Deliverable

From Seth Godin:

I don’t feel like it

What’s it?

Why do you need to feel like something in order to do the work? They call it work because it’s difficult, not because it’s something you need to feel like.

Very few people wake up in the morning and feel like taking big risks or feel like digging deep for something that has eluded them. People don’t usually feel like pushing themselves harder than they’ve pushed before or having conversations that might be uncomfortable.

Of course, your feelings are irrelevant to whether or not the market expects great work. Do the work. Ignore the feelings part and the work will follow.

Bucket:  A place to store something.  As in “A place for everything and everything in it’s place”.  A bucket is that place.

That pile of paper and random “stuff” that always seems to collect on your desk (or filing cabinet, or whereever) is a pile of things that you don’t have the proper buckets for.

Eliminating that pile and keeping it gone requires identifying and labeling the “stuff” and creating the proper buckets for it.

What are the things that are in your pile of “stuff”?

“Before you can make something great, you have to make something.” — me

The internets they making me dumber.  As of tomorrow I’m starting a 30 day online media fast.  Here’s what I’m avoiding so far:

PopUrls.com
BoingBoing.net
CrooksAndLiars.com
ThinkProgess.org
Huffingtonpost.com
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NYTimes.com
WashingtonPost.com
LATimes.com
Salon.com
(added 10/22/08)
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I reserve the right to add other sites as I find it necessary.
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update: Saturday; November 15, 2008
“30 Day Online Media Fast” was a success. The stream of bad news coming from some of the sites I’d been tracking had really begun to get me down. A fact that became all that more clear when I cut them out of my media diet.

It’s been some time since I last did one of my “challenges”. For this week I’ve decided to do another 7 Day Bikram Yoga Challenge.

Here it is:

For the next 7 days, I will attend one Bikram yoga class a day.

See you on the other side, with updates (hopefully) in between.

–Update: 2/4/08–

My updates a bit belated but here goes:  I completed 5 of the “7 Days of Yoga”.  My schedule wasn’t going to allow me to complete the final Saturday & Sunday so I let it drop.  I enjoyed it just as much as I did last time and really want to find a way to work this into my life as a regular event.  I’d say that the biggest drawback to Bikram Yoga is the expense.  The cheapest option involves a 6 month commitment, and even then it’s a bit steep.  There’s also the time involved to consider (90 minute class, travel to and from, downtime afterwards).  Still, I can think of no other exercise that I’ve done that makes my body feel as alive and healthy.  You’re working every muscle group and it’s an incredible cardio workout. With just the week of yoga, I noticed a definite physical change.

I think what I’ll do is begin doing it a couple times a month as a part of a larger workout plan.

If you’re looking for some inspiration…

Will this work is the wrong question to ask yourself when beginning a new endeavor. It’s the wrong question to ask, because it’s a question of questionable value.

It’s a question of questionable value because it’s a question that can only be answered by actually doing the thing you’re thinking of doing.

You can ask the question “Will my idea work?” until the cows come home. Chances are your brain will come up with a lot of reasons why it won’t work and maybe even a lot of reasons why it could work. The thing is that all of these reasons are all hypothetical until you go ahead and do the thing you’re considering.

I’m not suggesting that it’s wise to just leap into something unawares. I’m not suggesting you don’t prepare, or try to consider options and think things through.

I guess what I’m suggesting is that a better question to ask when beginning a new endeavor is “What’s the downside?” In other words, if the thing you’re trying fails, can you live with that? If the answer is yes and you feel you’ll learn something by trying then just go ahead and do the thing. Also, don’t worry about not having every little detail figured out. Chances are you’ll have to make changes along the way anyway.

Don’t bother wondering “Will this work?”. Just make the leap, do your best and see what happens.

Note to self: Sometimes even tiny small steps feel good. They definitely feel better than the alternative.

1. Get out of bed.
2. Put one foot in front of the other.
3. Repeat step two.