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Ideas From Start To Finish 150 150 admin

Ideas From Start To Finish

The first step to an idea is defining a problem.  Sometimes this happens so fast you don’t even think about it.

Once you define the problem, you can then ask: “what if?”.  I’ll give you a simple example.  (Warning: this explanation is going to be heavily basketball related.  I know many readers don’t watch basketball so feel free to skip this basketball example).  Then if you connect with others and get feedback on the idea and try to connect with the people/ resources you need to flesh the idea out and handle the objections that will come up.  If it’s a service or product, then you need to connect with people who can get the word out.

This is the process I used to create my first blog.  I said to myself…hmmm…When I watch basketball games, I like seeing people dunking on other people.  I also like clutch shots and seeing people get crossed over (and finishing the play), but those don’t happen as often as much as people get dunked on.  I even like when someone doesn’t get dunked on and they block the shot.  The problem?  There’s not a place where I can see the pictures AND videos in the same place.  If I type in “dunks on Yao” I could get so many different things besides the times Yao got dunked on, and I can only see videos on Youtube.  What if there was a blog to archive the dunks and arrange them by who got dunked on and who was the one dunking?  That’s how yougotdunkedon.com was born.

This happens all the time on a small, simple scale too.  I see people are doing this recently with Coronavirus.  The problem?  We want to practice social distancing, but we still want to be social and have as much fun as we can.  What if there was a way we can play games through online conferencing platforms like Zoom and Skype?  The All Def Squad did this here (skip to 2:25) with #quarantinegames where they play Utter Nonsense.

See what ideas you can get going!  Get some people involved in them and get some feedback.  You might be surprised as to what you come up with.

Time Management With Chet Holmes 150 150 admin

Time Management With Chet Holmes

I was listening to the audiobook The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (review coming soon!) and I thought I’d share this insightful article on time management by Chet Holmes.  This was actually in the book, and is in the tell-it-like-it-is style that I like.

From that article:

  1. Step One: Touch it once
  2. Step Two: Make lists, but stick to the six most important things
  3. Step Three: Plan how long you will spend on each item
  4. Step Four: Plan when
  5. Step Five: Ask the results
  6. Step Six: Will it hurt me to throw this away?

You could combine step 2-4 into one step called “plan your day”, but I can see why he might separate them.  They are each critical, so they might get lost in the sauce if you combine them all into one step.

I’ve read lots of time management books, and step 3 (plan how long you will spend on each item of the six steps mentioned in his step one) and step 4 (plan when you’re going to do them) are important and get left out of productivity books.

Let’s say you put that article into practice and create a list of 6 things you plan on getting done the next day “by hook or by crook”.  Well…if you don’t go through step 3 or step 3 is poorly done, then you could end up simply running out of time and leave things off.  Next thing ya know, you’re excusing your way out of a lack of execution by saying “things took longer than I thought”.  Sometimes that actually is true, but seek to become better at making more accurate predictions on how long things on your list will take to complete.  If it’s something big, break it down into smaller, more realistic pieces.

If you don’t do step four, many times the most important things could easily get pushed to the end of the day.

God help you if you don’t include step 3 OR four and your important tasks have gotten pushed to the end of the day AND you ran out of time because things took longer than you thought.  Now you’ve had a day where the important stuff didn’t even get done!

I’m All Over The Place – Gary V Video 150 150 admin

I’m All Over The Place – Gary V Video

I feel this guy Gary is talking to.  He is me so much!

Listen to this to get some insight as to what you should be doing during this pandemic if you’re wondering.

I’ve listened to Gary V’s videos, and many times I have mixed feelings about them…if I had to guess why I’d say it’s because of the wide range of people he features – many of whom I can’t relate to.  But I can certainly relate to this man below, and I really resonate with the advice he gave.

It hit me when he said people put money and entrepreneurship on a pedestal because it’s something they’ve never had, but they want.  But is it a “god-given” gift? As in…were you naturally blessed with it?  It seems like his central message was love and work with what you’ve got and who you are.

Keep Going 150 150 admin

Keep Going

Have there been any projects where…you dropped the ball and you didn’t pick it back up?  Only to wonder “what if?” years later.

What it you had finished that project you wanted to do?

There’s some projects I’m sure you’re glad you’re dropped, but do you have any projects that gnaw at you?  In your mind, they make you go into a reality where you didn’t drop the ball and you think about how different your life would be if you kept going with that one project?

Maybe you felt like you dropped the ball too early…and if you had just kept going, you would have eventually arrived where you were planning to be.  I know it’s hard to keep going when things don’t look so well, but think about the reference experience you’re creating.  You’ll remember how you handled things.  Did you quit when you didn’t see the numbers you wanted?  Did you quit when reality violated your expectations?  Release your grip on expectations and keep experimenting and striving to be a successful risk taker.

If it’s possible, you can also look to pick something back up if you feel like it’s gnawing at you.  You can frame this as just taking a long break.

Keep going.  Keep moving.  One of the most rewarding feelings is arriving at your planned destination (or one better) and knowing that you had to overcome your own doubts and fears to get there.

You and I (Cover) Duet – Jacob Collier & Tori Kelly 150 150 admin

You and I (Cover) Duet – Jacob Collier & Tori Kelly

Below is a duet on Instagram Live between Tori Kelly and Jacob Collier.

There has been so much mystery with this song from me.  You can hear the original here by Stevie Wonder.  I first heard this song sang by Michael (played by Ralph Carter) on a show called Good Times during Thelma’s Wedding in that show.

I think it’s an incredible song…so incredible it inspired me to learn how to play it.  It just takes you on a ride from soft and simple to powerful and complex and resolves it at the end…like a musical story.

Normally, between me browsing around the internet and the music skills I already have, I can figure out how to play a song like it’s originally played.  This song is the one song I haven’t been able to do that with.

I can find virtually no piano arrangements…no transcriptions that play this song how it’s originally played.  People can sing it accurately, but the piano accompaniment is what I’m talking about.

Most are way too easy and simplistic, but this is a truly advanced song.  There’s lots of contrasting chords each measure.  The duet below is the closest I’ve ever found to how it’s really supposed to be played.  It is no surprise though.  Jacob Collier actually won a Grammy for his arrangement of this song.  I didn’t even know you could win a Grammy for doing that!

I want to learn how to play this song…as close to the original or at least in a way that honors the true complexity of the song and the work that needs to go behind it to play it accurately.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-FVPFNgIhG/

Daily Blogging Has Infected My Sleep 150 150 admin

Daily Blogging Has Infected My Sleep

Ok, so in an effort to make sure I post before the clock hits midnight many nights, my sleep has been completely thrown off.  Late nights of blogging has taken its toll.  So, it’s time to change course and pivot.

I want to make sure I’m writing when I’m inspired to write…when I first get that little buzz in my spirit to write.  Lately, I feel like I’ve been waiting until the last minute to publish.  Well…last minute no more!

If I want to align with this quarter’s goals I set for myself (just finished!) I must do a better job of acting in alignment with the present moment.  When the present moment opens up an opportunity for me to write and publish, I will write and publish.  Done.

Get Your Reps In 150 150 admin

Get Your Reps In

I can remember when I’d walk into my piano teachers studio.  I’d say hello, open the books and start to play what I was supposed to have been practicing the throughout the week.  This went one of two ways.

After I played there would either be an attitude of disappointment, or there would be praise.  This is how it went every time.  If I hadn’t practiced, she could tell quickly.  She’d tell me “you just need to get these things under your fingers”.

When I heard this, I knew she was just saying practice more.  What she was saying was that I needed to do whatever she had assigned…repeatedly…until I didn’t have to think about it anymore.  Until my fingers knew what to do without me thinking.  Here’s a Wikipedia article on the four stages of competence.  What she was recommending is that I practice what she had assigned until I got to the final stage in those four stages of competence – unconscious competence.

I see this so many places.  In sports, how many times do you see people practice drills and passes and free throws and three pointers.

From the outside looking in, it looks easy when they perform on the big stages, but you don’t see the hours of repetition behind the scenes.  Normally, the people who have reached the level of unconscious competence come around to the fact that nobody cares about the behind the scenes.  Nobody cares about Lebron James’ thousands of practice shots.  They want to see the final product.

In anything worth being great in…there’s going to be reps – things you do repeatedly until they become second nature.  Get your reps in.

Writing From the Heart 150 150 admin

Writing From the Heart

This blog post (the one you’re reading right now) and this blog post were written a little differently than normal.  Before writing the one you’re currently reading, I had a 20 minute visualization session, so I feel like I’m pretty in my heart now.  The other blog post was written by purposely trying to center my head an my heart for 10 minutes.  You can do this by focusing on and feeling gratitude.

This is method is mentioned in this article from heartmath.org.  From that article:

The feeling of genuine appreciation is one of the most concrete and easiest positive emotions for individuals to self-generate and sustain for long periods. Nearly all of us can find something to genuinely appreciate. By simply recalling a time when you felt sincere appreciation and then re-creating that feeling, you can increase your heart-rhythm coherence, reduce emotional stress and improve your health. (Coherence here refers to a balance or smoothness in heart rhythms.)

Even from those two articles of my 100+ articles, I can tell there’s a difference in the writing.  Writing from the head is facts and logic.  Writing from the heart is more emotional and connection focused.  Weaving them both together gives you the best of both worlds.  It also makes the writing flow more and is more enjoyable to actually do.