Make a Dent in the Universe
Another great excerpt from Rework on doing work that matters:
To do great work, you need to feel that you’re making a difference. That you’re putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you’re part of something important.
This doesn’t mean you need to find the cure for cancer. It’s just that your efforts need to feel valuable. You want your customers to say, “This makes my life better.” You want to feel that if you stopped doing what you do, people would notice.
You should feel an urgency about this too. You don’t have forever. This is your life’s work. Do you want to build just another me-too product or do you want to shake things up? What you do is your legacy. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to make the change you want to see. And don’t think it takes a huge team to make that difference either…
Look at Craigslist, which demolished the traditional classified -ad business. With just a few dozen employees, the company generates tens of millions in revenue, has one of the most popular sites on the Internet, and disrupted the entire newspaper business.
The Drudge Report, run by Matt Drudge, is just one simple page on the Web run by one guy. Yet it’s had a huge impact on the news industry - television producers, radio talk show hosts and newspaper reporters routinely view it as the go-to place for new stories.
If you’re going to do something, do something that matters. These little guys came out of nowhere and destroyed old models that had been around for decades. You can do the same in your industry.
The work that the fulfillment of your dream will require is work that matters! Pursue it! The world is waiting!
I’d like to know…
Why does your work matter?
Inspiration is Perishable
Here’s a great piece found in Jason Fried and David Hansson’s latest book Rework, on the importance of acting on your inspiration.
We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever.
What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date.
If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on a shelf and wait two months to get around to it. You can’t just say you’ll do it later. Later, you won’t be pumped up about it anymore.
If you’re inspired on Friday, swear off the weekend and dive into the project. When yo u’re high on inspiration, you can get two weeks of work done in twenty-four hours. Inspiration is a time machine in that way.
Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.
Being that this blog in intended to inspire you, it is my sincere desire that you ACT on any inspiration you may receive from any of the postings! Take action…TODAY!
I’d like to know…
How are you acting on the inspiration you’ve received recently?
Passion
The following is a great description of passion taken from Seth Godin’s latest book Linchpin:
Passion is a desire, insistence, and willingness to give a gift. The artist is relentless. She says, “I will not feel complete until I give a gift.” This is more than refusing to do lousy work. It’s an insistence on doing important work.
The relentless passion leads to persistence and resilience in the face of people not accepting your gift.
The artists in your life are gift-focused, and their tenacity has nothing at all to do with income or job security. Instead, it’s about finding a way to change you in a positive way, and to do it with a gift. There’s a strong streak of intellectual integrity involved in being a passionate artist. You don’t sell out, because selling out involves destroying the best of what you are….
“Wait! Are You Saying That I Have to Stop Following Instructions and Start Being an Artist? Someone Who Dreams Up New Ideas and Makes Them Real? Someone Who Finds New Ways to Interact, New Pathways to Deliver Emotion, New Ways to Connect? Someone Who Acts Like a Human, Not a Cog? Me?”
Yes.
I’d like to know…
In which ways are you an artist?
The New American Dream
The following is an excerpt from Seth Godin’s latest book Linchpin:
Do you remember the old American Dream?
It struck a cord with millions of people (in the United States and in the rest of the world, too). Here’s how it goes:
Keep your head down
Follow instructions
Show up on time
Work hard
Suck it up
…you will be rewarded. As we’ve seen, that dream is over.
The new American Dream, though, the one that markets around the world are embracing as fast as they can, is this:
Be remarkable
Be generous
Create art
Make judgment calls
Connect people and ideas
…and we have no choice but to reward you.
I’d like to know…
How are you pursuing the new American Dream?
Resistance’s Greatest Hits
The following is a list, in no particular order, of those activities, which most commonly elicit Resistance:
- The pursuit of any calling in writing, painting, music, film, dance, or any creative art, however marginal or unconventional.
- The launching of any entrepreneurial venture or enterprise, for profit or otherwise.
- Any diet or health regimen.
- Any program of spiritual advancement.
- Any activity whose aim is tighter abdominals.
- Any course or program designed to overcome an unwholesome habit or addiction.
- Education of every kind.
- Any act of political, moral or ethical courage, including the decision to change for the better some unworthy pattern of thought or conduct in ourselves.
- The undertaking of any enterprise or endeavor whose aim is to help others.
- Any act which entails commitment of the heart. The decision to get married, to have a child, to weather a rocky patch in a relationship.
- The taking of any principled stand in the face of potential reprisal.
In other words, any act which disdains short-term gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any act of these types will elicit Resistance.
Excerpt from: Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Key Question
Where are you experiencing “Resistance?”
Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
Source: ryanfrance
Professionals vs. Amateurs
The following is an excerpt from the War of Art, by Steven Pressfield, encouraging us to “go pro.”
Aspiring artists defeated by the Resistance share one trait. They all act like amateurs. They have not yet turned pro.
To be clear: When I say professional, I don’t mean doctors and lawyers, those of “the professions.” I mean the Professional as an ideal. The professional in contrast to the amateur. Consider the differences.
The amateur plays for fun. The professional plays for keeps.
To the amateur, the game is his avocation. To the pro, it’s his vocation.
The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time.
The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is there seven days a week.
The word amateur comes from the Latin root meaning “to love.” The conventional interpretation is that the amateur pursues his calling out of love, while the pro does it for money. Not the way I see it. In my view, the amateur does not love the game enough. If he did, he would not pursue as a sideline, distinct from his “real” vocation.
The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full time.
That’s what I mean when I say turning pro.
Resistance hates it when we turn pro.
Note: Italics and bold emphasis are mine.
Excerpt from: Steven Pressfield, The War of Art via Robert Kiyosaki, Before You Quit Your Job
Key Question
When it comes to the fulfillment of your dream, have you “turned pro” or are you an undecided “amateur?”
Spiritual Money
The following is a conversation between Robert Kiyosaki and his “Rich Dad” about the idea of Spiritual Money…very inspiring.
“Spiritual money is not about money? If it is not about money than what is it about?” I asked.
“It’s about doing a job not because you want to do it but because it must be done and you know deep down in your soul, you’re the one that is supposed to do it.”
“How do you know you’re supposed to do it.” I asked.
“Because it disturbs you that no one else is doing it. You may say to yourself, ‘Why isn’t someone doing something about this.’”
“Could it anger you?” I asked.
“Oh yes,” said Rich Dad softly. “It can also sadden you or even break your heart. It may seem like an injustice or a crime to you. It probably disturbs your sense of decency. It seems unfair - an injustice.” …
“Don’t most people have these feelings about something in their life?” I asked.
“Yes, but most people don’t do anything about it…”
“What would happen if they did do something about it?” I asked. “What might happen?”
“If there were truly committed to solving the problem, I would say that the invisible forces of the universe, of God, might come to their support. Magic might happen in their lives. This is when spiritual money comes into play. But it is more than money. People you never met before come to join forces with you, not for the money, but for the mission.”
“Why do they join you?” I asked.
“Because they are on the same mission.”
Excerpt from: Robert Kiyosaki, Before You Quit Your Job
Disowned Desire
The hope is to stay in the background away from the fire, and wait for someone or something to come along and grant us immunity from these difficulties and sacrifices, someone to offer reassurance, saying perhaps, “Take the safe way, not the way of passion and creativity, as the path to your destiny, the life you desire. Follow it and you will never be touched…” [But] we cannot neglect our inner fire without damaging ourselves in the process.
Excerpt from: David Whyte, The Heart Aroused via John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire
What is passion, really?
So what is passion, really? And how is it different from interest?
I’m sure others may define passion differently, but for the purpose of
this book, let’s be clear that passion is a good bit deeper than interest…
You can’t just dig down deep inside and try to somehow draw out passion from the well of your soul. You can’t go to bed tonight hoping that if you try hard enough you will be more passionate tomorrow, because passion is so much more than a simple, human feeling.
Passion often starts with an interest. Perhaps you notice some issue
in your community or some problem that’s facing our world, and
you realize that it’s wrong. Usually this awareness sparks some emotion
in you, like anger or sadness—and then a realization that feeling
bad simply isn’t enough. You decide you want to do something about
it. And that’s when an interest becomes a passion. When you take
the feelings inside you, or that intellectual interest you have, and put
it into action, passion is ignited.
When you’re passionate about something, a “whatever” attitude
just won’t do. You don’t just sit back and stay detached. You do
something. You get involved.
Excerpt from: Zach Hunter,
Lose Your Cool: Discovering a Passion that Changes You and the World
Forget The Money - Follow Your Passion
A study of business school graduates tracked the careers of 1,500 people from 1960 to 1980. From the beginning, the graduates were grouped into two categories.
Category A consisted of people who said they wanted to make money first so that they could do what they really wanted to do later - after they had taken care of their financial concerns.
Those in Category B pursued their true interests first, sure that the money would eventually follow.
What percentage fell into each category?
Of the 1,500 graduates in the survey, the money-now Category A’s comprised 83 percent, or 1,245 people. Category B risk takers made up 17 percent, or 255 graduates.
After twenty three years there were 101 millionaires in the group. One came from Category A, 100 from Category B.
The study’s author, Srully Blotnick, concluded that the “overwhelmingly majority of people who have become wealthy have become so thanks to work they found profoundly absorbing…Their ‘luck’ arose from the accidental dedication they had to an area they enjoyed.”
Excerpt from: Mark Albion, Making a Life, Making a Living: Reclaiming Your Purpose and Passion in Business and Life via John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold
