Today I am blatantly stealing a thing from entrepreneurial guru Tim Ferriss. His weekly newsletter is called “5-Bullet Friday,” which offers a few thoughts in a bullet format highlighting his recent interests.
I will not steal all his bullet points, but I will copy a few. In the words of Austin Klein, “Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”
What I’m Reading
I’m usually reading or listening to the audio versions of a few books at once. Right now, what’s getting most of my reading time is Effortless by Greg McKeown.
I’d hesitate to call it a self-help book. More, it’s an interesting look at personal hacks for achieving goals. A little over halfway through, the main message I see is, “stop trying too hard.” Alternately, the message could be worded, “don’t sweat the small stuff,” or more, “don’t make things more complicated than they need to be.”
It’s all good advice.
I think the most recent example of this sort of approach in my experience was in our recent return to the grand sport of bowling.
My wife and I bowled somewhat regularly when we still lived in Providence—long before Jack was born. While we were never in danger of bowling a perfect game, we felt good enough to join a league.
But life happens, and bowling wasn’t enough of a passion to withstand that, so our bowling balls and shoes went into the closet for the next ten years.
Recently, we found a nice bowling alley not far from where Margaret works. We decided to try our hands again now that Jack was just old enough to play along a bit.
I was terrible. Most of my balls ended up in the gutter. I didn’t remember being that bad, but there it was. I couldn’t understand it as I was trying to do the correct form, account for my grip, apply the right spin, and aim for the pins in such a way that I should have gotten a strike.
Nope. Gutter balls.
So I decided, fuck it. I rolled the ball down the lane and didn’t even try to be good.
And knocked ‘em all down.
Huh.
So I did it again. I bowled without trying to bowl well. In the end, I did pretty well. I even got in another strike.
And that’s my “secret.”
I stopped trying too hard, and doing that improved my game (and enjoyment) significantly.
Effortless talks a lot about this sort of thing and how you can apply it to business, creativity, or any other goal.
In thinking back, publishing four books this year also had much to do with not trying too hard.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I worked hard on those books. But I didn’t weigh myself down with the heavy chains of trying too hard.
Something to think about.
What I’m Listening To
The Aquabats.
I’ve been trying to get a bit more into ska—a genre I used to avoid for some dumb, young reason. The music of the Aquabats changes from album to album, but there’s a relatively consistent undertone of ska throughout.
Another appeal is The Aquabats Super Show which I’ve only recently discovered. Great fun in a retro superhero show sort of way.
Quote of the Week
We recently went to a Harvest Festival event sponsored by Jack’s school. As an older parent, I have little experience with young children in a large group. The running, shrieking, and general chaos took me aback. But the kids were having fun.
One part of this festival featured a giant sandbox filled with dried corn. It became a magnet for the kindergarten-aged kids and reminded me a little bit of Lord of the Flies.
Hence this William Golding quote.
What I’m Watching
I got unexpectedly drawn into Nobody recently on HBOMax. I was intrigued because I wouldn’t have expected Bob Odenkirk to do a violent action movie role. He was surprisingly good.
The plot was okay. Pretty by-the-numbers showdown with bad guys. I felt there were a lot of avenues left unexplored which, should they try for a series like Taken or John Wick, could be interesting enough to watch.
Shout out to the Chekhov’s Gun setup. I thought that was pretty clever.
What I’m Working On
Nothing at the moment. I’m writing this on my phone from the waiting area of a tire shop that is switching out some dangerously bad tires. It’s a bill I can’t really afford, but there was no question it needed to be done immediately.
This morning I sent off a couple of articles on Veterans Day for some local-interest magazines in Colorado. I’ve got some pieces on plastics and SaaS sales to work on as well. And I have a pile of layout work I’ve fallen behind on.
I try to leave weekends open for family and household chores. This weekend I’m going to have to squeeze in a lot of work-work as well.
Wish me luck.
Interested in Creative Blocks?
Check out my book, THE CREATIVE BREAKTHROUGH, available on Amazon or in the Kindle Unlimited library. I talk about overcoming creative blocks with several strategies that have worked wonders for me over the years.
Until next time…
