Testing testing system on what did you do you got on here that you have a new podcasting setup so what is it what's the gear I'm I need to know this is important well okay so first of all it says new podcasting here does not say that I have new podcasting here new podcasting here is on its way to me.
00:00:20
This is actually kind of related to follow up from a long time ago I think it was thinking girl rich where we talked about the personal communication room and I was like I'm finally going to finish my office.
00:00:31
Yes well my office is almost finished it should be done by the end of this year nice so now that I have a home office I have a convenient excuse to spend more money on podcast gear I did a bunch of research went to there's a place nearby that actually like.
00:00:49
I've been to musicians friend and those types of places guitar center I hate going in there because I feel like I know way more than anybody who works there.
00:00:59
If I have to explain to you what I want in a lot of detail and go pick out the pieces to explain to you what it is I'm going to do with it that's not a good sign exactly but there is a place actually right down the road from the co working space called pixel pro audio it's a local place but the people who work there are really knowledgeable so
00:01:15
I went in there and started asking them some questions about microphones and stuff they've got great gear and they've also got great prices it that's usually at or below Amazon prices for a brick and mortar store which is kind of amazing.
00:01:28
Right so I like I like buying from them spent some time in there talked about some different microphones went home and did a bunch of research listen to the mindset episode which dropped not too long before recording this right you're talking about your shirt beta 87 a that's what I went with nice
00:01:44
but it is not here yet. I also got a new audio interface so I right now I'm using my how PR for you through a focus right to I too.
00:01:55
Okay during this process I learned way more about audio interfaces than I ever thought I would or ever cared to.
00:02:03
I was a pixel pro audio guys mentioned to me that I should look into audience that is kind of like the logical step up from the focus right it's not the sound devices which is like $1000 and is what the Marcos of the world use but the audience they make a lot of bigger boxes that have really
00:02:25
really nice preamps and also really really nice converters so Joe you probably know all about that stuff I know a lot about it I just learned about it.
00:02:34
Okay yeah so for the people who care and if they and if they don't you can edit this out but converters are important because you can have a really nice microphone if you've got a junkie audio interface or junkie converters it won't do a good job of translating the analog audio that it's receiving into a digital format
00:02:53
that you can do something with on your computer correct so audience like that's kind of what they're known for are these these converters and they use what are called brown bird converters now the one that I use doesn't use brown bird it's supposedly like a step below it but the way they frame it on their on their website it's not really a lower quality convert it's just a different converter it's got different different specs whatever it doesn't matter like the fact that they care about the converters at all puts it on a whole other tier compared to the
00:03:22
the focus right yes and then the preamps are just supposed to be like amazing so I'm really excited to see what that combination will allow me to do also the audience the interface I got is the ID for so it is a single interface okay so it's supposed to be great for just like plugging in a guitar and recording ideas and stuff too so that's also something that I do so I'm excited excited for that it's got a got a dial that you can use and you can program when you're in logic or whatever and also a mute button built up
00:03:51
so I'm you but built into it very nice that's exciting so you're talking about the converter from the analog structure of the microphone and converting it into the digital signal that the computer can consume exactly what you're talking about exactly yep so that's why you
00:04:07
a speed microphones typically don't sound as good as XLR microphones even if the XLR interface that you have isn't very good right so you could buy a really cheap I don't want to throw any brands out there because they've all got like very cheap ones and also very good ones it seems but if you buy like a $50 audio interface off of Amazon you can plug in an XLR you will get better sound quality most likely then just plugging a USB mic like a like a road podcaster or my ATR 21
00:04:34
like a road podcaster or my ATR2100, which I still do like,
00:04:38
but after doing some, some audio sampling
00:04:42
and doing the research on the other microphones,
00:04:44
like yeah, it just doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't,
00:04:46
doesn't hold up.
00:04:47
- Right.
00:04:48
- Yeah, then there's, from the $50 tier,
00:04:49
usually there's like, the $150-$200 tier,
00:04:52
which is where you'll find the focus right on the low end,
00:04:55
the audience, maybe a tascam,
00:04:57
something in there, an Onyx Blackjack is,
00:05:00
is probably in there too,
00:05:01
but then you can jump up to like the $1,000 sound
00:05:04
devices or there's one, I think it's called the Apollo,
00:05:07
which my brother actually uses, it's crazy,
00:05:08
because that you can actually apply effects
00:05:11
before it hits the converter.
00:05:12
- Yes.
00:05:13
- So you could EQ your voice before the microphone signal
00:05:16
even gets to your computer, which is crazy to me.
00:05:19
- Another route that you can take is the route I'm using,
00:05:22
which is using a soundboard itself.
00:05:25
Like I've got a USB soundboard,
00:05:27
and I've also got an external recorder
00:05:30
in the Zoom H4N Pro.
00:05:34
Which was a gift from a listener.
00:05:35
So thank you, whoever you are.
00:05:37
Essentially what that allows me to do is,
00:05:39
I can record like I am right now,
00:05:42
without sending it to digital at all.
00:05:45
So there is no converter,
00:05:47
it's just going from XLR straight into the recorder,
00:05:49
which is super nice,
00:05:51
but I'm using the USB portion of the soundboard
00:05:54
to get the signals to and from you.
00:05:57
But I can do, like it's got the full EQ compressor,
00:06:00
you can do the aux send things,
00:06:03
the one I have has a six input, four output set up on it.
00:06:07
So it's kind of intense for most people,
00:06:09
and with that, I don't need any of the converter pieces,
00:06:12
per se, I am using the built in converter
00:06:15
that's in that soundboard to get the signal to and from you.
00:06:18
But that never hits the listeners.
00:06:21
So whenever listeners, when you're hearing this,
00:06:24
you're actually not hearing that converter process at all
00:06:26
because the recording is done pre-conversion.
00:06:29
Does that make sense, Mike?
00:06:30
- Yep, yep, to me, but probably to nobody else.
00:06:32
(laughing)
00:06:35
The life of audio engineering.
00:06:37
- By the way, you gotta share my address
00:06:40
with this mysterious gift giver who keeps sending you stuff.
00:06:44
(laughing)
00:06:45
I have a theory about this, by the way.
00:06:47
- Okay.
00:06:48
- Because Drew brought this up on the latest whims at work
00:06:51
and you were kind of like, oh yeah, that's right.
00:06:53
I think maybe Drew is the mysterious gift giver.
00:06:56
- Ah, okay, you think it's Drew?
00:06:58
- Well, I don't know your entire social circle,
00:07:01
but given the evidence, if I had to pick somebody,
00:07:04
my pick is Drew.
00:07:05
- I'm not convinced it's the same person.
00:07:07
And the only reason I say that is because of some weird
00:07:10
markings that I see on some of the boxes and such,
00:07:12
they don't always seem to come from like a manufacturer
00:07:15
at all times.
00:07:16
I've received three of these now,
00:07:19
three random gifts from people.
00:07:22
And with the Zoom, I know who that one was.
00:07:24
And that one was not Drew.
00:07:26
Because this person reached out to me on email
00:07:28
and explained why they were giving it to me.
00:07:30
So on that one, I tend to play it off as if I don't know
00:07:34
who that one is, but I do know that particular one.
00:07:36
The other two that I've received, I don't know who they are.
00:07:38
And that could be Drew, maybe.
00:07:40
I don't know.
00:07:41
Drew, are you playing games with me?
00:07:43
(laughs)
00:07:44
- Quit playing games with Joe's heart, Drew.
00:07:46
- It's true.
00:07:47
Well, that's fun.
00:07:48
It's exciting.
00:07:49
New podcasting gear is always an exciting time.
00:07:51
And part of the reason I get so much into audio
00:07:54
is because of what I do at our church,
00:07:56
because the sound system that we run there
00:07:59
is really intense.
00:08:00
Like we use a, it's an Allen and Heath iLive
00:08:03
for the main sound board.
00:08:05
It's a T112, which means it has 112 channels on it.
00:08:10
And you're mixing a lot of stuff all at one time.
00:08:14
You're dealing with gates and preamps and PEQs
00:08:17
and compressors and limiters,
00:08:18
DSRs, like you're dealing with pretty much every aspect
00:08:22
that you would in a studio setup
00:08:23
without going full studio setup.
00:08:26
If you work with that stuff enough,
00:08:28
and then you come to,
00:08:30
I don't wanna say the lowly world of podcasting,
00:08:32
but it's not nearly as sophisticated.
00:08:35
It's easy to, I guess, get by with something a lot simpler.
00:08:39
And knowing what's simple to go with
00:08:42
is not always the easy thing to determine.
00:08:44
- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:08:46
I noticed that when doing the research,
00:08:48
because the good research is done by like the musicians
00:08:51
and the sound on sound people.
00:08:53
- Yes.
00:08:54
- The podcast is like, oh, this one is cool.
00:08:55
(laughs)
00:08:57
- Yeah, like I used to run the road podcaster a lot.
00:09:01
And I still have it.
00:09:02
If anyone's interested in purchasing that,
00:09:04
I'm selling it.
00:09:06
So if you have an interest in that,
00:09:08
gladly sell it to you, shoot me an email.
00:09:10
I'll work through that with you.
00:09:11
But the thing is that that,
00:09:14
it's not a cheap microphone when you're buying it new.
00:09:18
You know, it's a USB mic
00:09:19
and it does a really good job given the USB nature of it.
00:09:23
But if you ever want to increase quality
00:09:25
and have a more stable environment,
00:09:28
you tend to move over to the XLR world,
00:09:30
which is what I did.
00:09:31
And that is not a cheap world to move into.
00:09:34
- No.
00:09:35
- But you're right, whenever you look at a lot of reviews
00:09:37
by podcasters and how to get into podcasting
00:09:40
and what makes for a good mic,
00:09:41
what makes for a good this or that,
00:09:42
the microphones and stuff that you tend to see on that,
00:09:45
although they will do the job,
00:09:47
they're not always the best quality.
00:09:49
And if you're gonna get serious with it,
00:09:51
you tend to want the quality to be there.
00:09:53
It's not mandatory,
00:09:55
'cause people are very forgiving with some of it,
00:09:57
but you're gonna want to upgrade.
00:09:59
And to me, it makes more sense to just put a little bit
00:10:01
of more money into it upfront than to try to sell
00:10:05
and then upgrade later, which is kind of what I did.
00:10:08
So, I don't necessarily recommend that you follow my path,
00:10:11
but it does work and it does do a pretty good job.
00:10:13
- True, but enough about podcast worm.
00:10:15
Podworm.
00:10:18
- You've got an action item here,
00:10:19
which I am very curious to hear about.
00:10:21
- Yes, we didn't have any action items
00:10:24
for follow up from 40X last time.
00:10:27
And there are a lot of reasons for that.
00:10:30
Anyway, I started doing a thing
00:10:33
between our recording last time and this time
00:10:36
that I have tried to do and mentioned numerous times
00:10:40
on this show and it has never stuck.
00:10:43
And I can't say that it has stuck this time either, yet,
00:10:46
Mike, but I am playing with meditation again.
00:10:49
And this is partially because of someone
00:10:53
that we've mentioned Drew now a few times.
00:10:56
So Drew introduced me to a guy, Chris Boller.
00:10:59
And Chris mentioned an app called Oak
00:11:02
that I downloaded because it sounded interesting.
00:11:05
And to be honest with you, I was kind of rolling my eyes
00:11:08
as I downloaded it 'cause I know my tendencies
00:11:11
with meditation or rather my lack of meditation
00:11:15
and why I don't do it.
00:11:16
But I started using this app
00:11:18
and I think if it's ever gonna stick, it might be now.
00:11:22
I've stuck with it longer than I have
00:11:23
almost every other time.
00:11:25
- Nice.
00:11:26
- I can't really tell you that I have any positive results
00:11:28
from this, but the practice itself seems to be going, okay.
00:11:31
I like that I get to, as I meditate, I get to grow a tree.
00:11:35
Like I think that's cool.
00:11:37
Maybe that's why I'm sticking with it is purely for that.
00:11:39
- Of course, growing a virtual tree
00:11:41
is what would make Farmer Joe stick with meditation.
00:11:43
- Exactly, yes, I just need to grow a plant
00:11:46
and I'll be happy.
00:11:46
- Nice, nice.
00:11:48
I'm super excited that this is working for you.
00:11:50
I think that this is a really effective practice
00:11:52
that everybody should embrace in some way, shape, or form.
00:11:55
You don't have to go on a silent retreat every year.
00:11:56
You don't have to sit on a cushion for an hour,
00:11:58
but even a few minutes here and there
00:12:00
and the apps that are available
00:12:01
make it super easy to do that.
00:12:02
I've actually upgraded, I guess.
00:12:04
I was using a one-time purchase.
00:12:06
Meditation Studio was the name of the app,
00:12:07
but I think they had a Black Friday sale
00:12:10
where you got 25% off a headspace subscription.
00:12:13
So I have signed up for that for the next year
00:12:17
and I find that more effective.
00:12:20
There's a ton more meditations in there
00:12:22
and I just really like the British guy's voice.
00:12:24
I'm a sucker for those British guys.
00:12:26
It's wireless in the cortex.
00:12:27
- One of the first things I do whenever I set up a new phone
00:12:30
is make sure that Siri has the British accent on it.
00:12:35
That's a thing that I like to do.
00:12:37
- Yeah, me too.
00:12:38
All right, I suppose we should finally
00:12:40
talk about our book for today, huh?
00:12:42
- Yeah, this is gonna be an intense episode, I think.
00:12:46
- Yep, so we should preface this
00:12:49
by saying that we did not cover this book
00:12:51
the way that it was intended.
00:12:53
- Yes.
00:12:54
- And actually before we do that,
00:12:55
I guess I should explain why I picked it.
00:12:56
So the book for today is The Artist's Way
00:12:59
by Julia Cameron and really the only reason
00:13:03
that I picked this book is I was listening
00:13:06
to Whims That Work and I Heard Drew
00:13:08
talking about the effectiveness of these morning pages
00:13:11
which I thought sounded awesome.
00:13:13
And I think you were kind of familiar
00:13:14
with this concept already it sounded like
00:13:16
maybe from a blog or something.
00:13:18
- Yes.
00:13:19
- But this is kind of Julia Cameron's,
00:13:21
I don't know, this is like her life's work, this book.
00:13:23
It's a 12 week course and we did it in 14 days.
00:13:28
- Yes.
00:13:29
- So it's definitely condensed and the way that it's set up,
00:13:33
there's some basic principles at the beginning
00:13:35
which we'll run through real quick.
00:13:36
Then there's a process which we've modified for Bookworm
00:13:39
and then there's the each week has its own chapter
00:13:43
and there's a bunch of exercises at the end
00:13:45
that you're supposed to do at least half of them.
00:13:48
I did very few of these and that was just for time's sake
00:13:52
but I can totally see how if you were to do these exercises
00:13:55
it would just exponentially increase the effectiveness
00:13:58
of these concepts that she's teaching in this course sticking.
00:14:01
It's a very impactful book even if you just read through it
00:14:03
like we did but I can totally see how if you follow through
00:14:06
and do the course the way that she designed it
00:14:08
you're gonna have an even bigger impact.
00:14:10
Is that fair to say?
00:14:11
- That is fair and I will say that when I went through this
00:14:15
one of the things I wanted to do
00:14:16
because with books like this that require a lot of interactive
00:14:21
I guess work outside of the book itself
00:14:23
when you have a book like this and we're doing it for Bookworm
00:14:26
and we haven't done a ton of these for Bookworm
00:14:28
but when we do I feel like I need to do my due diligence on it
00:14:32
and put it through its paces and give it a chance I guess.
00:14:36
So whenever she says okay you need to do morning pages
00:14:39
every day you need to schedule the artist's date,
00:14:41
you need to do half of these action items at the end of it.
00:14:45
I did my best to do all of that.
00:14:47
So I did do half of the action items a little bit more than that
00:14:51
I think on every one of these but I'm doing a week per day.
00:14:54
So this turned into like it almost requires
00:14:58
about an hour and a half to two hours of work every single day
00:15:01
to get through this book in that way.
00:15:02
Like it's intense.
00:15:04
- Yeah which was not something that I could give honestly
00:15:07
the last couple of weeks with traveling and the other stuff
00:15:11
you know trying to get stuff wrapped up before the end of the year
00:15:14
for Asian efficiency like it just wasn't gonna happen.
00:15:17
So I had to make that decision that like there's no way
00:15:19
I'm gonna follow through on all of these but I guess I'm curious
00:15:22
as we go through this to hear which ones kind of impacted you
00:15:26
the most because she talks about when you're selecting
00:15:28
these exercises that you're going to do you should do the ones
00:15:31
that really jump out at you and you should do the ones
00:15:33
that you really don't want to do.
00:15:35
- Yes.
00:15:36
- Because those are the ones that there's something there
00:15:38
that you have to work through.
00:15:39
- And that's not as easy to do as you think.
00:15:42
- Oh I totally get it which is why I want to know
00:15:44
like how it went for you because like I said
00:15:46
I copped out this time.
00:15:47
Didn't have the ability to do that.
00:15:50
- I'll put it this way like I'll try to mention the ones
00:15:53
that impacted me the most but to be honest with you
00:15:56
it's thinking time and most of these action items are prompts
00:16:00
at least that's the way I saw them.
00:16:01
So whenever I would sit down to do this piece of it
00:16:03
so I would read the weeks reading
00:16:06
and then I would sit down to do the action items
00:16:09
for that particular weeks, week of the course.
00:16:13
And when I did that I was planning on 45 minutes
00:16:17
of time to go through those.
00:16:19
And that simple time turned into pure reflection I guess
00:16:24
which is similar to what the morning pages is.
00:16:29
But it's kind of like a guided morning pages if you will
00:16:33
where I want you to work through this particular piece
00:16:35
of your past or your mindset on a given topic.
00:16:40
And I felt like after a while some of that gets
00:16:44
to be a little bit repetitive.
00:16:46
I noticed that as I was going through them
00:16:48
that my amount of time I was spending on the action items
00:16:51
got a lot shorter when I got to say week 12 versus week one.
00:16:55
And I don't know if that's because the reflection points
00:16:58
that I was being guided through had more to do
00:17:01
with more surface level things that I've already worked
00:17:05
through like how do you actually go about writing
00:17:09
every single day like that type of thing versus
00:17:12
why don't you write?
00:17:14
Those are two very different questions
00:17:16
and yet one is a lot simpler to answer than the other.
00:17:19
And I felt like the harder questions were being asked
00:17:21
at the beginning than towards the end.
00:17:23
So my time got a lot shorter towards the end of the book
00:17:26
but ultimately those action items they were points
00:17:30
to stop and think through whatever these topics
00:17:33
were that she was putting in front of me.
00:17:35
So I'm not sure I have what you're asking for.
00:17:38
These are the ones I like the most.
00:17:40
- Okay.
00:17:41
- But I think ultimately it became a time for me
00:17:43
to understand myself.
00:17:46
It becomes a self reflection and a self evaluation point
00:17:49
and it helps you understand yourself
00:17:52
which I think was the main point of it.
00:17:54
But again, I don't know how to.
00:17:56
- Here's a question you should do.
00:17:57
Like I don't know how to say that.
00:17:58
- Yeah, well when you put on the outline
00:18:01
that you were dabbling with meditation
00:18:04
I totally thought it was because you had just gone
00:18:06
through this book.
00:18:07
Because this book is in a way a form of guided meditation.
00:18:11
And she even talks about some of that stuff
00:18:13
in some of the later weeks in the course.
00:18:16
- Right.
00:18:17
- So yeah, I totally get what you're saying
00:18:18
for people who have not read the book.
00:18:19
Maybe it's a little bit confusing
00:18:21
but it's designed to help you deal with
00:18:24
some of these internal struggles that keep you from creating.
00:18:28
And she's got a bunch of basic principles at the beginning
00:18:30
which kind of lay the groundwork for the foundation
00:18:35
that she wants to build on throughout the rest of the course.
00:18:37
We'll just run through these real quickly.
00:18:39
Now I will say when she proposes these
00:18:42
at the very beginning before she even lists them
00:18:45
she talks about essentially God being
00:18:47
like a creative spiritual force.
00:18:49
So she kind of leaves the door open
00:18:50
to you can interpret it how you want.
00:18:52
But she definitely as she goes through the book
00:18:56
has this approach that there is a being
00:18:58
that is helping you create.
00:19:01
And it totally lines up perfectly
00:19:03
with my own personal Christian belief system.
00:19:04
So that's the lens that I looked at it through
00:19:06
and I'm assuming you probably did the same.
00:19:08
But I guess I want to call that out at the beginning
00:19:10
'cause she does that you don't,
00:19:13
it's not necessarily like a Christian book
00:19:15
but she does refer to God a lot
00:19:18
which you'll see when we go through these principles.
00:19:20
Want me to just run through them quick?
00:19:21
- Yeah, I think that would make sense.
00:19:22
I mean, I know you've got all these listed here every week.
00:19:25
I think it might make sense to just go through
00:19:28
and let's talk about what all of them are
00:19:30
and then maybe call out any pieces
00:19:32
that really struck us as we go.
00:19:33
Is that fair?
00:19:34
I've got a couple points that I took away
00:19:37
from each of the weeks.
00:19:38
She did a really good job of unpacking a single idea
00:19:43
in these different chapters which I think was really cool.
00:19:46
But even before that, she's got her 10 basic principles
00:19:49
which number one, that creativity
00:19:51
is the natural order of life.
00:19:52
Life is energy, pure creative energy.
00:19:54
Number two, there's an underlying
00:19:56
indwelling creative force infusing all of life
00:19:58
including ourselves.
00:20:00
Number three, when we open ourselves to our creativity,
00:20:02
we open ourselves to the creators creativity
00:20:04
within us and our lives.
00:20:06
Number four, we are ourselves creations
00:20:09
and we in turn are meant to continue creativity
00:20:12
by being creative ourselves.
00:20:14
Number five, creativity is God's gift to us.
00:20:16
Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
00:20:19
Number six, the refusal to be creative is self will
00:20:23
encounter to our true nature.
00:20:25
Number seven, when we open ourselves
00:20:27
to exploring our creativity,
00:20:28
we open ourselves to God, good, orderly direction.
00:20:31
Number eight, as we open our creative channels
00:20:33
to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes
00:20:35
are to be expected.
00:20:36
Number nine, it's safe to open ourselves
00:20:38
up to greater and greater creativity.
00:20:40
And number 10, our creative dreams and yearnings
00:20:42
come from a divine source.
00:20:43
As we move towards our dreams, we move towards divinity.
00:20:45
So that's kind of the 10 commandments, if you will,
00:20:50
of the artist's way.
00:20:51
She's very clear at the beginning
00:20:53
that you have to buy into these basic principles
00:20:56
in order for the course to work.
00:20:58
And then from here, she's got the process
00:21:01
which we've kind of talked a little bit about.
00:21:04
Basically, you're supposed to read the chapter,
00:21:06
you're supposed to do the exercises,
00:21:08
you're supposed to do the morning pages
00:21:09
which we've mentioned here.
00:21:11
And then you're supposed to do the artist's date.
00:21:12
So there's four components here.
00:21:14
Let's talk about the morning pages for a minute
00:21:16
because I know this is something
00:21:17
that we both have on our action items.
00:21:19
So she defines the morning pages as three pages
00:21:22
of long handwriting, strictly stream of consciousness.
00:21:24
There's no wrong way to do the morning pages
00:21:26
and you're never supposed to skip
00:21:28
and you're never supposed to skimp.
00:21:30
I already broke these rules.
00:21:32
I haven't skipped, I haven't skipped
00:21:34
but I also have skimped from the very beginning
00:21:37
because I guess I just am not used to writing by hand
00:21:42
for that long, like my hand cramps up.
00:21:45
It takes me an hour and a half to write three pages
00:21:46
but two pages I can do and that's stretching me
00:21:50
at this point to get the two pages done.
00:21:52
So that's basically the way that I've implemented this
00:21:55
is I wanna make sure that I always do the morning pages.
00:21:57
So even when I was traveling,
00:21:58
even when I was in Austin,
00:22:00
I'm at the airport at seven in the morning or whatever,
00:22:03
I made sure, as I was saying,
00:22:04
they're waiting for my flight,
00:22:05
I've got some time I was doing my morning pages
00:22:08
but I do have to confess to you
00:22:10
that I did not do three pages every single day.
00:22:13
- Sad day, very sad day.
00:22:15
That tells me you're not embracing
00:22:17
the most advanced technology we have in paper.
00:22:20
(laughing)
00:22:21
- It's true, it's true.
00:22:22
I'm sorry, I'm not an analog guy.
00:22:25
I actually reported a podcast yesterday
00:22:27
with somebody from the Dojo on analog productivity
00:22:28
and like, okay, you're the expert
00:22:30
'cause I don't know anything about this stuff.
00:22:31
(laughing)
00:22:33
- Fair enough.
00:22:33
My angst with morning pages is time
00:22:38
and it has a lot to do with,
00:22:41
I'm used to writing a lot by hand.
00:22:45
So hand cramps are not a thing I deal with
00:22:47
and even though I don't have that particular issue,
00:22:51
it still takes me 45 minutes to write three pages long hand
00:22:54
and that has a lot to do with just thinking through
00:22:58
and just trying to get words on a page,
00:23:00
like just what it takes.
00:23:02
I've heard a couple people who say
00:23:05
that this takes me 15 to 20 minutes
00:23:07
and I start quizzing about that
00:23:10
and realize they're like trying to leave space
00:23:12
between each line so they're using only every other line
00:23:15
on the notebook and maybe they write a little bit bigger
00:23:19
than I do.
00:23:19
So maybe this is an aspect of just how I write in long form
00:23:23
but for me, I want to fill every single line.
00:23:26
I wanna put this through its full paces
00:23:28
and that's what I've been doing.
00:23:29
I think I skimped one morning and it was because
00:23:32
my in-laws were visiting and they got up a lot earlier
00:23:34
than normal because they have a puppy who needs to go out
00:23:38
and as a result of that, I ended up having conversations
00:23:40
with them instead of finishing up
00:23:42
the last half page of my writing.
00:23:44
So I skimped one morning but outside of that,
00:23:47
I've been doing the three pages every day.
00:23:49
- You are a better man than I do.
00:23:51
- Well, part of that's because it's a 45 minute deal
00:23:54
and not an hour and a half.
00:23:55
So if it was an hour and a half,
00:23:57
I would probably be in the same boat.
00:23:58
I would probably be skimping like you're saying
00:24:02
just because that's a lot of time.
00:24:04
- Yeah.
00:24:04
- And that's a huge commitment.
00:24:06
It really is.
00:24:07
- I found two pages I can do in roughly a half an hour.
00:24:11
So two pages is manageable for me
00:24:14
but by the time I get to the third page,
00:24:16
like you can't even read what I'm writing
00:24:17
and my hand is just yelling at me.
00:24:21
So that's kind of where I've drawn the line.
00:24:23
And again, I'm adapting this
00:24:25
but this is not from Julia Cameron
00:24:27
but I would argue that the majority of the value here
00:24:32
is not in the fact that you did three pages.
00:24:35
You will get more value if you do three pages.
00:24:38
But if you're starting from not doing this at all,
00:24:40
the fact that you show up and you do it every day,
00:24:43
that's the important thing when you start.
00:24:45
I'm hoping to eventually, as I develop my hand muscles,
00:24:48
I guess, get up to the three pages.
00:24:51
And also hopefully having an office,
00:24:53
a place where I can go early in the morning
00:24:55
and not have to worry about being interrupted
00:24:56
or waking people up that will help with this
00:24:58
because I will have more time to devote to things
00:25:00
but I definitely see the value in this.
00:25:03
I love the format.
00:25:04
I love and I totally get why she says
00:25:07
you have to do this long hand
00:25:08
and it has to be stream of conscious
00:25:10
because if you were to sit down and type this,
00:25:13
you can kind of keep up with, at least in my opinion,
00:25:16
the way I type or I write
00:25:17
and kind of keep up with the way that I think.
00:25:19
But as I'm physically writing this,
00:25:22
I can't write it that fast.
00:25:23
So I have to kind of process these things
00:25:26
as I'm writing them.
00:25:27
And I found that that gives my brain the ability
00:25:31
to make connections that it wasn't making prior,
00:25:36
if that makes any sense.
00:25:38
Like I've talked a lot about one of my favorite books
00:25:40
is "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Cleon
00:25:42
and he talks about creativity is just connecting the dots
00:25:46
in a way that they haven't been connected before.
00:25:48
I've found that when I have to do that
00:25:51
by writing long hand,
00:25:53
it gives my brain the ability to connect more dots.
00:25:56
As part of my morning pages, even today,
00:25:59
I wrote something along the lines of like,
00:26:02
I feel like everything that I've done with bookworm
00:26:05
was collecting these dots
00:26:07
and over the last several months,
00:26:09
like they've been working their way through
00:26:11
the skeptical, rational, epidermis
00:26:14
and now like the inner artist is finally getting these new toys
00:26:17
to play with and he's just opening up the Lego sets
00:26:20
and connecting them in different ways.
00:26:21
Like stuff that I would have never really thought of before
00:26:24
and it's kind of weird, but it works.
00:26:26
- You mentioned something about the value
00:26:28
of two pages versus three and I might argue with you
00:26:32
on that one just because having done all three pages
00:26:36
most days, I can tell you that the first two
00:26:40
are pretty easy for me to come up with
00:26:42
and page three is the hard one.
00:26:44
I can see that.
00:26:45
- Or sometimes it's the first page is easy
00:26:47
and then it's the last two are hard
00:26:49
and there's something about forcing yourself
00:26:52
through that third page that brings more to the table
00:26:56
than just trying to do the thinking through
00:26:58
of something on two pages.
00:27:00
Because something I found with it was that
00:27:02
as somebody who gets into productivity
00:27:04
or who is trying to solve some complicated problems
00:27:07
with some development structures that I'm working on
00:27:10
or even business ideas, you know,
00:27:12
I find that my brain tends to go to those
00:27:14
and uses the morning pages to solve those
00:27:17
and I can lay out the problem in clear ways
00:27:22
for myself to comprehend in about a page and a half.
00:27:25
That's about what it ends up being.
00:27:27
The last half of that second page ends up,
00:27:29
like that's what starts getting me onto solutions
00:27:31
and what it is I want to do as a result.
00:27:34
And then that third page forces me to think outside the box
00:27:38
sometimes with those solutions
00:27:40
and then actually I have a plan forward.
00:27:43
So I don't know that I would want to skimp
00:27:46
on a regular basis and I'm hesitant to say
00:27:48
that you can get the full value with two pages
00:27:51
just because I've seen in my own writing of the morning pages
00:27:54
that third page being so valuable.
00:27:56
It's still a lot of time though.
00:27:58
Like that's my big problem with it.
00:28:01
- Yeah, I would completely agree with you
00:28:02
that I'm not getting the full value
00:28:04
and that the third page is probably the one
00:28:06
that provides the most value.
00:28:08
And like I said, I hope to get there at some point
00:28:10
but even just doing the two pages,
00:28:11
I can see the difference that it's making
00:28:13
and it's pretty awesome.
00:28:15
- Yeah, I would say two pages is better than nothing.
00:28:17
But if you want to get the full value,
00:28:19
I do recommend that third page.
00:28:21
And the thing is, and I've got a couple action items here
00:28:25
that are, they don't appear to be a result
00:28:29
of having read this book,
00:28:31
but it's because of the morning pages
00:28:32
that I have these action items.
00:28:34
And the morning pages has provoked me
00:28:37
to make some fairly significant changes to my working life
00:28:41
and how I do things from a productivity stance
00:28:43
that I simply was thinking through them
00:28:46
on the morning pages and then couldn't find a reason
00:28:48
to continue doing a thing.
00:28:50
So then it forces me to admit
00:28:52
that I shouldn't be doing this thing anymore.
00:28:54
There's a teaser for later.
00:28:56
But it's interesting how, you know,
00:28:59
I'm just gonna sit down and write for three pages
00:29:01
to think through a thing.
00:29:02
I don't even know what it's gonna be.
00:29:03
There's been a number of mornings when I sit down
00:29:05
and it's like, the first thing I write is,
00:29:06
what am I supposed to write about today?
00:29:08
Like that's the very first line on my morning pages.
00:29:12
Like, I don't know, but if I just keep the hand moving,
00:29:15
it eventually comes up with the thing
00:29:17
that I'm gonna work through that morning.
00:29:19
- Yeah, it reminds me of an English class.
00:29:22
I had a teacher who required us to keep a journal
00:29:24
and you had to write something like five lines every day.
00:29:27
And most people would put it off
00:29:28
until like a couple days before it was due
00:29:30
and then they'd crank out a bunch of journal entries.
00:29:32
Like, today is whatever.
00:29:34
- Yep.
00:29:34
- Today I am going to.
00:29:36
I don't know what else to write here.
00:29:38
(laughing)
00:29:39
It's just like the standard form stuff,
00:29:41
which is totally against the spirit of the journal entries.
00:29:43
But what you're saying is that just the fact
00:29:45
that you're putting in that minimal effort.
00:29:47
You know, that's a lot of times enough
00:29:50
to prime the pump and get stuff flowing.
00:29:52
- Right.
00:29:52
- And I totally agree.
00:29:53
- She even mentions that whenever she's introducing
00:29:55
the concept of morning pages,
00:29:56
like it doesn't matter what you write,
00:29:57
you just need to write.
00:29:58
- Yep.
00:29:59
- And even if you need to write,
00:30:01
I am writing my morning pages.
00:30:02
I am writing my morning pages.
00:30:04
I am writing my morning,
00:30:05
even if you have to do that,
00:30:06
you're still getting it done
00:30:08
because at some point your brain will trigger off of that
00:30:11
and start having other thoughts.
00:30:13
Like, trying to hold that constantly
00:30:15
for three pages worth of writing.
00:30:16
You're not following your consciousness
00:30:18
when you're doing that.
00:30:19
So, you know, even doing that little thing does go somewhere.
00:30:22
- Yep, yep, absolutely.
00:30:23
And the other important thing that she lays out
00:30:27
in the process is the artist state.
00:30:29
And this is where you're spending time every week
00:30:31
with your inner artists.
00:30:32
She recommends that you do this weekly.
00:30:34
Again, with my crazy travel schedule,
00:30:36
didn't get to this.
00:30:37
I actually had this scheduled for this week.
00:30:40
I was going to actually be gone Monday and Tuesday,
00:30:44
but it did not work out for reasons
00:30:47
that were outside my control.
00:30:49
So it's actually happening later this week.
00:30:52
But that's not really just like the artist state.
00:30:56
As she's defining it,
00:30:56
I'm getting away for a day and a half
00:30:58
and it's kind of like my thinking time
00:30:59
for the next quarter, the next year.
00:31:02
The artist state specifically is every week
00:31:05
you're gonna take a couple of hours
00:31:07
and you're going to schedule something fun.
00:31:09
Maybe that's something that you wouldn't normally do,
00:31:12
which is going to stir creativity within you.
00:31:15
And this kind of reminded me of there was a block
00:31:18
in the 12-week year format,
00:31:20
where once a week you scheduled like three hours
00:31:23
just a player to have fun.
00:31:25
That's kind of how I see this playing out in my own life.
00:31:28
And one of the things I wanna do during my thinking time
00:31:31
this week is I wanna make a list of these artist state ideas
00:31:34
because I think having something specific
00:31:36
that I'm going to do rather than just like,
00:31:38
"Hey, I'm gonna take these three hours
00:31:39
and not do anything."
00:31:40
Like sounds good and then you get there
00:31:42
and you're like, "But I have so much to do."
00:31:44
So making a list of like physical things
00:31:48
that I want to do, places I want to go
00:31:51
during these artist states,
00:31:52
I'm thinking is gonna help this stick a little bit better.
00:31:54
- Yeah, I know that for me, I did two
00:31:57
and one of those was basically time in the morning
00:32:01
for me to play with code
00:32:03
because that's where a lot of my creativity comes out.
00:32:07
And the thing that I ended up doing was kind of just
00:32:10
playing with some APIs I've wanted to play with.
00:32:12
And that sounds really sadistic to some people.
00:32:16
(laughs)
00:32:17
I know, I'm gonna go play with code.
00:32:19
- Well, yes, it does work when you're in something
00:32:22
like what I do.
00:32:23
'Cause I have some things that I personally wanna connect
00:32:26
together just for my own purposes
00:32:28
and it ended up working out really well
00:32:31
to just have this time to go play with the stuff,
00:32:34
see how it works out and learn a few things in the process.
00:32:37
So I did one of those and that was very refreshing
00:32:42
more so than I think I ever expected.
00:32:44
The other one I did was I was at the church
00:32:48
and I had about an hour that was left in my day
00:32:51
on a Friday and I didn't have any specific
00:32:56
I needed to get done.
00:32:57
I had a lot I could do, but I decided instead to
00:33:01
kinda just play around with some audio equipment
00:33:04
that we have there just to learn how some of that stuff
00:33:08
works on a deeper level because with something like
00:33:12
the Allen and Heath board that I mentioned earlier,
00:33:14
there's a lot of layers of depth that you can go
00:33:18
into that board and how you set things up
00:33:21
and some sophisticated ways of sending signals
00:33:25
to and from different locations in our building.
00:33:27
And I haven't really just sat down and played with it,
00:33:30
but I did that and it was very interesting,
00:33:34
the ideas that that gave me as far as what our church
00:33:38
can and cannot do for say releasing sermons
00:33:43
or releasing some video recordings in different time frames
00:33:47
or doing some new sophisticated things with how we provide
00:33:51
some resources to the congregation.
00:33:54
So there was a lot of ideas that came out of that,
00:33:58
but I don't think I ever would have come up with that
00:34:00
if I hadn't taken the time to just go play with stuff.
00:34:03
- So this is a really cool idea.
00:34:04
If I'm hearing you right, what you're saying is that
00:34:06
you've used the artist state as a time block to allow yourself
00:34:10
to explore shiny new objects.
00:34:12
- Yes, which is a thing I love to do.
00:34:14
- Which is a really cool idea, I think.
00:34:16
Yeah, I think I'm in the same boat.
00:34:18
I think a lot of people in the productivity space
00:34:20
would be in that same boat where they want to look
00:34:22
at the next new task manager or whatever.
00:34:24
Well, if you really like playing with that stuff,
00:34:26
schedule a couple of hours where it's okay to do that
00:34:30
and then you don't have to feel bad because you were playing
00:34:32
with this thing you weren't getting your work done
00:34:34
when you were supposed to.
00:34:34
- Yes, another example of one that I've got planned
00:34:38
for this week is that I've now, I've got access to set app.
00:34:43
Now I'm giving that a run.
00:34:46
- Oh, I love set app.
00:34:48
- It's not ever made sense to me financially,
00:34:51
but I'm playing with it this Friday.
00:34:53
So I have it installed.
00:34:55
I'm gonna be seeing how all of it works out.
00:34:58
And disclaimer here, the access that I have is free to me.
00:35:02
They reached out to me and gave me a free license to it
00:35:06
to see how it goes and asked for my honest review of it.
00:35:10
So I have not purchased this.
00:35:12
So I'm just gonna preface that.
00:35:14
But it's a thing that I wanna know,
00:35:18
is this actually worth the dollars?
00:35:20
Because I'm even outside of the free license.
00:35:23
I've been very close to pulling the trigger already.
00:35:26
Just because from a financial stance,
00:35:28
it doesn't quite make sense for me to do that.
00:35:32
But I think if there was one more app added to it,
00:35:35
it would make sense for me to make that switch.
00:35:37
And if that app happened to make the switch,
00:35:39
I wanna know if it's worth going down that path.
00:35:43
So we'll see, we'll see.
00:35:44
I don't have my thoughts on it yet.
00:35:46
- Let me give you the TLDR,
00:35:48
'cause I've been a customer since day one.
00:35:51
Yes, yes, it's worth it.
00:35:53
I know that you at least were playing around
00:35:55
with Ulysses, correct?
00:35:56
- Yes, I do use Ulysses, I use Bear as well.
00:35:59
- Okay, well Ulysses is in setup.
00:36:01
So if you're gonna pay five bucks a month for Ulysses,
00:36:03
you're halfway to getting all those apps in setup.
00:36:06
And there's a bunch of really cool apps in there.
00:36:08
One other one that I really like is timing,
00:36:11
which again, that's something that I bought prior to setup.
00:36:14
But it's an application that runs in the background
00:36:16
on your Mac and it gives you reports
00:36:18
on how you're spending your time
00:36:20
as you're using your computer.
00:36:21
So if you're spending three hours on Twitter,
00:36:23
it's gonna tell you.
00:36:24
You're gonna have visual reports,
00:36:25
which are gonna show you basically how productive
00:36:28
or unproductive you were during your date.
00:36:29
But what I like about is you don't have to think about it.
00:36:31
You don't have to start and stop timers
00:36:33
whenever you switch things.
00:36:34
It just runs and that's the thing that makes it work for me.
00:36:37
- So all that to say, I have a set app license.
00:36:40
I'm planning to play with it as one of these artists dates
00:36:43
because I know there are a lot of apps in here
00:36:46
that I have considered before,
00:36:47
but I've never taken the time to go play around
00:36:50
with them to see how I like it.
00:36:52
And the thing that I love about set apps so far
00:36:54
is that this gives me a chance to go download these things
00:36:58
and play with them and see if I wanna use it or not
00:37:01
without worrying about the dollars behind it.
00:37:03
That to me seems to be the freeing point of it,
00:37:06
but it requires the time to play with it.
00:37:09
And doing that just whenever I have time and saying,
00:37:13
"Well, if I get this done today, I'll go do that."
00:37:15
It's never gonna happen.
00:37:16
Like I'm not gonna take the time to do that.
00:37:19
And this is a nice aspect of the artist's date
00:37:24
that I would like to incorporate
00:37:25
is just letting myself have that free time to say,
00:37:28
"I'm gonna have two hours.
00:37:29
"I'm gonna go play with what I want."
00:37:31
New shiny, this'll be fun.
00:37:32
Like that's what I want that time to be.
00:37:34
And I think that's part of what she's getting at
00:37:36
and the purpose behind it.
00:37:37
- Yeah, it's totally what she's getting at
00:37:39
is that the value is in the playing.
00:37:41
Like you're gonna get the ideas
00:37:43
that you can implement to make stuff easier,
00:37:45
but it's freeing because even if nothing comes to you,
00:37:49
the fact that you're allowing yourself to play,
00:37:52
like it's increasing your creativity.
00:37:54
It's unlocking the creativity that's within you.
00:37:56
It's gonna make what you produce better.
00:37:59
So even if you don't find some awesome new thing
00:38:02
that you can use at church, for example,
00:38:05
just the fact that you're taking those couple of hours
00:38:08
to kind of shift modes, like there's value in that.
00:38:11
And I really like that.
00:38:13
I really like that approach and I can totally see
00:38:16
how that would be a lot easier to do
00:38:18
if you don't view it just as like,
00:38:20
well, I'm gonna take these three hours
00:38:22
and I'm gonna go skydiving or something.
00:38:24
'Cause she does use some pretty crazy examples in it.
00:38:26
Like you should go scuba diving.
00:38:27
You should do all these crazy things.
00:38:29
And I'm like, I don't really want to.
00:38:32
But when you frame it as like,
00:38:33
you've got a few hours this week
00:38:34
where you can play with new apps,
00:38:36
I'm like, yes, let's do that.
00:38:39
- I just saw it as the date is a thing
00:38:42
that I need to go do things I enjoy.
00:38:44
You know, that was to me the crux of it
00:38:46
and having the opportunity to go do things
00:38:49
that I know are fun,
00:38:51
even though it's still connected to what I do for work.
00:38:55
Like, you know, playing with APIs,
00:38:57
I build off of APIs most days of the week.
00:39:00
Like that is a lot of what I end up doing.
00:39:03
But I haven't had a chance to play with the ones
00:39:05
that I want to go play with.
00:39:07
Like that's, it's just a different thing altogether.
00:39:11
So it's still very connected to what I do for work,
00:39:13
but it's not in the arena that I thoroughly enjoy.
00:39:17
And that's to me the part that I want to make sure
00:39:20
I maintain in the future.
00:39:22
- Nice, yeah, I totally agree.
00:39:23
One other thing I'll just throw out here
00:39:25
regarding setup is if you want to get a taste of,
00:39:30
well, I mean, you've got free access.
00:39:32
So you can play with whatever apps you want.
00:39:34
- Right.
00:39:35
- But everybody else who wants to see
00:39:37
some of my favorite apps that are in there
00:39:39
actually did a module on this for Screencast Online.
00:39:42
- Okay.
00:39:43
- So I covered like 10 of the apps that I considered
00:39:46
the coolest ones in setup.
00:39:49
And some of them are tiny ones that I, you know,
00:39:51
$5 menu bar apps that I never would have used otherwise.
00:39:55
Some of them are big like Ulysses.
00:39:58
Obviously I'm not going into all of the different features
00:40:00
and stuff, but I'm amazed at the quality
00:40:03
of the apps that are inside a setup.
00:40:04
I think they've done a really good job
00:40:06
of curating what's in there.
00:40:07
- Yeah, I will say that whenever I got the email from them
00:40:09
asking me for my thoughts on it, I was rather shocked
00:40:13
and excited at the same time.
00:40:14
So I'm planning on putting together a whole review on it
00:40:17
at some point just so that I can, you know,
00:40:19
hear the thoughts I have on it.
00:40:21
So I am planning that.
00:40:22
The nice thing about it is there is no expectation
00:40:25
from the setup team on what I say.
00:40:28
Like there isn't any guidance on that that they've given me.
00:40:31
It's just a, I want an honest review.
00:40:33
Like that's what they've asked for.
00:40:35
So I'm hoping to do that.
00:40:37
- Sweet.
00:40:38
- All right, let's jump into the actual course here.
00:40:40
- Yep.
00:40:41
- Because there are 12 large chapters
00:40:43
for the 12 different weeks.
00:40:45
And like I said, we can kind of jump around here.
00:40:47
Week one, where it starts is recovering a sense of safety.
00:40:50
The thing that jumped out to me here
00:40:53
is this whole idea of shadow artists.
00:40:56
Shadow artists are artists that hang out with other artists,
00:40:59
but they don't consider themselves an artist.
00:41:02
And I was totally in this camp for a very long time,
00:41:06
even after I started working with Asian efficiency,
00:41:09
even after I had contributed a lot of different pieces
00:41:13
to the blog, even after I had written and published my book.
00:41:16
Like I didn't consider myself a writer
00:41:18
to hang out with other people who quote-unquote were writers
00:41:22
and just felt inadequate.
00:41:25
And that's really what she's getting at here
00:41:27
is that these shadow artists,
00:41:30
they like to be in those circles,
00:41:32
but maybe they don't think of themselves that way.
00:41:34
And that not viewing themselves as having the ability
00:41:38
to be an artist or the ability to create,
00:41:41
that keeps them closed up.
00:41:42
Like they have the potential to become an artist,
00:41:45
but it's almost like that they're completely okay
00:41:47
with just being in the same room as these people,
00:41:50
even if they don't get to actually do
00:41:52
any of the cool stuff.
00:41:54
- Like somebody who loves to paint
00:41:56
and all they ever do is go to museums
00:41:59
and look at old paintings.
00:42:01
Like that's what they do.
00:42:02
- Kind of.
00:42:03
- Okay, but although that's a good thing to do,
00:42:06
you should also be painting.
00:42:07
Like that's, you gotta get past some of that.
00:42:11
- And the one thing that really kind of hit me here
00:42:13
is that she says that many shadow artists
00:42:15
choose shadow careers, which are close to their art,
00:42:18
but they're not the art itself.
00:42:20
So I've heard this from well-meaning people
00:42:23
where like they said, well, you should do this
00:42:25
because you'll still get to contribute,
00:42:28
you'll still be able to do this thing that you like,
00:42:30
but you'll be doing it a different way.
00:42:31
And I'm just like, no, it's not the same.
00:42:34
(laughing)
00:42:35
- Yep, I get it.
00:42:36
You end up being like an IT consultant
00:42:37
instead of a web developer.
00:42:39
Like, come on, do the real thing.
00:42:41
- Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:42:42
And unless you are all the way in on the artists scale,
00:42:47
you know, if you were to say on a scale of zero to 10,
00:42:51
depending on zeros where you start off in 10
00:42:54
is like where you wanna be.
00:42:56
And maybe the web developer is an eight
00:42:59
and the IT consultant is a six
00:43:01
in that particular scale.
00:43:02
And you can define your own scale.
00:43:03
That's really important.
00:43:04
It's not like there's one right way to measure this stuff,
00:43:07
but you, basically what she's saying here is,
00:43:09
is don't be content with being able to see what other people,
00:43:14
other web developers, for example, are doing,
00:43:16
and then occasionally being able to dabble with that
00:43:19
in your chosen career as an IT consultant,
00:43:21
if that's really what you wanted to do
00:43:23
is become a web developer.
00:43:25
I heard it said this way one time
00:43:27
that compromises the killer of every dream.
00:43:29
And I think that's basically what she's saying here.
00:43:31
Yes.
00:43:32
So week two is recovering a sense of identity.
00:43:36
I love this one.
00:43:37
It's essentially saying, I am an artist.
00:43:40
Or what's the Jeff Goins says, I am a writer
00:43:44
and just saying I am a writer.
00:43:46
Yep.
00:43:46
Completely changed his life.
00:43:48
Quite literally, just because that is what provoked him
00:43:52
to write more and more because he would identify as a writer.
00:43:55
Now, the piece of this particular section
00:43:58
that really struck me was the Crazy Makers.
00:44:00
Remember this part?
00:44:01
Yes.
00:44:02
Yes, that's basically all my notes on this section
00:44:05
are about the Crazy Makers, which,
00:44:07
when you're talking about recovering a sense of identity,
00:44:10
there's two parts to this.
00:44:11
One is identifying yourself as, as Jeff Goins would say,
00:44:14
a writer or as an artist, but also identifying the other people
00:44:18
that are in your life, which is where the whole Crazy Makers
00:44:21
section comes in.
00:44:22
She's got another term for him.
00:44:24
She's just poisoned this playmates who are typically
00:44:26
other artists who are still blocked because your blocked
00:44:29
friend is not going to like the fact that you've now
00:44:32
got creative breakthrough.
00:44:34
And that's when they become Crazy Makers because maybe
00:44:37
they're not even meaning to do it, but they do it.
00:44:40
They're trying to steal from your creative energy
00:44:44
because they don't like the fact that you're making progress
00:44:46
and they're not.
00:44:47
Do we need to define what a Crazy Makers?
00:44:49
I think this could be fun.
00:44:50
Oh, definitely.
00:44:51
So as a whole list here, I wrote down, Crazy Makers break
00:44:55
deals and destroy schedules.
00:44:57
Crazy Makers expect special treatment.
00:44:59
Crazy Makers discount your reality.
00:45:01
Crazy Makers spend your time and your money, aka email.
00:45:06
Crazy Makers triangulate those they deal with.
00:45:08
So they're trying to play you off of somebody else.
00:45:12
Crazy Makers are expert blamers.
00:45:15
Crazy Makers create dramas, but seldom were they belong.
00:45:19
Crazy Makers hate schedules except their own.
00:45:21
So again, email.
00:45:23
I just hate the fact that people can, at any given moment,
00:45:27
send an email, which requires very little effort.
00:45:30
And the expectation is that you are going to drop
00:45:33
what you are doing and deal with this.
00:45:35
But that doesn't have to just be email.
00:45:37
There are people that I'm sure every single listener
00:45:39
who's listening to this right now can identify somebody
00:45:41
in their life who just has no respect for their schedule.
00:45:44
You have to identify that person as a Crazy Maker.
00:45:47
Crazy Makers also hate order.
00:45:49
And Crazy Makers basically don't believe
00:45:52
that they are Crazy Makers.
00:45:53
So if you were to take this section and say, OK, look,
00:45:56
you're doing this, this, and this, they'd be like, no, I'm not.
00:46:00
Oh, this is the-- this part of the book,
00:46:02
I think I talked about more with people
00:46:05
than any other section of this book,
00:46:07
just because everybody has Crazy Makers in life.
00:46:10
And they are people who stay up till 3 in the morning
00:46:13
and then expect you to do something for them the next day
00:46:16
because they're too tired.
00:46:17
Like, well, then why did you stay up till 3 in the morning?
00:46:19
This was your choice.
00:46:19
Why are you calling me over this?
00:46:21
Like, that's-- go away.
00:46:22
This is your own problem.
00:46:23
Deal with it.
00:46:23
Like, that's how I think you and I would react to a lot of that.
00:46:28
But not everyone feels like they can because maybe it's
00:46:31
their mom that's doing that.
00:46:33
And you can't say no to your mom, right?
00:46:35
So you have to go with it.
00:46:37
And it's these Crazy Makers that ultimately
00:46:40
rob you of one time and two mental states of how
00:46:48
you can go about doing your own creative work.
00:46:50
If you don't have the time and you
00:46:51
don't have the mental space to do your creative work,
00:46:55
it doesn't have it at all.
00:46:57
So the artist within you can't actually
00:46:59
do the work that you feel you should be doing.
00:47:02
So make the Crazy Makers stop.
00:47:04
Make them go away.
00:47:05
The artist within you, that sounds like a Tony Robbins version
00:47:08
of the artist way.
00:47:10
The artist within.
00:47:12
You're absolutely right about the Crazy Makers
00:47:15
you sometimes can't control.
00:47:16
But there's a very important point in this chapter
00:47:19
where she calls out the fact that while a lot of us
00:47:22
like to complain about the Crazy Makers that are in our lives,
00:47:26
we put up with them.
00:47:27
Like we have the ability, maybe it's
00:47:29
a little bit hard because of the specifics of the situation.
00:47:32
But it's totally doable to say, you know what?
00:47:34
This isn't working and I need to cut this out.
00:47:38
Or I just, I can't function this way.
00:47:41
If all you're going to do is gossip and back
00:47:43
but I'm not going to get together with you for coffee
00:47:45
anymore.
00:47:46
This isn't a constructive relationship.
00:47:48
You have the right to say that.
00:47:50
But she says in here that we put up with these Crazy Makers,
00:47:53
even if they make us crazy, even if we recognize
00:47:55
that they make us crazy, because in her words,
00:47:58
we prefer to be blocked.
00:48:00
So even though we recognize that we hate the fact
00:48:03
that these Crazy Makers are there,
00:48:05
it's more scary to envision life without the Crazy Makers
00:48:08
because then we have no excuse for not following
00:48:12
through on the creativity.
00:48:13
As long as the Crazy Makers are there,
00:48:14
we may complain about them.
00:48:16
But we've got a built-in excuse for not taking action.
00:48:20
And really that's what this whole book is about,
00:48:21
is getting unstuck, getting unblocked.
00:48:24
And recognizing, this is a big tipping point for me,
00:48:26
is recognizing the fact that we accept the block.
00:48:29
Like it's not even forced upon us a lot of times.
00:48:32
We just willingly accept it because it's comfortable.
00:48:36
It's familiar.
00:48:37
You know, we're scared of the unknown.
00:48:39
- How many times do you hear about people who don't produce
00:48:42
their art or they don't release it
00:48:44
because they're afraid of the response they're gonna get?
00:48:48
I know that there's a lot of this out there
00:48:50
and a lot of folks feel that they could do something great
00:48:54
but they don't and they're upset about it.
00:48:57
This is probably the largest instigator of the trolls
00:49:02
and the hate mail that I get from people,
00:49:04
is that they feel that the thing that I have done,
00:49:09
say, creating the Omni Focus video course,
00:49:12
they feel like they could have done that.
00:49:14
And to be honest with you, you probably could.
00:49:17
I am not saying I did anything special with that course.
00:49:19
I didn't feel like it took any massive creative revelation
00:49:24
to do that.
00:49:25
It was simply a, here's what I do.
00:49:27
It was very basic in my mind.
00:49:30
And yet it's changed a lot of lives as a result of it.
00:49:32
And yet I have people who will email me about that course
00:49:36
saying that it's a complete waste of time.
00:49:38
It was an absolute failure.
00:49:40
You know, you should stop doing all this stuff
00:49:43
'cause you're terrible at it.
00:49:44
Like, okay, well that's you being upset
00:49:47
about a thing that I made
00:49:49
because I'm betting you feel like you could have made it
00:49:52
but you didn't.
00:49:53
And now you're upset that someone else did a thing
00:49:55
that you think you should have done.
00:49:56
Like this doesn't make any sense to me.
00:49:59
Really, you're gonna go through all the trouble
00:50:01
of sending me this 4,000 word email
00:50:04
about how I should stop creating because you won't create.
00:50:07
Really?
00:50:08
Come on, let's get your act together here.
00:50:10
Yeah, which is crazy when you think about it
00:50:12
because like how many people say they wanna write a book?
00:50:15
You know, 4,000 words in an email is like one quarter of a book.
00:50:19
Yes.
00:50:20
I think my book is like 20,000 words.
00:50:22
It's short, you know, it's not like the 60,000 words
00:50:25
or whatever most business books are
00:50:26
but most business books say one thing
00:50:28
and then they say it five different ways.
00:50:30
How many times have we talked about that?
00:50:33
It's the same amount of effort almost
00:50:34
that they're putting forth in keeping you
00:50:37
or trying to keep you blocked
00:50:38
as opposed to advancing themselves.
00:50:40
So they are internet based crazy makers at that point
00:50:45
and also like kind of leading into the next point,
00:50:47
the thing that week three is recovering a sense of power.
00:50:50
So I think that part of this is what drives
00:50:54
crazy makers crazy is the fact that you,
00:50:57
you know, because you publish this thing,
00:51:00
you have recovered that sense of power
00:51:02
where you are able to do this
00:51:03
and they have no idea how to get there.
00:51:07
They can't see the fact that they wrote
00:51:10
these 4,000 words that they could have done
00:51:12
that constructively, that power.
00:51:14
I guess I view recovering a sense of power
00:51:16
as a constructive power, not a destructive power
00:51:19
and flipping that switch is a very important shift
00:51:22
that you have to make.
00:51:23
But once you do, I think that this is really
00:51:26
where things start to get moving.
00:51:28
This is where she talks about dealing with criticism
00:51:30
but really this is also where she talks about synchronicity.
00:51:33
I think is how you say it,
00:51:35
which is this idea of fortuitous intermeshing of events.
00:51:39
So the fact that you start doing something
00:51:43
that makes other things line up with it.
00:51:47
It's almost like you don't even have to try
00:51:50
to line these things up.
00:51:52
And obviously there's a couple steps here.
00:51:55
The what has to come before the how,
00:51:57
but then when you choose the what,
00:51:58
the how usually falls into place by itself.
00:52:00
I've kind of seen this myself with the process of writing.
00:52:02
My book, maybe you've seen it with the developing
00:52:04
of courses and stuff like that.
00:52:05
But like once you start the creative process,
00:52:09
you really maybe don't have any idea
00:52:11
what the end result is gonna look like
00:52:13
or how you're actually gonna publish this thing
00:52:15
or how it gets delivered or whatever.
00:52:17
But through the process, those next steps,
00:52:19
like all of a sudden they'll,
00:52:20
it'll be obvious what you need to do next.
00:52:22
- I see this more in, so I'm a freelancer, contractor.
00:52:26
So a lot of times I will have people ask me to do a thing
00:52:30
for say a discourse forum.
00:52:32
I want to add this feature and I have no clue
00:52:36
how to add that feature.
00:52:37
But I'll tell you yes and I'll give you a quote regardless.
00:52:40
And once I get a yes, then I gotta go figure out
00:52:44
how to actually do it.
00:52:45
(laughs)
00:52:47
This is a thing that I need to learn now
00:52:49
'cause I've got somebody paying me to do it.
00:52:51
So the how of it, I don't always know.
00:52:56
Or like I've taken one, it's probably a few months ago
00:52:59
where they were asking me to build on a language
00:53:02
I had not built on before, which is fine.
00:53:05
It just means I need to go learn the language
00:53:06
as I'm building the thing.
00:53:07
And I told them, said yes to it, they committed to it.
00:53:10
So we built it, but I knew what I was doing
00:53:12
but I didn't know how to do it.
00:53:14
But it seems like once I do that and I say yes,
00:53:17
and then I begin the process of actually building it,
00:53:20
the mechanisms and the hows of it just kind of come together.
00:53:24
I can't really tell you how or why,
00:53:26
but it's a thing that the mechanisms that I need to go
00:53:30
through and actually in the process to actually build it
00:53:33
just kind of happen.
00:53:34
And I don't know if that's just because
00:53:35
of my background and development.
00:53:37
And I just understand how that stuff works.
00:53:39
Or if that is more of a function of just having,
00:53:43
you know, in her case, the universe helps you pull it all
00:53:45
together, like I don't know how you want to define that.
00:53:48
But it just seems like if I define what I'm going to do,
00:53:51
as she says, the how kind of just goes along for the ride.
00:53:54
- Yep, exactly.
00:53:55
On page 65, she says, "I have learned as a rule of thumb
00:53:57
"never to ask whether you can do something.
00:53:59
"Say instead that you are doing it,
00:54:00
"then fasten your seatbelt,
00:54:02
"the most remarkable things follow."
00:54:04
So I've totally have seen the supply in web development.
00:54:08
So I kind of get the code example.
00:54:09
I don't do the same languages that you do,
00:54:11
but I have seen that play out in my own life.
00:54:14
But I think that the supply is said just about any area.
00:54:17
All right, week four, "Recovering a sense of integrity."
00:54:19
The one thing that I wrote down here,
00:54:22
I don't have many notes on this section,
00:54:23
but on page 87, she recommends that you not read.
00:54:26
- I know. - What?
00:54:27
- She's wrong.
00:54:28
- I agree.
00:54:29
Now I understand her points.
00:54:31
She says that it poisons the well,
00:54:34
and the real reason behind this
00:54:36
is so that you don't just collect all of this information.
00:54:41
You want to force yourself to play
00:54:43
because it's like we're talking about with the artist states.
00:54:46
It's the act of playing that will allow your inner artist,
00:54:51
your creative being to kind of rearrange these things
00:54:56
and identify new solutions just with the dots
00:54:58
that you've already got.
00:54:59
But I would say that you can read,
00:55:03
just consider the source of what you read.
00:55:06
Like I mentioned before, the value of Bookworm for me
00:55:09
is that I'm reading all these books,
00:55:10
I'm getting all these dots,
00:55:11
all these little nuggets that are being placed
00:55:13
in my toolbox, and the act of the morning pages
00:55:17
is something that allows me to connect those things
00:55:20
a lot more freely and in a lot more creative ways
00:55:22
than I ever have before.
00:55:24
So I understand the point, but I disagree with the specifics
00:55:27
of absolutely no reading in week four.
00:55:29
I think she's calling out like a different type of reading
00:55:34
than reading a book.
00:55:34
- Yeah, I did too.
00:55:36
- Yeah, 'cause she talks about newspapers, television,