Fear

Taking Inventory

Garth Beyer

I’ve written a bunch about starting fresh this new year. This post is by far my favorite

Ship or Delete

Taking Inventory

Nah. It’s more like getting rid of your inventory. Very cut and dry.

Go through all of your lists right now: your projects, your folders, your notes, your journals, your goals, and either ship or delete them.

Simple right?

Well you’re going to come across a project and think to yourself, “Well this is something that I can’t ship right now because it’s unfinished and it’ll take time to be finished.”

Decide right now whether you will actually finish it within the next two months. If yes, then do it. If no, then either delete it or ship a short version of it. Put it out there for someone else to work on.

There are a couple of concepts at play here.

The first is that if your idea was remarkable enough, you would be working on it constantly or would be passionate enough to complete it within two months.

The second is that if you can withhold one of your ideas, one of your projects, then you are saying it’s not important enough to be delivered right away. (If it is, then now I’m mad that you’ve made me wait so long and won’t buy into it when you finally deliver it.)

The new year is about starting fresh. You have 21 days to go through all you have and either ship or delete. Ship or delete. Ship or delete.

In order for a door to open, you must close one. Actually, the cool thing about life is that when one door closes, a million open for you. How many will you have opened for the new year?

 

Stay Positive & Make Room For New Inventory

Garth E. Beyer

 

Fear Is Always There

Garth Beyer

If you fight fear and win enough times, usually it disappears.

At least, it makes you think it has disappeared. It’s merely taken up a new angle, establishing a different strategy, waiting to catch you off guard.

It takes a fiercely determined person to constantly seek out and conquer their fear.

The conquering part is easy, just do whatever fear tells you not to.

It’s the seeking it out that people have problems with.

 

Stay Positive & My Favorite Search And Destroy Game

Garth E. Beyer

Fear Grows Old With You

Garth Beyer

Sure, the older you get, the less you fear. Fantastic. Knowing that doesn’t help too much when your young and inspiring to be a journalist or a magazine editor.

It’s been two weeks that I sent an email to a student I met on a PR agency tour, who was interested in writing for a fashion magazine, asking her to submit a work example to me. I know a few people in the magazine industry that would either interview her or point her in the right direction if I referred her to them.

Two weeks and I haven’t received a response. There is no question about it, fear ate her and won’t spit her out. Once she thought of five or six reasons why she shouldn’t respond to me, she deleted my email. Fear got to her.

That’s the harsh reality of those aspiring to be journalists. When this happens, it’s not about being pushed two steps back, you have to start all over again.

If you’ve done something similar to this girl – and sure, you can love writing all you want – but maybe journalism isn’t your passion.

Riding A Bike (No analogy, just a lesson)

Garth Beyer

I cried a lot as a kid so it’s rare that I can remember a specific cry. The one I can recall is my first cry while trying to ride a bike for the first time. I remember my dad running behind me, keeping me steady. I yelled at him to NOT let go. He did. It ended up with me crying.

I’ve read a lot of analogies and quotes about life in relation to riding a bike. There’s something universal about teaching a kid to ride a bike; it’s not just a lesson about riding a bike, it’s a life lesson.

Step one: Make sure the kid knows that he is going to fall off the bike and if the kid is anything like any other kid, will cry and be afraid to ride again. Prepare the kid for it. Tell him what will happen. Do this at first.

Step two: then switch your words of honesty with words of encouragement immediately upon the first fall. Tell the kid that he is going to ride smoothly, keep the handlebars steady, pedal slow and thoroughly and will succeed.

Step three: Pat on the back. He’s done it.

The strongest feelings in this world are the ones that surprise you. This means that they can be any type of feeling: sad, lonely, happy, guilty, scared, proud, etc,.  There is less of a feeling if you expect it, or in this case, if a kid expects to fall off the bike and hurt himself it won’t hurt nearly as bad if he didn’t expect it.

As we likely know, but often forget, once we fail, we are that much closer to success. We hold this expectation of falling off the bike again and hurting ourselves. But when we don’t fall, when the kid finally rides the bike without it resulting in tears, it’s the strongest feeling in the world; much stronger than getting it right the first time.

Success doesn’t move us, the feelings of it do.

 

Stay Positive & Feel More

Garth E. Beyer

What Improvisation Is And What It Can Do For You

What Improvisation Is And What It Can Do For You

Garth Beyer

“Improvisation is motion.” – Bobby McFerrin

Improvisation precedes the understanding of something. It’s connecting who you are with who you want to be. It’s the bridge that you get to dance across. Improvisation is calling fear to you and making it your friend. It’s how you surface courage.

I have to take after Bobby McFerrin’s example to show how powerful improvisation is. He tells his students to sing nonstop for ten minutes. They can sing whatever tune they want or make up their own, it doesn’t matter, but they must keep singing. All of his students want to stop within two minutes. They think of different reasons why they should: they start to think how dumb it is,  they think how stupid they must look and sound, they start to think they are singing terribly, they start to think that everyone around them thinks they are unworthy and making a fool of themselves.

Within just two minutes it feels the world is screaming at them to stop, but they don’t. They continue singing for ten minutes everyday for three weeks and by the end, the best way I can describe it, is that they find their voice.

This exercise can be done within any realm of passion: singing, writing, dancing, climbing, drawing, or even milking cows (purple cows).

For many, success is a huge sought after factor, day in and day out.

For a select few, harmony is more important.

Improvisation leads to harmony.

 

Stay Positive & It Just So Happens That Harmony Leads To Success

Garth E. Beyer

A Remarkable Video To Watch

Garth Beyer

I was fortunate enough to find this clip in my schools digital library. I suggest checking yours or seeing if you can find a free version.

But if not, it’s worth paying for. Truly is.

Heck, it’s so important that you watch it, I just found a free version for you!

I never thought I’d say that I would watch a documentary twice, but I would with this one. Let me know your thoughts and let’s chat about it ( thegarthbox@gmail.com )

And come on … it has Seth Godin in it!

Stay Positive & Watch And Learn

Garth E. Beyer

Shutting Fear Out … In New York

Shutting Fear Out … In New York

Garth Beyer
We may have liberty, but we still have a lizard brain

Who has heard about the lizard brain? No one? Well I’ll have to change that.

The lizard brain is what makes us not do what we say we are going to do. It’s what stops us from checking tasks off our to-do list, it stops us from writing the book we want, stops us from sending that application in, it stops us from living a meaningful, adventurous, exciting life. The lizard brain can also be referred to as the Amygdala, the part of our brain which registers fear. This fear has a voice and it tells us to compromise, to play it safe, to stay where we are comfortable. This reference to the lizard brain was coined by Seth Godin, author, marketer, and revolutionary starter.

During this mass media age, I believe Seth Godin to be one of the most insightful and helpful authors to us digital natives. Seth Godin has written more than 14 books that have all been best sellers and translated into over 30 languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. Even if a five-mile wide meteor struck the earth today, you could still say that Seth Godin has made a larger impact on society.

You may think this author is important because you imagine him to be the motivating type. He is no more motivating than a rock. He is however a person who can bring you to understand why you do what you do, rather, why you don’t do what you don’t do. He explains in his most infamous book, Linchpin¸how the closer you get to delivering something, to accomplishment, to taking a risk, the harder the lizard brain works to stop you.  This ability, to make us aware, is what makes Seth Godin so important.

If it’s not clear already, Seth is an idol of mine. Heck, I flew out to New York to see him and wrote about that experience here. Seth has taught me how to build a tribe, inspired me to keep shipping, and has helped me realize the inner workings of my brain and ego in such a simplistic manner. I continue to read his books and build off his ideas and will do my absolute best to get a one-on-one interview with him over the holidays because I am planning a trip to NYC. I truly owe it to Seth for getting me to where I am today. (HT to Seth Godin)

Side note: If anyone has someone they can introduce me to through email/phone/person that either lives in New York or has other contacts in New York, I would greatly appreciate it. I plan on spending the summer in New York to find an opportunity to become more of a writer and to connect with some of the most brilliant minded people. Michelle being one of them, she’s something special! Thank you!

 

Stay Positive & People Help People, Who Help People, Who Help Other People, Who Help More People …

Garth E. Beyer