Yesterday, I had a moment. You have moments too, right? It’s not just me.In this moment I said to myself, “that’s it, I’m done, conversation over, I’m out.“Then I remembered something I read, “we can accommodate and adapt… the impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way, becomes the way.“Instantly, an energy came over me. How might this impediment become the way forward? How might I leverage this feeling I have to advance a cause? To make something better? How might I leverage devices I have seen successfully used by others to make this thing right?In only a few minutes I took to the computer and developed a plan that would address the impediment. I designed work that was needed and I shipped it to people who cared.The response to my work was well-received, it was appreciated, “it’s needed.“Truly - what stands in your way, becomes the way.You get to leverage your obstacles and make something with them if you choose.

Do you know what it means to be part of a studio? What do you get to do as part of a studio?Work collaboratively with peers.Create and define a vision for work.Make and keep promises.Be Curious. What if? How might we? What’s the real challenge? What can we?Test. Make hypothesis statements and test them.Learn. What did our tests show us?Ship work. Make change happen.A studio is the opposite of an institution:Stay in your lane thinking.We’ve always done it this way - “we don’t want any of your new ideas.“Bureaucracy - red tape, procedures for the sake of it.What doesn’t fit, doesn’t belong attitude.There is no better feeling to approach your work as an artist in a studio. The freedom to try with the discipline to ship. That’s the way I love to work, and it’s the type of environment I try to build.Why am I telling you this?Because you can create a studio anywhere. You can create one in your home, in your practice, in your government job, in your college, or on your team.A studio is not a big open space with bean bags where chaos happens. It’s a mindset, an approach, and a posture towards your practice.

When you fail, and you will today, stop and listen.What happened just before?What were you trying to do? What was the outcome you had hoped for?How might you do it better?Are you getting feedback that you can use from someone? Does the feedback help you achieve the outcome you had hoped for? Yes? Use it. No? Ask for clarification.What if you tried the work again but changed one thing? What might you change?How did the work resonate with the people I was trying to serve? Was it a dud? Or did it land, but not as good as it could? Tweak the song, change some words, adjust a graphic, adapt your approach.Try again.Fail again.Grow again.

I’ve been reading a lot about Oswald Avery and his work trying to find the 1918 influenza pathogen - see last post. I find this guy’s devotion to the craft of exploration fascinating, and today he did not disappoint.“Whenever you fall, pick up something.“When we fail at accomplishing our goal, read: when we fall, there will be other bits of information on the ground that we can pick up. Data points like ideas we abandoned, reflections on efforts that worked but didn’t yield the right results, reflections on efforts that failed but we still persisted, and the like.Our fails/falls invite us to review everything we did and pick up something that will help us as we step towards achieving our goals in the future.Failure is only failure if you choose not to learn.Do not let your fails and your falls go to waste.Pick up something to use, leverage, and benefit from.Thanks, Mr. Avery.

Owald Avery was a medical research for the Rockefeller Institute. He was also a key player in the attempt to identify the pathogen of the 1918 influenza pandemic.Avery believed that “results… are not random products of chance observation. They are the fruit of years of wise reflection, objective thinking, and thoughtful experimentation.“John Barry, author of the Great Influenza, studied Avery and others. In his book, Barry goes on to describe the process that these researchers went through to try and achieve a result/outcome - identifying the pathogen. As I was thinking about it… there’s lots to be learned about this process - we could apply it to our own attempts to achieve goals.Declare your goal/identify the problem.Identify all the things that can be learned about achieving your goal and determine how you can learn more about each thing.Deep dive - start learning! With each new learning, ask “So what?” Determine why that learning is important.Think creatively - ask “what if?” questions. What if we did (blank) instead of (blank)?Make a plan. How might we do (blank)?Experiment - test the plan.Gather feedback - did it work? did it not work?Repeat steps 4, 5, 6, and 7 over and over again. Learn more and more until you achieve your goal.If Avery is right - the only way we’ll achieve a goal, result, solve a problem is through a process. A process that combines scientific and creative thinking skills.A bit complicated? Sure. But it’s an idea. An idea is a great place to start.

If we’re being honest, are you really honest with yourself?Think about all the ways that we are potentially not honest with ourselves:That someone’s words or actions hurt us. Words can’t harm us, it’s in our perception that harm exists. Words are simply air passing through the reed that is our vocal chord. Words are neither good nor bad.That we are better (or worse) than we are. Do we really know what’s best for others? Are you really worse off than you thought? Who are you comparing yourself to, and are they playing the same game as you? What are you so afraid of?That today is going to suck. Says who? You get to decide how today will go by your decisions now.That others hate/dislike you. They might, but that’s their problem with you, not your problem. They also might not - in fact, they might not even care enough about you to hate you. Why are you so special?I might be picking on small self-talk, but that self-talk adds up. But, if anybody spoke to you the way that you speak to yourself, you wouldn’t be their friend.Be in pursuit of the truth - the absolute and emotionless truth.If you can do that, you change your self-talk, you walk with equanimity, you become honest with yourself.

I’m taking today not to communicate what I’m thinking now.Not for any negative reason.I have been distilling and synthesizing so many ideas that I need to let them marinade.Are you giving yourself that time?Time to exist with your thoughts - to reflect on them, wonder what they mean, identify what you might do with them?The best moment I had today was sitting in my piano room with a cup of tea while staring at the piano… thinking of absolutely nothing but that the piano existed, and that I existed with it.

When you already put in the money, when the invites have already been sent out, or when the caterer is already preparing it can be tough to cancel an event. “There’s already so much that went into it, right? We can’t cancel now!” - words never spoken by anyone that’s planned an event.When your job gets touch, when you start to feel under appreciated, when your bosses are being bosses and not leaders… “I shouldn’t look for another job, I just need to stick it out, I’ve been here for so long!” - words never spoken by an under-appreciated employee.Every commitment we enroll eventually invites us to quit or persist. The post you’re reading now is about knowing when to quit.Have you ever heard of the sunk cost fallacy?If you’re planning a wedding/concert/event in a pandemic, and most of your attendees cancel because they got sick and what you’re setting out to achieve from the experience can’t be fully realized… it’s time to quit. If you stick it out, you’re not really executing the event for your attendees, you’re executing it for your pride.If you’re in a job and you feel undervalued, your bosses treat you horribly, and you’re hating your life - it’s time to quit. If you stick it out, you’re not really thinking about the people you serve, you’re thinking about your pride.Pride is a fickle friend.Giving us validation that we’re worth it - but also giving us a false-sense of validation to keep us same from the unknown - what if we cancel? what if I quit? what if we’re out the money?To counter pride, remind yourself: “Who am I doing this for? What am I doing this for? What is the change I am seeking to make? Why would anybody care?“I imagine that if you ask those questions at the moment when sunk cost thinking is setting in, you’ll likely see that the right thing to do for the people you’re trying to serve and the change you’re seeking to make is quit.

“What business of mine is the future? There will be other crises in the time to come…. let my successors solve those new problems as I have solved the one of today.” - Hober Mallow.Today I completed Isaac Asimov’s, “Foundation.” If you’re a science fiction, sociology, or geopolitical fan, that book might be for you. The story ends with the quote you read above. What I love about that quote is the thought it offers us. What business of ours is the future?None.To understand what I mean, consider the quote this way:The problems that are in front of me now are solved by Today David. What business does Today David have in the future? There will be other problems in time to come, let Future David solve those problems as Today David solved the problems of today.Does Today You need to solve the problems that Future You gets to solve?

I was thinking about this today - how do we learn to learn?Nobody showed me how to play piano. Somebody taught me how to practice the piano. Weekly, they would give me guidance as to the quality of my practice. I learned how to practice.Nobody showed me how to think. Somebody taught me how to share my thoughts and they questioned my arguments. I learned how to practice asking questions.So how do we learn to learn?Perhaps, we learn to learn by actually doing work and getting feedback. Somebody telling us, “hey, what you did there, that did not resonate with me.” We then leverage our ability to ask questions and ask, “How might my work better resonate with you?” We edit our work and try again.Nobody taught us how to learn. Somebody taught us how to practice being curious, asking questions, and listening to others.Perhaps that’s why I keep my Kindergarten diploma visible on my wall.Special shout out to all the teachers in my life that encouraged me to be curious, ask questions, and listen!