Focus

Movement Tells A Story

Garth Beyer

Story Ladder

What you’re passionate about doesn’t necessarily come easy. No matter if you’re doing what you love or not, you’re still climbing a ladder, trying to reach the top, trying to make progress.

Creating art is a method of taking on problems from an outer level with complete focus and forming them into an almost subconscious solution process that allows you to then focus on the next problem. Each step of the ladder presents a new problem to solve. At face value, it’s not enjoyable, not fun, but what sets an artist apart from others who climb is that they find a way to love the process, to enjoy the struggle.

We build value in ourselves when we climb the ladder, when we accomplish goals, when we are moving. When we stop moving up the ladder to say “look at me now,” we tell the wrong story. Humans are inclined to see narratives where there are none because it can afford meaning to our lives, Cody Delistraty at The Atlantic writes. Storytelling when standing still is an oxymoron. It doesn’t resonate well, it doesn’t inspire, it doesn’t tell the message you really want to be telling.

People view you differently when seeing where you’re at now, compared to where you’re going. Sure, saying where you’ve been and what you’ve accomplished and how you got to where you’re at now can be remarkable, but only if people know there is more to come from you; that where you decided to stop and shout down is not the highest you will climb.

Movement tells a story, and people die standing still.

If tasks start seeming easy, if you tackle all your problems subconsciously, if there’s no longer need to focus, no struggle with a problem, it means you’ve stopped climbing, that you’re standing still.

 

Stay Positive & Is That Really The Story You Want To Tell?

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Two Things To Do Before A One-On-One Meeting

Two Things To Do Before A One-On-One Meeting

Garth Beyer

Coffee Shop One-On-One Meetup

Anyone who knows me personally knows I have a habit of scheduling one-on-one meetings quite regularly. I think carefully about who I meet, but sometimes I even ignore my own guidelines.

While I don’t need to argue the reasons to have one-on-one meetings (InkHouse just did it for me), I can offer a couple of tips on what to do to have a successful one-on-one.

1) Read newspaper headlines or short blurbs of front page stories. Whether you bring up a headline topic or the person who you are meeting with does, you can at least say you caught it briefly. (It’s also a great conversation starter and fall-back small talk if there are periods of awkward silence.)

Often times if they mention a topic first and you are able to connect with it (“Yea, I saw that in the NYT this morning.”) then they will go on to talk about it. No deep thought from your end is necessary. You won’t lose clout by stating you didn’t get the full story yet. In fact, they will get pleasure from informing you more about it.

However, you will lose some informed credibility if you don’t know what’s going on in the world, especially when they bring it up as it’s obviously a matter of interest for them and thus, should be for you (at least for the sake of the meeting).

2) Listen to a podcast that is either motivational, entrepreneurial or focused on a shared interest of you and the person you’re meeting with. Many one-on-one meetings end up being an act of back-and-forth storytelling. “I remember when X happened to me.” Or “Have you used MailChimp? Did you know that if you enter ‘boredom’ in their search box, you get to play Asteroids!” (I learned that nugget by listening to Debbie Millman’s podcast with Ben Chestnut and Aarron Walter and used it during a meeting with an aspiring game developer.)

By listening to a few podcasts you will learn something new, think about experiences you’ve had (essentially jostling your memory), and give you something of value to share. They will put you in the mood to meet with someone, to socialize, to generate new ideas together. If those aren’t reasons for your one-on-one meeting, what kind of meetings are you going on?

Best of luck. Let me know how these tips help.

 

Stay Positive & Go Schedule A Couple Of Meetings

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Feedback Frequency

Garth Beyer

Here’s a tip you can keep in consideration next time you’re self-evaluating yourself after just starting a new project or venture.

Feedback

If you’re just starting out, trying something for the first time, if you really are a noob, then be sure to take the learning curve into account when you self-evaluate.

Critiques, improvements, self-assessments are simply a distraction when you’re first learning something. It’s a distraction because it takes real effort, focus and energy to assess yourself; attention and spirit better put toward playful progress.

In other words, when you’re told to “play around first,” take it seriously. The playing, that is. Instead of so much feedback, why not seek out the feedbag?

 

Stay Positive & You Don’t Always Need Feedback To Advance

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When Your Audience Is Too Small

Garth Beyer

Usually, so is your impact.

When you’re so motivated to get a big audience, reach the mass, have as many people as you know plus all of their friends to attend an event you’re putting on or even something as simple as following you on a social network, you lose out on leaving the impact the few who show up deserve.

Once they are there. So should you. No point in thinking of how you can get more people to attend the next event during the one some are attending.

This goes for Twitter chats, seminars, book readings, classes, and even get-togethers with friends.

 

Stay Positive & Impact Was Your Intention In The First Place, Right?

Working Like You Drive

Garth Beyer

I made the short trek north from Rockford, Illinois, to Madison, Wisconsin, today while it was snowing. The roads weren’t terrible – heading north, at least.

As for those heading south, I saw nine accidents, one of which had about an eight-car pileup. Although the road I was driving on was clear, everyone was hitting their breaks and driving 30 miles under the speed limit resulting in what’s known as gaper’s block. They slowed down to look at the accident and all the pretty lights. They focused on the accident, backing up their own traffic.

This happens often in work and on those who are taking the long trek toward a common goal – they create a gaper’s block by focusing on the failings, mistakes and accidents of others.

Fortunately, no one refuses to drive because they see an accident. It puzzles me then, how someone could quit their pursuit after seeing someone else fail.

The point: keep going.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Look Back (Or To The Other Side Of The Road)

Garth E. Beyer

 

How They Will View It

Garth Beyer

is going to be different from how anyone else will view it, read it or gather from it.

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I’m not one for math, but I am one for numbers and trends. If you have a small group of people saying that your work needs to be restructured or that it’s not good, keep asking more people before you make drastic changes to the way you do things.

In college, a professor put up a picture of a magazine spread and asked people in the class what was the first thing they noticed and then asked the order that they would read the content. Five people answered differently.

Fortunately there was enough people in the class to come to a majority conclusion about the best method to layout the spread.

On a similar note, I’ve written a lot of articles that have been criticized up the kazoo, but by the same token, those stories were remarkable to many readers. Had I not sought out massive feedback, I may not have created such strong content.

Yes, there is the Law of the Few, but there is also the Law of the Many.

 

Stay Positive & The More (Feedback), The Merrier

Garth E. Beyer

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Your Loved One Has Other Options

Garth Beyer

An average man spends 43 minutes a day checking out at least 10 women according to a survey .One of those women is your interest, your girlfriend, your fiance’, your wife.

This will not be a list of special things to do for the one you love, this is a reminder to you to DO special things for her.

In a year, the woman of your interest will have at least 200,000 guys look at her and create fantasies of getter her interest. You can bet that at least a quarter of them will take a shot at  her. Despite your large ego, your girl has plenty of other choices and she knows that. It’s your responsibility to show her that you are the best of the choice. Sorry guys, it even frustrates me sometimes that loving someone is a life-long effort.

Ladies, do not think this doesn’t put you in account either. This is a reminder to give your partner a reason to not look at 10 other women. Love is a two-way street.

What are you doing for your loved one to keep their eyes on you?

Stay Positive and Go The Distance

Garth E. Beyer

I thought I would toss an idea that I had for you new love-birds. Keep record of every movie you see together so that in a year, five years, or twenty years you can go back and relive your relationships situation at the time: Your first movie, Your first movie with their family, Your first movie that you spent making out instead of watching it, etc.