GarthBox

Which is more interesting to you? The oldest lighthouse in the world or the creation of a new, first-of-its-kind one?

Some people will choose the same as you. Others, differently.

Now consider carrying this analogy over into the world of your muse.

Just because you’re young and you shipped the first of your life’s work doesn’t mean it will go unnoticed. Some people are blown away by new. Some people seek it out.

In other words,
you don’t need to be 70 years old to be respected.
you don’t need to change your work to be appreciated by a new generation.
you don’t need to have shipped for years to become recognized.

 

Stay Positive & Stick To What’s True To You

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There’s a saying that has stuck with me for years.

Make time, save time, while time lasts, all time, is no time, if time is past.

Make time: It’s not that you don’t have time. It’s that you haven’t made it. Own that next time someone calls you out for not having completed a task. “I didn’t have time” is not an honest reason. “I haven’t made time” is.

Save time: Cut the clutter. Cut the TV. Cut the wifi when you sleep until after you’ve had breakfast and read part of a book you picked at random. Time is precious. Care for it.

Past: As in history. Forget it, but remember what it taught you.

 

Stay Positive & The Clock Is Calling

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Make more shitty first drafts.

Every remarkable piece of art has either come from later versions of a shitty first draft or it has come from something new that was created after learning all the lessons of the other hundred shitty first drafts.

In other words, you don’t need more good ideas. You need more bad ones.

And for every bad idea, either find a way to improve it or find what you learned from it that can make the next bad idea, different.

 

Stay Positive & One SFD Per Day, Please

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With any steam train, it requires a stoker. Someone who shows up, again and again, who fans the flame, who shovels the coal, who keeps the train moving forward.

A stoker that gives it his all despite the lack of recognition (chances are you didn’t know the person who shovels coal into the engine box is called a stoker). No worries, though. To the stoker, there’s no ego in the coal room.

When you develop your muse, bit by bit, over time, you create remarkable change. You get people where they need to go. You make progress. You create forward movement the same as a stoker.

But, like the stoker, you have to show up, again and again.

 

Stay Positive & Fuel Your Muse

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If you are aiming to create change, then you’re in the idea business.

Every day write down 10 ideas. (10)
Every day mail five different ideas to yourself. (15)
Every day share three ideas with a friend you admire. (18)
Every day share two ideas with your boss. (20)

An idea is what fuels change. Not the other way around.

 

Stay Positive & More Ideas The Merrier

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Our responsibility in this life is to create change.

It only gets easier … and scarier to.

It’s a tall order to show up every day.

It’s our calling though.

 

Stay Positive & See You Again Tomorrow

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It’s easier to skip an activity on your to-do list than it is to skip an activity you have dedicated time scheduled to complete.

In some cases,–like that of creating something meaningful–a routine is a tactic that helps more than it hurts.

Some wait for inspiration to hit, other’s tell it when it needs to show up, they mark it in their calendars, they set alarms.

 

Stay Positive & Plan The Work

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