you or won’t you take the leap?
What’s one thing you can do today to be better and get closer to achieving the excellence you’re striving for?
And what’s one thing you can do today to help someone else achieve the same?
You do both, it’s a helluva day.
“All good writing comes out of aloneness.” -Sam Shepard
At Q&A’s Stephen King is often asked what kind of writing implement he uses.
The answer: A Blackwing 602 #2 pencil, pictured above.
And a fountain pen.
And a typewriter
And a computer.
He’s used all of the above at various times in his life.
The point is…it doesn’t matter what you use.
Sam Shepard wrote the first draft of “Simpatico” driving a truck across the country. One hand on the wheel, one hand jotting down the play on a pad of paper.
It doesn’t matter how.
It just matters that you have a burning desire to do it.
If you wanna write, just write!
If you wanna do, just do.
“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.” —Mortimer Adler
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) is widely regarded as one of the most important physicists of all time. He pioneered an entire field: quantum electrodynamics (QED), his work on light and matter won him the Nobel prize in 1965, he contributed greatly to the advancement of nanotechnology, quantum computing and particle physics. He even helped solve the cause of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Albert Einstein attended Feynman’s first lecture as a grad student and Bill Gates called Feynman “the greatest teacher I never had.” Feynman was also a philosopher, author and intellectual. He was passionate about helping people synthesize seemingly difficult material and learning concepts faster and better.
He came up with a four part technique which I briefly list below. For a deeper dive I encourage you to check out this Medium article and this one from Farnham Street. Both are comprehensive and excellent.
So here are the parts…
One…Choose a concept you want to learn about.
Two…Explain it to a 12 year old.
Three…Reflect, Refine and Simplify.
Four…Organize and Review.
Let’s apply this to making art.
Step One…Find something you’re deeply passionate about. So much so that you want to spend a ton of time learning about it and then creating it.
Step Two…Try to explain your passion project to a child. If you can get them to understand and be interested, chances are you’ll be to get an audience too.
Step Three…Keep refining. Keep making everything better. The art, the producing, the marketing, etc…
Step Four…Stay organized and review. If it’s a stage play for example, constantly update your work plan and budget. Keep taking stock of where you’re at from pre-production all the way to closing night. And remember the post show notebook practice: “what worked, what didn’t and why.“
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” -Nietzsche
When deciding whether to study with a certain teacher or coach, it’s important to know what were their shortcomings? What did they struggle with? What did they have to overcome?
More often than not, their teachings will overemphasize their struggles.
But these might not apply to you. What was difficult for them might be easy for you. And vice versa.
Their way might not be your way.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” -Anne Lamont
Most computer troubles can be solved by simply powering down your computer, waiting 30 seconds, and powering back up. Same for almost any electronic device.
That might be exactly what you need too.
Before you give up on your passion project because you think it’s not working, just take a reset. Power your self down, go through your self-care questionnaire and then power back up.
“Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that’s what’s on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are you going to handle it? In other words, “Now what?” -Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are
The most important thing you can do right now is…
…whatever you are doing right now.
Whether it’s brushing your teeth, tying your shoelaces or performing Hamlet, do it with your whole heart, your whole mind and your whole soul.
Be all in. Be there,
P.S. – “No matter where you go, there you are.”
“There were many, many moments of deep despair and the work didn’t ask of me what I felt I had to give.” -Mark Metcalf
The actor Mark Metcalf has worked a ton in film, tv and theatre. And he’s grateful to have made a living for a very long time as an actor. But for better or worse, he almost always gets cast as the “angry dude.” This stems from two of his early performances which got a lot of traction. One as Neidermeyer in the classic film Animal House (pictured above and view this clip). The other as the dad in two Twisted Sister–Remember Dee Snyder? Hello 80’s!–music videos. (This one and this one.)
Mark is the subject of a terrific short doc called “Character” which you can watch here. There’s also a recent New Yorker piece about the film and Metcalf which you can read here. In them, he reveals the struggles that come from being typecast. What it’s like when you have a desire to do more but the industry wants you to do less. It wants you to just stay in your lane.
While you can’t control what the industry does or doesn’t do to you, you can control making your own art. Find the parts that you wanna play and figure out how to manifest those projects with excellence and generosity.
It is the way. The only way.
There will be thunder then. Remember me.
Say ‘ She asked for storms.’ The entire
world will turn the colour of crimson stone,
and your heart, as then, will turn to fire.
That day, in Moscow, a true prophecy,
when for the last time I say goodbye,
soaring to the heavens that I longed to see,
leaving my shadow here in the sky. -Anna Akhmatova, poem Thunder
(Hat tip to Margo Aaron for inspiring this blog post)
Don’t ask the question, “Should I write?” (Insert any kind of artform for “write”)
Instead ask, “Do I want to write?”
We need and want your art. Now more than ever. But do you have the desire to create it? And, do you have the guts to be vulnerable and share it with all of us?
George Saunders tells a story on Cheryl Strayed’s new podcast Sugar Calling about the Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova…
“[Anna’s] husband was shot and her son arrested during the Stalinist purges.
One day, she was standing outside the prison with hundreds of other women in similar situations. It’s Russian cold, and they have to go there every day, wait for hours in this big, open yard, then get the answer that today and every day, there will be no news.
But every day, they keep coming back.
A woman, recognizing [Anna] as the famous poet, says, ‘Poet, can you write this?’ And Akhmatova thinks about it for a second and goes, ‘Yes.’”
The Vs. Studio Blog