The Vs. Studio Blog

“Visualization works if you work hard. That’s the thing. You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich.” -Jim Carrey

Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game Of Tennis, has a nifty formula to measure performance. It’s as follows:

P = P – I

Performance = Potential minus Interference.

There are two ways to boost your performance.

(1) Increase your potential. You do this largely through gaining experience. Training, Learning, and most importantly, DOING. Call this The Outer Game.

(2) Decrease your interference. This has to with our mind. THINKING. Eliminating (or at the very least, being aware of) our fears, doubts, assumptions and self-limiting beliefs. This is The Inner Game.

Most people spend all their time on the outer game and no time on the inner. But as you can see from the equation, each game is worth 50 percent. So it makes sense to spend just as much time on the inner. If you’re working hard but not getting the results you want, perhaps give some focus to your inner game. See if that does the trick.

When you’re giving equal attention to both games and they’re working hand in hand with one another, that’s when your performance will really soar.

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” – Franz Kafka, novella The Metamorphosis

if you don’t become the ocean
you’ll be seasick
every day -from the poem, “Good Advice For Someone Like Me” by Leonard Cohen

In his masterpiece, The Inner Game Of Tennis, (a must read for any artist, trust me it goes waaay beyond tennis) author Timothy Gallwey talks about the importance, yet inherent difficutly, of true concentration. He gives all kinds of practical advice and tips on how best to do so. One strategy he espouses is to “watch the ball.” But not watching in the traditional way we might think. Rather, to watch it so intently that one almost falls in love with the ball. Or “becomes the ball.” Gallwey writes about Bakhti yoga which aims at “perfect concentration through devotion.” A story from the book…

A seeker after Truth sought out a yoga master and begged him to help him achieve the enlightenment of perfect union with his true self. The Master told him to go into a room and meditate on God for as long as he could. After two hours the seeker emerged distraught, saying that he could not concentrate, since his mind kept thinking about his much beloved bull he had left at home. The Master then told him to return to the room and meditate on his bull. This time the would-be yogi entered the room and after two days had still not emerged. Finally the Master called for him to come out. From within the seeker replied, “I cannot; my horns are too wide to fit through the door.” The seeker had reached such a state of concentration that he had lost all sense of separation from his object of concentration.

Makes you wonder…maybe the reason why Gregor Samsa turned into a giant bug is that he just concentrated on it so much.

P.S. – “Be the ball Danny.”

“Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. Therefore, choose your desire wisely.” -Naval Ravikant

One way to not get overly attached to your desires is that for whatever it is you seek, constantly say or think to yourself, “I desire this…Or something better.” Like a mantra.

“I desire this…Or something better” embraces trust. Trust that if what you seek doesn’t happen (even if you wanted it badly and worked as hard as you possibly could for it), or not in the way that you thought it would happen, that’s perfectly okay. It wasn’t meant to be. Trust in that.

“I desire this…Or something better” also allows for possibility. The possibility that arises from being open-minded to all opportunities. Opportunities that will inevitably spring up from your initial desire, followed by you taking action.

Stop waiting and thinking up your original, “million dollar idea.”

Instead, come up with your “one dollar idea.”

Meaning, find a simple, perhaps even boring, idea that has value to someone else. A value in which that someone would be willing to pay you one dollar more than it cost you to make or provide it.

Then, harness all your energy and resources to produce a “million dollar execution” of this idea.

Shane Parrish wrote an excellent article on the differences between an amateur and a professional. I highly encourage you to read it. Click Here to do so.

A couple of highlights:

Amateurs have a goal. Professionals have a system.

Amateurs wait for someone to recognize their positional, tap them on the shoulder, and give them a big opportunity. Professionals go show people what they are capable of with no expectations.

Amateurs see feedback and coaching as someone criticizing who they are. Professionals know they have blind spots and seek out thoughtful criticism.

Amateurs wait until they feel like it. Professionals do it when they don’t feel like it.

One thing I would add, and keep in mind Shane uses the word “amateur” differently than I do…

Marry the amateur’s “beginner’s mind” and “art for art’s sake” spirit with the professional’s discipline, consistency and work ethic, and you’ve got a home run. Be a Pro-Am.

“A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. -Tim Ferriss

You asked for it.

Or did you?

Remember…If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

P.S. – H/t to my friend Todd for providing the above image.

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” ― Albert Einstein

“Warren Buffett’s fortune isn’t due to just being a good investor, but being a good investor since he was literally a child.” -Morgan Housel, book The Psychology Of Money

If you want to be wealthy, then save as much as you can, as early as you can, for as long as you can. And, consistently invest your savings no matter what “the market” is doing. That’s it, that’s the secret.

Make time and consistency your two best friends. They will serve you well. Not just for making money, but anything you wish to accomplish.

“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.” -Miles Davis

“What a strange thing to consider imagining a world into being with nothing but words, intention, and desire.” -Blake Crouch, book Dark Matter

Definition of Create (Merriam Webster):

1: to bring into existence

2: (a) to invest with a new form, office, or rank

(b) to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior

3: cause, occasion

4: (a) to produce through imaginative skill

(b) design

Etymology of Create:

create (v.)
“to bring into being,” early 15c., from Latin creatus, past participle of creare “to make, bring forth, produce, procreate, beget, cause,” related to Ceres and to crescere “arise, be born, increase, grow,” from PIE root *ker- (2) “to grow.” De Vaan writes that the original meaning of creare “was ‘to make grow’, which can still be found in older texts ….” Related: Created; creating. also from early 15c.

There are tons of creation myths out there.

What links them all is the desire to CREATE something. Or, MAKE something. In many cases, to PRODUCE something that wasn’t there before (“Ex Nihilio”).

If you too are feeling that desire right now, trust in it. It’s primal and has been with us since the beginning of time itself.

And then, take action. Give life to that desire. Don’t let it die inside you.

Go CREATE Your Art.

…Few are chosen.”

The old adage of “Many are called. Few are chosen.” definitely applies to the arts. Certainly when it comes to having a sustained career or commercial success.

But one way to avoid luck, randomness and gatekeepers from affecting your happiness and ability to lead an artistic life, is to choose yourself.

So let’s amend that adage. Ready for it? Here we go…

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

All together now…

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

Once more, with feeling!

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

That’s the spirit. Now you’re cooking.

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

Go Make Your Art.

“A well-designed life is a life that is generative—it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise.” -Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, book Designing Your Life

..is not always good advice.

At least, not according to authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

They argue, and cite research that backs this up, that only about 20 percent of people know exactly what they want to do in life and are passionate about this one thing.

Most people like several things. They can do several things. They might not have an all-out, burning desire to do just one.

So what to do if you’re part of the 80 percent?

Burnett and Evans argue in their excellent book, Designing Your Life, to start thinking like a designer. Try things. (This is where the 100 hour rule again might be useful.) Make things. Build prototypes. Explore various career options. Interview people. See if you’re gaining traction anywhere.

All the while, pay attention to your feelings. Does anything particularly excite and interest you? If yes, give that some more attention. There’s a whole bunch of other great specific and strategic advice in the book. Check it out.

And if you’re like me, part of the 20 percent who are super passionate about something and want to do it for the rest of their lives, (in my case, that’s acting and making art with my friends) congratulations, you’ve found your calling. It’s a blessing and a curse. But you’re doing it. Find a way, by any means necessary, to…

Just. Keep. Doing it.