Creativity

Cal Newport has a very big brain. He got his Ph.D. from MIT and is a professor of Computer Science at Georgetown. He also wrote one of my favorite books: Deep Work.

Imagine this: It’s your first day of art class. You signed up for an intro class on pottery. (Nice! Go you!)

In our last +1, we talked about how to get an “A” in your next pottery class.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of the world’s leading researchers studying the science of well-being. He co-founded the Positive Psychology movement with Martin Seligman and has written landmark books on Creativity and Flow.

Creative and reactive.

In our last +1, we talked about the Cal Newport-inspired “Shut-down complete!”

Once upon a time, I was at a Tony Robbins event. Thousands of people. Fired up. And, literally, walking on fire. 😃

Did you know that in ancient Roman times everyone had their own genius?

In his classic book on Creativity, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi walks us through the science of what makes extraordinary creators so extraordinary.

Tim Pychyl is one of the world’s leading authorities on the science of conquering procrastination. He wrote a great book called Solving the Procrastination Puzzle and we featured him in Conquering Procrastination 101.

Steven Pressfield wrote one of my favorite books: The War of Art.

Here’s another little gem from Dan Pink’s To Sell Is Human. (The man is a brilliant writer and a treasure-trove of goodness.)

In our last +1, we talked about my new railroad spike. (You get your own yet? And, most importantly: Have you hammered away at your #1 most wildly important goal yet today?)

A few +1s ago, we talked about Manoush Zomorodi’s great book Bored and Brilliant. We reflected on the fact that 25 minutes of time wasting per day equates to 2 YEARS of your life over the long run. (That’s C R A Z Y. You delete THAT app yet?)

Steven Pressfield is one of the world’s masters of the creative process—which is why we keep on coming back to him and his wisdom.

In our last +1, we talked about how to be like Mike sans the sugar-laden Gatorade. 🤓

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that I’m not the handiest of men and then we had fun getting our grit on as we stocked our toolshed with a range of sandpaper for the rough and for the fine Optimizing work we’re up to.

In our last +1, we talked about the super-creative plodder Peter Drucker and his response to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s invitation to participate in his research on Creativity.

In our last several +1s, we’ve been having fun hanging out with the great choreographer Twyla Tharp. We spent some time archeologically digging (in a book!) and remembering that the great ones never forget the fundamentals. (What are yours?)

At this stage, most of us know that JK Rowling was rejected twelve (!) times before she finally found a publisher who believed in her and her wizard Harry Potter.

This morning on the Trail I was thinking about Mister Rogers and his challenges creating (recall our “tortures of the damned”!) along with Dr. Seuss and all his creative challenges (see Notes on Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel).

Today we’re going to talk about what to do with some of your best ideas.

Not too long ago, we spent some time with my Yoda (aka Phil Stutz) and he taught us the power of what he calls “stringing pearls.” (It was Part 2 in our Yoda’s Law of Action series. 🤓)

In our last +1, we talked about Phil Stutz’ ideas on Pre-wins. I promised to share more of his wisdom on his “Laws of Action.”

In our last +1, we hung out with Steven Kotler and talked about flow junkies while smashing together two ancient words (“hedonic” + “eudaimonic”!) to feel the joy that comes when we make our actualization instantly awesome.

In our last +1, we briefly chatted about John Harrison’s decades-long (!!!) quest to bring the world precision timekeeping.

This morning I did my normal thing. Starting last night with shutdown complete, etc. You know the drill.

In our last +1, we talked about the INFINITE power of Consistency.

In our last +1, we got our inner Freak on as we spent some time with Dav!d Rendall and learned to embrace constraints as we reminded ourselves to approach this whole game of life as Optimalists rather than Perfectionists—using our ideals as GUIDING STARS not distant shores.

In our last +1, we had fun extending Cal Newport’s Work wisdom to our Energy and Love. As you may recall, I suggested that we may want to consider…

In our last +1, we talked about Twyla Tharp’s great book The Creative Habit. In addition to seeing who she thinks wins the philosophical tug of war on what makes people creative (effort for the win!), we also talked about establishing our own creative habit of doing some Pre-Input Deep Work every morning.

In our last +1, we talked about an exercise to get a little more clarity on the trade-offs you might be making in regard to your top priorities and your tech usage.

In our last +1, we did some severe pruning with Steve Chandler and Ralph Waldo Emerson. (How’d that go for you? More specifically: What went for you? 🤓)

The other day I was walking home from our studio. It’s only a few minutes from our house near downtown Ojai, California.

In our last +1 we talked about Isaac Newton and his First Law of Motion. Recall the basics: An object at rest will stay at rest. An object in motion will stay in motion.

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that (as per Seneca’s wisdom), we need to let go of “the world’s opinion of you—it’s always unsettled and divided.”

A few +1s ago, we talked about Twyla Tharp’s Creative Habit. That led to a little dance through the minds of some pretty epically creative souls. (Thank you, Twyla, Peter and Stephen!)

The other day I watched the documentary on Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers) called Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

You know how I’m all about oscillating and recommend that we pretty much never work for longer than 90 minutes straight without at least a 10 to 15 minute break?

Today we’re going to meet a woman named Bluma Zeigarnik.

In our last +1, we talked about How to Create Time.

In Life Visioning, Michael Beckwith tells us we need to turn off the Internet and plug into the Inner-net.

In The World According to Mister Rogers, our beloved neighbor Fred tells us a story about a time when he was in college and went to New York to meet with a songwriter he admired.

We’ve been talking a fair amount about the idea that some of history’s greatest creators didn’t work all that much. To be clear, they worked hard and (very importantly!) CONSISTENTLY, but the fact is that it’s really hard to put in any more than 4 to 6 hours of really high-quality work.

In our last +1, I shared a kind note from a fellow Heroes and we talked about developing our obstacle immunity one OMMS at a time.

Over the last 11 years, I’ve created (and we’ve shared) over 500 PhilosophersNotes.

In our last +1, we talked about you and Jay-Z in the studio of life. 10,000 potential micro-hero’s journeys. Every single day.

In our last +1, we hung out with Mister Rogers and his barrelful of songs.

After finishing the last +1, I got up out of my chair and celebrated another little micro-win.

In our last +1, we talked about reducing Delay to increase Motivation.

In our last +1, we talked about you starting a hypothetical new job.

In The Science of Getting Rich (best title ever?), Wallace D. Wattles (definitely best name ever) tells us that, if we want to enjoy the process of creating abundance in every facet of our lives, we need to make sure we focus on CREATING not COMPETING.

Herbert Simon won the Nobel Prize in Economics. He was one of the early thought leaders in the field of “attention economics.”

In The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy makes the important point that we have more control over the very beginnings of our day and the very ends of our days than we do over the middle of the days.

In our last +1, we had some fun playing with Cal Newport’s Deep Work equation. We modified it from:

John Mackey created Whole Foods Market and captured the principles of how he deliberately created a purpose-driven business at scale in his great book Conscious Capitalism.

Nir Eyal wrote the playbook that pretty much all of the major tech companies use to create their super-compelling (addictive/Irresistible?) web sites, apps, etc. The book is called Hooked.

The creator of Dilbert wrote a great book called How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.

Multitasking is a myth.

Continuing our focus on how to conquer digital addiction, let’s talk about a super simple way to get a little more clarity on the trade-offs you might be making and create a little more motivation to rock it.

Continuing our theme of architecting the optimal 4-Hour Workday, let’s talk a little more about some wisdom from Alex Pang (and his great book Rest) on HOW the greatest creators can get away with working so little.

Deep Work.

Most of us wonder how we can have more willpower in those moments of temptation.