How long does it take you to get your head back in the game?

In the same way that top athletes maintain focus when competing by not allowing bad plays or incidents to derail them mentally and emotionally, you must resolve to let your failures from the past (even from yesterday) to remain in the past.

You do your tribe and your art a disservice by beating yourself and preventing your own progress.

Shake it off, you’re late.

“Traditional jobs” (which will continue to become less interesting and common over the next few years) are traditional because they typically involve a clear set of instructions: do what has always been done.

There’s not a lot of risk involved on a personal level and thus, there’s not a lot of growth that takes place for the person in the position.

For new projects and startups, the path is less clear. No one knows the best way to do things, because many things haven’t been done before.

The solution here is of course to fail as fast as possible in the most likely direction of success. Many are paralyzed by a lack of direction and instruction on the job, but this is where you can shine.

Accountability makes us uncomfortable because it’s precisely what we need.

When someone holds themselves accountable to us, it implies that reciprocity is desired or appropriate. And since we spend so much of our time making excuses, hiding in the shadows, and avoiding our potential, this is terrifying.

When we hold ourselves accountable (publicly or to others), we choose our words more carefully, set more purposeful goals, and fight the urge not to promise anyone anything.

This situation virtually guarantees progress or admitted cowardice.

When things don’t work out as we’d like them to, we react defensively and seek to prevent the same embarrassment and pain from happening again.

We put up walls, swear off risks and certain people, and become a little less brave every time it happens. When a similar situation presents itself again, we know exactly what to do!

We retreat.

Among the problems with this approach is that the terror of “something bad happening” is carried with us every day.

The bravery we lose in the face of adversity makes us less confident in many other areas, and the net effect of this defensive posture is emotionally debilitating in the long term.

I don’t have a “this is what you should do in these situations” admonishment, but what I think that the courage to lean into the pain is important.

Your posture towards failure and disappointment is just as important as everything else.

There will always be factors outside of your control when launching a new venture or doing work that matters. (Your ability to deal with this risk is what makes you valuable in the first place.)

The voice of doubt and fear in your head (Resistance) will have you doing things like “research” and “preparation” for months and even years if you let it, virtually guaranteeing that your art is never shared with the world.

Since the real lessons that need to be learned aren’t ones gleaned from Google searches and white paper browsing, the goal should be to launch quickly with as much momentum as possible.

Your idea (in its original form) won’t survive contact with the market anyway, so why not spend six months iterating, delighting your customers, and building a customer base?

Customers come to you because they have a problem they can’t (or don’t want to) solve. And while they may describe their problem in a certain way, it’s important to determine what the customer actually needs, regardless of how poorly the problem is being articulated.

Assuming that they’ve reached out with the intent to actually engage you for your services (as opposed to just kicking the tires), your job then becomes 1) understanding very clearly what the issue is and 2) leaving the customer feeling like you can make the problem go away.

It’s more of an art than a science, and there are many ways to say the wrong thing and scare the customer into never following up or following through. They should leave the conversation with more clarity than they had before connecting with you and if not, you might be trying to solve the wrong problem.

…is almost never as good as performing well-prepared.

Procrastination junkies extol the benefits of last-minute work, and there’s no denying that many people reach a powerful state of flow when working against a tight deadline. But the goal, I think, should be to bring about these states of flow well ahead of said deadlines.

The work then becomes diving into projects well ahead of time and focusing them it intensely until they’re complete, rather than purposefully procrastinating and then circumstances require that you do this.

If there’s a goal you have in mind and you’ve made no strides towards completion in say, six months, is it really a goal? And if the answer is yes, what are you waiting on exactly?

We have an idea of what we’d like to become and how we’d like to be viewed and what would be best for us, but all of this takes a backseat to what we’re actually willing to put in the work to accomplish.

I’m not sure that it’s natural to allow questions to resonate in the echo chamber of own solitude but after doing it enough times, it becomes a place for truth and clarity and direction.

You have to teach people how to treat you. This is done in a few different ways:

• The respect that you command (body language in person, confidence in voice on the phone, etc.)
• The respect that your work commands (are you well-known for your art? that matters)
• Drawing lines as necessary

It’s easy to apply this to situations in the workplace and relationships with others, but it’s equally true in dealing with customers and mechanics and even strangers.

Does this mean you need to walk around with a chip on your shoulder or on alert for the moment you’re disrespected? Of course not. On the contrary, I think a large part of the proper perspective involves ignoring things that others might get upset over.

Once you reach the point where you’re focused on your art and goals and making progress, it’s easy to determine what’s a distraction and what’s worth fighting for.

In the same way that upcoming college graduates exposed to different careers in their field have a better chance of securing a job or project that’s interesting for them and a good fit, I think it’s also important that we regularly expand our horizons in order to develop novel and important thoughts.

The business trips (visiting dozens of companies in major cities across the US) I took as an undergrad opened my eyes to a world of possibilities, and informed many of the choices I made approaching graduation.

This doesn’t just have to do with travel, of course. Conversations, books, documentaries, and music can all offer us new worlds to explore. We just have to seek them out.