Month: April 2020

All I Know is that I Know Nothing

“To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.”

Socrates

The realization that you don’t know much as you think you do is a humbling and important experience.

There’s a great line by Richard Williams, Director of Animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit that encapsulates this feeling perfectly. He was finishing up his first animated film, The Little Island, and around that time Disney’s Bambi came out in theaters. “… I saw Bambi again and almost crawled out of the theatre on my hands and knees. ‘How did they ever do that?’ I’d learned just enough to realize that I really didn’t know anything!”

You have to be a little naive and arrogant in the beginning when you are just starting out on a new venture (be it a business, project, prototyping an idea, learning a new skill, etc). Otherwise, you’ll know too much to start and overwhelm yourself.

Knowing what you know now, would you have started if you knew how hard it would be to get where you are?

You have to be naive and inexperienced enough to try new things.

Zen Buddhists describe this is having a beginner’s mind. A beginner’s mind is open and ready to learn.

Eventually, you learn a thing or two about your craft. You start making things, designing things, selling things, and get good enough to move things forward. Product sales role in. Your design clients like your work. Your art gets praise. Your song gets applause.

But then you see a professional at work. You see someone who does what you do, but a hundred times better. Heck, you didn’t even realize your guitar could do that. For example, take one look at some of the designs on Dribbble and you’ll realize your designs are garbage designs. “Are they using the same app I’m using?? How do they even make colors and shapes look like that??” The same is true for any skill, venture, or activity. And you realize that—

There’s a lot of incredible creatives and entrepreneurs out there.

It’s painful when you realize you aren’t as good as you want to be.

(It’s also painful when you see someone doing things worse than you are, but they are getting all the praise and attention—Topic for another day.)

But this is a great place to be in. This is another one of those pesky turning points that separate those that succeed and fail. You could stop. You could let someone’s brilliant work make you feel down about yourself and lead you to quit. Or—

You can let it lift you up and inspire you to do better.

Knowing that there’s a lot you don’t know is a great mindset to be in. You’ll learn must faster and more effectively. Humility leads to growth. Once you get past the initial ego-sting of realizing you aren’t the best, you can use the brilliance of others as an experience to seek out advice and to get better.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #913

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Encouragement

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s souls.”

Daniel Burnham

There will always be ups and downs on every creative journey. Moments of doubt. A day where all you want to do is quit. And on that day when you are teetering on the edge of giving up your dream, you have a choice—keep going or give in. There will be many days like this. This is an inflection point. This is what separates those that succeed and those who give up and go on to and doing something else.

Success isn’t assured. Even if you do everything right, there’s still the chance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that doesn’t mean you are destined to fail either. Perhaps the right place at the right time is in your future if you push through the difficulty and have the courage to continue forward. No one said pursuing a creative life would be easy. But if you love what you do, and you really want it, then you need to find the encouragement to keep pursuing.

Remind yourself why you are doing this.

Collect memories of encouragement and compliments to help you preserve on difficult days. (See Tim Ferris’s Jar of Awesome)

Remember that your work has the power to encourage and lift others. (Which also means other people’s work has the power to encourage you too.)

Related:

BOOK: Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed

“A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor the encouragement to fly.”

Kevin Bacon

“I’ve always thrived on the encouragement of others.”

Patti Smith

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #912

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Never Second-Guess Yourself

“All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.”

David Bowie

How do you know if you are making a decision for the right reason?

Intuition? It’s almost always the best decision to go with in the moment. (That’s easier said than done of course.) Think of it like a hunch that’s backed by experience—who we are, our values, our culture, our beliefs, our sense of what’s right and wrong, and our likes and dislikes, all rolled up into one “feeling”.

We usually know when we’ve made a bad decision (and certainly know afterward).

“I knew I should have said no to the project, but the money was too good to pass up…”

“I thought he was the one, but my gut was telling me otherwise…”

“I knew college wasn’t right for me, but my family convinced me otherwise.”

Intuition is something that we know is true (personal truth), and yet somehow second-guess and let fear, worry, and vices drive us to ignore it. But intuition isn’t perfect.

In the fascinating book, The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk M.D. explains how our intuition is normally great, but when we experience trauma, we can shut ourselves off from reality: “Our gut feelings signal what is safe, life-sustaining, or threatening, even if we cannot quite explain why we feel a particular way. Our sensory interiority continuously sends us subtle messages about the needs of our organism. Gut feelings also help us to evaluate what is going on around us. They warn us that the guy who is approaching feels creepy, but they also convey that a room with western exposure surrounded by daylilies makes us feel serene. If you have a comfortable connection with your inner sensations—if you can trust them to give you accurate information—you will feel in charge of your body, your feelings, and your self. However, traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become experts at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.”

Bad decisions are hard to recover from. Intuition is our first line of defense for blocking bad decisions and making smart ones. But we need to stack it with second and third defenses.

First, we must never second-guess ourselves. Second, we verify. 

We must surround ourselves with people who have our back and want to see us succeed. The majority of my past mistakes could have likely been avoided if I had someone advising my decision and ideas, telling me “Hey, that’s probably not a great idea, here’s why…”. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking on my part. Perhaps my past self wouldn’t have listened. But that’s why it’s massively important to have a group of “life advisors” (I picked this phrase up from my conversation with Alex Lavidge on The Renaissance Life Podcast) who can help guide you in the right direction.

The third defense is self-examination. Periodically take stock of your life as if it wasn’t your own. If your sister or friend were going through the problem(s) you are facing, what advice would you give to them? When we are dealing with something—like lack of motivation or health problems— it’s hard to come up with solutions because we are so close to the issue (Plus the stress it’s causing us.) When we take ourselves out of the equation it’s much easier to come up with ideas for our problems. 

Have the courage to believe in yourself. But be intentional.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #911

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Create What You Need

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

My best creative ideas come from work that I do for myself, or from work that I do for a specific friend or type of person in mind. When it’s personal, it means more to me, so I become more willing to be vulnerable and honest, and infuse more of my personality into it. Music, writing, art, design, coding— it doesn’t matter which medium— creating for one person is a great way to make your art real and inviting.

When I write a blog, I try to write something that I would find valuable to read. Put another way, I write what I need to hear (or need to tell myself).

By creating for what you need, you are at the same time creating things people similar to you need too.

Your art connects us. We may come from different times and different places, we may look or speak differently, but by making your work meaningful to you, you’ve made it meaningful to me.

Your art inspires my art. Your story gives me hope for my journey. And through that connection we’ve found someone like us, a sign of encouragement and a place to belong.

Everything you make has the chance to change someone’s world.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #910

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Creative Refresh

“When you are creating to the magnitude that I try to create, your brain is like a computer, and you need to refresh.”

Missy Elliott, Musician

“Rest until you feel like playing, then play until you feel like resting, period. Never do anything else.”

Martha Beck, Author

Sometimes, we just need to sit down and work on our craft. As much as learning and seeking inspiration can help us come up with our own ideas, they also be distracting and take away time from putting pen to paper (literally and metaphorically speaking).

No conversations. No books. No twitter. No inputs—just pure focus on creating. Without effort, there is no output, just ideas, and dreams.

But on the flip side too much work back-to-back and we’ll deplete our energy and stamina, which also slows and stops great ideas from coming.

There have been many times where I’ve been go-go-going and I’m seeming to make progress, but in reality, I’m treading water. Or I’m working on good things, but I’m agitated, my neck is yelling at me and I’m not present with what I’m doing so my work suffers.

All work and no play makes Josh a dull boy.

We need both creative input and creative output to make great things and enjoy making them.

It’s good to take stand up and walk away for a while. Space and time are great creative palette cleansers. Go for a walk. Draw something. Workout. Write a poem. Work on some unrelated craft or project. Read a good book. Sleep on it. And then come back with fresh eyes.

Fresh eyes create fresh ideas.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #909

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Wishful Thinking

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

George Bernard Shaw

“Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts.”

Jim Morrison

Reimagining your past is a slippery ledge. We’ve all had those thoughts. “Ah, if only I could go back and not say that…”, “Why did I stay so long at that job (why did I stay so long with that person), now look where I’m at…”, “I wish I could go back, I would relive it so much better than I did.” These types of thoughts keep us stuck in the past and away from the present and future. It’s applying negativity plus 20/20 vision to our imperfect selves.

Of course, just saying “don’t do it” isn’t very helpful. 

Half the time I don’t even realize I’m dwelling in unhelpful thoughts. My mind wanders and I slip into wishing things could have been different. But at the end of the day, they can’t. And sometimes that’s painful. But I can start doing something about it now. I can be better next time.

I find it helpful to remind myself that I’m far from perfect and no one is. Anyone who looks perfect just has a really great social media team behind them photoshopping out the mistakes.

We must learn to look forward and be hopeful, despite what has happened to us, or what is happening to us. I’m not talking about painting the future as all sunshine and happy kitten yawns. (That only applies wishful thinking towards the future.) Rather, knowing things will most likely turn out okay, and knowing that we’ll inevitably make a few more mistakes along the way, and that’s okay too. Vincent Van Gogh once said, “Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.”

There’s always a way forward, even if you don’t like it. Not liking it doesn’t make it go away; It only keeps you planted where you are. If you don’t like it, find a different way. Just don’t dismiss reality for fantasy. Ground yourself, find a silver lining, and then optimistically pick yourself up and keep going.

”Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.”

Billy Graham

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #908

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To Feel Known

“Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, seek to be worthy of being known.”

Confucius

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

Mark Twain

I think one of the big reasons we are drawn to social media is the desire to be known, and all the associated feelings and desires that come along with it. At a fundamental level, to be known is to be heard. To be someone who matters.

When you are lonely, or in pain or different, the lie we tell ourselves is we don’t matter.

No one is seeing us, therefore we aren’t worth being seen. Some people collapse inward. Others lash out (which can be in a million different ways). But we all tend to be drawn to groups, tribes, communities where we feel heard, or at least feel useful and valuable. People like us. Whatever that looks like for you. Navy SEALs. Entrepreneurs. Artists. Athletes. Dog lovers. Weirdos. Zoom yoga chats. People you just met who like the same jokes you like. We all want to belong and feel a part of something.

Making someone feel like they belong is one of the greatest gifts you can give anyone.

It doesn’t take much. Just let them speak and give your complete attention and interest. Be curious about what they like and don’t like. Don’t worry about what you are going to say. Listen to what they are saying.

But what about yourself? What about me?

To be known is to be yourself. Forget what everyone else is telling you to be.

Forget the 20 habits I find helpful and enjoy doing. Forget the habits and routines of the people you respect and look up to. Instead, build the habits that work for you. Maybe they are similar, but the key is they don’t have to be. It’s up to you to experiment and figure out what works for you and discard the rest. Maybe reading and drawing is what gets me in the right mind space but for you its a morning run. That’s good. Stick to it. Be open and try out mine and see if they work for you too. (The same goes for me with yours) But if drawing or writing every day turns out not to be your thing, that’s perfectly reasonable.

To be yourself when everyone wants you to be them is true strength.

To be known is also to care about yourself. Finding friends and family to share life with is what’s life is about. But you don’t need the approval of others to be known and the be someone who matters. You already are. You matter to yourself. That’s all that matters. Once you realize that, it doesn’t matter if you are alone on a desert island—you love who you are and what your dreams are. And then you have the power to share that with someone else.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #907

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To Feel Known

“Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, seek to be worthy of being known.”

Confucius

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

Mark Twain

I think one of the big reasons we are drawn to social media is the desire to be known, and all the associated feelings and desires that come along with it. At a fundamental level, to be known is to be heard. To be someone who matters.

When you are lonely, or in pain or different, the lie we tell ourselves is we don’t matter.

No one is seeing us, therefore we aren’t worth being seen. Some people collapse inward. Others lash out (which can be in a million different ways). But we all tend to be drawn to groups, tribes, communities where we feel heard, or at least feel useful and valuable. People like us. Whatever that looks like for you. Navy SEALs. Entrepreneurs. Artists. Athletes. Dog lovers. Weirdos. Zoom yoga chats. People you just met who like the same jokes you like. We all want to belong and feel a part of something.

Making someone feel like they belong is one of the greatest gifts you can give anyone.

It doesn’t take much. Just let them speak and give your complete attention and interest. Be curious about what they like and don’t like. Don’t worry about what you are going to say. Listen to what they are saying.

But what about yourself? What about me?

To be known is to be yourself. Forget what everyone else is telling you to be.

Forget the 20 habits I find helpful and enjoy doing. Forget the habits and routines of the people you respect and look up to. Instead, build the habits that work for you. Maybe they are similar, but the key is they don’t have to be. It’s up to you to experiment and figure out what works for you and discard the rest. Maybe reading and drawing is what gets me in the right mind space but for you its a morning run. That’s good. Stick to it. Be open and try out mine and see if they work for you too. (The same goes for me with yours) But if drawing or writing every day turns out not to be your thing, that’s perfectly reasonable.

To be yourself when everyone wants you to be them is true strength.

To be known is also to care about yourself. Finding friends and family to share life with is what’s life is about. But you don’t need the approval of others to be known and the be someone who matters. You already are. You matter to yourself. That’s all that matters. Once you realize that, it doesn’t matter if you are alone on a desert island—you love who you are and what your dreams are. And then you have the power to share that with someone else.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #907

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The Downsides of a Multidisciplinary Life

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

Stephen Covey

There are many benefits to pursuing a multidisciplinary life, as an endless supply of curiosity and ideas, but there are also plenty of downsides. If you’re not careful, you can —

  • be less focused
  • get less done
  • be less potent (less deep / more shallow)
  • be more scattered
  • become distracted by new ideas or things you want to learn

And you’ll likely be late for everything. 😉

There’s also the chance that people don’t believe that you are doing all multiple things. Some will think you are cutting corners, but really you are just adding more time to your day by cutting away the nonessential things most people spend all their time on.

As you can see, the majority of the downsides are all related to spreading yourself too thin and spending your time like it’s an infinite resource. 

Because our most valuable resources—time, energy, attention—are all spent on one thing, dividing up our time between various skills naturally cuts our time shorter than if we were focused on only one thing.

While you’re trying to learn 10 things at once, Jane Doe over there is giving 100% of her time and effort on learning design. (Not that comparing yourself to Jane is the smartest thing to do.)

But wait. Is this really true? Aren’t we all overbooked—despite whether we enjoy doing many things or just one thing? Aren’t we all busybodies nowadays, running around with too much on our todo lists and spending our free time vegging out in front of the TV and or our phones?

We (humans) all have to choose what we do with our time, whether or not we are pursuing a multi-disciplinary life or a one discipline life.

The first thing you must decide is what type of life do you want to lead. Are you going to go all-in on dancing? Or are you going to divide your time between dancing and microbiology? Or are you going to find a way to thread the needle between dancing, microbiology, music, painting, and pottery?

Once you have a good idea of what type of life you want, then you must prioritize what’s most important. 

If you decide to pursue multiple disciplines, know your limits. Don’t try to do everything. Rather focus on a handful of things. The less amount, the more time and focus you’ll have for each.

The last thing we want to do is spin a lot of plates but not accomplish anything we set out to do. Without consistency and discipline, we could easily jump from one shiny object to the next and never actually finish a project, or fully learn a craft. 

The key is to not try to do everything at once. Even if you are pursuing multiple things, whichever one you are focusing on right now, give it 100% of your attention and effort. As the inventor Alexander Graham Bell once said, “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #906

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The Benefits of a Multidisciplinary Life

The concept has many names:

Polymath, multi-hyphenate, multi-faceted, multidisciplinary, renaissance human, wunderkind…

It essentially means being skilled and knowledgable in many things. Not a genius, per se, but someone who pursues a life of learning. And behind that learned skill is an insatiable curiosity that only grows the more you know and question.

The first person that likely comes to mind is Leonardo da Vinci. His curiosity knew no bounds. On top of being a master painter, he was also interested in architecture, geometry, engineering, mathematics, music, anatomy, botany, cartography, playwright stage design and more.

Being multidisciplinary isn’t for everyone. It isn’t an easy goal to take on. You have to spend time and them some to become competent—let alone exceptional—in one skill. More than one and you’re crazy. Luckily, you are in good company. The journey may be long and hard, but that makes it all the more special.

There are many benefits to seeking a multidisciplinary life:

Greater sense of wonder and curiosity. Instead of just following the path everyone else follows, or memorizing the answers and following the rules, a multidisciplinary life gives
you a mind that desires to understand the reason behind the rules. Questions awake curiosity and the desire to figure things out for ourselves. Instead of following the path most taken you to create your own path, leading to true wisdom and a fundamental understanding of how things work.

Ability to learn new things quickly. One skill relates to others. Your previous knowledge interweaves into new things you are learning. Wisdom combined with curiosity keeps you humble and in a beginner’s mind—never too arrogant enough to think you know all the answers. And with that comes the ability to easily apply what you know to other interests, soaking up knowledge like a sponge.

More unique ideas. Because you are interested in many subjects and crafts, your ideas tend to cross-pollenate. Skills influence one another. Lessons you picked up from learning photography might go on and influence how you learn to program, or what you use programming to build (a photography app for example). Each idea leads to another which leads to —

More connections and more opportunities. By learning multiple disciplines, you start to combine, mix and match interests with each other. Your love of film combining with your love of dance and your curiosity about sunsets. Each connection creates a new opportunity for a new project or a person you might meet.

All of these leads to better and more chances to create. And it also gives you more self-awareness of who you are and what you want in life.

curiosity > ideas > insights > skills > opportunities > connections > impact > more curiosity

But…

There are downsides too —

More on that tomorrow.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner | Daily Blog #905

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