Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
What if I told you the most unknown fact about life is that you end up putting in the same amount of effort to do as little as possible as you would if you had the bar raised and hopes high?
And all that fills the divide is passion.
And passion is the single best indicator of whether you are on the right path or not.
Makes you wonder why you considered the easy route in the first place.
Stay Positive & Life Gets Simple When You See The Facts
Garth E. Beyer
Many believe that if they deliver enough work, put in enough hours, or make enough sales calls that they will break the threshold and become a star. This is commonly referred to as Gladwell’s 10,000 hours of practice theory: you are considered a true professional when you have put in 10,000 hours of your passion. That’s when you truly break through.
I would like to propose a different concept. It’s more often than not that the number of critics you have equally relates to your degree of success, of breaking the threshold.
Sometimes no news is good news, but in the realm of people talking about your art, just that people are talking about it benefits you. This includes the critics. It includes the complainers. It includes the hasslers.
You don’t break the threshold, your critics do.
Stay Positive & Go Get Some Critics
Garth E. Beyer
For some, they’re able to quit their jobs to focus completely on their passion. For some, they inherit work that is paralleled with their passion. For some, their passion has been all they’ve ever known.
But for most, we have to earn our right. We have to conform a little to be able to be our true selves. We have to do a tad of the safe work, the work we may not want to do, the work that we get paid by the hour for, all in order to be able to do what we truly want.
The trouble is, people get stuck. Safe becomes comfortable. “The groove” becomes their future. They take what they are given and buy the idea that they aren’t special with it. They buy the idea that they can’t work on creating their art (doing their passion) simultaneously while working.
It’s a great excuse – the job – to not do the work that really matters. A job takes time, energy, focus, muscles, brainpower. It’s easy to say that you spent all your willpower for the day on your job and pushback your passion to tomorrow, or the weekend or after you finish this big project at work.
This is where being stuck meets being confused. Those who are stuck confuse their passion with something they have to do, much like their job. Whereas, by definition, your passion is something you get to do, get to feel, get to create – not something you have to.
Being able to separate work and your passion takes practice, but it can all begin with a constant reminder that work is what you have to do and your passion is what you get to do.
No day is fulfilled without having done both.
Stay Positive & Fulfill More Of Your Days
Garth E. Beyer
Keep calm?
Screw that. Calm is for the banal, for the overrated, for those who unfortunately associate calm with being safe and comfortable.
When I hear “Keep Calm,” I want to say, “Go try surfing. Go to a concert. Go rock climbing. Go ship your art. Go talk to that girl. Go try something for the first time. Go get criticized.” The list goes on. And this list is a remarkable one; it can’t be completed if you wish to keep calm.
(Nor is it any fun whatsoever if the water is calm, if the crowd is calm, if the audience thinks you don’t care, if the girl doesn’t sense your nervousness and think it’s cute, if you don’t take a risk, and if you don’t care. To get anywhere (and to have fun doing so), the further away from calm, the better.)
“Keep Calm & Carry On” The motto is a bit… bucolic on the first part.
Better yet, instead of “Keep Calm,” here are some alternatives,
On the latter end, to “Carry on,” I couldn’t agree with more. In fact, I’ve given my own spin to elaborate on it.
Find the strength to carry on. Once completed, find the strength to carry more. Repeat.
Stay Positive & As You Are, Not As People Urge You To Be
Garth E. Beyer
You need to force yourself to find something your passionate about, choose not to have a choice, and move forward.
In doing so, you’ll quickly find that the force you used to become passionate about something is then relayed back to you in the form of focus, more passion, understanding, and growth. In other words, the force uses you.
The force is a cycle which is continuous … so long as you add to it.
I’ve forced myself to be passionate about all forms of communication, specifically in the fields of media, journalism, and PR. (It’s been so long, and I believe that I’ve brainwashed myself, but I’m sure there was a point when I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, what I wanted to major in, or where I wanted to be in 20 years. But, by using the force, I’ve come to find my niche.) In doing so, in brainwashing myself, in using the force, I’ve become fascinated with absolutely anything related to communication. Find a way to turn me off, I dare you. Anyway…
This has benefited me immensely and never crippled me in any way. Using the force is like putting on a special pair of glasses. Now, all that you see is filtered through the force. I relate everything; whether it is history, art, politics, finances, or whatever, to communication. I’ve found a way to enjoy anything and everything because I view it in relation to communications. By forcing yourself to have appreciate and a passion for one field, it allows you to be passionate about anything in regards to it when it comes your way.
If it doesn’t make sense to you yet, let’s apply it to the workplace.
We have our jobs that we may or may not love to do (note to self: if not, go get it). In our jobs, there are dozens of tasks each month or each week that we don’t really enjoy doing. But, you will easily find, so long as you are forcing your passion for all areas of your job (the good and the bad) doing those tasks which normally you wouldn’t like to do can become enjoyable. In fact, once you force yourself, you’ll find that it will require less and less force as time goes on.
It’s not about biting the bullet, it’s about being able to enjoy its flavor.
Which sometimes requires force.
Stay Positive & I Have To Say It: May The Force Be With You
Garth E. Beyer
We constantly view the food chain from left to right or bottom to top, with each animal to the right, triumphing or feasting on the animal to the left in order to survive and grow.
The same goes for the professional food chain, which we try to soften by calling it a hierarchy to establish a sense of “order” rather than “dominance.”
There’s a plot twist to this view of positional establishment – rather a perfect 180 degree twist.
In the professional world, it’s not about feasting on the work of those lower than you. (Although some people decide to take this dark side to development, alas, it pays to recognize that whatever success they acquire is short-lived) In the professional world, it’s about feasting on the work, the success, the ways of growth from those above or to the right of you.
Climbing on the shoulders of giants isn’t a “bad thing” when the giants help you on to their shoulders. It’s what I call the progressional hierarchy of the truly professional world. It is a food chain, if you want to call it that as well, which brings us to greater heights in our lives, in other’s lives, and in the world.
In the wild, growth is developed through the consumption of all that is lower, slower, less necessary, and less important.
In the real world, growth is developed through gathering all the knowledge and experience of those who are above us, bigger than us, better than us, more educated than us, and – dare I say it – more passionate than us.
Stay Positive & They Are More Passionate … For Now At Least
Garth E. Beyer
I would beg to differ. If you are comparing yourself to the hundreds of other people who don’t like what they are doing, but do it anyway, than maybe you are the best at it.
But generally speaking, there is no way you’re the best at it. If I found someone (which I’m sure I could) that really wanted to do your job, that actually enjoys it, that may even say they love it, then I would put all my money on them doing a better job than you.
Just because you’re great at something, doesn’t mean you’re the best at it.
Especially if you don’t love what you’re doing.
Stay Positive & Stop Using That As An Excuse To Not Go Do What You Love
Garth E. Beyer
