Fuse Chamber

In this impromptu episode, we discuss why you have very little competition; and why that should inspire you to get your work out there - all it takes is just a little more work than the competition (which sadly isn't much).  Take a good look around at what 95% of your peer group is doing and you'll realize...there's a place for your voice.

* What does hustle mean?

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* No distractions

* Head Down

* Fearless

* Can’t hear the haters

* Start Early, End Late

* Basically, ALL YOUR FREE TIME goes to this thing

* This determines your success more than any other factor

* If you don’t hustle, YOU KNOW

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* If you don’t know, or don’t care, the world will not wait for you.  It will not reach out to help you.  It doesn’t really care if you’re not successful, or unhappy.

* There are two reasons why you don’t hustle.

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* You don’t want this particular thing bad enough, or

* You are afraid

* If you don’t want this, fine.  Do something else.

* If you are afraid, you’ve probably noticed you’re making excuses

* So What do you do?  Anything that fires you up and keeps you in the game

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* If you’ve found the thing you love, just GO.  Give yourself permission to spend all your free time on it.

* Surround yourself with inspiration - great books, speakers, examples

* Get a Buddy

* Make a To Do list and commit to the commitment

There’s one thing that we’re not teaching our young people any more - in school or beyond - and that’s how to persist when things get difficult.  If there’s a trophy for every participant, if there are no consequences to missing the mark, no negative feedback or criticism…how can you prepare a career in the most competitive segments of human endeavour?   What is the single most important quality for any person to possess if they want to get to the very top of their game?  Grit.

* When asked what people were more likely to make it through the special operations candidate process ‘grit’ was found to be the deciding factor

* yes it is important to find work that you love, work that you are passionate about, and it is even more important to know who you serve and why; but there still will be very rough patches.

* There will be parts of your work that you hate doing.  There will be rejection, criticism, bad press, tough breaks

* And then there will be personal setbacks that threaten to throw you off course.  Make you want to give up.  Give you excuses

* There will always be a fight.   The secret is to get good at fighting

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* There’s a saying - don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better

* Distinguish between the parts that are in your control, and the parts that are not.  If you can’t afford an accountant right now, you are your own bookkeeper.  If you have a cold, you can’t sing for 2 weeks.  If you broke your thumb, you can’t paint.  You can control how you react to these situations.  What could you do instead?  How could you work around it?  What new skill could you learn from this adversity?  How could you use your time differently to attack all the things you keep saying you don’t have time for?

* Learn to love the fight.  If you get good at struggle, and it’s true that ‘the fight is the thing’, notice how you seem better equipped to handle ALL of life’s challenges!

* Break big things into smaller things.  The minute you hit adversity, set a stretch goal that inspires you.   Something that really gets you motivated.  Why is it important to do this?  And then break that goal into manageable tasks that you can handle each and every day.  You don’t have to know how to plan the whole way to your goal either.  Just start with tomorrow.  What’s the biggest thing you could accomplish in one day that would move you closer to your goal?

* Get disciplined.   Take massive pride in accomplishing those small goals each day.  It is exactly this skill that can get you anything you want in life.

* Never let the pressure off.   Don’t finish your tasks without making some new ones.

* Don’t forget to take a look at where you are at the end of each day

* No adversity in your life right now?  Find some.   Walk to work.  Volunteer for hard things.  Take a cold shower.  Go without screens or internet for 2 days.   Fast for 18-24 hours.  Add 10% to your workout.  Take 10% of your pay check and put it where you can’t get at it.

* And then next time, do a little more.

* You will have failures.  Part of fighting is losing.   There will be setbacks and disappointments even as you’re fighting adversity.  This is part of the fight.

* This is why its so important to make time - every day - to stop, see where you are, what you’ve learned, how you could do better, and what the landscape looks like now.  Does your initial plan still make sense?  If not, create a new plan for tomorrow.   The plan is ever changing.

If we expect there to be a future in the arts, we have to help guarantee it.  Nothing about art has to be free.   Like so many other ‘public’ professions that don’t have a pure profit focus, we have learned not to value it.  When do don’t value it, the quality starts to decline.  How can we as artists help ensure a thriving industry?

* We HAVE to treat it as a business.  Art IS a business.  Business is not the set of boring financial tasks we apologetically force artists to do.

* If you don’t like the sound of this, you HAVE TO BE OK with not getting paid well, or at all, for your art.

* I was reading an article about 10 ways to save crazy amounts of money, and several of them directly affect the arts.  Steal or stream music, steal or stream movies and borrow books from the library.

* Yes there are times when we must conserve funds, but there were no suggestions about getting your food from the food library, so the assumption is we’re talking about people with some disposable income

* We should flip our thinking.  Our governments tend to (or at least used to) treat the arts as a collective obligation to support.  Funding is shrinking by the year, so it becomes incumbent on us to take over that funding.   We need to commit a small percentage of our money to supporting people who create tremendous value in our lives and in fact make tremendous contributions to commerce, yet never receive a paycheck or benefits from a large corporation

* Everyone should plan to spend a portion of what they make supporting local artists.

* If you want your money to directly benefit artists - its a bit like giving directly to a neighbour or a friend in need.  No middleman.  No administrative fees.

* Live music, theatre, local press…etc

To be a true artist, you must reject the mindset and habit of sameness.  You can learn and borrow from those who have come before, but you must never duplicate.  But how do you come to your own voice?

* Nothing is more powerful than your own authentic voice

* People who changed the world drew new lines in the sand.   They did not absorb and rehash common thinking.

* They took common thinking and either turned it upside down or made changes to it.

* Stay inspired, read, reflect and document.   This could mean journaling but it also means creating - scripts, lyrics, poetry, music, drawing, painting, sculpture, dance, essays, speeches, prose, video - whatever you make instead of or in addition to a journal

* If you journal, make note of problems to be solved.  Things you learned, things you would like to change or improve about your world, your art form, yourself

* As always, write for the wastebasket.  (But keep everything) Failing early and often means you are ok that 95% of what you make doesn’t go anywhere

* Review what you write often and look for recurring, common themes.  Something will eventually jump out at you as being your philosophy, your reason for serving

* Never stop this practice.,  Continue to refine it, grow it, change it, adapt it

Inspiration Can Be Hard To Come By.  What’s the Secret

* The good news is….hard work is the answer.  The bad news is…its hard work.

* Generating rich and novel ideas is the by product of living a rich and novel life, internally and externally

* I’m big on mindset and habit pairs, meaning right thinking coupled with right action

* Your mindset must be observational, adventurous, curious - a seeker

* The world is at your fingertips now more than ever.  Use it.

* Adopt habits of inviting inspiration

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* For every idea that follows, start first with a receptive mind.  Observe, resist the temptation to judge or doubt, be present and positive, and be curious.  Ask a lot of questions.

* Your smartphone has a notebook, camera, voice recorder and digital assistant built in.  Duh

* When observations arise, document them.  You’ll be shocked at how much slips from memory when you don’t write things down

* But don’t wait for inspiration.  Once a day, sit down and ask questions of the world.  What did you learn?  about yourself, about others, about the world

* Change up your routine.  From brushing your teeth with the opposite hand to changing your normal route…anything you do repeatedly can be changed up

* Consume art voraciously.  Not just the stuff you like, but everything.  Talk to others about what they like and why.

* Read biographies or Watch documentaries of great artists, thinkers, leaders, pioneers, humanitarians.  Let their example inspire you, and feel free to steal from their arsenal of mindsets and habits.  Just don’t copy the actual work.

* Meet as many people as you possibly can.  There is an app for that, but you can meet incredible people in line, in crowds

* Say yes to things you would normally say no to.  Road trips, events, new people, challenges, competitions and travel.

* Start small but never break a promise.  Never miss a day.  Better to show up and do a little than to not show up at all

I have all these great plans, but I don’t know where to start, and it all seems so overwhelming

* Focus on Go.  You have to move.  No one else will do that for you - it’s the one skill you have to master and get disciplined around all by yourself, or you will ultimately struggle with failure too often

* It’s pretty easy to condition the habit of getting things done.  And it’s pretty satisfying too.

* Take a big goal, break it into smaller milestones - mini objectives that mark progress on your journey

* Break those milestones into small, daily actions.  These wouldn’t and shouldn’t be big and audacious.  Just the little grind - the small things that move you closer to your milestones every day.

In the age of digital distribution, where everything is free - is it still possible to make a profit in the arts?

* New models require self-agency - you are own bookings manager, producer, director, publisher and promoter

* The bad news is - its a lot of hard work and a steep learning curve

* The great news is - all of the tools you need are out there, and most of it is free.

Choices are what got you everything you have and everything you are.  Choices will also get you everywhere you want to go and make you everything you want to be.  How to do you take control of you choices, and consistently make good ones.

* Too often we accept what is happening to us

* Many people view their current state as though life is something that happens TO them.

* YOU are in the driver’s seat.  You are responsible for all of your outcomes.  You may not choose your circumstances, or the actions of others, but how you respond to them, and what you accept, is entirely your choice.

* You need to see yourself as 100% accountable if you want to get somewhere different

This world seems so have so many opportunities and good fortune for everyone but me.  What do I need to do differently to have better luck and success?

* You have to stop seeing those things - resources and opportunities - as scarce.  They are infinite.

* The best way to unlearn scarcity is to act as though everything is abundant

* It takes a leap of faith, but its a good one.  Try it for a few weeks and you will see a huge difference in the quality and happiness of your life.