Enjoying what you do isn’t just a byproduct of success. It’s part and parcel to it. You’ve gotta ask yourself, “Am I having fun?” And if the answer is a mousy “yes,” a tentative “sometimes,” or a pensive “on occasion,” then take heed. Because if you’re not having enough of it, there’s a good chance you’re not getting where you want to go.

Fun is your body speaking to you. It is your gut telling you to keep at it. To stay the course, or, more aptly, that this is a course you can stay. It is directly connected to sustained energy, passion, commitment, and drive. Misery is the exact opposite. Your body telling you to put on the breaks. … Read more...

In common use perfect and flawless are largely synonymous. That to be perfect is to be flawless and vice versa. But if the two seem generally similar, I’m going to also suggest they are just as much opposites. Because, if it’s true that we are obsessed with our flaws in this age of plastic surgery, plastic retouching, and plastic people, then I think it equally true we are not spending enough time on being the most perfect version of ourselves. In finding the good, seeing it, and believing it. Or, to put it another way, even if perfect has no flaws, it doesn’t follow that something without flaws is perfect.

From dictionary.com:

per·fect   [adj., n. pur-fikt; v. per-fekt]
adjective
1. … Read more...

I once read when you shouldn’t follow the ball when you watch tennis. Watch the players. See how they move and what they do before the ball gets to them. It will tell you a world more about how they play the game. We all want to know where the ball goes, but what we need to figure out is what to do before getting to the ball in the first place.

They say you’ll go where you’re looking. But if you’re not getting where you want to go, stop looking at other people’s results. By nature, we see our own process, but others’ results. Look backwards. Unearth the process. Ask yourself what those you admire did differently. Find out … Read more...

You file your business, you put up your shingle, you steel yourself up, and you are ready to get things going. The phone lines are on, the website is up, and the doors are open. Silence. Growing louder and louder. The bills grow heavier and heavier. You make a few deals with the devil. You slash some prices, you put up the ads as more costs pile up, and you make some deals. Maybe you bend a little on your craft, you squeeze a little on your wallet, or you give up a little more of yourself to get things going.

The trickle starts to flow. If you chart your path right, it keeps coming and growing, but maybe not … Read more...

Spending too much time on production and project management? Stop it. Shame on you. These are the activities of sloth. No, not physical sloth. You can easily bury yourself in 80 hours of toil. But mental sloth. Because you know you should be working on the future, but you’re stuck in the present. Because the production is easier. Because it’s tangible. You get something checked off your list. And because future planning is equal parts fun and scary. Fun because, well, it’s fun. Scary, because you need to actually figure things out. And make decisions. Commitments. And to hope that the hope you have has the potential you think it does.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret … Read more...