How to Bridge the Gap Between Good Taste and Quality

There's a wonderful video floating around by Ira Glass, the host of the radio show, This American Life. In the clip he shares how people drawn to creative endeavors are led by having good taste. But there's a gap nobody ever tells you about.

It's the gap between bridging that good taste with high quality content. It takes years for the two to grow in harmony with one another. And because it takes time most people end up quitting.

But if you're resilient, flexible in your thinking, and understand cultivating any endeavor worth pursuing takes time, the two eventually meet one another. When that happens, it's magic.

The key is to keep producing work. Don't stop. No matter how discouraged you feel or inadequate you're convinced the work is. 

Share your voice relentlessly until you bridge that gap.

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Why You Can't Focus on the Numbers

"One of the deepest longings of the human soul is the longing to be seen." 

- John O'Donohue

Year ago I sat on a curb completely dejected after a whopping 3 people had come to see a play I performed in. "What's the point of all this?" I remember asking my friend Sarah. I was young and convinced that a monologue could change the world. So when others didn't share that deeply personal proclamation I was crushed.

As I get older I realize all anybody wants is to be seen. It's an integral part of the human condition. 

But it's also important to cling to our "why" for doing what we do. If our purpose is founded on the need for approval or the number of views, likes, or shares we get the work is simply not sustainable. The impetus to share and create is far too susceptible to outside forces.

But when we place meaning, deeply personal meaning our work takes on a higher calling. We do it first for ourselves which invites a deeper sense of awareness.

In time, we become less likely to be discouraged when others don't share our vision. We push on do the work not because of what it will help us gain but rather what it will help us become.

Do.

"Be one of the few who do rather than the many who talk." These words stopped me in my tracks the other day as I listened to an audiobook. I took personal inventory of all the times in my life I said I'd do something only to get distracted with another project or forget my proclamation entirely. 

What I've learned, particularly in the last few years, is there is no shortage of people who claim they'll do things. There is however, a deficit who say as they do and do as they say.

I have a great empathy for this struggle and believe it comes down to the fact that people don't think they know how to get started. The truth is, you already know exactly what you need to do. The missing components are confidence and action. The first step is the simplest and hardest - beginning.

Say you want to write a novel. An ambitious goal no doubt, but far from impossible. Sit down and write one sentence. Tomorrow try and write two, even if they're awful. Just begin and stick with it. 

Soon, you'll develop a sense of consistency and once you do that good luck to anyone who tries to stop you. You will move mountains to maintain a routine if it's important enough to you. That is, if your "why" is lined with your core values.

You can get your voice out into the world, but it requires a sense of calm, concentration, and a heightened intuition that you have the capacity to create something of value, which you most certainly do. 

Here's to the Starters. 

Just a Few Tiny Adjustments is All it May Take

I once heard the difference between hitting a golf ball on the fairway versus in the sand pit is a matter of millimeters. Similarly, in Darren Hardy's bestselling book The Compound Effect he shares the following:

“If the nose of the plane is pointed only 1 percent off course – almost an invisible adjustment when the plane’s sitting on the tarmac in Los Angeles – it will ultimately end up about 150 miles off course, arriving either upstate in Albany or in Dover, Delaware.

The point is, establishing productive habits that will inch you closer to your goals and highest aspirations is not as dramatic as you may think. Hard work and consistency are staples for any endeavor worth pursuing, but far too many people believe that in order to be great their lives need to head in a completely different direction.

Take inventory of your habits. You may be just a few tiny adjustments, which compounded over time, will lead you to where you want to be.

The Year Ahead

Long after the ball has dropped and the confetti has been swept up, we take time to ponder the past year's wins and setbacks. Most importantly, we look to the year ahead.

If you're at all like me, you've already taken time to write out your ambitious goals for 2017; disciplines you hope to cement, habits you need to break, and achievements personal and professional you'd very much like to see come to fruition. 

Author, speaker, and former editor of Success Magazine, Darren Hardy once said, "The definition of commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you."

As you embark on the year ahead consider these two simple thoughts:

1. You can have high standards for yourself and hold yourself accountable without beating yourself up.

2. What will separate the people who achieve their goals versus those who don't will be consistency. Continue to put in the work on a regular basis long after the shininess of a new year has worn off.

Happy New Year and Best of Luck in 2017.

Consistency

"Most people stop right before they're about to see results," I heard the moderator say. I was listening to a Webinar about digital marketing strategy. Her observation was in response to a question I'd asked about when to shift targets versus when to change tactics.

But the more I thought about her answer the more it began to resonate with me. For years, I'd stayed consistent in just about everything I started: morning routines, taking acting workshops, travel, and incorporating steps to maintain my mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

To be honest, it was often difficult to gauge whether the years of consistency had paid off. It was kind of like expecting to see immediate results in your body after going to the gym for a week.

It wasn't until friends began pointing out the disciplines I'd developed and largely taken for granted. They started asking questions about my routine, how they could include them in their own busy schedules, and any books, seminars, or podcasts I could recommend. In other words, the work I'd put it had not only began to show, but influence others.

In a previous blog post, I wrote about a word I love called, Kaizen. Kaizen means incremental improvement over time through little, seemingly insignificant actions.

Find your own method of Kaizen and remember once you cultivate those routines not to to quit. Chances are you're much closer than you think to reaching your goal.