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One sitting vs. many sittings
When you commit to making something, and not stopping until you’re finished, you’re tapping into an incredibly powerful energy. This is the power of one sitting. It has the same energy as a sprint. For example, hackathons take this force to the extreme, stretching the time window out to a full day or two. If…
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From 0 to 3,000 book sales
I recently found out I’d sold over 3,000 copies of Creative Doing in under two years. My goal is to promote the book until I sell 10,000 copies, a number which represents the point where people are discussing it via word of mouth. I am well on my way towards it. I have been putting…
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Afterthought vs. forethought
Marvel has made a bunch of really great, cohesive, films that fit together well. You’d think that they had it all planned it out, and that’s not the case. Rather, the studio looks back at its previous body of work for material that could turn into solutions. C. Robert Cargill, screenwriter on the 2016 Doctor…
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On my 366th day at Figma
Today I ran a distribution workshop for the editorial team. To prepare, I also dropped in a dozen thought starters for promoting two posts in a distribution workshop I run. I also promoted a blog post for a feature that our team announced today. I was particularly hands on with this promotion and we tried…
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Find a task that charges your battery
When you look at people who practice consistently, the task makes them feel more energized after they leave it—not more drained. It’s similar to completing a workout; you feel completely exhausted because you left it all in the gym, and yet in a strange way you feel stronger and charged up as well. When he…
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Stick around until you find the lightbulb moment
While Marques Brownlee is well-known for his influence in technology now, his first YouTube video wasn’t even about tech. It was a video of his golf swing, and a request for analysis. Marques eventually started filming tech tutorials though, and he saw a lightbulb moment a dozen videos in, when a video of him installing…
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Pecking wood
Long before Kevin Feige became the president of Marvel Studios, he was rejected from USC’s film school program five times in a row. He was accepted with his sixth application. Imagine if you were Kevin, writing the second, third, fourth, and fifth applications. Your family starts to ask you questions, inadvertently turning up the volume…
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Don’t overlook pain prevention
A father wanted to show his son how important it was to regulate his emotions. The son was given a rule: whenever he got upset, he would hammer a nail into their wooden fence. Initially, the son hammered a lot of nails, but the practice taught him to be more mindful of his temper. He…
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Letting go
Unlearning is an incredibly important skill. It’s also often, in my experience, much more difficult than learning. Part of that is probably because we go through decades of learning to acquire facts, lessons, and insights, but there isn’t much of a curriculum on unlearning beliefs and scripts. I’ve had some experience applying and practicing in…
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Three mechanisms of “manifesting”
Matt Webb is pretty sure about manifesting, the idea that you can manifest the goals you imagine into your physical reality, even though he doesn’t have evidence for it. He writes, “I don’t know what the mechanism is. I don’t need to know.” I’ve found this to be a driving force in my life, and…