Notes to Self
Who someone else is doesn't matter.
Lean into who YOU are.
Why? Well didn't we all learn about differentiation?
If you wanna build a better Kleenex box, be my guest, I'm just not sure doing what others are doing is going to produce decoupled results.
In this sense, decoupling means blue water. New heights. Real innovation. Not just incremental iteration.
Every time I lean into being me, it works.
Every time I try to be like someone else, it really doesn't.
Results sell themselves.
That’s why we need to want our clients and partners to win first.
They win.
You win.
Abundance.
Business is an act of service.
Let’s not forget that.
Work, testing, learning and becoming better at what we do and who we are, is the investment.
You must have known I wasn’t talking about stocks and bonds.
If the investment is the time we spend on the things we care about, then maybe the nonlinear growth of an investment portfolio is actually a good example.
Some days we are up.
Some days we are down.
But long term investment means taking our lumps, staying determined, and moving forward with the plan.
The plan can change (what stocks we invest in) but the approach (investment) stays the same.
The secret to investing is knowing that that’s what we’re doing.
So let’s go ‘head now…
Invest.
Making art means noticing.
Noticing color, line, shadow, texture, & light.
Another big thing you notice when making art is an internal compulsion to propel a certain perspective into making it real.
Turning a thought about approach into a series of actions producing the art itself is a lot of fun.
It feels like cooking.
Or magic.
Don’t forget to notice…
(Inside and outside ourselves.)
Priorities are an editing mechanism.
When our lists are short, we eliminate the space trash around our work (or life), and focus.
This means…
1. Needles move, they don’t wobble.
2. Anxiety is reduced greatly.
3. Things slow down - something most of us say we want.
3 items.
That’s it.
Noon will be here soon.
No need to cloud our brains and fire off stress responses.
Priorities mean we know what we have to do.
As a way to differentiate things a bit, I’m creating a few categories for my blog posts to help readers, friends, collectors, and colleagues tap in to the aspects of what I do that interest them.
Notes to Self will be the types of small reflections I’ve often shared here. Little ditties, takeaways, or patterns recognized. Mostly in myself, but also likely, in us.
Energy transference happens when we give and receive, and a self-perpetuating cycle of reciprocity ensues with most of existence. I have no silver bullet for eliminating all friction, tension, and doubt.
But I do have 41 years of data that reminds me that we get what we put in, and that stimulating this self-perpetuating cycle of DOINGNESS is magic.
Give, take, seed, and work.