Good morning,
I’ve been working through “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron since May. In it’s simple form the story goes that she helped her “artist” out of creative funks (and we’re all artists, BTW) with some simple tactics. Then she was asked to help another artist out of their funk. That lead to more artists helped, a community edu course and ultimately to a book, journal and talks, etc. Think early 80’s. The copyright on the book is in the early 90s.
There are two things she “prescribes” the artist: 1) morning pages each day and 2) an artist’s date each week.
Regarding the pages, I’ve been filling 3 pages with ink each morning for months. It takes 12 days to run my favorite pen dry. Just focusing on that… it’s the practice of writing down whatever comes out of your head first thing in the morning. You do this? There are so many sentence fragments, misspelled words and jumped topics in my pages. But it does not matter! And, that’s a relief. The goal is to fill the page with what’s on the mind. Keep the pen moving. I can do that.
I’ve been surprised with how my brain functions when the first thing I do is get up and get a pen on paper. It’s woah. I was just sleeping but jeepers, the mind was working. And, I’ve found writing first thing to be a clearing experience. It clears my mind in a way that makes thinking and creation of anything for the rest of day a whole lot easier - even desirable and fun.
So, the three bits for this issue. A quote, a blockers and a second quote.
Bit #1
This from Chapter 5 “Recovering a Sense of Possibility” of book The Artist’s Way.
“On the one hand, we take ourselves very seriously and don’t want to look like idiots pursuing some patently grandiose scheme.”
Bit #2
Yep. That’s right. Blockers.
As I’ve come to be more aware of my mental blocking thoughts motivated and backstopped by what I think other people will think of me if I do X, I’m also becoming more interested in those thoughts. Why? These thoughts used to go by silently but forcefully enough to stop me from doing artist like things. They would go by often without recognition. Of the many things the morning pages have provided they’ve created space to see these thoughts and to acknowledge their pattern over time. I’m working to become comfortable with that, with just seeing them.
Over time, I began to see these blocker thoughts for not only their existence but also their value.. or lack of value. And now, I’m often able to catch them and judge ‘em, to see their force, their roots and their construction in a conscious way. The next step is to work out ways to remove their ability to stop me from taking certain actions.
Bit #3
So, now what? What to do about the above? After the quote in Bit 1 above, Julia goes on.
“On the other hand, we don’t take ourselves seriously enough and so we define as grandiose many schemes that may fall well within our grasp.”
Yep. I find this. This sits in the same general brain space with questions like “When will you start believing in yourself? and “When will you see yourself for what other people see?” Capabilities and successes abound for those that are themselves, candid and open.
Many of the schemes I work on are multi-layered. The world is complex afterall. There is joy to be had in figuring things out, a rush even. All the more for complicated things. But, I often stop after the thinking exercise as “figured it out.” “What would people think of…” runs through my mind - insert the worst thing possible - and then I often don’t act.
I’m doing it right now on kitchen knife sharpening. I know there is underpriced attention on Linkedin. I’ve said nothing there. I ask, “what would people think of a sharpening business being my next thing?”
I know there are more views on social when someone’s face is in the frame - e.g. TikTok. But, I ask, “what would people think when my face is there?” (Note, I’ve had this same kind of thought at the core of the messaging startup and that turned out well). And all of that thinking runs next to knowing that I like seeing others.
Additionally, there is media leverage and code leverage available in a mail order knife sharpening business. Why not do it? It’s for fear of vanity that I’m not moving? It’s for fear of success? It’s for fear of rejection from the social crowd? It’s for fear of failure, ego, social acceptance?
And that all runs simultaneously to case study after case study that I’m building of successful 7plus figure business built on e-commerce and demand marketing. These are small teams, high profits, high cash flow businesses that power lifestyles of creativity and adventure that are not only desirable but real. People who have built these companies reply to my email. They are real. This can happen. So, why do I hesitate?
Will I exchange my fear of you thinking poorly of me, being misunderstood, being rejected, judged for doing something that’s “not big enough” compared to my last things to just post on Linkedin that I've started a mail order knife sharpening business? And BTW, you and 100M+ other American households wear out your knives weekly, have not sharpened or purchased new knives in the last year, don’t like your current sharpening service offerings and need the service.
The mind is a crazy thing. Eh?
I’m getting closer. Rather than reject the idea of the Linkedin post all together I’m now working on drafts of what it could read and look like. I don’t have to hit publish but I’m enjoying the creative act of overcoming the fear by working out the thoughts on the matter enough to be ready to post.
Sum
It really is about where your mind is at. The whole thing is. Life is. How fit, ready and healthy is your mind?
I came across this quote via the Daily Stoic email this week from Chris Guillebeau on a podcast:
“Starting over means you have the chance to build what you really want. Imagine building a sand castle, and then seeing it destroyed by a freak tidal wave. You’re disappointed, right? But then you start over, and maybe the new one is better. It doesn’t take as long to build, and you make improvements as you go based on the sand castle-building skills you’ve acquired. Or maybe you just realize that you’re tired of building sand castles, so you leave to do something else...On the other side of this disordered state we’re all in now, I think we’ll see a number of tremendous shifts and positive changes from so many people.”
I installed two bathroom faucets last weekend. They were the same model. The second one took 1/3 of the time of the first one to install. I had recently acquired faucet skills for the second one, right?
In some ways, I’m starting over with this next gig and in others I’m not. I’ve built companies. I’ve doubled the size of existing companies. This time I’m aiming to impact a system, a business, that helps heal a pain from my past (school lunch debt), that is recurring in nature, scalable, digital and e-commerce too. Yes. All that is in Vivront.
So, what’s next?
#goals
I want to join the ecommercefuel group when this next thing breaks 7 figures. You can’t join if the company is not that big. I want to join a group of folks who view the world similarly and have autonomy too.
In the next week I’ll post to Linkedin.
I’ll keep working the ad systems. I started with $.70 clicks and have found ways to get them under $.40.
I’m looking for new packaging and shipping options. The current ones are good. But there must be a better way.
I have some prototypes up for two way shipping vs. 3 or 4.
I’ll keep aiming for email signups, build out written content and invite folks to share with their friends.
So, who needs their knives sharpened? You? Your neighbor? The numbers say lots of you do… most of you do. Let’s sharpen your knives.
Use code “friend&fam” and get $20 off your next sharpening. Go ahead and share it around with folks and use it yourself too.
Help me set up the next newsletter? Reply to this email with what goes into your decision to sharpen or not sharpen your kitchen knives? Honestly. Four of you on this list have ordered so far. That leaves many more of you to join this early group. What’s holding you back. I’m all ears. We’re aiming to design those hindrances out of the system. Let us know about it. Hit reply and share.
Change
I was inspired by this story about a question we all have regularly… “What to cook?” Check out this email subscription you can join where the content of a book that has not yet been published will be delivered via email over time for the cost of a book. Super Interesting.
Facebook, Insta and Messenger were out yesterday. I received a noticeably reduced number of notifications. That was nice! I also went to pages that did not load numerous times in the five hours they were out.
On JosephRueter.com:
You putting your feet in the grass more? I am.
A piece about cultivating momentum here.
A post about process over results.
A bit about a rule we have when adventuring, if it’s swimmable, swim!
Found this silly light on the way back from fly fishing a few weekends ago. Just silly.
On Your Way
Blocking thoughts. You got ‘em too? What are their patterns? Where are they correct? Where are they just wrong? How will you put them in their place and move on?
Find some great sunrise or sunset light and breathe this week. It’ll be worth it. :)