Some general Get Disciplined advice for people who would like to know.
I used to always wonder how people who did things did them. I always wanted to do things, but felt I lacked the opportunity or resources to. I got into the idea of becoming a filmmaker with a deepset uncertainty over whether I would really understand how to make a movie.
Five years ago when I moved to Dubai for a video production job*, I met a man who taught me a lot about not just thinking about doing a thing, but deciding to do it, and how to go about finding out how to do that thing by myself. He taught me a lot about how to learn in a way I didn't get out of school, and since then I've been decently good at focusing my energy and attention toward doing those things.
There are some ways in which I never lived up to his principles. For one thing, he taught me that doing the thing is the start, but doing it over and over again is practice. And he taught me that you haven't done the thing until you've finished it, which means if you fail to do it you have to keep trying to do it until it's done. And he taught me that a thing isn't complete just when you've done it, but when you've cleaned up after yourself. I've never really been great at those latter details.
But nevertheless, the mindset of "Well, do the thing" and "How do I do the thing? By starting to do the thing" has been enormously helpful to me. For a long time I've been working under the following principles that have amped up my productivity enormously:
+ If a task takes less than five minutes, do it now.
+ If a task takes less than an hour, do it today.
+ If a task takes less than a day, do it this week.
+ If a task takes less than a week, do it this month.
+ If a task takes a month, start it as soon as possible and try to get it done by the end of the year.
+ If a task takes years, start today.
But now that that productivity has become practice, I've started on the next level.
Recently I was interviewed by my work to be featured on Instagram, where we do more BTS and Meet Our Team! sort of posts (we have different strategies regarding different social networks based on how we feel social networks best create space or conversations). And my coworker in charge of it asked me,
+ What’s the last great thing you learned?
After giving her my snark grin and pointing out that it's 'latest great thing', being that I certainly hope this great thing isn't my last, and then laughing and telling her, "And that's why you guys hired an editor!", I told her that the latest great thing I learned is that you really start moving forward with your goals once you turn your passive or intellectual interests into participant hobbies.
She ended up not using that answer on the post, and I was okay with that. However, today for the first time I got paid to edit a glitch video for a friend. This small gig comes shortly after attaining the job I'm talking about, which is a job I really wanted and is a significant leap forward in my career. This position marks the first time I have the leverage to demand higher pay from other gigs and also consider whether the work is truly meaningful and fits my mission as a filmmaker, artist, and content creator. And tomorrow I'm going to be sitting in on a shoot while I edit some UrbEx photos I took two weeks ago, a hobby I've just started that I've wanted to do for a long, long time.
What I'm saying in so many words here is that, at least for this period of time in my life, who knows how long it will last, I'm spending almost every day doing exactly what I want to do, what I find meaningful and interesting and gratifying.
I'm not a Buddhist but I'm aware enough to understand 'this too will pass'... just last year I was thinking the same thing in the exact opposite situation, where I had hit rock bottom and felt completely miserable about everything going on in my life. So I'm not mistaken as to believe I'm set in any sort of sense, or that my current good fortune isn't without risks of failure, hurt, or loss. But it's worth your time when you're experiencing happiness to recognize it, as previous moments of happiness in my life I've used to remind myself that I can be happy when I've felt very, very sad.
And what's important about how I got to this place is that last year, while I was going through so much shit, I finally started aggressively pursuing hobbies in order to find every kind of escape from the shit I was in. I no longer thought about doing little video essays and experimental videos, I shot them as an excuse to spend time shooting and editing. I no longer thought about taking pictures of the pretty ambient geometries of New York City, I started taking out my cellphone and taking them, and eventually used photowalks as an excuse to take my camera out and get away from the apartment (and the madwoman who lived with me in it, ready at any time to smash a plate over my head over an argument). I didn't just look at glitch art and think about what sort of glitches I would like to do, I started glitching things to see how it'd work.
Why this is different than, for instance, when I was working on short films for practice or in school, and later when I worked in Dubai and learned how to practice my craft consistently, is that these were things that had no direct plan toward a later job or career or product.
+ I shoot work for my experimental YouTube channel called Robinson Met Krasna, which has very little views and I don't promote it, which I usually present to friends or internal network groups (usually each video is 'premiered' during a live event, then put on this channel and basically lives there from then on). They're not 'good for my resume' the way other projects had been.
+ I'm amping up my street photography and its associated 'photoblog' Facebook/Instagram pages, but I'm not calling myself a photographer on any sort of business card or resume, or a pro in polite compnay, and so far leaning toward not even going there (I know too many professional photographers of respectable quality that I don't even want to compare myself to them or try to aim for their world).
+ And as for glitch, I have enough trouble explaining the concept less selling it as a skill set.
Here's an example:
But, nevertheless, here I am getting paid to do glitch video, something went viral with Ambient Geometries and I'm starting to get likes from people I don't know, I'm in the middle of a really exciting time with a brand new company, and have another Robinson Met Krasna event scheduled, and am planning another UrbEx trip with friends. My cup is full.
And so as per my coworker's request, what is the latest great thing I learned?
+ Have an interest? Turn it into a hobby.
+ Have a hobby? Turn it into a practice.
+ Have a practice? Turn it into a job.
+ Have a job? Find a new interest.
+ In the cross-sections you will build your career. You don't choose a career, you develop it.
+ The acquisition of a habit removes the need to develop it from your schedule, and you can build other habits on top of it. The growth is geometric, not linear. This is called a virtuous cycle.
An example. I glitched a photograph I took during UrbEx and ended up with something that feels like art I've always wanted to make but looks like nothing I've imagined wanting to do before:
It feels great to me to not only have this thing, that I've made and can look at, in a manner based on my own skillset, but that it comes from such a fusion of my various interests. Before, when I made things for myself, it was with the silent plea that it would be good and break new territory. Now I feel comfortable and confident in just doing something that I find super interesting.
One last note on this:
Me saying it and you reading it won't necessarily really help you. This realization (emphasis on real-ization, or real-ification) is out there, everywhere, from Shia LeBeouf shouting "Just do it!" in a viral video to Get Disciplined blogs and filmmakers standing up at universities saying again and again and again "Just make something. Get out there and do it. Practice, because that's the only way to get started."**
It's one of those things, like so many things your parents taught you, that you hear but you don't understand until you've done it, and then once you've done it you're pissed off at yourself for not having understood it sooner. This is an inescapable aspect of maturity, that knowing something and understanding something are different phenomenon entirely, and understanding comes from lived experience.
I'm 29. I've met 19 year olds that are further ahead than me because they got started when they were friggin' 6. But I've also met 49 year olds that are just getting started and look to me for some guidance. And no one's losing because others are winning, they're only not winning yet.
So in case there are still teenagers and young college students on this site wandering around aimlessly finding posts by young adults talking about 'what comes next', what comes next is, when you think to yourself, "You know, I'd really like to _____", you start doing it. And that will do a lot for you, but you won't start getting good until you've done it so long that you start thinking about doing other things on top of it. But you'll never be able to do those things on top of it if you don't do it first.
And you know this already, and will kick yourself and feel really stupid in 5 to 10 years when you get a handle on doing things for yourself and remember reading this thing.
--PolarisDiB
* I remember reading posts like this that would say "When I got [some awesome sounding professional job somewhere] I first started learning how to [awesome thing I want to do]" and it made me always feel upset that basically the people were saying, "Once I was already successful at doing shit, I started doing shit." I realize that talking about having a video production in Dubai makes it sound like I was already awesome before I was awesome.
However, I got that video production job in Dubai because I forced myself to PA on sets for free, where I met the guy who would be my boss, and I attracted his attention in the first place because I had short films I had made. These short films I had made were made on a Hi8 video camcorder, with my friends, on weekends, costing the price of a Hi8 tape and a few pizzas.
And on the flip side, my magical lucky Dubai job got me a lot of interest in other job opportunities, but only in a few limited job opportunities. It was a great step forward, but one thing I've noticed is that it's the personal projects that I make while working another job that lead to my next job. In Dubai I produced a sizzle reel that got me an interview at Reelz after a friend (also on LiveJournal :) ) connected me to her now husband. While at Reelz I made a one-man-band 48 hour short that got me my job at my current position after a friend of mine recommended me.
You may also notice a pattern there. My first position was someone I met saw work I made. My second position was someone I met saw work I made. My new position was someone I met saw work I made. It's the work, and the network.
The network are where the jobs are, but your networking is useless without the work. I've received and handed out a million businesscards. Never lead to jobs. I've showed work to friends for a laugh and drank beers and discussed dreams. Got jobs.
I've also hung out with friends for a laugh and drank beers and discussed dreams. Never got jobs. You got to make the work and discuss dreams.
** In fact I'm aware this post reads like any sort of inspirational article or lifestyle clickbait, except part of my motivation to write it is that that shit is so generic and so poorly written, with simplistic statements and a lack of character, that it makes me want to smack the writers upside the head.
Five years ago when I moved to Dubai for a video production job*, I met a man who taught me a lot about not just thinking about doing a thing, but deciding to do it, and how to go about finding out how to do that thing by myself. He taught me a lot about how to learn in a way I didn't get out of school, and since then I've been decently good at focusing my energy and attention toward doing those things.
There are some ways in which I never lived up to his principles. For one thing, he taught me that doing the thing is the start, but doing it over and over again is practice. And he taught me that you haven't done the thing until you've finished it, which means if you fail to do it you have to keep trying to do it until it's done. And he taught me that a thing isn't complete just when you've done it, but when you've cleaned up after yourself. I've never really been great at those latter details.
But nevertheless, the mindset of "Well, do the thing" and "How do I do the thing? By starting to do the thing" has been enormously helpful to me. For a long time I've been working under the following principles that have amped up my productivity enormously:
+ If a task takes less than five minutes, do it now.
+ If a task takes less than an hour, do it today.
+ If a task takes less than a day, do it this week.
+ If a task takes less than a week, do it this month.
+ If a task takes a month, start it as soon as possible and try to get it done by the end of the year.
+ If a task takes years, start today.
But now that that productivity has become practice, I've started on the next level.
Recently I was interviewed by my work to be featured on Instagram, where we do more BTS and Meet Our Team! sort of posts (we have different strategies regarding different social networks based on how we feel social networks best create space or conversations). And my coworker in charge of it asked me,
+ What’s the last great thing you learned?
After giving her my snark grin and pointing out that it's 'latest great thing', being that I certainly hope this great thing isn't my last, and then laughing and telling her, "And that's why you guys hired an editor!", I told her that the latest great thing I learned is that you really start moving forward with your goals once you turn your passive or intellectual interests into participant hobbies.
She ended up not using that answer on the post, and I was okay with that. However, today for the first time I got paid to edit a glitch video for a friend. This small gig comes shortly after attaining the job I'm talking about, which is a job I really wanted and is a significant leap forward in my career. This position marks the first time I have the leverage to demand higher pay from other gigs and also consider whether the work is truly meaningful and fits my mission as a filmmaker, artist, and content creator. And tomorrow I'm going to be sitting in on a shoot while I edit some UrbEx photos I took two weeks ago, a hobby I've just started that I've wanted to do for a long, long time.
What I'm saying in so many words here is that, at least for this period of time in my life, who knows how long it will last, I'm spending almost every day doing exactly what I want to do, what I find meaningful and interesting and gratifying.
I'm not a Buddhist but I'm aware enough to understand 'this too will pass'... just last year I was thinking the same thing in the exact opposite situation, where I had hit rock bottom and felt completely miserable about everything going on in my life. So I'm not mistaken as to believe I'm set in any sort of sense, or that my current good fortune isn't without risks of failure, hurt, or loss. But it's worth your time when you're experiencing happiness to recognize it, as previous moments of happiness in my life I've used to remind myself that I can be happy when I've felt very, very sad.
And what's important about how I got to this place is that last year, while I was going through so much shit, I finally started aggressively pursuing hobbies in order to find every kind of escape from the shit I was in. I no longer thought about doing little video essays and experimental videos, I shot them as an excuse to spend time shooting and editing. I no longer thought about taking pictures of the pretty ambient geometries of New York City, I started taking out my cellphone and taking them, and eventually used photowalks as an excuse to take my camera out and get away from the apartment (and the madwoman who lived with me in it, ready at any time to smash a plate over my head over an argument). I didn't just look at glitch art and think about what sort of glitches I would like to do, I started glitching things to see how it'd work.
Why this is different than, for instance, when I was working on short films for practice or in school, and later when I worked in Dubai and learned how to practice my craft consistently, is that these were things that had no direct plan toward a later job or career or product.
+ I shoot work for my experimental YouTube channel called Robinson Met Krasna, which has very little views and I don't promote it, which I usually present to friends or internal network groups (usually each video is 'premiered' during a live event, then put on this channel and basically lives there from then on). They're not 'good for my resume' the way other projects had been.
+ I'm amping up my street photography and its associated 'photoblog' Facebook/Instagram pages, but I'm not calling myself a photographer on any sort of business card or resume, or a pro in polite compnay, and so far leaning toward not even going there (I know too many professional photographers of respectable quality that I don't even want to compare myself to them or try to aim for their world).
+ And as for glitch, I have enough trouble explaining the concept less selling it as a skill set.
Here's an example:
But, nevertheless, here I am getting paid to do glitch video, something went viral with Ambient Geometries and I'm starting to get likes from people I don't know, I'm in the middle of a really exciting time with a brand new company, and have another Robinson Met Krasna event scheduled, and am planning another UrbEx trip with friends. My cup is full.
And so as per my coworker's request, what is the latest great thing I learned?
+ Have an interest? Turn it into a hobby.
+ Have a hobby? Turn it into a practice.
+ Have a practice? Turn it into a job.
+ Have a job? Find a new interest.
+ In the cross-sections you will build your career. You don't choose a career, you develop it.
+ The acquisition of a habit removes the need to develop it from your schedule, and you can build other habits on top of it. The growth is geometric, not linear. This is called a virtuous cycle.
An example. I glitched a photograph I took during UrbEx and ended up with something that feels like art I've always wanted to make but looks like nothing I've imagined wanting to do before:
It feels great to me to not only have this thing, that I've made and can look at, in a manner based on my own skillset, but that it comes from such a fusion of my various interests. Before, when I made things for myself, it was with the silent plea that it would be good and break new territory. Now I feel comfortable and confident in just doing something that I find super interesting.
One last note on this:
Me saying it and you reading it won't necessarily really help you. This realization (emphasis on real-ization, or real-ification) is out there, everywhere, from Shia LeBeouf shouting "Just do it!" in a viral video to Get Disciplined blogs and filmmakers standing up at universities saying again and again and again "Just make something. Get out there and do it. Practice, because that's the only way to get started."**
It's one of those things, like so many things your parents taught you, that you hear but you don't understand until you've done it, and then once you've done it you're pissed off at yourself for not having understood it sooner. This is an inescapable aspect of maturity, that knowing something and understanding something are different phenomenon entirely, and understanding comes from lived experience.
I'm 29. I've met 19 year olds that are further ahead than me because they got started when they were friggin' 6. But I've also met 49 year olds that are just getting started and look to me for some guidance. And no one's losing because others are winning, they're only not winning yet.
So in case there are still teenagers and young college students on this site wandering around aimlessly finding posts by young adults talking about 'what comes next', what comes next is, when you think to yourself, "You know, I'd really like to _____", you start doing it. And that will do a lot for you, but you won't start getting good until you've done it so long that you start thinking about doing other things on top of it. But you'll never be able to do those things on top of it if you don't do it first.
And you know this already, and will kick yourself and feel really stupid in 5 to 10 years when you get a handle on doing things for yourself and remember reading this thing.
--PolarisDiB
* I remember reading posts like this that would say "When I got [some awesome sounding professional job somewhere] I first started learning how to [awesome thing I want to do]" and it made me always feel upset that basically the people were saying, "Once I was already successful at doing shit, I started doing shit." I realize that talking about having a video production in Dubai makes it sound like I was already awesome before I was awesome.
However, I got that video production job in Dubai because I forced myself to PA on sets for free, where I met the guy who would be my boss, and I attracted his attention in the first place because I had short films I had made. These short films I had made were made on a Hi8 video camcorder, with my friends, on weekends, costing the price of a Hi8 tape and a few pizzas.
And on the flip side, my magical lucky Dubai job got me a lot of interest in other job opportunities, but only in a few limited job opportunities. It was a great step forward, but one thing I've noticed is that it's the personal projects that I make while working another job that lead to my next job. In Dubai I produced a sizzle reel that got me an interview at Reelz after a friend (also on LiveJournal :) ) connected me to her now husband. While at Reelz I made a one-man-band 48 hour short that got me my job at my current position after a friend of mine recommended me.
You may also notice a pattern there. My first position was someone I met saw work I made. My second position was someone I met saw work I made. My new position was someone I met saw work I made. It's the work, and the network.
The network are where the jobs are, but your networking is useless without the work. I've received and handed out a million businesscards. Never lead to jobs. I've showed work to friends for a laugh and drank beers and discussed dreams. Got jobs.
I've also hung out with friends for a laugh and drank beers and discussed dreams. Never got jobs. You got to make the work and discuss dreams.
** In fact I'm aware this post reads like any sort of inspirational article or lifestyle clickbait, except part of my motivation to write it is that that shit is so generic and so poorly written, with simplistic statements and a lack of character, that it makes me want to smack the writers upside the head.