Mike Monday

Inspiration On Demand

Do What You Love

This is part 8 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

Everyone who has experienced creative flow will tell you that it is enjoyable and exhilarating. My experiences of creative flow have been amongst the most enjoyable of my life.

And like the other features of creative flow, it’s a two way street.

Not only will “being inspired” produce an enjoyable and exhilarating experience, enjoyment and exhilaration will produce conditions where inspiration happens.

So how do you create conditions for enjoyment?

Read The Other Posts In This Series

Of course I’m not suggesting for a second that you’ll find reading my posts the most enjoyable experiences of your life! Far from it.

But by taking the steps I’ve outlined you’ll start to enjoy your creative process be more likely to experience creative flow.

Working towards a desirable outcome is an enjoyable activity.

Working for a compelling purpose is enjoyable.

Taking responsibility for your situation is empowering and inherently enjoyable.

Learning, discovering and figuring stuff out by doing is much more rewarding and enjoyable than being taught.

Writing music from a position of strength (being who you want to be) is much more enjoyable than writing it from a position of weakness (being who you perceive you are).

And thinking about your process as an enjoyable activity, not as a struggle, is enjoyable (obviously).

But taking steps to enhance your enjoyment is an end in itself.

Do What You Love

This is your choice.

1/ Choose to produce the music you love, not what fashion demands.

By writing music that you love, your music will shine and your audience will find you. It will be easier, you’ll produce more quicker and at a higher quality than if you just make what is in fashion at the time.

So if you love to produce african nose flute techno, go ahead.

2/ Choose to do more of the work you love.

If you write jingles or commercials for other people and have been meaning to write more of your own music that you love – make the time.

If you’ve been doing loads of remixes for other people and haven’t been able to work on that album – make the time.

You might lose a little income at first, but by doing more of what you enjoy you’ll be invigorating yourself and your creative process. By doing this you’ll be extending and increasing your ability to write music to order.

3/ Choose to make music (or whatever you enjoy) your life

If you’re successful in a career that you don’t love, just imagine how much more you could achieve if you do what you love.

Love What You Do

There are always going to be certain tasks which you enjoy more than others within the creative process.

But you make even these tasks more enjoyable by being creative about it.

I used to hate starting work on the arrangement.

So instead of schlepping through a basic arrangement by copying and pasting parts in Logic, I used Ableton and recorded my basic arrangement in live.

Voila! What was the most dreaded became my favourite part of the process.

Outsourcing

If you can’t find a way to enjoy a certain part of the process, have you thought about outsourcing it to someone who does?

Many producers already do this by employing an engineer to do the mixdown.

But if you can’t afford an engineer how about a collaboration? I’ve often thought about a partnership where each person was responsible for a different parts of the process.

Learn To Enjoy Your Experience

One of the major “ahas” I’ve had from my training as a coach and NLP Practitioner is that by focusing on particular parts of your experience it is possible to enjoy almost any task.

Although this is a very individual process and varies wildly from person to person, I’ve had success helping my clients to find enjoyment in what they do.

But whether you do it by doing what you love, loving what you do, finding a way to love what you naturally don’t, or a combination of all three – it is essential that you learn to enjoy it.

Most assume that doing “hard work” is the only route to success. This misses the mark.

Because when you enjoy it, your route to success won’t feel hard or like work.

This is part 8 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

Watch Your Language

This is part 7 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

Do you assume that your creative process has to be an ongoing struggle?

I used to, and Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art” summed it up for me at the time.

It uses the metaphor of battle to describe the creative process. I loved it. It even inspired me to write a blog post.

But while I still hugely respect Steven Pressfield’s work, subscribing to this view of the creative process did me more harm than good.

My Epic Battle

I read ‘The War Of Art’ while I was on holiday.

I remember the feeling of significance it gave me. To think that my humdrum days in the studio were an epic battle!

I remember the noble purpose it gave me. To think that by creating my art I was defeating my demons daily!

It also gave me the perfect excuse if I didn’t manage to complete what I was working on. “Today the dark and formidable forces arrayed against me were too strong…”

But gradually I noticed that while it was a beguiling idea, it made my creative process much more difficult and laborious!

The Power Of Language

What do you think was the result of characterising my creative process as a battle?

That’s right, a whole world of pain every single day.

Language is powerful. It is the medium by which you describe your experience to others and more crucially to yourself.

But this is a two way street. When you describe your experience, you also create it.

So when you think about or talk about your creative process, start to notice the language you use.

Is it language that helps you or hinders you?

The Tortured Artist Myth

Many artists and musicians identify themselves as “tortured artists”.

I can’t speak for others, but I believe that I did because it gave me the significance and purpose that I didn’t have at that point.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! You have a choice. You can choose to make your work more fun, exciting, hard, challenging or anything by the words you use to describe it.

So if you want to be a tortured artist, and it helps you to make your creative process tortuous then by all means go ahead. But wouldn’t you prefer to find your work fun and easy?

Ok maybe not exactly easy…but then again, why not? I’ve had occasions when my creative process was easy, fun and it was when I did my best work.

Now I’m not saying that changing your language will always make your process easy or fun or whatever you choose.

But changing it will make it more fun or more easy or more whatever you choose.

Find A Different Metaphor For Your Creative Process

A metaphor is a way of describing something intangible with an image or story. You use them all the time. So when I decided to think of the creative process as a battle, I was buying into Steven Pressfield’s metaphor from ‘The War Of Art’.

Work out what metaphor you currently use to describe your creative process. Is it an uphill struggle? A mountain you climb? A battle?

How else could you describe it? A game? A dance? Digging for gold?

Once you’ve found one that works for you, make sure you take care to describe your process in this way to yourself and others. You’ll find yourself slipping into your old metaphor for a while, but with persistence it will change.

Give Yourself A Different Label

How would you describe yourself when you’re creating your music?

A tortured artist? An inexperienced amateur? An ageing has-been?

How about finding another which will give you the same benefits but not be such an energy suck?

Decide not to be a tortured artist, what about an inspired virtuoso? Decide not to be an inexperienced amateur, be a cutting edge game changer. Decide not to be an ageing has-been, be a legendary veteran.

Make life easy for yourself. No matter what most will tell you, ongoing struggle and pain isn’t a necessary part of the artistic process unless you want it to be.

It Can’t Be That Simple!

This isn’t the panacea for all your woes. It is just another piece in the creative flow puzzle.

But while it is simple, it is also powerful.

When I did this (for instance, I decided to think of my creative process as a game) I wasted less time, struggled less, stopped procrastinating, gained confidence and I started to make bold and exciting decisions.

These bold decisions started small but soon had major impacts on my whole life, such as emigrating to Australia and changing career. It is incredible what a few simple words can do.

By all means work hard. Just don’t make the work hard.

This is part 7 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

First Be. Then Do.

This is part 6 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

If you’ve read and digested my post yesterday you’ll be ready for this one.

While it’s much shorter, it’ll involve you taking a bigger mental leap.

Your Next Step

So, you’ve got a well defined “what” and an utterly compelling “why”. So now I bet you’re asking…

“What do I need to do to get into creative flow?”

“Tell the first thing I have to I do to find inspiration on demand.”

“How do I get in the zone whenever I want?”

It’s normal to think that your next step is to work out what to do in order to become what you want to be. That’s what most people would suggest.

But this is completely the wrong way round.

Focus On Being First

By focusing on what to do before you work out how to be, you’ll  keep doing the wrong things. And when they don’t work you’ll have decide what to do instead.

Then you’ll be tempted to seek out more information to work this out. And if that doesn’t work, you’ll repeat the same process. It’s like shooting in the dark again and again.

But this is what so many people do over and over.

Try Something Different

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”- Albert Einstein, (attributed)

So why not try something different?

By focusing on being what you want to be first, you’ll be amazed by the options that pop into your head.

It’s an extension of the simple but powerful NLP technique of “acting as if”.

If you don’t know what to do, pretend that you are someone that knows. When you act as if,  it can be a little spooky when these ideas come to you from nowhere.

How To Do It

This is going to take a little creative imagination on your part. But it shouldn’t be too hard for a creative person like you.

So, let’s say you want to be a hugely successful music producer.

Simply imagine that you already are.

What’s that like? How does it feel? What do you think about? What do you say to yourself? What do you say to other people? How do you act? What do you do? How do you hold yourself physically? How do you breath? What do you notice that’s different?

It might take some practise, but get used to being that person a little more each day. And eventually you will become comfortable with “being” that successful music producer.

Notice When Others Do This

When I first learnt this it seemed a little out there and quite frankly “woo woo”.

But “woo woo” or not, when I tried it myself it worked, despite my scepticism.

Then when I thought about it I could identify people I’d met in my life who just “were” before they “did” anything.

For example, I’ve been lucky enough to grow up around a few extremely successful musicians. And they all were successful musicians, way before they did anything remotely successful.

You can probably think of some yourself. They’re not necessarily musicians, but I’m sure you know the type. You’re might be a little envious of them:

“Who do they think they are?”

“What have they done to be like that?”

“What have they done that I haven’t?”

The answer is nothing. Yet.

But they are already “being” successful in themselves which makes it possible for them to be successful everywhere else.

And they always end up on top.

Some Words Of Caution

Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting you go out and annoy everyone with a know-it-all arrogant attitude. Because that way you’ll end up doing all the things that an arrogant know-it-all does.

I’m also not suggesting that you lie, make up or tell people things that haven’t happened. That’s not cool.

But I am suggesting that you decide exactly what you want to be, and then focus on being it before you attempt to do anything else.

The Benefits Of Being Before Doing

You’ll intuitively know what to do without consciously thinking about it.

You’re less likely to waste your time doing or learning superfluous stuff.

When you “are” that person inside, you won’t be comfortable until the conditions are the same outside. It’s an effortless motivation strategy.

You’ll even find it more of a struggle to remain in your alien “unsuccessful” situation and will naturally gravitate towards success.

And success will gravitate towards you.

 

This is part 6 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

 

How You Are Learning Your Way To Frustration

This is part 5 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

So far in this series I’ve asked you to take these mental steps:

But before we go any further I want to share a recent “aha” I had with you.

It’s about how we learn and may run contrary to your assumptions. While it’s longer than most it will help you  take the steps to find creative flow.

In fact if you take notice of just one post in this series – make it this one.

The Four Stages Of Competence

How do you think you learn a new subject?

Here’s a useful model familiar to psychologists that probably sums it up.

To explain, I’ll use a fictional character, let’s call him Joe, a young guy who decides he wants to be an electronic music producer…

Stage 1 – He Doesn’t Know What He Doesn’t Know

Joe went clubbing nearly every weekend during college.

He spent most of his student loan on records and even started his own club night so he could play them out. The club did well, but when DJing he often got frustrated with the tunes other people made.

He just knew he could do it better.

He got a copy of Ableton to put on his Macbook, and started playing around with it. Even though he had no idea what he was doing, he loved it, and got so excited by the sounds coming out of that little machine.

He didn’t have the cash for any decent speakers (he’d already spent his student loan) and did most of his music on the lappy speakers. But he could still picture himself playing these tunes out to a huge crowd, he could almost hear those cheers…

He imagined himself being the next big thing, getting his tracks signed to his favourite labels, travelling the world, rubbing shoulders with his musical heroes and one day becoming as widely respected as them.

Stage 2 – He Knows What He Doesn’t Know

Joe started to get frustrated.

He couldn’t seem to finish anything, and often got stuck at the same point. His loops sounded great, but getting those loops into an arrangement that worked was so hard!

He decided that after college he’d do a music production course where he’d learn how to make the tunes that were in his head. In the meantime he’d find out all he could about music production by checking out free tutorials online.

But the more he learnt, the more he realised he didn’t know. Sometimes it seemed like an impossible mountain to climb.

What had happened to the excitement and passion he used to feel when he turned the computer on? Now it felt like a chore. He’d have weeks where he wouldn’t turn the laptop on, it made him feel useless and depressed.

It took Joe about a year before he went on that music production course. After college he got a job but paying off the student loans meant he couldn’t save up the money straight away.

Eventually he did though and was so excited to learn everything he could about music production. He was glad he did it, although much they taught he knew he’d never use.

But it gave him some confidence to say that he had a working knowledge of the subject.

Stage 3 – He Knows What He Knows

This confidence helped a little with his music.

He worked hard and applied what he’d learnt from the course to his tunes. He consciously used the techniques, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.

But despite everything, he still came up against the same issues with finishing tunes.

Ok, the music sounded more professional, but the resistance was still there. And it took him a lot longer to do anything because his mind was crowded with new knowledge.

He finished his course, and in the following months nearly gave it all up a number of times. The course hadn’t taught him how to finish anything. And it had definitely made the process more complicated.

But the one thing that kept him going was that he didn’t want to waste the money he’d spent on the course. It wasn’t cheap.

So he worked hard putting into practise what he had learnt on the course. It took so much time and dedication though, especially as he had a full time job.

Stage 4 – He Doesn’t Know What He Knows

Gradually he started to “forget” what he’d learnt and began to concentrate on how he wanted his music to sound.

In fact, slowly but surely the creative process began to remind him of when he started playing around with Ableton years ago. The excitement came back. Maybe there was a possibility that this could work…

Finally after yet more hours spent plugging away he got to the point where it was now or never. He told himself “I’ll just finish something, anything” and sent it off to one of his favourite labels.

Even though he wasn’t totally happy with it, to his amazement the label got back to him. They asked him to make couple of changes and signed it. He was ecstatic!

The release was pretty successful. The label got great reactions from the DJs they’d sent it to and he started getting a few remix offers and DJ dates. His schedule started to fill up and the pressure of remix deadlines meant that he was forced to complete more tracks.

While he was sure the music production knowledge was still there in his head helping him somehow, by now he didn’t consciously use it, he just made what sounded good.

Before long he wasn’t thinking about how he did what he was doing any more. He just did it.

As this happened his music got significantly better. He was developing his own unique style and as a result each release was turning the heads of his musical heroes.

He’d even met a few of them on the road and started to wonder if he should give up his job. He knew that this was just the beginning…

Lessons About Learning

“Much learning does not teach understanding.” – Heraclitus

Is any of Joe’s story familiar to you? Where are you in the process?

What I’ve described above is the 4 stages of competency:

  • Stage 1 – unconscious incompetence
  • Stage 2 – conscious incompetence
  • Stage 3 – conscious competence
  • Stage 4 – unconscious competence

It’s natural to assume that this is the process you must go through to learn anything. It lies behind familiar traditional education methods.

But there are some problems with it.

The Required Time And Dedication

“Neither comprehension nor learning can take place in an atmosphere of anxiety.” – Rose Kennedy

With enough time and dedication I believe it’s possible for virtually anyone to learn virtually anything going through this process. There is no doubt that it works for some.

But teaching in this way alone results in a huge loss of talent and potential.

After stage 1, your excitement at the possibilities and opportunities are replaced by self doubt, fear and loss of confidence that come with realising how much you have to learn in stage 2.

This is why traditional education largely teaches you what you don’t know. Most give up somewhere in stage 2 believing they’re “no good at it” or that “it’s too hard”. And of those who are left almost none reach stage 4, due to the dedication needed to get to true mastery.

Some might say that this time and dedication is necessary to “weed out” those who aren’t committed. But I would counter by saying that it also “weeds out” many people who haven’t responded to teaching methods and who have an as yet unknown contribution to make.

In fact I believe that it certainly weeds out more than a few potential game changers who could make the greatest contribution.

Lack Of Individuality

“It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.” – Henry David Thoreau

You’ll notice that in Joe’s story above that his individuality and distinct style began to shine towards the end of stage 4 when he stopped thinking about what he had learnt.

But I’ll bet that the music he made in stage 1 was also highly individual and distinctive.

Learning music production the “traditional way” is highly unlikely to create a producer that has a distinct style quickly, if at all. By being taught how others do things, or how you’re “supposed” to do something, you’ll end up sounding like whoever taught you.

In order to sound like you, you’ll have to unlearn what you have learnt.

Learning What You Don’t Need To Know

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” – Albert Einstein

By learning what other people think you should know you are learning much that you’ll never need or use. There’s already more than a lifetime’s worth of music production learning that you do need and will use.

So why waste your life learning something you don’t need and won’t use?

Of course, if you want to be a teacher or a college professor, go ahead and learn everything. But if you want to do something with that knowledge yourself, learn what you need to know only when and if you need to know it.

It Creates Creative Blocks

Left brained learning gets in the way of your creativity.

I have had a number of coaching clients who I’ve helped overcome creative block. And this block has come from information overload caused by too many courses and tutorials.

Is There Another Way?

“One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more.” – Washington Irving

Here’s what’s most interesting to me about the four stages of competency:

The first stage and last stage have many similarities.

Look at our friend Joe. In stage 4 he wasn’t aware of what he did. He didn’t consciously use what he knew. The creative process was unconscious.

Exactly the same as stage 1!

What If?

So that said, I wonder if it might be possible to go straight from unconscious incompetence to unconconscious competence, without struggling up the two mountains of stage 2 and 3?

Wouldn’t that be great? To completely avoid the risk of losing faith in yourself, getting bored, frustrated and even giving up.

“Impossible!! That’s ridiculous!” I hear you cry…

But it’s not ridiculous. You’ve already done it a number of times in your life.

How did you learn to talk? How did you learn to walk?

As small children, you went from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence when you learnt to do both.

And before you say – “come on Mike you nutter, how can you compare producing music with walking and talking? It’s much harder!”

Is it? Are you sure?

Isn’t learning to walk and talk infinitely more challenging for a baby than learning to produce music is for an adult?

Learn Differently

The reason I’m writing this long post is that you must think differently about the way you learn. Because how you learn is as important as what you learn.

I am a lifetime learner. I love to learn, more than I love to do almost anything else. And I do learn from books and blogs and teachers.

But most of the learning that counts comes from what I do.

There is a place for the traditional learning process that’s familiar and comfortable, I am not advocating banning it. But there are other better paths to mastery, especially in music.

In my experience too much emphasis on left-brained learning will put a barrier between you and your creative right-brained self. The information that crowds your mind will get in the way of your expression.

More Evidence – Take Your Musical Heroes

If more learning meant better music, then wouldn’t every musician’s career be a story of progressively better music?

We all know that this isn’t the case. In fact it’s more likely to be the opposite.

I believe that “not knowing” is usually a far more useful strategy for a successful musician!

In fact, I have no empirical evidence for this, but I suspect that most of your heroes in music didn’t go through the four stages of competency. Certainly the ones I’ve met didn’t, they went straight from stage 1 to stage 4.

Think of all the famous musicians who never read a note of music.

Think of all the musical legends who never had a music lesson.

Think of all the music producers (me included) who never went on a music production course or watched a tutorial.

Yes, I did music at university, but I can honestly say that the process of learning to write music was largely a process of “unlearning” what I had learnt about music theory.

My real learning began when I stopped being taught.

So when I started getting my head around music production (which happened after uni) I stayed away from that kind of learning, and I learnt by doing.

I didn’t know what I was doing. I just did it and was happy not to know. I enjoyed not knowing. I was unconsciously incompetent. But by doing I never became consciously incompetent or consciously competent.

I just carried on doing until I became unconsciously competent.

And the strange thing is that you wouldn’t know from my music when that transition happened. I’m not sure I would either. Because looking back some of my least successful music was the last I created. And some of my best music is what I did when I had no idea.

Because I had no idea.

So How Do You Get From Stage 1 to Stage 4?

Decide that’s how you’re going to learn and start doing it.

Create, finish and learn from each thing you finish. Then move onto the next thing. Each time you finish a track you learn something new.

This might seem like the long and difficult route. Learning tips, tricks and techniques from someone else feels safer and more secure, and acts like a crutch. But you get used to it, and when that crutch gets taken away, (which it inevitably will) you are in danger of falling.

It might seem scary and challenging at first, but you are much more likely to succeed by trusting yourself that you will do it right.

And what I’m showing you in this blog series is a series of mental steps designed to get you to a place where you can gain the trust that you don’t need to know everything (or even anything) before you do.

I’m not sure it’s possible in 12 blog posts but I want you to be comfortable with not knowing. And by helping you to think like this you will gain the confidence, focus, trust and belief so you can create freely without having to know.

Because then, your creative flow will come. And I can promise you it won’t from learning how to compress, EQ, arrange, or the finer points of music theory.

So go back right now and take the steps you’ve not completed yet.

On some level, all of the musicians who you respect have taken these steps.

Some may have done it consciously, some will have just done it without thinking about it. But none of them will have learnt everything they think they need to know first.

And tomorrow I’ll reveal the last crucial mental leap you must take before you “do”.

This is part 5 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

Do Your Work (And Live Your Life) On Purpose

This is part 4 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

“Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
– Helen Keller

By now you should have decided what you want and accepted your challenges as a necessary part of finding creative flow.

But if you’ve thought big and decided to shoot for your ideal career in music, those challenges are likely to be many, various and constant.

While taking responsibility for overcoming them will get you far, without a compelling “reason why” you’re likely to get discouraged and might find yourself blown off course.

This is the reason even those with the best of intentions and a clear goal give up before achieving it.

My Compelling Purpose

My purpose:

To make a positive impact on the world by helping others live the life they want to live and do the work they were born to do.

I believe that human beings are inherently creative, and that is what makes us human.

I believe that the tragic and ongoing waste of creative talent I see everywhere is as a result of people being taught to choose safety and security over challenge and possibility.

I believe that the most tragic words you can utter at the end of your life are “if only I’d…”

I believe that helping other people do what they were born to do is what I was born to do.

To me this is utterly compelling. And it is both my compass and the wind in my sails.

By the way, this became my purpose because I spent most of my life seeking safety and security. Ok, being a successful music producer and DJ might not be everyone’s definition of either, but for various reasons it was for me.

And your purpose will most likely come from experiences in your life that have deeply affected you.

The Wind In Your Sails

You might be wondering why I just used such a flowery and (the unkind might say) over the top metaphor to describe the benefits of my purpose.

In my defence, it’s difficult to be anything but over the top when you’ve found your purpose, because it comes from what you passionately believe and it drives everything you do.

This belief and drive will get you through the inevitable tough times ahead. With a purpose that you’re passionate about, you rarely need to use those exhausting willpower or self-discipline strategies which you and I know work briefly (if at all).

A purpose is like the wind in your sails – it comes from somewhere else and silently pushes you to your destination.

What If?

Don’t believe me? Ok, let me use an extreme example to demonstrate.

If a family member’s life depended on you completing that album you’ve been banging on about for years in just 2 months, what would you do?

Yes, you’d do whatever it took to finish it. And I’ll bet that your utterly compelling “reason why” would even mean you did it well.

Defining Your Priorities

By finding a deeper reason why you are working towards your chosen outcome, as long as the reason is compelling enough, you are placing that outcome at the top of your priorities.

Your mission not only compels you to complete your task (preferably without the threat of danger to your loved ones) but also the obstacles you face become relatively unimportant.

They’re still there, you recognise them, but with a compelling purpose you will find a way to get through, above, under or around them.

Procrastination rarely occurs for any meaningful length of time, and you don’t have to resort to willpower. All you have to do to immediately get on with it is connect with your purpose.

Your Compass

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
– John F. Kennedy

With a compelling purpose, decision making becomes easier and quicker. It acts as your compass, guiding you to stay on course because you take all your decisions and action based on it.

So when you do anything, you ask yourself if what you’re doing is “on purpose”. If it’s not, you don’t do it.

And it works for all decisions where big or small.

When I had the idea for this blog series I asked myself “does it take me towards or away from my purpose?” The answer was obvious.

Or when I’m writing a sentence and get stuck and wonder whether I should keep working at it or lose it, I ask myself “does this sentence take me closer to or further away from my purpose?”

If it does, I work on it and it stays in. If it doesn’t or does neither, I leave it out and move on.

Startlingly simple and effective decision making.

And The Unannounced Bonuses

“To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

As if waving goodbye to self-doubt and procrastination for good and making decisions a snap wasn’t enough, there are also a couple of added bonuses to finding your compelling “reason why”.

1/ You’ll avoid shooting for the wrong goal. Many will spend years trying to get somewhere, only to realise that when they arrive they don’t want it. That’s what happened to me.

By working out what lies behind your goal, you’ll discover whether it’s the right goal before you spend years pursuing it.

2/ You’ll gain instant credibility. By becoming aware of the deeper purpose behind what you are doing, you become more authentic to those around you.

Imagine you are a big neon signpost broadcasting your inner workings to the world. I don’t know  how or why, but others usually pick up on this stuff.

By identifying your purpose you will transmit your passion and belief to everyone around you.

I’m sure you know people who do this. It’s infectious, magnetic and people will naturally want to help and support you.

“Success demands singleness of purpose.” – Vince Lombardi

It is certainly possible to achieve a great many things without thinking about your compelling purpose.

But by taking time to work this out now, you’ll find the journey to your goal easier, quicker and more fun. You’ll be more likely to succeed.

But most importantly you’ll make sure you’re pointing in the right direction.

This is part 4 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.