The Serving Bowl
The chips are the same whether they’re grabbed from the bag or the serving bowl.
But the serving bowl makes them better when we’re in the mood for the serving bowl to make them better. Holidays, birthdays, special occasions, a family dinner…the special bowl makes for a special feeling.
And if something as simple as a bowl can do that, why not use the bowl?
Limiting Focus
Our number of options grew at an exponential rate compared to the discipline of our focus.
For your profession, it used to be you did whatever your parents did. No need to discipline your focus because there wasn’t much else to focus on. The focus was singular (which is powerful) without ever having to keep it in check. The beauty and freedom of limited options.
Now the options we can focus on are limitless. We can deep dive into every whim and thought. We can hear about what everyone in the world is doing and decide to change what we’re doing. And then add to that everyone else’s whims and thoughts of the day, ready to be scrolled.
So we have to learn to discipline and limit our focus…because our effectiveness depends on it.
Don't Over Stay The Thrill
A day late but worth the wait…new Hum Love on Spotify and Apple
It’s a small amount…the difference between just enough and too much. To go from loving it to, ehh this isn’t that great.
Don’t play an encore unless it’s really good.
The scene in Aladdin where the genie sings Friend Like Me and by the end he’s whipped up a huge parade of characters and excitement…and then on the last beat everything cuts out and they’re just sitting the empty cave. That vacuum. The joy and the greatness of the thrill and the sweet sadness and emptiness when it’s over. That’s the feeling people don’t know they long for.
But in order to make it happen you’ve got to be great and you have to know how to not over stay the thrill.
We Remember The Words
When we’re singing along.
As long as the music is playing, we know all the words.
But if we had to sit in a quiet room and write down the lyrics to even some of our favorite songs…it would be tough.
The context of the music, the breath of the singer, the way the hook drops into the verse…it all reminds us. And the biggest one…the way we can hear a nano-second of a lyric and then jump on it as though we knew it all along.
The hard thing about writing new material is there’s no music. No one to sing along with. No hook guiding us back into a verse. No lyrics to remember. None of it is there…yet.
Once it’s all there it will be powerful enough to let the audience think they have it memorized even when they don’t.
»» Which might even be a greater super power than actual memorization.
»» I’m a day behind on the Hum Love playlist. Comin at you tomorrow.
Cabins And Skyscrapers
If you want a skyscraper but have the design plans for a log cabin…it’s unlikely you’ll stumble your way into a sky scraper.
Similarly, if you have the design plans for a skyscraper but have the parts for a log cabin…you won’t end up with a skyscraper.
Your design plan needs to match the parts.
If they don’t match, change them.