We Shoulda Had It

It isn’t rare for the score to be pretty close at half time for the 16 seed vs 1 seed games in the college basketball tournament.

But then by the final buzzer it’s a blow out.

The 16 seed says ‘we shoulda had it’ because during the first half they showed they could hang. They found out what it looks and feels like to run with an elite program. And if they did it for one half they should have just been able to repeat it for the second half.

But that elite level of play is something the 1 seed has been doing for thirty games…while the small school only has that kind of gas in the tank to handle twenty minutes.

It’s good for us to find others who show us what greatness looks and feels like, and to show us what we’re capable of if we’re willing to do the work.

The 16 seeds play as hard as they possibly can…and often learn that pure effort isn’t enough to get the desired result.

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Walking And A Little Faster

It takes about twenty seconds to walk the length of a basketball court.

Speeding up to a slow light jog cuts the time in half.

If you’ve been metaphorically walking for a while, this change will work wonders.

»» Worth noting…it’s not a concept that can be rolled over and over forever…because ultimately you can’t sprint all the time.

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Work On The Real Thing

It’s foolish to share fake success when you could be using that time to work on the real thing.

All that emotional energy and time editing the pictures and deciding on the perfect background and scripting your language just vague enough. You can do better.

Go back to work.

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Just Make It Up

When you go to the grocery store you don’t worry about what you’re going to say to the deli guy and you don’t write a script for your interaction with the cashier. You just make it up.

So we know you can do it.

But at the grocery store if you fumble some words you still get your roast beef…and are allowed to come back next time.

When it comes to creative pursuits…you’re just as able to make it up but it’s easy to get tied down in what you think the consequences might be if this doesn’t go perfectly. When the truth is whatever happens, you’re allowed to come back next time.

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Hotels and Home Parades

You don’t see more than one hotel room per visit. So when the hotel came up with a cool aesthetic for a room, they simply duplicated that room a couple hundred times and everyone is happy with their stylish lodging.

On the other hand…if you’re walking through a parade of homes and every room has the same rug and chair and artwork and lamps…the parade ain’t gonna last.

So as your building your thing, refining your process, engaging your audience…How much has to be new and how much can be repeated (to the delight or unawareness of the audience)?

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

What Are The Prerequisites?

If you have a specific goal in mind, a landing place, a climactic moment…who has had that moment before and what happened just before it? And then before that…

You play the theater, then the theater for multiple nights, and then the arena.

Before you get interviewed on the big podcasts you have to have their contact info…and have to incite excitement in them BEFORE you email.

You must first have 999 streams before you have 1000.

Before you release a song you have to decide that the song is finished.

Before the bus comes the sprinter, before the sprinter, the van and trailer, and carpool before that.

You can’t know exactly how you’re going to get to where you want to end up, but it’s a reasonable strategy to consider what might happen just before.

»» With a little luck you’ll get to leap frog a step or two but luck isn’t great to build a plan around.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple