Craft and Craftsmanship may be the most maligned and misunderstood concepts of the 21st century.

Which is strange, as we love to idolize craftsmanship. Wood chips fly and the camera pans slowly across the cluttered workshop as the artist bends over a worktable, lost in their work. We admire these individuals. They have a calm gravitas about them and seem to understand something about their place in the world that we can’t quite attain or grasp.

But it is not for us. Craftsmanship is for those strange souls who have endless hours to devote to these ancient, superficial arts. After all, how many lathed pepper shakers do we need?

We have our jobs.

Only many of us harbour a deep secret; our job is no longer enough. We yearn for deep and meaningful work.

“Whether you approach the activity of going deep from the perspective of neuroscience, psychology or lofty philosophy, these paths all seem to lead back to a connection between depth and meaning. It’s as if our species has evolved into one that flourishes in depth and wallows in shallowness.” — Cal Newport, Deep Work. Grand Central Publishing, 2016.

Continue reading [Full article on Medium.com]

There are so many people that inspire me with their journey to find meaning and purpose. And yet, I often run into a challenge when I invite these people to appear on Taking the Leap. They are hesitant.

“I don't know what I could say that would be of value.”

“I haven't achieved anything yet.”

So many ways of saying, “I am not successful, so why are you asking this of me?”

I spent my morning trying to understand what might cause these people I admire to have such doubts about themselves. And then, as in all good insights, I realized I am also afflicted.

I have been putting off some things until I am more "successful". 

As I dug into this, I realized that my success was partly defined by financial measures – to have enough money, to be seen as prosperous, to have enough influence. I had adopted a fuzzy definition of success strongly influenced by the status quo. 

We cheat ourselves when we define success in financial terms.  This type of thinking limits our options. It commits us to a specific and very narrow view of the problem; a way that often blocks us from achieving success.

I know because I used to do this.

I had defined success as having enough money to be able to travel the world and take a month long vacation. And so I worked harder, raised the household debt and committed myself to a life where I would never be able to stop working. My dream went from 5 years out to 10 years out to some mythical state of retirement when I was 70.

One day my partner and I woke up and realized we would never have our dream unless we did something drastic. We had to break out of the dominant paradigm and take control of our lives.

We quickly realized we also wanted more than a month-long vacation. We yearned to spend the winter somewhere warm where we could write, photograph and renew ourselves. And we didn't want this in 10 years. We wanted it this year. 

I will always remember the day we realized we could have all of this and we could have it within the year.

It meant a lot of changes and sacrifices. We had to reorganize our life. We moved into my tiny studio – two guys, a dog, a cat, and hundreds of piles of stuff lining every wall. We are renting out the rest of our house. We cut our expenses, lowered our debt and changed our lifestyle.

The key was to stop focusing on the financial part of the goal and start focusing on the life we desired to live. And then we were able to be creative about how to get to what we wanted. We discussed so many ways to move us closer to what we yearned for.

I am surrounded by people who say they can't afford their dreams. The sad thing is that they can. They just need to stop yearning for money and start focusing on what they really want.

Maybe they don't get a new car every three years. Maybe they don't buy a larger house. Their kids share a room and then they spend next year touring the world as a family with the money they saved.

Properly defining success allows us to make the sacrifices necessary to live a life others only dream of and allows our hearts to come alive. 

But beware, the status quo is a sneaky and pernicious little beast. It had wormed its way back into how I defined my success, because I had not been explicit in my definition. I had just assumed that how I thought about success would align with the world I am trying to build.

I'd love to know your thoughts about success, how you define it and whether or not you feel like a successful person.

Ready for the next step? See my article on how to Invest in Service.

I've already gone through four shirts, 2 litres of water and most of a half gallon of apple cider. It's hot in Kansas City. The dog and I went on a 2 hour walk in Swope Park this morning. Then I drove around the city, watched an old man fish and three young men talking with gestures on a street corner.

I managed to find some food and get back to the hotel. My computer sat on the desk, where I had left it, taunting me.

I took a nap. Then I took a bath. I considered another nap, but instead called Laura, who I am so excited to finally get to meet tomorrow.

I ate a second lunch and finally sat down in front on my computer. My dog was snoring and twitching in a dream on the bed behind me and I wondered if I should make another cup of in-room, coffee-like drink.

I checked email. I checked bookFace and the twitter.

But finally I had to acknowledge that I didn't want to get down to work. I wasn't avoiding all work. I'd have killed for some client work. I didn't want to write.

Yesterday I saw a post from someone who is struggling with motivation. He was lamenting that he had read every book, but just can't commit to deadlines for his own projects. He was hoping someone might have a trick or a solution. I could hear the words not written, "I am broken. There is something wrong with me."

This is all of us. If struggling to commit to a personal project is an unassailable fault, then all of us are broken.

And this is where the follow your passion folks drive me insane. It's not about passion. It's not about to do lists, or writing words on mirrors. It's not about a lack of motivation and it has nothing to do with inspiration.

There is one determination of success and it is grit – the determination to sit down every day and just do the thing. It matters not if what emerges is a pile of steaming dog crap. What matters is the grit to sit down and produce it anyway.

Grit realized is habit. 

So today I forced myself to pull my chair up and write these words. They weren't the words I expected to write, but they were the words I needed. If you are finding it difficult to work on something, please know you are not alone. Every one of us is right there with you. Acknowledge that you are not broken and then sit down and get started.

Me, I've done my hour and now I'm off to change my shirt and take another nap.

You might also enjoy my post on the Myth of Procrastination and Productivity.

Or this article on Staying Inspired.

I had the joy of working with a friend, Jennifer Sorrell, to do some levitation and fun shots in Glen Major forest a few weeks back.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to see more shots like these as they happen.

The image above shows what my book would have looked like if I had designed it myself.

Below you can see the magical touch of Ms. Jacquelyn Tierney. 

I will forever admire and be thankful for Jacquelyn's compassion and skill, but it is her gumption that I am in debt to. Without it, this book may never have existed. 

I was so scared of this project that I allowed myself to be distracted to the point of actually forgetting I was even working on a book. Below is an excerpt from Creators 2.0 where I speak of this.

It had been weeks with no movement, not one word written. That’s when I realized that Resistance was at work. I was going to have to fight to make this book happen, but the fact that this was a requirement meant that this was indeed the direction I needed to head in.

Before I went to bed that night, I set my alarm for 5 a.m. and grabbed my phone to message a lovely and insanely talented designer named Jacquelyn Tierney. I asked her to design this book, point blank. I knew that I wanted her to design it, and more importantly, I knew she would move it forward without even knowing the particulars. Most designers would want to work out a budget or some of the parameters. Jacquelyn got it right away. She gave me a date to have the draft in her hands so she could start the work. 

The next morning I didn’t shut off the alarm and go back to bed as I had done every morning for the past three weeks. I had a deadline. Resistance had given me a very clear sign, so I turned my ship into the strongest wind and urged my crew forward.

If you are looking for an AMAZING designer and partner for your project, look no further than Jacquelyn Tierney.