Uppercase Life

What do you think of when I say the word amateur? There are a lot of connotations around the word. And actually, if you look up quotes about the word amateur, most of them are not positive. Most of them are critical.
And usually amateur is contrasted against professional. But if you're anything like me, you may have a little bit of a perfectionist in you. And we really want to be professional. We really want to be perfect. We really want to do everything right. Sometimes, though, it really is better to just be an amateur. An amateur is generally someone we associate with being new on the journey.
And let's be honest, if you're going to take any journey at all, you're going to have to be new on it in the beginning. And if you're not willing to be new on a journey, you will never go anywhere you haven't already been. And that's, to me, a really intimidating thought. I want to go new places, but in order to do that, I have to be humble and recognize that I can't start off at the top.
I'm not beginning the game at level ten, so I have to start as an amateur. And sometimes it's hard to stomach that, especially if you've been doing this very long. Maybe you've had some prestige, maybe you've had some success, and you feel like, Man, I somehow have hit the brakes. I'm going backwards. I'm now in some new endeavor and I just feel behind the eight ball all the time.
And like, I'm no longer the biggest fish in the pond. Let me just tell you that it is a joy if you can embrace the idea of being in that phase of being amateur, because in order to keep growing in your life, you're going to have to be an amateur over and over again. So I want to suggest this to you.

If you're anything like me, you have a lot of decisions to make every day. And those decisions are of varying levels of importance. I think if you've been in this headspace of trying to improve yourself and be mindful about your time and about your choices, you've already run into some content telling you you have to be willing to say no.
And I don't disagree with that. You do have to be willing to say no. You also have to be willing to say yes. And maybe you're a person whose natural tendency is already to say yes. Maybe you just feel guilty and you say yes when people ask you to do something. Or maybe you're actually inclined to try new things and you don't like to turn down opportunities.
So you say yes more often than you should. Or maybe you're on the other side of things and you tend to be averse to novelty and to new things, and you just say no. You like to stick to your schedule, you don't like change, you don't like being thrown off. And so no is your first response. But sometimes we have this idea that those are the only two answers we can give to a question.

I want you to think for a minute about something that you would like to do but haven't been able to. Something that is important to you. Maybe some passion project that you have or an ambition that you felt, maybe a lifestyle change and you've thought of it.

In fact, maybe you've thought of it a lot, but you haven't felt able to actually accomplish it yet. You've got the thing in your head. All right. Now think of the reasons why you feel like you can accomplish it. Maybe it's time, maybe it's money, maybe it's the environment that you're living in or your lack of access to resources of some sort.

Now, now that you've thought of all that, ask yourself, how does that feel to me right now? How do I feel when I think about this thing that I want to do? Am I feeling sad? Am I feeling frustrated, angry, disappointed, discouraged? Now I'm going to challenge you with something. I'm going to say this, and your immediate reaction is probably going to be, that's not true.

You're listening to Uppercase Life, the show for people who want to live life all caps bold. And I'm your host Joseph Brewster. Owning our own time can really be a challenge. It's much easier to allow external demands to dictate your schedule, you know, to react rather than to act. Because as much as we say we want change and as much as we say we want to be our own boss and have control of our time, you know, when it comes right down to it, it can be a lot of pressure and it's far easier to just complain about how badly everyone else uses our time than it is to just use it ourself.
But think about it this way. Each action you take and each hour you spend each minute you spend, when you come right down to it is a vote for a future version of yourself. It's not so much the big decisions, but it's the accumulate of the small choices over time that really shape our identity in our trajectory. And that's not to say that big decisions don't matter, but I think that often we put too much weight on big decisions, and we think that just making the right big decisions periodically is the answer to having the life we want.
But really, we're making hundreds and hundreds, thousands sometimes of micro decisions every day about our activities, about our attitude, about our health, about our time. These things accumulate over time into the routines and the habits that we develop. And these things, I think, are really what weigh in on how we make big decisions. So those tiny micro choices, you've been making for years, when that big decision comes, those weigh in on your choice.
So I would encourage you to look at the actions you're taking every day as being small, tiny votes for a future version of yourself, like the act of brushing your teeth, for example, it's a vote for a future with less cavities and cleaner teeth where you can chew things better. And, you know, probably as an adult and I assume that you are when you're listening to this podcast, you've been doing this long enough that it's really not that big of a deal anymore to brush your teeth.
I mean, it's not as hard to remember. It's not arduous like it was when you were a child and your parents were telling you. But it still makes a big difference. It's a positive choice you make every day that you take for granted. Well, what if other things are equally important in small doses on a daily basis? What if choosing to wake up a little earlier and be prepared for your day is a vote for a less stressed out version of you later on in the day?
What if a trip to the gym is a vote for a future version of yourself that is still flexible and can move around easily? What if all those things that you were doing today make more of a difference and you realize, and I'm not encouraging you to overthink them, we can easily do that as well. I'm saying that once you have instituted some small micro habits that are voting for a future version of yourself that you want, you will, without even realizing it, be changing your life for the better.
What are some positive votes that you're casting today? What are some things that you're going to do or have already done today, which over time are going to accumulate into a better version of the future? Yeah. And then what are some votes that might result in a future you're not really looking forward to? You can't control all your circumstances and you don't need to.
But you do have a vote. You can vote for the version of you that is passionate, driven, living with meaning, and your vote makes a really big difference. Other things are also making votes for your future, too, and some of them are more well intentioned than others. If you don't vote for your future, someone else will and they're probably going to elect a version of you that maybe isn't exactly what you hoped because it's not their vote to cast.
So what if every moment you spend is a vote for a future version of yourself? How would that change the way you look at your small decisions today? How would that encourage you that you have the ability to create change, to generate a new routine over time just by making some micro alterations in your day to day, just drinking a little more water over time is going to help your body just being a little less stressed out over time is going to help your relationships and you can start that in small doses today.
Did you vote today? Why did you vote for and what could you do tomorrow to cast your vote for a better future version of yourself? Thanks for joining us on the show today. I'd love to hear your feedback, your comments or your questions, and you can email me at the uppercase life at gmail.com. And if you enjoyed this, consider leaving us a good rating so other people can find it as well.
And until next time, live like it matters.

We talk about priorities. We talk about rearranging our priorities, figuring our priorities out. And we think we know what the word means. But do you? What if I told you you don't really have priorities? Let's talk about it. And, you know, let's start talking about it by talking about the word priority. It comes from the root word prior, which just means the next thing in line and the next thing in line.

You can just imagine a line of cars going through a checkpoint, the car at the very front. That is the priority. He passes through the next car becomes the priority and so on and so forth. Now, I was actually in a situation the other day where I was in traffic and somebody came around me on this one lane line of cars and they went on the shoulder and cut in front of me in line.

And I remember feeling slighted and frustrated and like I was the priority. And then this person then cut in front of me and they took priority over me in this line of cars, because I can exist in this space or they can exist in this space, but we can't coexist in the same space. That's called a car wreck.

And the word priority up until the 1900s was always singular. In the 1900s, we started pluralizing the word. And today we start talking about having lists of priorities so that if I talk to most people, I will get them to list me off five, ten, sometimes 20 priorities. And that's what we think they are. We think it's a list of important things which in a sense a priority is definitely an important thing.

However, what we are missing here is if you have two of them that you were trying to put into the same spot, that's called a car wreck. You can have a list of ten. Equally important priorities. How are you going to know which one to work on? How are you going to know which one to give your mental energy in your effort to when you're scheduling your time, you have to have a priority, and that one's going to be the one at the front of the line.

How would it change your life? How would it change the way you work and the way that you structure your time with your family and the way that you pursue your ambitions? If you started using priority only in the singular, what if you had a list of things to do? Yeah, you can have 25 things on the list to do, but the one at the top is the only one we call a priority.

And when that one has passed through the checkpoint or that one has been addressed, then we will talk about the next priority. But we cannot have a list of ten equally important things. Have you ever felt paralyzed by your goals? You looking at your goals like these are all really good things. I really want to accomplish all of them.

How am I going to do this? I think that paralyzing feeling comes from the fact that we're trying to make everything special, and if everything is special, then really nothing is special. We've got to give the top spot to something. And that's why I say you don't have priorities. You have a priority. Have you identified it today? What are you going to spend the next hour working on?

What are you going to spend the next day putting your energy into? That's your priority. Be careful about putting too many things on that list and then finding yourself in a situation where you can never feel like you've accomplished your goals because the priority list is too big. You just need to deal with the next thing in line.

Love to hear your feedback, your comments, your criticisms. Leave me a comment. Leave me a like. Tell me what you like to hear us talk about on here. And I'd be happy to answer any of your questions until then. I'll see you next time.

You're listening to Uppercase Life, the show about taking advantage of every one of those precious moments. I'm your host, Joseph Brewster. I love shoes and I can't pass up a smooth pair of kicks. And I was in the van store a few years ago. I saw this sweet pair of yellow floral low tops that I just had to have.
And I know some of you are, like, white, but you should see my shoe collection, and you understand. But it turns out they didn't have it in my normal size, but they did have it in one half size, smaller. And I really, really love these shoes. So I tried on this half size smaller in the store and they weren't a perfect fit, but they didn't feel that terrible.
So I bought them and the first time I wore them all day, I noticed a big difference in that half size. I just did not enjoy the experience. And sure, they looked cool and I could wear them. But over the last few years, I haven't worn those shoes, hardly ever. Probably less than anything else in my closet, because they just don't fit me properly.
Now, when I talk to people about scheduling and I talk a lot to people about scheduling, one of the problems that a lot of people run into is that they can build a schedule, but they don't actually use it very often. And I'll just tell you right now, there is no one size fits all. There is some healthy routines that anybody would benefit from.
But the how, the why, the when, the where all of those things are going to differ from one person to the next. I talk to people regularly who in theory know how to do this. They can block their time, they can set their schedule, they just don't follow through. And there may be several reasons for this. But one overlooked reason, I think, is a scheduling misfit trying to squeeze yourself into a routine that isn't conducive to your needs or to your strength.
So here's a few things to look out for with scheduling misfits. First of all, maybe you haven't taken measurements. You don't understand your tasks or your energy levels or your daily routines well enough to really make informed decisions about how to schedule. You're just doing whatever is thrown at you, and in that case, you need to spend, maybe spend a week just tracking your time and use that to inform your decisions.
I've used an app which tracks my time and I've tracked every minute of my day for a week, just out of curiosity before to see how am I actually spending my time? And then I use that to help inform me on what I'm doing at different times of the day and how I can schedule better. And then sit down and write out some of your strengths and some of your values, your hopes, your short term goals.
Make sure you understand what you're doing with the schedule before you start throwing things on to it. So make sure you take measurements. Another problem I see a lot is over scheduling, creating a schedule that is bigger than your capacity. And that's a really common mistake. But it will leave you constantly feeling like you get done with one thing and you go straight to the next and you're a bit behind all the time.
In any small disturbance in the forest is just going to implode this finely tuned world you've made. So overscheduling. Some things you can do to correct that is make sure you leave some margin in your day. Because let's face it, we got to breathe at some time. We got to come up for air and then expect the unexpected.
There'll be days where you will hit traffic. There'll be days where your food won't be delivered on time. So just make sure that if something like that happens in your day, it's not going to have such a terrible domino effect that you're just ruined for the whole day. And then learn to resist this tyranny of the urgent, where whenever somebody asks something of us, we just put it immediately.
Next in our schedule, we look at the schedule and we're like, Well, I have time at four and we put it there. Maybe it doesn't need to be there. Maybe it needs to be next week. Don't overschedule you can spread things out and give them a little more room and it's much better for your and for your mental health really in the long run.
So. And then third thing I see a lot is task misalignment and this is an interesting thought. So just because there's an open slot in your day, it doesn't mean the best use of that time is the next task on your list because your energy level, your emotions and your attention, they're going to vary depending on the time of day.
So some tasks are going to be better done in the morning when your brain is in a refreshed state from sleep, rather than at the end of the day when you've already made 500 micro decisions and then you're just mentally drained. So you want to align your tasks with the best time to do them. And one of the ways to do that is to consider the surrounding activities and make sure your schedule is giving you the best chance of completing that task well.
So if you have a really heavy, strenuous, stressful activity before that task, just be aware of that and ask yourself, am I really going to feel up to doing that task by the time I'm done with the task before it? And then observe your daily mood cycles, your energy levels. Just be aware of how you can take advantage of your high times and then do less intensive tasks when you're feeling mentally or physically fatigued.
Something else that I see and this one's big. This really could have been on the top of the list is people build a scheduling dictatorship. So some of us hate our schedules because we've given the schedules too much power and now the schedule rules us with an iron hand. And I just got to tell you, you don't live for your tasks or for your schedule.
Those things exist to serve your pursuits and empower you to get things done during the day. Master level productivity isn't about doing everything that's on your schedule. It's about making best use of your resources and flexing that schedule in favor of the highest value actions. So some things to just keep in mind so that you don't fall into this trap is remember that your schedule is the servant.
You are the master. Have you ever felt like it was the other way around? If you felt like it's the other way around, you probably are dealing with a scheduling dictatorship and you are the only one who can put that schedule in that place and take it out of that place. You can delete the schedule, but the schedule can't delete you in.
Even if you don't get it all done, you will survive. And then also, don't be afraid to rearrange your schedule. If you're looking at your day and thinking this is impossible, it probably is, and you need to move some things to a new time slot. Here's another thought. Maybe you're wearing it backwards. And what I mean by that is many people use their schedules primarily to keep track of their obligations and their external demands.
So it's it's kind of the things they don't necessarily love. They just can't afford to forget. And I believe and there are people who disagree with this, but I believe your schedule should be a reflection of your values and goals first. And then you can add in the obligations because your schedule is a reflection of what you're planning to use your time doing.
So make sure you put your high value items on the calendar first. If it ranks above your paying job and tax deadlines or disappointments in your mind in terms of a priority and in terms of your values, it should be on the schedule before those other things are. And that might be something no one's ever told you before.
Have you plan to spend time with family and friends? Have you planned some fun, personal things to do? Time to work on your ambitions and pursue those things that are important to you. Have you planned those first? Because if not, I say you're wearing it backwards and when you're wearing it backwards, it doesn't look right. It doesn't fit right unless you're criss cross.
If you're wearing ...

Have you ever walked into a room and you just completely forgot why you were there for? Have you ever sat down to do something and then an hour later realized you had no idea where the time went?

Have you ever felt like being focused in the fast paced world we live in is nearly impossible. Well, you're not alone. I've definitely felt that way. And I think all of us have at some point or another. But focus isn't impossible for you. It can be done. In fact, you have to cultivate focus if you're going to do the best things in life.

So let's talk about focus. I think intuitively we all feel like we know what focus means, but I want to define focus as where the attention has been devoted. And I really early on here want to dispel a myth that you are excluded from the category of people who can focus because of your personality type or maybe because of a disorder that you have.

That's just not true. Now, yes, there are things about you that will impact the way that you focus, but you can focus. Absolutely, you can focus. And I want you to think of focus as a muscle that needs to be worked out. And what happens is so often we wait until we need to use it and then we are discouraged that we're weak, but we're not really practicing it any other time.

And so we're not ready to focus when we really need to focus. So if you can think of it as a muscle, you're working out and think of the practice you're putting into it, just like going to the gym and improving something about yourself physically only this is in your mind. Then I would say the first thing you need to do is just start practicing.

And a key here is to be easy on yourself, right? Go into the practice understanding that it's not something you've mastered yet and being completely okay with that some of the time. The way that we approach focus is we wait until we desperately need it because we've got something really important to accomplish and then we can't focus very well.

We feel like we're failing internally were hard on ourselves and all of this creates a loop that really it makes it even harder to focus. So start by practicing focus on things that are not super high value. Maybe take some time on your lunch break or in the evening in practice. Focus in on a thought, on an activity, or on a conversation with another person.

And what I mean by this is just make that time intentional. So that you set aside time where you're going into this, knowing that you are going to put aside distractions and you're going to focus on this thing. It doesn't have to be for a very long period of time. Start small. Give yourself five minutes to focus on something just uninterrupted and zeroed in.

And if you practice this over a period of time, I guarantee you it's going to start getting easier. So exercise that ability to focus and be careful about multitasking. I think we all know by now that multitasking is, you know, risky in terms of you don't get much done when you're trying to multitask. Sometimes, though, our focus does need to be divided.

However, I think we really need to be intentional about when and where that is going to be the case. So for example, if you were in a social environment and you were in a crowd of people all talking and chatting, you are going to have a lot of external stimuli and probably focus in allowed area. Like that is going to be difficult, but you expect that because that's what the environment is for and you probably don't go there and try to set up and do important deep work while people are constantly talking to you and laughing and asking questions.

So just multitask intentionally so that when you need to do important work, you're ready to set aside the other tasks and focus as somebody who's a photographer and has worked in video. You know, when we talk about focus, I think of an image and I think of the fact that almost any time you run across an image, there's going to be an area that's in focus and there's going to be areas that are not.

You almost never find an image where everything is in focus all at one time. And the same is true with life. You may be focusing on a task, but there's still things happening in your peripheral, and you can't always help that. In fact, that's just life. So those things can be there. They just need to remain out of focus.

You have to be okay with letting there be things present that are not in focus. And that's really hard for some of us. In fact, I think that's one of my biggest struggles is because I feel like if it's present, I should be giving it attention. So be really careful about multitasking. Be willing to leave things in the environment that you do not give your focus to let them stay blurry.

It's totally okay. And then later you can readjust your focus to them. Here's something that's really helped me, and that is meditation. Now, I know some of you are probably rolling your eyes at that. Like I tried meditation and, you know, it was it was cool, but it was difficult. And I didn't I didn't really enjoy it. Meditation especially if you're not used to it, can be really frustrating, actually, because sitting down and being still isn't something we're taught to do very often.

But that's part of practicing focus. And if you can build that discipline of being motionless, of being quiet, and of just being present with your thoughts instead of acting on them, it may help train you to calm some of that anxiety of feeling that you always have to respond to those stimuli, whether they're in your head or outside of your head.

Because, I mean, everything is coming at us all day long, right? We're in a fast paced world with notifications and things happening, and sometimes it feels like we're required to give all of those things a response. And in meditation, what you're asked to, depending on the type of meditation in one similarity, is that usually you are being mindful, you are being still and quiet, you are not responding to the external stimuli or the internal thoughts in your head.

And you know what? When you do that, sometimes it feels like you have a tornado in your brain. And my suggestion to you is it's okay, let there be a tornado in your brain. You don't have to fix it. That's part of cultivating focus, is that you can't control everything, but you can choose where you're going to dedicate your attention.

And then the last thing for today I want to encourage you with it's your phone. You know, I was going to go here, right? So I was looking at research from like back at  and in , surveys found that % of people admitted that notifications were leading them to procrastination and decreased focus. % of people and that individuals wasted nearly  hours of work time a week just checking notifications on their devices.

That's crazy. Think of all the cool things you could learn  hours a week. You could learn an instrument. You could learn a new skill.  hours a week. Just checking notifications on your devices. That's crazy. And I would say there are two solutions here, right? One is that you can turn your phone off when you're doing something.

I know this might come as a surprise to you, but there actually is a power option on your phone and it powers off. Probably you haven't powered it off in a while. Most of us don't. But you can. You can totally do that. So power off your phone or turn off your notifications. How many of those really are necessary?

Do you need those notifications? There are very few apps that should have your attention. I don't leave my notifications on for my emails. I'm going to pull up my computer and check them when I need to. I don't want emails coming straight to me at any time of day, and neither should you. Don't allow the world full access to your life, to your brain, to your focus.

And don't be discouraged if you're not able to focus...