Appreciate The Awesomeness

First of all, let me tell you how cool it is that our readers will take the time to make comments on our blog. It's totally worth it to read the ideas and stories that our readers share. In fact, if you haven't checked out the comments on the past two articles, I highly recommend it. And by all means, feel free to leave your own comments as well. Your thoughts add so much to the ideas we present!

Last week: Fail It Until You Nail It
2 weeks ago: Stop Going To The Office

Ok, here's this week's thought. It is short and sweet, but maybe the most powerful thought that has entered my brain in a long, long time. 

I finally figured out the real reason for taking a vacation. 

It's not to take a break from work. It's not to recharge your physical and mental batteries. It's not to go see palm trees or snow or extremely old European buildings.

The real reason for taking a vacation is that moment you're sitting around a table with your family, friends, or significant other, a million miles from your normal life (metaphorically speaking), and everyone is smiling, laughing, and truly enjoying each other, and you think to yourself "I am the luckiest person in the whole wide world."

Vacation season has just begun, starting with Spring Break and flying by all too fast until that first school bell in August. I encourage you to watch closely for those moments, whether you take a two-week road trip around the country or you just sneak away to an amusement park for a day. 

When those special moments occur, take your time with them. Let them live as long as possible. Appreciate the awesomeness that is present in those moments. And when someone asks you why you have that stupid smile on your face, go ahead and tell them. Yes, they will laugh at you. Yes, they will think you are corny. They may even be slightly embarrassed. But they'll agree with you, I promise.

Fail It Until You Nail It

Snowboarding may just be the greatest sport ever invented. Strap a board under your feet, point one end downhill, and let gravity suck you to the bottom of the mountain at the speed of light. 

As if that wasn't fun enough, somewhere along the line somebody decided it might be a hoot to use gigantic cliffs as launching pads for several seconds of unaided human flight.

And then came the half-pipe -- an enormous man-made trough that allows snowboarders to propel themselves -- multiple times in a row -- up to 20 feet in the air for the sole purpose of performing death-defying aerial acrobatics.

Forget the rebel punk reputation that has followed snowboarders ever since Jake Burton shredded into the middle of mainstream skiing 25+ years ago. Snowboarders can do amazing -- A-MAZE-ING -- things with their boards and their bodies. 

But how? How do they learn how to fly like that?

The secret lies in this video that features Shawn White, the undisputed current king of the hill.

Watch it now, then read on.

The video shows how Shawn mastered the "Front Double Cork 1080" in one day. That's basically a forward twisting double corkscrew flip that occurs between the time you leave the ground and the time you return 1.5 seconds later.

Toward the end of the video, he says "Just today we've probably gotten a couple years of riding in one day." That's a lot of runs, flips, twists, and misses.

Snowboarders try. They try a lot. They try until they nail it. That's the secret.

They also fall down. They fall down a lot. They fall down until they nail it.

That's also called failing. In other words, they fail. They fail a lot. They fail it until they nail it.

Shawn White has a top secret, million dollar training area that his sponsor, Red Bull, built, complete with a nice, cushy foam pit for him to fail into. But don't let that fool you. He experimented with countless other tricks for years before they paid him to put a Red Bull sticker on his snowboard. Before that, his landing pad was just the packed, icy snow that lines the half-pipe. Painful and unforgiving for sure.

These guys are not fearless, stupid, or crazy. Ok, maybe some of them are, but the really, really good ones are relatively sane, yet insanely relentless in their pursuit of mastering new tricks.

When was the last time you relentlessly pursued something, falling down over and over until you mastered it? Do you ever fail it until you nail it?

We're human, so we tend to take the path of least resistance. We don't like to fail. We like shortcuts. We crave immediate gratification. Which is why we don't achieve more amazing things in our lives, careers, and businesses. 

Oh, there is another secret to apply as well. You have to want it badly (it being whatever you're trying to master). Snowboarders master increasingly difficult tricks because they love the sport and they can't wait to see just how far they can push it. 

If you've ever watched a group of snowboarding buddies riding together, it can seem like a brutal social dynamic. They ruthlessly make fun of each other's horrible crashes. But if you notice, they don't seem to care. They get right back up and try again. And when they do nail it, it's high-fives all the way around. Man, do I wish the business world was more like that.

Maybe it will be when you and I learn how to fail it until we nail it more often.

So, what are you going to try again today? Let us know by commenting on our blog. Your comments inspire our readers all over the world, so don't hold back!

Stop Going To The Office!

I stopped going to the office a long time ago. I suggest you do the same.

"But where will I work?" you ask. 

In your studio. 

Huh?

Aren't studios for artists, designers, movie stars, and musicians? Yes, yes they are. And that's what you are.

Huh?

You're the designer of your own life. You're the creator of your own career. You approach your work like an artist approaches a canvas. Yes or no?

If you don't think of yourself that way, you should and you know it. Sometimes all it takes is a shift of vocabulary.

A studio is where you go to think, create, design, build, and be a rock star. Yay!

The office is where you go to do paperwork. Yuck.

A studio has a mysterious aura, as if the place itself contains some creative magic. 

The office is predictable and boring.

A studio has energy, color, and tools that help you create cool stuff.

The office has staplers and hole punches.

A studio is full of creatives, mavericks, and world-changers. Yay, again!

The office is full of office workers. Yuck, again.

A studio is the place where you do your absolute best work.

The office has a TV show that makes fun of it.

Here's the great news. You don't have to break your lease or find an abandoned ad agency to move into. You just need to think about your current workspace differently. 

Start by calling it a studio. 

"Yeah, Bob, I'm headed to my studio right now."

"Let me send you that information when I get back to my studio."

"We could meet at your office, or we could meet at my studio."

I truly believe that if you start thinking about your space this way, your space will begin to transform. It may be subtle at first, like finding a new home for your stapler and hole punch in a drawer. You might eventually go so far as to paint a wall your favorite color and begin to surround yourself with all kinds of positive nouns (people, places, things, and ideas) that inspire you.

A word of warning, though. If you call it a studio, but treat it like an office, your brain will recognize the inconsistency and it will reach out and smack you. Once your brain hears this idea, it will want to go to a studio every day instead of an office. And the last thing you want to disappoint is your own brain.

I'd love to hear how you could transform your office into a studio (or how you've already done so). Post a comment and share your ideas with the world!