A woman approached Picasso in a restaurant and asked him to scribble something on a napkin for her. She said she would be happy to pay whatever he felt it was worth. Picasso quickly sketched a beautiful piece that wowed the people watching.
Then he said, “That will be $10,000.”
“But you did that in thirty seconds,” the astonished woman replied. “No,” Picasso said. “It took me forty years to be able to do that.”
Suggestions for a good life from Jim Collins, a leading business thinker.
As you live your life, imagine that you are the hero of your own movie. Pretend that a documentary film crew is following you around every minute of the day. If that were true, what would you be doing right now? Getting it done, or slouching on the couch? If you were a fly on the wall of your hero, what would that person be doing? Get after it!
A successful, well-lived life requires a lot of hard work. I have noticed there are generally two approaches to this hard work. You can work hard early on in your life and benefit from the fruit of this hard work. Or you can choose to not work hard early in life, in which case you will work hard later in life. This usually means working later in your life or trying to play catchup to those around you who have been working hard over many more years.
You will have to work hard. You choose when you want to put in the work. My opinion is it’s best to work hard early in life so you can slow down later and enjoy the benefits. Of course, if you’re still having fun, you can continue to work hard later in life as well. And you’ll have that much more of an advantage compared to those who haven’t been working as hard…
Distractions are ubiquitous, subtle and insidious. They have a way of stealing your attention without you realizing it, for weeks, months, or even years at a time. I am not trying to be hyperbolic.
Any time you are distracted, your thinking is unconsciously shallow and limited. Distractions can be obvious, like being fully engrossed in a video game or movie. Or they can be subtle like having the radio on in the background.
I find that any time I have any kind of distraction, I can’t be fully creative and strategic in my thinking.
This became blindingly obvious to me on my commutes to work when I lived in Newport and drove to Los Angeles every day. Sometimes I would listen to audio books on the drive, and sometimes I would not listen to anything. When I had the radio or audio books playing in the background, I would rarely have a deep insight or creative thought. Conversely, almost every time I turned off all of the distractions interesting thoughts or ideas would bubble up. This deep thinking has enabled me to become much more effective in my life.
Any time you have to make an important decision or you want to think strategically, I would highly recommend you eliminate every distraction. Put away the cell phone. Turn off the TV and radio. Sit in a quiet room with nobody and nothing around except you, a desk, and a blank piece of paper for capturing your thoughts.
This is going to feel so uncomfortable when you do it that your mind will scream for entertainment and distraction. Resist the urge to give in if you don’t have an insight right away. Sit there and wait. The vision or strategy or next move will come to you.
If you cannot be corrected without being offended, then you’ll never truly grow in life. – Professor Richard Feynman
Professor Feynman is someone you should definitely get to know. I highly recommend his book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman.
But you can’t do everything. This is a lesson I constantly have to remind myself of because I am always tempted to push into the next project. You have the gifts to get anything done you want to get done… but only if you focus…
Courage: being terrified but still going ahead and doing what needs to be done.
“The one who feels no fear is a fool. And the one who let’s fear rule him is a coward.” –Piers Anthony
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. -Dune
The expression people throw around is “practice makes perfect.” This is wrong because if you aren’t practicing perfectly then you are only reinforcing bad habits and wasting your time. The truth is, and your mindset should be, PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
Your life and what you get out of it is not determined by what you want. It is determined by the choices you make.