An Audience of One

That’s from the Introduction in which we learn about the fact that the book is divided into four sections. As a podcast host who has interviewed over 500 (!) leading “unmistakable” creators, Srinivas has done a lot of “listening.”

So, it made sense for him to organize the book by the four main things we need to “listen” to as we strive to master the creative PROCESS of doing great work.

Here’s the super-quick look:

1. Listening to Creativity. This section is all about “listening” to the process of creativity itself. Mastering the art and science of getting into flow to do the work on a consistent basis, etc.
2. Listening to Yourself. Then we need to listen to OURSELVES. What’s really important to you? You giving yourself time to figure it out? AND… Is your energy Optimized to show up consistently at a high level? These things all matter.
3. Listening to Your Environment. This is the longest section. By far. We need to structure our environments so we can win. Everything matters.
4. Listening to Others. We’re always influenced by those around us. Let’s pay attention to the people in our lives and do our best to Optimize our relationship and influences.

With that, on to some practical Ideas!

Welcome to Part One: Listening to Creativity.

Pop quiz: How do YOU feel about YOUR work?

Does it feel like a chore? Or… Do you feel blessed to have an opportunity to do it?

Of course, we’re never going to reach a place where even the most ridiculously awesome work doesn’t come with at least the occasional sense of “chore”-like drudgery, but the wisest among us will be able to step back and do that work within the context of a deeper meaning as we see our work as a GIFT and a privilege. (A “Calling” to use Seligman’s language.)

Michelle Segar talks about the same basic idea in the context of motivational psychology as applied to health behaviors. As we discuss in No Sweat, we can approach our eating, moving and sleeping as a “pain-in-the-butt, gotta-do-it” CHORE or we can approach it as a “SWEET!! Let’s see just how Optimized I can get—this is fun!!” GIFT.

Guess who tends to sustain healthy behaviors just a tad more and enjoy the process just a tad more? (Hah.) Yep. The Gift givers.

Think about that the next time you eat well and train and go to bed early! (#santa!)

Which begs the question: How are YOU approaching YOUR eating, moving, sleeping (which we’ll be talking about more in a moment).

AND… How are you approaching your “creative” work?

Note: It’s ALL creative work, btw—whether you’re an HR exec or a mom or an entrepreneur or a strength and conditioning coach, we’re ALL artists of our crafts and of our lives so…

P.S. Srinivas also talks about Carol Dweck and the fact that the people with the growth mindset who love what they do and focus on the PROCESS of getting better get *way* better and experience *way* more of the results while enjoying themselves a *lot* more than the (fixed-mindset) people who tend to get burned out when their outcome goals (all of which are outside of their control) don’t match up with their expectations.

So… Focus on why you LOVE what you do. Create for an audience of one. Let the millions follow.

Flow. Deep Work.

THIS is the essence of both creative joy AND creative output. Of course, we talk about them all the time via wisdom from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Cal Newport and others.

I also love the way Steven Kotler talks about flow. In fact, it’s the wind beneath Superman’s wings in his great book The Rise of Superman. Here’s how he puts it: “When doing what we most love transforms us into the best possible version of ourselves and that version hints at even greater future possibilities, the urge to explore those possibilities becomes feverish compulsion. Intrinsic motivation goes through the roof. Thus flow becomes an alternative path to mastery, sans the misery. Forget 10,000 hours of delayed gratification. Flow junkies turn instant gratification into their North Star—putting in far more hours of ‘practice time’ by gleefully harnessing their hedonic impulse.”

When doing what we love to do is the thing that helps us become the best version of ourselves? YEP. That’s the ticket.

Being able to drop into that flow state on a consistent, rhythmic basis is, essentially, what the book is all about. One of the keys? Doing what we love. Focusing on that audience of one.

How about a quick look at what can get in the way?

That’s from the third (and longest) section called “Listen to Your Environment.”

Now, obviously, if you’re trying to do deep, important work then having your phone on and web browsers open so you’re receiving a bunch of push notifications and email alerts and a constant barrage of external distractions makes NO SENSE. (Right?)

For the moment, let’s assume you’ve prioritized deep work and creative time in your Masterpiece Day. (Hopefully BEFORE you’ve had your mind blown up with other people’s thoughts, etc.)

What’s a little more subtle is the impact of all those OTHER times you allow yourself to indulge in the barrage of inputs. Maybe it’s one more swipe to unlock your phone and check the newest notification. Or that email check that leads to Facebook that leads to news that leads to whatever it is YOU do on your loop. (What is it you do again?)

Obviously, when we waste time constantly checking inputs, our productivity is going to go down because of the sheer amount of time spent doing shallow work when we could be doing deep work. (Which, when you add it up, ADDS up.)

The harder to spot cost is the “long-term damage to our ability to focus and be present.” Which leads us to Cal Newport’s fantastic line that doing that all day every day is “the cognitive equivalent of being an athlete who smokes.” (Hah.)

Think about it. If you were trying to become a world-class athlete, would you smoke?

OK.

Well, you may not have the ambition to become a world-class creator, but if you do, you a) wouldn’t smoke (lol) and b) wouldn’t do the cognitive equivalent of smoking by CONSTANTLY (or even occasionally!!) paper-cutting your attention with compulsive consumption of inputs.

Right?

So… Do you have a cognitive smoking problem? Let’s kick the habit.

Want to create powerfully? Let’s make sure your ENERGY is Optimized. ← It’s great to see a book on creativity focus on this obvious but essential (yet often overlooked) step.

Srinivas walks us through our big three fundamentals: Eat, Move, Sleep.

Although his order is Sleep, Eat, Move given its extraordinary importance to creativity and given the depression he battled that he attributes to horrible sleep habits. I love this: “So perhaps the most underrated creative hack is sleep.”

Let’s just get right to the practical point on this one. How’s your Energy?

What’s the #1 thing you KNOW you could be doing to Optimize it?

And, most importantly: What SPECIFICALLY can you will you start doing today?

Let’s give ourselves the best possible shot to actualize our potential and remember: “It’s hard to be at your best creatively when you’re not at your best physically.”

That’s from the section on making sure our ENVIRONMENTS support our creative process.

Of course, if we’ve created an environment in which we allow for endless distraction we’re going to have a tough time doing great work. Remember: “Flow follows focus.”

Trying to do a bunch of things “at once” knocks us out of the feel-good-while-getting-a-ton-done state of flow WHILE destroying the efficiency with which we get those things done.

I pulled this Idea out because it so perfectly parallels the little task-switching analysis we covered in our Note on Alex Pang’s The Distraction Addiction.

Recall the little experiment from that book. Pang tells us that it takes about 1.5 seconds for most people to count from 1 to 10. And, it takes about 1.5 seconds to say the alphabet from A to J. Two VERY simple tasks we’ve done countless times. Super easy. Super efficient.

But… If you switch back and forth between those two tasks (groing from A-1 to B-2 … to J-10) how long will it take? Well, if we’re all as good at task-switching as we think, it should take 3 seconds. (1.5 seconds for A to J + 1.5 seconds for 1 to 10 for the non-math majors. lol.)

BUT… What you’ll find if you do the experiment is that it takes AT LEAST 10 seconds to do it. In other words, at least (!) THREE times longer. (If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend you take a minute to do it so you have a visceral feeling of the power of this Idea)

Which is funny because that’s PRECISELY how much longer Srinivas tells us his editing takes—going from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Moral of the story? Let’s “mono-task” today.

Ikigai. (← Pronounced “icky guy.”)

He’s one of the stars of Purpose 101, this +1 and our Notes on Neil Pasricha’s The Happiness Equation where he tells us: “Nobody knows what they’re going to do with their *entire life.* Nobody… Having one giant purpose that you strive toward forever isn’t the goal. What is? An ikigai. A current aim. A reason to get out of bed in the morning.”

So… What’s YOUR ikigai? ← Why are you FIRED up to get out of bed tomorrow morning?

Let’s hold that GIFT (remember: it’s not a chore!) in our minds and hearts as we enjoy the creative process of the *ultimate* creative project: making our lives a masterpiece!