Creating anything takes guts; I explained that in depth in my book The Art of Instigating.
It takes guts because you're going to take a hit (no question about it), and taking a hit isn't pleasant.
Nobody WANTS to take a hit.
But the person unwilling to take a hit might as well stay out of the arena.
The boxer not willing to get knocked down shouldn't enter the ring, just like the creator/producer/writer/inventor not willing to fail should avoid creating art.
When you step into the ring - when you enter the arena - you will take a hit.
If you’re not ready to deal with it – to take a hit and to hit back – you’ve lost before you even started.
Most people don’t commit.
Most people don’t go all in.
Most people don’t burn the boat.
As soon as you make up your mind to do all three, you’ve just eliminated 90% of the competition.
Why? Because most people don’t commit, when things get difficult (and they always do), they throw in the towel.
After all, what’s the point of going through the pain of taking another hit when you had no intention of making it to the last round in the first place?
Most people dabble – most people are hobbyists – and when the real pain of creating, building and inventing sets in, they throw in the towel and walk away.
Eventually you’ll get hit.
No matter how good a boxer, no matter how great a writer, designer, builder, entrepreneur or inventor, you will experience rejection, setback and failure.
You can’t avoid taking a hit, but you can train yourself to take a hit (and hit back).
The hobbyist spends his energy trying to avoid taking a hit. When the hit comes (and it always does), he's done.
The hobbyist never commits.
The professional – the person serious about what he's doing – is willing to take a hit and knows how to hit back.
The professional commits.
And because the professional commits, he has very little competition from the hobbyists.
The professional will inevitably find success - he’s in it to the end.
The hobbyist is done before he starts.
Which are you?
Today I thought I’d try something a little different.
Instead of writing a mindblowing and inspiring blog post (at least that’s my intention with every post I write), I decided to interview a successful entrepreneur, published author and good friend of mine, Al Pittampalli.
This is the first in a series of interviews I'm doing with some really incredible people.
I'm calling it "In The Trenches: The Resistance Broadcast Interview Series"
You can probably guess the type of content we talk about, but I will say this: it's all about those people who are doing creative work, fighting the Enemy daily to build their empire, and making big things happen. The guests will include entrepreneurs, founders, CEO's, authors, bloggers, philosophers, scientists, and psychologists (among others).
You can press play below to listen to the interview immediately (it's hosted via dropbox and anyone should be able to access it - let me know if you have any problems):
UPDATE -- this interview has been republished on my podcast "In The Trenches." Click here to listen to my interview with Al Pittampalli on "In The Trenches" here.
Al knows what it means to instigate and lead, and, if you’re looking to create something from scratch successfully (aspiring writers and entrepreneurs take note), I promise this interview will blow your mind and inspire you.
There are some truly profound pieces of wisdom in here and you really need to hear them from someone who’s in the trenches and knows what it means to fight and strive for something.
So click this link to start listening.
A little more about Al Pittampalli:
Al is the founder of The Modern Meeting Company and a self-proclaimed meeting culture warrior. He's on a mission to change the way organizations hold meetings, make decisions, and coordinate action (and when you listen to the interview, you’ll see he’s most certainly doing just that).
Al is a published author. His book Read This Before Our Next Meeting was published by Seth Godin’s Domino Project, and during the week of its release it was the most popular Kindle book in the world.
Al has been featured in Forbes, the Telegraph, Huffington Post, CBS Money Watch, and many others publications.
You can read his blog and find out more about him and his company at his website: www.modernmeetingstandard.com
Al is a sought-after speaker and writer and an all-around awesome guy.
Here are just a few of the subjects we touch on:
I hope you enjoy the interview.
*note: I had originally recorded the interview on a better recording system, but that version ended up crashing on me, so what you’re listening to is the unedited, unabridged, backup version. There’s nothing sexy about it, but I think the sound quality is good enough to sit through and enjoy.
Definitely give the interview a listen and pick up Al’s book – you won’t regret it.
I’d like to hear your feedback too – let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email and let me know if you want to hear more interviews like this one!
p.s. If you haven't subscribed to The Resistance Broadcast, click the link below and receive a free copy of my book The Art of Instigating, as well as broadcasts (newsletter publications) 3 times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - to help you build your empire.
"Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain." [Emerson]
Or maybe not.
Maybe that fear never dies.
Action quells fear because it changes our focus.
Instead of experiencing the terror of a hypothetical, negative future, action requires your mind to focus on the present circumstance.
Action shifts our brain from theorizing to creating; from fantasy to tangible reality; from superfluous ideations to the practical manipulation of our environment.
And when we take action on the thing that we fear, we go through this same shift.
But it doesn't destroy fear.
Stop taking action and fear will most certainly return.
Which isn't to suggest mindless action as the solution to conquering your fears.
Any robot can follow rules, stay busy, and avoid the fear of real life.
Nor should you detach yourself in order to avoid fear; the detached person who avoids his emotions altogether isn't enlightened but ignorant of the consequences of his actions.
Because real life is fearful. Living is scary. There are very physical consequences to our action and inaction, and we have to make choices (with physical consequences) daily.
Ignoring this fact doesn't make you immune to this reality.
The truth is, fear, as upsetting as it is to experience, is necessary.
We need fear because we need courage.
The courageous person isn't fearless.
On the contrary, the courageous person experiences fear far more palpably than the coward because he takes action in the face of fear, while the coward avoids it altogether.
The courageous person accepts his own fear and continues to fight; the coward lets someone else fight for him.
The courageous person stares down the Enemy every day and takes action; the coward makes excuses and avoids taking action.
The courageous person does the thing that might fail; the coward sticks to things that work.
Without fear there is no courage.
And without the courage of the few, we'd be left with the status quo of the cowards.
So don't stress if you're working on a project and you're scared to death - it doesn't mean you're cowardly.
If you're terrified, then you're doing something that might fail, that challenges the status quo, that requires courage.
Keep going.
We need you.
In the first part of this series, I described the conventional forces of the Enemy – the Army of Bad Habits (the largest of Enemy forces)
In the second part of this series, I explained the unconventional force of the Enemy: Negative Self-Talk Propaganda (the most insidious of Enemy forces).
In this third part of the series, we will examine who leads these Enemy forces, why he is invincible, and what we can do to outwit and beat him.
The leader of the Enemy forces isn't your boss or your competitor; it’s not the world conspiring against you; it’s not your bad luck or your genetics.
The leader of the Enemy is nothing external at all.
The leader of the Enemy is the battle-hardened, combat-veteran Commanding General: your brain stem.
The brain stem is that small part of your brain, way in the back, which connects to the spinal column.
“The brain stem is the Commanding General of the Army of Bad Habits, and it will stop at nothing to keep you from creating your life’s work.” [The Art of Instigating]
The brain stem is the conduit from your brain to the rest of your body, and it controls life-sustaining, essential functions, including your heart beat and central nervous system.
That’s right: the same thing that is essential for your existence controls the Enemy, seeks to destroy your worthwhile project and will put a halt to your life’s work if you're not aware of it.
Without the brain stem, we can’t live (hence, the brain stem is invincible).
But without outsmarting the brain stem, we can’t create our life’s work.
Outsmarting the brain stem is simple if we understand two basic facts:
1) The brain stem’s existence is to preserve itself
2) The brain stem is living thousands of years in the past
When we understand these two basic facts – that the brain stem’s motivating factor is self-preservation and that it’s living in the past – we can develop a fighting style that outwits and beats the Enemy.
Since the brain stem’s purpose is self-preservation, it hates anything that might expose us.
That’s why it’s so hard to produce creative work; when we do something extraordinary, when we become the outlier, we stand out from the pack.
And standing out from the pack does not improve our survival rate.
Because the brain stem is living thousands of years in the past, it doesn't understand that standing out from the pack today is actually nonlethal.
Today, we can separate ourselves by being great at what we do with no threat of being destroyed by wild, man-eating animals, but our brain stem doesn't understand that.
No amount of rational thought will convince it otherwise.
The brain stem is unforgiving and irrational.
For the brain stem, shipping your product to market and exposing yourself to criticism is like taking on a monster-sized, man-killing wolf with nothing but your bare hands.
It’s hard; it’s scary; you might not make it.
So how do you outsmart and beat the Commanding General of the Enemy?
You do it anyway.
To beat the Enemy, to outsmart the brain stem, all you have to do is get to work.
When you take action, go to work, and start creating, the bull**** of the Enemy goes away.
But it will come back.
It always does.
And that’s why taking action every day is so important.
No matter how many times you go up against a monster, it never gets less scary.
But every time you willingly go up against the monster, you become stronger.
When it comes to instigating your life's work, creating something worthwhile, and building your empire, your goal is to become the strongest.
So go be the strongest.
Get to work.
This is part 2 of a 3 part series explaining the Enemy (the thing stopping us from creating our epic work). You can read part one here. If you are new, read my new book: The Art of Instigating; this article will make more sense, I promise.
In the first part of this series, I explained the conventional forces of the Enemy: the Army of Bad Habits (the accumulation of years of individual actions, repeated daily and consistently).
Fighting the Army of Bad Habits isn’t easy, but it’s also the simplest to understand and identify.
The unconventional force of the Enemy is much harder to understand and identify.
The Enemy’s unconventional force is one that uses subterfuge to confuse us into giving up on a project right at the start, or bailing on our project near the end.
It gets us when and where we’re weakest.
The Enemy’s unconventional force is negative self-talk propaganda.
“Negative self-talk propaganda is all the terrible, unproductive, fruitless, worthless, silly things we say to ourselves when we’re building something worthwhile.” [Tom’s Blog]
Self-talk originates in the rational part of our brain (the left side of the brain; although exactly where our rational thoughts come from is still being debated and a topic for another post).
These thoughts are negative because they don’t help you create anything.
Negative self-talk propaganda will rationalize why you shouldn't do anything inventive, productive, or creative for as long as you live.
And, in fact, negative self-talk propaganda will try its hardest to out-rationalize your positive, ambitious side by explaining why anything you decide to create will fail; why anything you long to build will just enter the abyss of unsuccessful; why no matter how hard you try, it will all be in vain.
If you’re hoping for a rational reason why you should instigate, you might as well stop looking, stop instigating, and start following orders, instructions, and rules.
There is nothing rational about building your empire or creating something from scratch and without permission (or at least nothing to out-rationalize why you SHOULDN’T do these things).
The negative self-talk propaganda in your head is very, very good at rationalization; its entire existence is based on subterfuge and undermining your productive thoughts.
It’s propaganda because we've learned, over time, what society (school, family, work, etc.) thinks we should do, and those memories affect and change our internal monologue.
This propaganda is the negative things we say to ourselves as we try to build something epic, something we've seen others do but we know we can do better, or something unique but we’re not sure how others might take it.
It’s propaganda because it’s not true.
Anything you thought could be done can be done.
Anything you think you could do better can be done better.
Anything unique you want to bring to the world deserves to be brought into existence.
Negative self-talk propaganda can’t be destroyed; it can’t be killed and buried like we all wish it could.
It exists, and we have to deal with it every day for as long as we live – no amount of therapy will get rid of it.
The way to deal with negative self-talk propaganda is simple:
Negative self-talk propaganda HATES when we take our lives into our own hands, develop our goals, and ship them to the market.
It hates it because it can’t do anything about the persistent effort we give to a singular endeavor.
If you think you should quit, if you think it might not work, if you think it’s stupid…do it anyway.
Go to work.
You’ll find (very quickly) the negative self-talk propaganda fades….
At least for a time.
As with everything worth doing, the Enemy will always be there to try and break us down.
Don’t let it.
Instigate your life’s work.
Continue reading Part 3: THE ENEMY DEFINED (PART 3: THE COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE ENEMY)
Note: if you haven’t read The Art of Instigating, read that first. Grab a copy for free by clicking here. It’s short and sweet, I promise.
When it comes to doing creative, courageous work, there are forces at work that act against us.
Any time we strive to create something from scratch and without permission, we go to war with the Enemy.
The Enemy is composed of two major fighting units: conventional forces (the Army of Bad Habits we’ve accumulated over the years), and unconventional forces (the voice in our head that feeds us negative self-talk propaganda).
These units are led by a hardened combat veteran that wants nothing more than to see your creative work fail: the brain stem.
To fight the Enemy, we must understand the Enemy.
We will start with the Army of Bad Habits (arguably the simplest to identify, although not necessarily the easiest to defeat).
The Army of Bad Habits is nothing more than the accumulation of years of individual negative actions repeated consistently over time.
These actions, over the course of that time, have gained brain map territory and strengthened their trench lines (neural networks).
Now, anytime we do something counter to those bad habits, it’s like trying to take down Goliath as David (but we’re stone-less and blindfolded).
Try as we might to change a bad habit, or replace a bad habit with a good habit, we still have the Enemy’s neural network deeply rooted in our brain map territory.
This is essential to understand: you will never entirely rid yourself of your bad habit, nor entirely rid yourself of the desire (no matter how faint) to repeat the bad habit.
No matter how often you repeat a good habit, it will never become fixed and automatic (but it will become easier).
The same principle that allows us to create new habits (the plasticity of the brain) is the same principle that allows old habits to strengthen and remain, to some degree, in our brain map territory.
A habit does not mean automatic and thoughtless: a habit is simply muscle memory.
We can choose to strengthen a good habit each day, or we can regress and act on the old, bad habit again (thus strengthening the old neural networks of that bad habit, no matter how many years it’s been dormant).
That’s why the person in Alcoholics Anonymous admits to being an alcoholic, but fights daily to remain sober (and, therefore, fights daily never to resume the old lifestyle, never to repeat the old, bad habit).
The plasticity of the brain is both a blessing and a curse this way.
It’s a blessing because it means we can always, ALWAYS change, no matter how far we’ve fallen, regressed, or deteriorated.
It doesn’t matter if you failed to become the person you wanted to become, or failed to write the book you dreamed of writing, or failed to start the business you envisioned years ago; every single one of these failures is nothing more than a roadblock, obstacle, or setback – none of these failures are hardwired in the brain, nor do they define us.
If we choose, we can create new habits, destroy the deep rooted bad habits, and get to work on instigating our life’s work.
You can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks.
But only if the old dog WANTS to learn new tricks.
And here’s the curse of plasticity: nothing about creating new habits is easy.
There’s no quick fix. There’s no magic genie waiting to grant your wish at the snap of a finger.
If you continue to perpetuate your old ways, to reinforce your bad habits, the Enemy gets stronger.
The Army of Bad Habits will continue to fight to strengthen their trench lines and gain more brain map territory.
This is a war that lasts an entire lifetime, and it’s a war each and every one of us fights.
Any person looking to create something from scratch, without permission, is entering the warzone.
There are no gifted people without struggles or problems; there are no talented people that create freely and easily. That gifted, talented, and supposedly carefree inventor, designer, writer, entrepreneur, or athlete you see is fictional.
They care – and they fight, just like you and I.
There are no breaks – just our own actions, our own thoughts, and our own work.
Remember, we can break old habits and we can create new habits, no matter how old we are. That’s the beauty of brain plasticity.
But it also means, the longer we wait, the harder that fight becomes.
So pick up arms and start fighting (sit down at your desk and get to work; go to the gym and workout; throw out your processed, junk food and fill your fridge with healthy food; stop avoiding and start making calls...you get the idea).
Why?
Because your life’s work depends on it.
Continue reading part 2: THE ENEMY DEFINED (PART 2: NEGATIVE SELF-TALK PROPAGANDA)
The good thing about instigating is that so few people actually instigate, you’re competition is pretty limited.
This make success (in any venture) possible and way more probable than you might expect.
The bad thing about instigating is that so few people actually instigate, you’re not going to have very much company on your way to the top (or once you reach the top).
The hard part when starting any worthwhile project isn’t the competition – they are few and far between (and often imaginary). The hard part is trying to get there by yourself, because for large parts of the journey, you’re on your own.
The Enemy knows this.
And the Enemy will do everything in its power to break you down and get you to quit.
The Enemy will use fear and uncertainty to cloud your mind and confuse your goals. The Enemy will hit you when you’re weakest – when you haven’t had success in a while – and get you to question yourself (“why am I even doing this?”), critique yourself (“this isn’t good enough”), and ultimately beat yourself (“I can’t do this anymore”).
The Enemy can use these tactics because you’re alone, and it knows that when you’re alone you’re most susceptible to one of the Enemy’s most effective attacks: negative self-talk propaganda.
Negative self-talk propaganda is all the terrible, unproductive, fruitless, worthless, silly things we say to ourselves when we’re building something worthwhile.
The Enemy uses negative self-talk propaganda against us any time we’re doing something courageous.
“In order for there to be courage, of course, there must be risk. It doesn’t take courage to open the refrigerator, because there’s no downside.” [The Icarus Deception]
And fighting alone to create your life’s work is the riskiest thing you can do.
The thing to remember is this:
The Enemy can’t fight (effectively), when we’re engaged in our worthwhile project because it means we’re taking back brain map territory.
“The actions we perform more often, the movements we practice more consistently, and the senses we employ more frequently, begin to control more brain map territory.” [The Art of Instigating]
As long as we're taking back territory, we keep the Enemy at bay.
The key is to know the Enemy will attack us in predictable ways, to anticipate this ahead of time and plan for how we will deal with it, and, when the time comes, to follow through with our plan.
The best way to beat the Enemy’s negative self-talk propaganda isn’t to think happy thoughts.
It’s not to repeat motivational quotes to yourself in the hopes of creating a positive mental attitude.
It’s not even to imagine how good you feel as if you’ve already accomplished your goal in the hopes of attracting the solution to you.
No, none of these will help you beat the Enemy.
The only way to beat the Enemy and overcome negative self-talk propaganda is this:
Get to work.
The negative self-talk propaganda in your head will fade when you sit down to write your next page, build the next part of your business, or initiate your project's next move.
And that's it - that's all there is.
Get to work and you'll beat the Enemy.
Simple, but not easy.
New? Join the Resistance:
“there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things…” [Niccolo Machiavelli]
The instigator is the first to break the old by leading the new.
The instigator is the first to jump out of the helicopter; the first onto the beach; the first into the fray.
The instigator duels with order and dances with uncertainty.
The Art of Instigating is about taking the lead, not in spite of uncertainty, but because of it; it’s about doing the difficult thing not in spite of the difficulties, but because of them; it’s about daring greatly not in spite of the perils, but because things are perilous.
The instigator doesn’t dare anything in spite – he only dares because.
Don't miss the release of my upcoming book, The Art of Instigating; subscribe here.
Almost 2,000 years ago, in 52 AD, dozens of Roman captives assembled in front of the emperor Claudius. These captives were about to take part in a major gladiatorial event – a mock naval battle.
The Roman captives gave a salute to the emperor before the “games” began:
“Nos morituri te salutamus (We who are about to die salute you).” [Lives of the Caesars]
By the end of the day, one thing was certain: they would all be dead.
The Arena of Creativity
It’s important to accept, before you start, that you will fail.
While the artist, writer, or entrepreneur won’t physically die like the gladiators before them (thankfully), their work most surely will (at one time or another).
Failure is an essential part of creation. Nothing is perfect in its first form (if it is, it’s probably not perfect). The greatest pieces of art went through revision after revision, draft after draft, scrapped copy after scrapped copy.
How will your project be any different?
Understanding that you will fail, that there will be setbacks, obstacles, and breaking points, shouldn’t be a discomforting thought. On the contrary, by understanding this in ADVANCE, we are better suited to deal with these struggles when they occur.
And they will occur.
Are you ready to enter the arena?
If you haven't had a chance, make sure you sign up for The Resistance Broadcast, a free newsletter with exclusive content. Don't miss it - your project depends on it:
"Finally!" Sarah smiles. She’s got it: the perfect idea.
After an afternoon of brainstorming with her group, Sarah’s come up with dozens of brilliant ideas, but one in particular resonates with her.
Something about the idea just makes sense; it has tons of money making potential (after crunching the numbers, it works, no question about it), and it energizes her just thinking about it (so she knows she’s passionate about it).
And even better, after hours of thrashing, she’s managed to come up with a solid plan of attack.
She backward-plans from her ship date and comes up with specific dates for keystone events (finalize the document, write the copy, connect with affiliates, put up the splash page, and so on).
After a long (and productive!) day, Sarah puts the pen and paper down, shuts off the netbook, and decides to relax for the rest of the night. She’ll start tomorrow, she says to herself. She deserves it.
Tomorrow begins with a rush; Sarah’s alarm doesn't go off and now she’s going to be late; she races to work but a car accident causes a traffic jam and she can’t get around it; when she finally gets to work, her 8 bosses let her know about her TPS report cover sheet mistake; she needs to skip lunch to catch up on work because her team member, who is on vacation, forgot to finish his part; after several meetings and a pep talk about standards from one of her bosses, Sarah is finally ready to leave for the day.
When she gets home, Sarah realizes how messy everything is and starts cleaning; as she cleans, she sees that the pantry needs to be reorganized; as she reorganizes the pantry, she makes a list of items she needs to buy at the store (might as well multitask and kill a few birds with one stone, right?); as she’s writing her list, she remembers she still needs to pay her utility bill; Sarah hops on the computer but gets sidetracked by Facebook; while surfing, she makes dinner; after another hour of clicking links, she yawns and realizes how tired she is. Sarah gets ready for bed and makes a mental note to finish cleaning and organizing. Oh, and the project; she’ll get to that tomorrow when she has some time and energy.
But tomorrow evening she has a dinner date, and the day after that book club, and the upcoming weekend a wedding…
In three months, Sarah happens upon an old pile of notes tucked into a magazine left on the coffee table. She scans some of the things she wrote down and sees the “perfect idea” she came up with and the deadlines she had set. Sarah looks at the calendar and realizes she should be shipping the product to market next weekend.
It was just a silly idea anyway and probably wouldn't have worked, Sarah says to herself. She was busy doing important real life things anyway. It probably would have been a waste of time and she recognizes that the idea doesn't really motivate her anymore (not to mention the money making potential seems exaggerated at best).
Sarah’s job isn't so bad, she lives in a nice place, and the weather outside is great. She’s happy, she thinks to herself - her chest slightly tightens and releases. She just barely notices. Sarah puts the notes into a binder on her bookshelf.
Sarah’s proud of her ideas from that brainstorming session three months ago, even if it never got off the ground. That’s part of the process, isn't it? Eventually, she says to herself, it will be worth doing another brainstorming session to come up with the right idea – something she can really put all her energy behind. No rush; she’ll have even more life experience and knowledge the next time she starts. She’ll get around to a better idea soon and that’ll be the one that works out.
Sarah gets a call from her best friend and remembers she has plans to go out tonight. As she talks to her friend, Sarah forgets what she was thinking about and starts to get ready.
The enemy is happy; another battle won; more territory gained...
The enemy is in no threat of losing this war...
