Creativity Threads Life w/ Mr Benja

We've been thinking about goals in a very inappropriate way. First of all, we think that goals are resolutions. And then we think that we have to follow them to the letter and not adjust as we go about our path. If something truly isn't working, trash it.

What is Creativity Threads Life w/ Mr Benja?

Welcome creatives! These are discussions, thoughts, case studies, interviews, and lessons about how our creativity relates to life. The host, Mr Benja, is a former video game programmer / designer for Rockstar Games, Sony Santa Monica, The 3DO Company, and others, as well as a fine artist. -- Be sure to check out the website for more.

Did you know that the second Friday in
June, did you know that the second Friday

in January is known as Quitter's Day?

Something I didn't know about,
something I hadn't heard of before.

Because I'm not a quitter.

So why would I know about that?

But I heard about this and it
got me thinking we are like three

weeks into the new year, 2024.

And people are already giving up
abandoning ship, just saying, screw it.

This is not going to happen.

And.

Honestly, to me, that just sounds like
a very sad time for you to be you if

that's what you're doing because we're
just now getting started, man, we're

just getting into the role of this, but
I do want to acknowledge this whole idea,

this whole concept of two weeks in just
quitting, just barely getting started

and you've already quit the, the little
excitement of the new year, the honeymoon

period apparently is over and now this
is when people start to trash your goals.

And guess what?

I'm actually not opposed
to you trashing your goals.

I'm opposed to you quitting
and stopping altogether.

There's a lot of different
thoughts people have on this.

Uh, I'm not talking about not making
resolutions and there are people out

there saying you should make disillusions
where you're just happy being who you are.

We already discussed that once.

We can discuss it again.

Being, just being who you are and
being content with yourself is one

thing, but being the best you can be
while you're happy with who you are,

that's going to take a little work.

And to do that, you might
need to Not dissolve your

resolutions, but trash your goals.

I want to explain all that today on
this episode of Creativity Threads Life.

This podcast is something I didn't
even think I'd be starting and

going into the way that I have.

But what ended up happening was towards
the end of the year I was reflecting,

beginning of the year I was looking
forward to new things, and I was trying to

figure out exactly how I should proceed.

And the idea of the
podcast came back to me.

Now, I've done various versions
of a podcast before, I'm going

to call this version number five.

But, I thought to myself, What can I do
that I like to do, that's comfortable

for me to do, that keeps my energy
flowing, that achieves several of my

goals, and continues moving me forward?

And doesn't have any bad detriments to it.

And I can kind of keep doing what's
something that I can keep putting energy

towards that pulls my momentum forward.

And it was the podcast.

I thought about getting super social
on social media, and I'm doing

that to an extent with threads.

I thought about getting more active
in Reels and making content in the

video, short video format sense.

I thought of that.

Then I thought of, you know, getting
really big into the networking and direct

sales and jumping in everyone's inbox.

Eh, it wasn't my thing.

So all these things and ideas came up.

And even the email list, which
I still, which I still kick out.

See MrBenja.

com if you need more on that.

But even with all of this, I thought
to myself, what's that one thing

that I can just keep doing, and that
I can flow well with, personally.

It's gonna take a little work, it's
gonna take a little practice getting

where I want to be, it's gonna take some
massaging, but I do have a resolution now.

And it's not necessarily
to keep this podcast going.

Um, I don't tell my resolutions,
but I do have a resolution now.

And to get that, to get that end
result that the resolute nature of

me will bring is going to cause me
to do some things and the podcast

fits into that very well, so I'm not
necessarily devoted to the podcast.

I'll be here, but what I'm devoted to
is this resolution I've made and the

podcast is going to help me get there.

So this is how we do things.

Um, We, as a people, as humanity
as it is right now, about two

weeks in to the new year, people
start giving up on their goals.

There was a study done on this, and
it just illustrated that people very

quickly become disillusioned and
They stopped worrying about the gym.

They just give up.

And I've seen this happen
with some of my friends too.

It's very disheartening actually, where
they're like, yeah, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do that.

And I'm gonna do that.

And then they get upset.

They can't make it.

Something happens, something
gets in the way and they give up.

And we talked about a little, we
talked about this a little bit

before in an earlier podcast, but.

I want to actually give you the permission
to go ahead and try to trash something.

Trash one of your goals.

What do I mean by that?

Well, to do that, I need to back up a
little bit and re explain the difference

between a goal and a resolution.

So bear with me if you've already
heard this, but a goal is a metric.

It's a measurement of a certain
point that you're going to release,

that you're going to reach.

It's a finish line.

It's a point on the barometer.

It's a number on a scale.

It's a Specific measurable
thing that you can work towards

that you can realistically do
in a certain amount of time.

That's what a goal is.

Sometimes you need to trash those goals.

And yes, that was an explanation
of smart goals if you caught that.

But what we have now is a situation where.

We create these goals and the industry
gets us hyped to buy planners to

go to get gym memberships to, you
know, hire a financial advisor

to hang out with their kids more.

They do all these big grandiose things.

And it seems like it's almost
just to sell you a few composition

books, a few journals to sell
you some workout equipment.

And it's become this unfun thing
because after two weeks, if no

one's into it, no one's buying it.

I mean, in the, in the, uh, the
emotional sense, the commitment

sense, no one's buying it.

Then, then what are you doing?

You're damaging yourself.

When I'm, when I'm out creating,
I always have to ask myself

the question, where am I going?

Now, when I set this up, I set
this up as a trajectory, a general

direction that I know I need to go
in to get to, to get closer to my.

And there is no really final destination.

You're just going to keep going.

For example, I like to think of it
as a mountain off in the distance.

When I see a mountain off in the distance,
I want to go towards that mountain.

I just made the decision.

Listen, I'm going to go to the mountain.

Maybe I don't even want
to climb up the mountain.

That mountain is just
where I'm going to go.

Maybe there's something on the
other side of the mountain.

I don't know what's happening.

That's just my general trajectory,
my general direction, my general.

personal narrative arc.

My trajectory is going to take me
towards that mountain to see what I

can see because I'm an explorer of life
and a creative, and that's what I do.

So I'm going to go for the mountain.

If I'm standing where I am, I don't
know exactly how I'm going to get there.

Now, once you have that big goal of
the mountain, and I shouldn't even call

it a big goal, once you have that big
point that you want to reach, once you

know your general trajectory, there's
a big point that you're going to reach,

or reach for, then you start to look
at your goals right, right beside you.

Now, the goal, as I said, is something
you can specify, measure, you

know, that you can definitely take
action on is realistic and you can

do it in a certain amount of time.

I think that's dumb in a lot of senses.

It doesn't work for a lot of people, but
the smaller your scope is and you want

to just get started and do something.

Then you set a goal.

There is a time for a goal.

My other podcast, smart goals are stupid.

Explains a little bit of how
that can get out of control and

how that can get bothersome.

But if you're looking at just getting
started, just getting your feet

moving, you have very small goals,
very small measurements, very discreet.

That's the mathematical discreet, not the
silent, quiet, discreet, very discreet

points that you should be able to reach.

It's like a connect the dots.

It's, you're never going
to get the full line.

You're just going to get these small
little connections and moving to each

dot in the connect the dots pattern
is a goal going from one piece,

one dot to another dot, one segment
finishes, you go to the next segment.

And each of these segments has goals.

You've probably seen the, the success
is not a straight line meme slash

illustration, where you've got this on the
bottom left of the image, you'll see a.

Starting point.

This is you.

You are here.

And then at the top right,
you'll see some goal position.

Some far off thing they call a goal.

I don't like calling these
far off things a goal.

As I said, it's a point you want to reach.

Your destination.

But, along the way, it's
not a straight line.

It's drawn as this big
squiggly series of lines.

Some lines go off the page, come back on,
go backwards, away from the destination,

then go towards the destination.

They go perpendicular to it, orthogonal.

If you want to call it that just
takes all these squiggly lines.

Sometimes it even goes
past the destination.

You have to come back to reach it.

Point is where you're trying to get
to is not a straight line and setting

yourself up with a very, very, very
concrete goal is going to lead you astray.

Why?

Because if you have a super concrete
goal, that, that means you don't have

any flexibility and anything that happens
very locally or on the short term.

is going to dissuade you, it's going
to get you off of your game, and

you're going to get upset at it.

That's why, when you're working on your
small term goals, you should be ready

to trash them at any given moment.

If they're not working for you, or
you're done working with them, good,

get them off the way, trash them.

How do I mean that?

Alright, let's say you, for some reason,
uh, somebody convinced you to go to the

gym five days a week, they convinced you
to stay there for two hours every session,

They convinced you to buy all this
equipment and you're like, yeah, sure.

This is great.

That's the kind of commitment that
will sound great for about two weeks.

And then all of a sudden
you're part of quitter's day.

Because it's not sustainable.

You had some, some lofty concept
that wasn't even rooted in reality.

What you've got to be able to do is pivot.

You've got to be able to trash what
you're currently doing, reassemble it,

and try it again, in a different way.

You may not even know
what your destination is.

You may have just said,
well I want to get healthy.

That's not a great, greatly
defined definition, but,

okay, you want to get healthy.

Does that mean you need
to increase your cardio?

Does that mean you need to
increase your physical strength?

Your endurance, your ability to
work for long periods of time.

Your ability to lift heavy things,
it could mean a lot of things.

Get healthy.

It could just mean to lose
weight and look better.

You want to be able to
fit into certain clothes.

You want to be able to walk up the steps
without huffing and puffing and sweating.

These things all need to be
considered when you start figuring

out how you're going to pivot.

Because whenever you pivot or
change direction slightly, you're

staying on your course but you're
pivoting a bit to adjust the course.

You need to trash something you're doing
and do something slightly different.

So if you had this goal of five
days a week, I'm going to the gym.

I'm going to stay there
two hours at a time.

I'm going to use all this gym equipment.

I'm going to tell my friends, I'm going
to blah, blah, blah, all this stuff.

And something's not working.

Are you going to too often?

That may be true.

You may need to scale back a little bit.

We're not asking for
perfection on every run.

We're asking for you to
continually do the run.

Or at least have some
sort of regularity to it.

Whether it's every day, every
week, every three times.

Once you get into a pattern that
starts to build up that momentum.

And as that momentum builds
up, that'll move you closer

towards your final destination.

I keep saying final destination as if
you'm talking about death, which I'm not.

There isn't a final destination.

I guess that is death then.

You're just going to
keep going until you die.

All right.

I'll accept that.

But the closer you get to
where you want to be, the

goalpost should adjust slightly.

And once again, do not get
goal confused with resolution.

If you've made the resolve, if you've
made the resolution to get healthy enough

to pick your child up, run up a flight
of stairs without being out of breath

and without sweating and falling over,
that might be, that's your resolution.

That's your, that's your resolve.

You've set that up in your head.

It's like, listen, if I can't be with
my, my spouse and take this child

and go up a flight of stairs, I, I
don't know what I'm doing with myself.

And then, okay, boom,
you got your resolve.

Now once you start to set your
goals, you'll start to figure

out, okay, you know what?

It doesn't matter how many
times I go to the gym.

If I keep eating, uh, little Caesar's
pizza at every morning, you know,

every morning at 7 11, you know,
and wash it down with the big gulp.

What am I doing?

I'll never be able to no
matter how much I go work out.

I'll still be messing my
cardiovascular system and.

You know, my, uh, I'll just be messing
my system up if I'm doing that every

morning at 7am, at 711, with the big gulp.

So you got to pull back on some things
and say, okay, I need to trash something.

I need to throw something
out and try something else.

Not a completely different thing, but
you just need to pivot a little bit.

You just need to adjust your sights
and make that change because what you

want is to continually add to what
you were doing in a meaningful way.

Don't just continue to do something.

Every time you do it, make a
little bit of an extra change.

Make a little bit of a, you know, put
a little bit of extra juice on it.

Can you do it a little bit faster?

Can you do it with a little more oomph?

Can you get a little more
juice out of this orange?

Every time.

And if you read Atomic Habits by James
Clear, you'll understand what I'm going

for, where you have these things that
continue to compound on top of each

other, just like the compound interest
in finances, and you'll keep getting 1

percent better as long as you keep trying.

Now, there are other ways to
accelerate this and move even faster.

But for right now, I'm just talking
about not ending up quitting,

because this is apparently the
time when everybody starts to quit.

So as you're moving along, doing
your thing, building up your.

Your perseverance, your resistance,
your, your endurance, and you're

doing all this pivoting and
something's not working for you.

You got to trash it.

Don't let people shame you because
let's say, Hey, I thought you were

going to the gym and then you might
have to end up talking to them.

Like, listen, I couldn't make it
to the gym as much as I wanted

to, but I found I could actually
move closer to my goal by close.

I could get closer to keeping my
resolution by not going to the gym.

But going to this yoga class.

So what happens next two weeks down the
line after that, you're like, well, yeah,

the yoga class was fine, but I actually
learned that they have a spinner class.

I didn't even know what
spinner was started riding a

bike with a bunch of people.

It was great.

I go, okay.

So you start the spinner class.

And then next time you talk to this
person, you're like, yeah, I'm not

doing the spinner class anymore.

I actually found out, um, in the
spinner class that, you know, there

are really a lot of people there
who really value their fitness.

And so I only go to the spinner
class once a week to meet with them.

But for the most part, I just meet
with the people and they're so health

oriented that it keeps me health oriented.

Okay.

Now, this is fine.

But if you listen, this
sounds like you're.

You're continually giving up
or you can't stay focused.

That is a danger, but if you're actually
moving forward, if you're at, if you

are moving forward, you have to make
that qualification qualifier yourself.

If you're actually moving forward,
do not be afraid to pivot into

something that's moving a little
faster or a little better for you.

The key is it works better, not that
what you're doing is failing and

you just want to quit and give up.

I'll get to that in a second.

But as you're going along,
you try to pivot a little bit.

You know, maybe wearing, maybe wearing
this certain type of outfit doesn't

get you the right response at work.

Try it out for a month.

Then try out another style of clothing
for a month and then try changing

up your, your hygiene routine.

You know, maybe you need to moisturize
more and do more with your hair or

whatever, and you keep trying these
things out every couple of weeks.

You're still learning.

You're experimenting.

You're trying to get to a place
where your momentum flows better

and you're moving along your
trajectory even better every day.

Don't be afraid to trash.

What's not working for you.

Be afraid of becoming a quitter.

Let's make that distinction.

So, once again, the problem with goals
is, if you have this thing in your head or

on the whiteboard that says, I'm going to
go to the gym, that might easily change.

What if they close down the gym location?

What if the person you carpooled
to the gym with decides

to stop going to that gym?

It's like, yeah, I can't
go at the same time.

Maybe I'm going to go a different day.

I'm going to go, I'm going to go at
nights instead of in the morning.

And all of a sudden
you're, you're messed up.

It's like, man, I can't control all
this other stuff around the goal,

but I can control my trajectory.

So that's what you focus on.

Goals can be damned.

Goals can be thrown out and
replaced with better goals.

If you're ready to trash a goal, then you
won't be so worried about whether it, you

know, whether some arbitrary metric is
reached or not, you'll be able to more

confidently go about what you're doing.

So, yeah, if you're thinking about the,

the diagram I illustrated before, where
you've got where you want to be in the

bottom left corner and where you are in
the bottom left corner and where you want

to be in the top right corner, it's going
to be a crazy squiggly line going up,

down, left, right, all over the place.

Until it gets to its point, and this is
how most ventures go as you, as you're

going along on your journey, you're going
to start to understand different things.

You're going to see different problems.

You're going to see
different opportunities.

And in fact.

If you have your goal so easily in
mind that you can map out everything,

then you don't know what you're doing
because you're only going to take

these very little stepwise actions.

I shouldn't say you don't
know what you're doing.

You, you don't know how to push far enough
because in any valid venture, you push

far enough and you're like, Holy crap.

I didn't know this would
have looked like out here.

What am I doing?

I'm lost.

I don't know.

So you may have to trash your old ideas
and come up with some new ones, like okay,

I was on the highway driving to get to the
mountains, and all of a sudden, it says

only semi trucks can go down this route.

Maybe I need to learn how to drive a semi.

That might sound crazy, but it might
need, that might need to be what happens.

Maybe I can hitch a ride with somebody.

And just learn from them or
maybe I'll hire somebody to

ride me on a on their semi.

I don't know you start coming
up with all these ideas and

then like, well, wait a minute.

Why am I even driving?

Maybe I should fly there instead.

Is there a helicopter service
that can take me over there?

How much is that going to cost?

And you start coming up with
these other ideas as your

goals get trashed and replaced.

Because if you're ever beholden to some
metric, then you may end up with problems.

Your metric should be
evaluated every so often.

A lot of corporations do this in quarters.

So every three months, four times a year,
they'll check to see where they are and

do they need to trash something, cancel
something, or go in another direction.

Or put more energy, more resources into
this part and take it away from that part.

But corporations understand this,
they're willing to trash things very

quickly, not working, trash it, not
giving us the right results, trash it.

And you should be willing to do that, too.

So the question I actually came up with
on threads that was getting at people,

people didn't, didn't understand it, I'd
say, or didn't have a good answer for

it, was when should you trash your goals?

And when should you?

Decide to pivot.

Do you pivot or do you
keep staying the course?

Do you see how long it is?

How long the road is down this way?

Or do you pivot?

Do you stop and get directions?

What do you need to do to figure out
what you should be doing right now?

And there are dangers to both of them.

And I can't give a generalized answer.

And that's one of the issues here.

There is no real answer.

A lot of people will say, Hey, you
just need to keep staying the course,

keep banging your head against it.

You'll get past the obstacle.

And there's a lot of truth to that.

There are a lot of obstacles.

There are a lot of barriers, and
sometimes we just need to figure

out how to plow through them.

As we come closer to the barrier, we
need to get into some creative thinking,

some critical thought, figure out how
to go around it, under it, through it,

over it, bypass it, make it irrelevant
or unnecessary, whatever they have to

do to make sure the obstacle is not in
front of them and blocking them anymore.

There is a case for that.

On the other hand, at some point, you
have to ask yourself, well, wait a minute.

Should I even be doing this?

Is this even worth it?

And this is dangerous territory.

Because if you're putting out good
energy, most people by nature will want

to get more results and pull back on the
amount of energy that they're putting

out or that they're cycling through.

Because sticking to the course can
be painful, it can be embarrassing,

it can be wasteful, quite honestly.

But yeah, some things just need hammering.

But what you're looking for is not just to
hammer and bang your head against a wall.

You're looking for a way to
crack through to higher levels

of Getting that energy flowing.

So what's on the other side with
the problem with the other side?

Well, if you, if you're talking
about pivoting, you should be able to

pivot and pivot quickly and trash old
ideas, adopt new ones without losing

sight of where you're trying to get.

And this is what happens.

A lot of people get what they
call shiny object syndrome.

I know I've gotten this
plenty of times before.

They get into the grass is greener
syndrome, where it's like, well,

obviously things are going to be better
over there because I'm not over there.

There's a whole psychological
reasoning behind this.

But instead of just full on dropping
everything and running off into some other

direction, try dabbling just a little bit.

Not like getting into, but just
dabbling, just to see what it's about.

And see if you can really
compare it to what you have now.

Like you can dabble with another gym,
say, Hey, listen, I'm going to this

gym, but I want to, I want to just try
out your gym for a couple of weeks.

I'm still going to keep my old membership.

I just want to dabble over
here and see what's happening.

And you should be skeptical
of things you dabble into.

You have to ask yourself, why is this
any better than what I was doing before?

You have to really test it.

You go check out the new gym.

It's got all new people at it, but you
start looking around and you're seeing

that these people, you know, aren't that
happy, you're seeing that they're not

really getting the gains that they want
and you're like, man, I thought this gym

was the best, but they just, they just
have all the amenities and all the people

here aren't trying to get any better.

They're not trying to get healthy.

They're not going to help me do anything.

They're just going to help me get lazy.

So you may have to go back
to what you were doing,

but yeah, just the same way.

Just when you dabble with something,
don't be afraid to trash that either.

And we'll come with, we'll, we'll be
presented with a lot of choices that

seem very appealing right off the bat.

And they seem very appealing because
the first 20 percent of mastery or

competence at any given endeavor, that
early 20 percent is usually set up

to be pretty easy to onboard people.

They'll get you in, oh yeah, we got this
and this, and the newness will excite you.

But if you can't see past that newness,
that first 20%, and you don't know

how it's going to be in the long haul.

Then you're going to have problems.

So at any given moment, you've got
to be putting out enough energy

in, in your current direction.

You should be blazing in your
current direction, really

putting out enough energy.

So you understand what it is
that you're, you're doing.

If you're putting in a small amount
of energy, then you really can't tell.

And the next thing looks as good as
what you're doing, but when you're

really invested in what you're doing,
like if you're really invested, then

you know, okay, this is how this works.

This is how.

This, this drives, this
is how this is set up.

This is how this flows.

You start knowing the ins and outs.

You start knowing the enemies,
you start knowing the friends, you

start knowing the consequences.

You start knowing the benefits.

You start knowing the risk.

You start knowing the rewards
and you're there for all of it.

You ever see some people that when
they go to the gym, they they're,

they're ready to quit, but they really
haven't put in the work you're like,

you don't even deserve to quit yet.

You haven't really put in the time to
understand what you're dealing with.

It's like, Ooh, Ooh, child, my arms hurt.

They're supposed to hurt.

What I want to know is after a
month from now, after doing this,

do you still feel this way or have
you learned to enjoy that challenge

after you get through, after
you get through the little

honeymoon, oh, this is cute period.

And you really start trying to
push yourself and you're not

worried about the individual goal.

You will take care of that, but
you're pushing hard with this momentum

because you think it's going to
take you to that final destination.

Not worrying about the little.

Intermediate goals along the way.

This might be a little
bit of an odd concept,

but if you stay the course, push with
enough momentum, you'll start finding

out the, the boundaries, the boundaries
of what you're trying to accomplish.

Like, do you really understand juggling?

If you can only do three balls,
a lot of people will say, well,

yeah, I kind of get the point.

Okay, you can kind of get the gist,
you can kind of get the point just by

dabbling in, in your current direction.

But when you push hard, and when you push
to go big, you have to start saying, no,

no, I really don't know what I'm talking
about until I've, until I've pushed

myself to complete ignorance and failure.

Complete ignorance is, I
don't, oh my gosh, six balls?

I don't know how to do that.

Oh, juggle six balls?

Or no, juggle three balls, a bowling
pin, bowling pin might be a little

too heavy, three balls, a drumstick,
and you know, a bottle of water?

How am I supposed to juggle all that?

Until you've really started
to push, you can't know that.

Like, do you really know what
it means to be a podcaster, or

a programmer, or a An artist.

I keep, well, you know, I
painted something and then

I got into art fair once.

And listen,

were you arguing the benefits
of acrylics versus oils versus

acrylic wash versus watercolor?

Were you really out there
arguing over canvas versus linen?

Did you really take the time to dig
a little deeper and really start

understanding what you were getting into?

That type of deep push is the only
way you're going to get any momentum.

It's strong.

It's fast.

You've got to be pushing on both of
those to actually get some movement.

You've got to go hard and
you've got to go fast.

And some people don't like to do
that because they'll think they'll,

they've gone in the wrong direction.

Back to our driving example, like, Hey,
you're going, you're going the wrong way.

It's like, I don't care.

I'm going, but you're going the wrong way.

We need to stop and look
around and by going faster.

You can find out for certain whether
you're going the wrong way, and

usually double all the way back, then
go in the right direction, and you'll

still make better time than them.

In fact, you'll have practiced
going fast and changing directions,

and you'll be able to win more
often in the end than they will.

Because they're still sitting around,
well, hold on a second, maybe we should

stop, and there is no stop, just go.

If you did something wrong, you had
the wrong goal, trash it, as I said.

You're supposed to.

But you need to figure out
properly if you should be trashing

your goal or sticking with it.

And for the most part, a lot of us
haven't pushed hard enough to understand

if we should even trash it or not.

In fact, this ties in wonderfully to
the idea of work smarter, not harder.

While true, while true,
you have to work hard.

To understand what smart work even is to
understand how to act on a smart decision.

If someone's just doing something
right off the bat, because it's

easier, you have to ask yourself,
what is it about that challenge that

got you off your game so quickly?

You never took the time to understand
anything, to push that hard, to push that

fast, to see how, how far you could go.

If you could make it,

trash your goals.

You're going along the way, you're
hammering, you're doing your thing,

you're trying to go strong, you're trying
to go hard, you're trying to go fast,

and then someone says,
you're working too hard.

That might be true, but they often don't
know what the hell they're talking about.

If you're working hard, you
understand, okay, when I do this,

this is really what happens.

Okay, when I try to put this together,
this is actually what happens.

They're just sitting around
thinking, I don't want to get sweaty.

That shows you nothing.

Getting in there, and hustle culture
has gotten such a bad rap, and with a

lot of, and it deserves a lot of the bad
rap that it gets in a lot of situations,

but I think people have really decided,
I just want to be me, I just want to

be happy, I just want to be content.

Valid goals.

Valid.

But even with that, you have to
find a way to push towards it.

Why is something keeping
you from this easier life?

And the, the, the solution isn't
just to sit down in the dirt.

You can still keep high energy up.

You know, a lot of people
have the wrong idea about me.

Um, they think I was at work one time
and I was working hard like I do.

And someone said, one of the
managers said, Hey, you really,

you really like to work.

You're a good and happy worker.

I had to stop him and check
him and said, listen, I don't

work the way I work because of
anything this job is offering me.

I work the way I work because I want to.

And this is the kind of person I am.

And they didn't know whether to
be offended or shocked or what.

They just kind of looked
at me like, uh, oh, okay.

And gave me that blank stare

because when I go to a job, I'm there
to improve myself, not improve the job.

I'm not there to make anyone happy.

I'll do my job and I'll get my
paycheck, but I'm there to learn.

I'm there to experience possibly network.

I'm there to grow every company
situation that you get into or every

work situation that you get into.

You should be able to use it for
your advancement, not because of

some abstract, ethereal goal that.

Or standard that people
think that you should reach.

I told a story about Grant Cardone a
while ago, where two people went to work

at McDonald's and one person hated it.

One person loved it.

The person that hated it didn't
know why they were there.

They didn't know why they
came home smelling like fries.

They didn't know why people were
yelling at them while the other person

was there happy as a lark, because
they're trying to figure out how to run

a McDonald's franchise in the future.

And they're learning all the ins and outs.

They're learning what people come
at what time, how to prepare certain

foods, food safety, cleanliness.

They're still learning.

You know how to handle the money
and make sure everything's on point.

They'll learn a security.

So get in there and get
your momentum together.

If a goal isn't really yours, trash it.

If it's not taking you towards
that final destination, you

don't want, you want trash it.

If you don't understand it, keep going.

You don't understand it.

Work harder, learn a little more.

If you don't understand it, do
your thing and then look around

to see what else am I missing?

Talk to some people,
ask somebody something.

But don't get caught up in, don't get
caught up in the rest of society that's

having this, having this little bit
of a meltdown two weeks into January

talking about it's Quitters Day.

And one good way to stay on top
of yourself, I found, is a concept

of, I call, one level higher.

Usually when you're working a job, working
a routine, or you've got some situation,

you're usually thinking, I don't want
to do this, I don't need to do that.

I'm trying to do this one little very
specific thing and it's frustrating me.

If you consider it in terms of one,
thinking one level higher, then you

can usually get a better result.

And what do I mean by one level higher?

If you're continually thinking
about, well, I'm doing this job

so I can get to my next paycheck.

If that's the only thing you're
thinking about, then you're going

to start to resent the job and
only sit around for the paycheck.

And you may find things to like about
the job and whatever, but it won't

be as strong as it would have been if
you were thinking one level higher,

one level higher could be, Hey, I'm
thinking about going to the Bahamas.

So every time I'm here, I get to, I
get to work towards saving for that

Bahamas trip, or you want to be a better
networker every day you're at the job.

It's not like you have to do your job.

It's like, no, I get another
chance to talk to people.

Learn people skills, try different things,
hang out with different groups of people.

I get to learn how to network internally.

Let me try and practice that here.

Or someone's keep saying, Hey, this
one little thing isn't working.

Why can't we get this thing to work?

Start thinking one level higher.

Okay.

We're trying to get this
one little thing to work.

Is the entire process even working?

Like you're not going to
the gym to go to the gym.

You're not going to, you're not
going on the spin machine class.

You're not going to the spins class
to, to just go to the spin class.

You have to be thinking one level higher.

Like, no, every time I do this, every
time I sweat, every time I meet up

with these people, it's encouraging
me to do better and better and better.

And that allows me to keep on hammering
and building up that momentum and

looking one level higher keeps
me away from that grass is green

syndrome, the shiny object syndrome,

or I don't know, maybe
that's just how I see it.

Because if something's not working,
you can trash your goal and keep going.

Have you ever noticed somebody like a
lot of these very powerful creators,

creative types, uh, your Steve jobs,
your, your rockstar games, your, your

tech companies, or maybe just somebody,
you know, in your family, some managers.

And a lot of, a lot of people in the
rank and file get mad at management

for changing their minds a lot.

But yeah, sometimes you, you need to,
that's what you're supposed to do.

Something's not working out, trash it.

Facebook starts on a feature.

No one likes it, trash it,
change it into something else.

Keep hammering at it for a little
while, make adjustments, see if,

see if those adjustments work.

But stay on that one level higher.

So you're moving towards your main, your
main objective, your final destination.

On the other hand, you can stay
tuned to your goals very closely,

where if you know, you're thinking
one level higher, if you have that

thought in mind, then you can actually
go down deeper and enjoy your very

minute detailed work much more.

Easily.

By thinking one level higher,

you go from worrying about going
to the gym to the micro detail

of, am I lifting this, am I
lifting this barbell just right?

Who, who can I check with
that can rate my form?

Should I record myself actually doing
a workout, not trying to get views for

Instagram, but should I record myself and.

And check my form later
when I get home and adjust.

Because that's the high, that's
the high level matching up with

the low level work right there.

And having those two at the same
time is a powerful thing because it

keeps you on your trajectory and it
keeps you moving by editing the small

little details that, that just might
need some adjustment, some tinkering.

And it keeps you on your high path.

The middle is where you don't
want to be, where you're just

kind of floundering around.

You're not really pushing.

You're not really going detailed.

You're not really going high level.

You're just kind of joking around.

Now that's when the shiny object
syndrome and the green grass

syndrome starts to creep in.

And you start wondering, huh, well maybe
I should be Maybe I should be studying

Latin instead of going to the gym.

And it's like, I don't even know
what you're talking about, dude.

But anyway, speaking of pivoting,
um, I'm watching, I'm, you know, I

need to come up with a clean exit for
the, the proper part of the podcast

before I start talking about other
stuff, not sure how I want to do that.

Um, and this is me talking and thinking
about my creativity out loud in real time.

I want to put the.

I want to put the viewer mail and the, the
more social stuff at the end, as opposed

to at the beginning, when you start up
one of these podcasts, I want you to

get right into the mix and meet of it.

That's why I do it that way.

And then towards the end, you'll start
hearing discussions like this, where

I'm just talking about podcasting
in general, things that are going

on right now, what I'm trying out.

So that's pretty much how I'm
going to format it going forth.

I don't know if anyone else that's
doing this, but I don't care.

Uh, if it doesn't work, I'll trash
it, but I'm going to hammer at it for

a while and make it more of a thing.

In the meantime, I would like to
thank some of my people from Instagram

for popping through 1913 matters.

DJ Sean black.

Awesome.

Always good to have you a
programmer black and Gil Sandevious.

Thanks for stopping
through Margaret Khron.

Always good seeing you around
and, uh, Liberty Madison too.

Thanks for coming through.

Always good to hear from you.

So, yeah, I'm going to be taking this
podcast and it's on the podcast channels.

Now the next phase of this is to get
some, I don't know what to call it.

More community aspects wrapped into it.

So going into the next week and the
week after that, I'm going to start

adding in some community elements.

You'll see that on the website.

Creativity threads threads life
dot com and and I'll be, I'll

be making some announcements.

So, the creative shirts
are always still out there.

I'm going to post a few
more images of those.

You can get those from creative
study lounge as it stuff is kind of.

In different places, but I'm
bringing it together right now.

And that's going to, that's
going to do it for this one.

Got a little frog in my throat here.

So something's happening.

Maybe it's telling me it's time to get
off for the night, but anyway, thank you.

Be sure to subscribe on Apple, subscribe
on Spotify and subscribe on Google or

however you want to get this podcast.

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