"Picture Pages": The Power of Visualization

We’ve all heard the phrase “seeing is believing.” And I agree. However, this sentiment applies to our imagination as well. In fact, I believe that we think in pictures more than most realize. And the more crystalized an image-story becomes in our minds, the more we stamp it as true. Case in point, the Wright Brothers didn’t need to see an airplane first to know that flight was possible by man. Which is why the phrase “whether you think you can or can’t, your always right” exists.

A simple example of the power of pictures is how so many people are impressed with the number of analogies I’m able to quickly access to help make some aspect of music more relatable to them. And like the gears of a car engine or manual watch, I see music as an extremely clear series of interlocking parts. Which in turn makes it easy for me to see its reflection in so many other seemingly non-related things. It’s really no different than recognizing your own reflection in a reflective surface, regardless of how distorted the image may be. Another example of how this idea plays out in music for me is when I’m getting set up for a gig. Many times people have wondered why I seem slightly disconnected to everyone around me when I’m either getting ready to head to a gig, or am in the middle of getting set up at the gig. And the answer is simple. As a growth oriented person, I’m always working on some concept. But before it’s baked into my DNA, I have to actively think about it to access it. So what might come across to any onlookers as anti-social behavior is actually me running through a “pre-flight” checklist to ensure that I still remember what I need to do to execute it. Another way to say it is that I’m trying to convince myself that the analogy that I’ve chosen to help me access said concept is as stable as I think it might be. So once I find the right analogy, and have played this picture-narrative out in my head enough times to believe I’m right, I can then stop actively thinking about said idea without the fear that I’ll forget how to access it when I need it.

The reason why I’m highlighting this idea of pictures is because I believe the idea is undervalued. When you think about the nature of meditation, or escaping to nature to find peace and quiet, you’re doing so because you’re seeking clarity on an issue or set of issues. And in doing so, you’re forced to sort through the vast catalogue of images/memories in your brain to assemble like a jigsaw puzzle that’ll hopefully reveal an objective picture of reality. Which, of course, means that as we absorb new information, will require us to reassemble the order of our picture-narratives so that they reflect a new version of reality that makes sense to us. Therefore, the gold that’s to be mined from this post is that if the lives we live are reflective of the choices we’ve made, and will continue to make, then the filter by which our decisions are distilled constitute the order of these picture-narratives. In short, every time we rearrange the order, we change the design of the filter, and ultimately the trajectory of our lives. Hence the power of visualization.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) When you change the way you look at the picture-narratives in your head, you change the way you look at reality (for better or worse). *Hint: always take an impartial stance when doing so.

b) The strength of our decisions is only as good as the filter we distill them through. So focus on inspecting the filter more than the thought itself.

c) Believe it or not, research and development (R&D) is simply the physical stress testing of picture-narratives. In other words, the continual challenging of thesis’s.  

Passion & Purpose: What are they and why do they matter?

I’ve always been interested in the contrasting lifestyles that people lead. And wondering what objective conclusions can be made about those that get to live the lives they live, versus those who feel they have to live the lives they live, has been one of my greatest curiosities. But now that I’ve read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, it has become clear to me that the answer lies in knowing the difference between passion and purpose.

  If you objectively think about what our purpose is here on earth, we can conclude that it is to simply perpetuate the continued existence of our species. After all, every plan we make for tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year, is because we expect to still exist at all of those future points in time. And since our collective existence is a team sport in which we’re all on the same team, means that our purpose is to help other people survive and hopefully thrive. Which, by the way, if we focus on thriving as opposed to simply surviving, the former will automatically address the latter (but more on that in a future post). As for passion, it is an energetic feeling that we apply to any activity that we feel can give us the fuel and focus needed to go the distance towards fulfilling our earthly purpose.

  When you think about why certain people can’t lose weight, it’s not because it’s impossible for them to do so. It’s because they’re not emotionally up to the task, seeing as how the calculous is very simple: move more, eat less. This isn’t a moral issue, it’s a physics issue. Therefore, when it comes to those who are confused as to if they should be following their passion(s) or their purpose (let alone knowing the difference between the two), it’s because they have yet to figure out if they’re emotionally up to the task of learning how to passionately embrace the kinds of activities (even if it’s not their original passion) for helping them to fulfill their purpose of helping others as stated above. And this my friends is where the rubber really meets the road.

Logic says to pick a target, reverse engineer a process for hitting said target within a specified amount of time, and then stick to a work habit for executing on that process. However, if your current passions don’t seem to fit anywhere within such a scheme after you’ve drawn it out, this is where the emotional reluctance occurs towards letting go of your beliefs about yourself. And the best analogy I can give is the feeling of doubt one might have towards their abilities to find another person who can make them feel as good as the last person they were with before that relationship dissolved. In other words, a person might have a hard time believing that it’s actually possible for anything else in this world to energetically satisfy them like the passion(s) they currently hold. But the irony of it all is that none of us came into this world with ANY of the passions we currently hold. Those passions were developed over time. So if we could do it once, we could do it again by learning to develop other passions that may be more appropriate towards this mechanical purpose we all share (i.e. showing others how to thrive in all areas of life). But it all starts with defining what we want that purpose/vision to look like, and in great detail (think the specificity of MLK’s Dream speech) if we’re to know that we’re actually hitting our target. And THAT’s the part that most of us fail to do! So in paraphrasing Robert Kiyosaki, you have to really dig into the “numbers” when you need to make an unemotional decision about matters that matter the most.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Leading a life by passion alone is like allowing yourself to be in a boat in the middle of the ocean without a sail, simply because you have a profound preference for the boat you currently have.

b) Passion(s) is for self, purpose is for everyone else.

c) Doing the math (i.e. the “numbers”) means being clear on exactly how you want the look and feel of your purpose to play out. From there, pick a date, plot a course, and become relentless about finding some aspect of the course you can become passionate about. *Hint: If your current passion(s) don’t fit easily into the picture, find as many aspects of the process where you can integrate your current passion(s) so that you won’t be so energetically reluctant to do the work.

Foundation: We are what we eat!

If you find yourself in a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, your mission is to take cover under whatever set of surfaces are sturdy enough to help you weather said storm. So when you find yourself stuck in the middle of an economic, health, or social storm, your only recourse is to identify a set of reliable principles that can support your well-being until (and after) the ground settles. And I can’t think of a more intuitive path towards the embodiment of success principles than through the body, as this is where all knowledge begins. After all, just think about the developmental process of babies. All of their intellectual knowledge happens after they’ve learned to control their limbs and their mouths. So if you don’t value the insights that are to be gleaned from how the human body works, then I think you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to realize that you already have the tools to change your life. Meaning that if your future successes are predicated upon your daily habits, then there’s no better place to test the efficacy of this idea than to observe what can happen to your body when you change your physical and dietary habits. So here’s a quick story to explain what I mean.

When I was living back in New Brunswick, NJ. my best friend Owen had moved himself and his family 45 min away to Easton, PA. So since he was further away, I knew that I’d have to really make the most of my time with him whenever I made the trek out to his house. That said, I remember spending the night at his place one winter, where the following day we went outside in his back yard to toss his football around. And since he’s also my Sifu within Ving Tsun Kung Fu, I didn’t want to leave without some kind of gold-nugget takeaway that I could internalize to make the trip feel that much more worth it. And as soon as I had this thought, the answer appeared. Meaning, whenever I’d throw the ball to him, he’d catch it with little negative impact. But when he’d throw it to me, my fingers would sting because we were outside in the snow without gloves on. So the simple lesson I took from this interaction was that unlike myself, Owen was more comfortable putting himself in vulnerable positions to gain the insight needed to react to situations appropriately. Therefore, since how we do anything is roughly how we do everything, I thought to see where there might be a connection between this idea about vulnerability and music. And what I realized was that not only did my drum solo’s make little sense back then, but the way I spoke to people also wasn’t much different. So since my thinking was the problem, I thought to fix it by writing. I’d think of a question and then defend my answer through numerous rounds of editing until my argument was what I’d consider to be air-tight. Ironically enough, this process of having to clarify my thoughts like this improved my soloing without ever touching an instrument first. And to be more specific, it was because I suddenly became hypersensitive to the value of developing singular narratives as opposed to being all over the place.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) It’s tough to be an effective “human doing” before you can become an effective “human being.” And as such, nothing will ever be more foundational to our learning than physical experiences.

b) All building blocks to self-awareness start with the relationships we have with our bodies. So learn what the building blocks are for the body that support its basic functioning.

c) Above ALL else, our most important asset in life will always be the health of our bodies, because even if we fall on hard times, we’ll still have the strength, flexibility, and stamina to re-org so we can live to fight another day. But without these attributes, our capacity to be of service to our fellow man/woman will be greatly limited.

Point of View: Social Media Tactics for Artists

When faced with uncertainty, everyone reaches for anything that can be construed as stable. And while we can’t control outcomes, we can control how we react to situations through our investments of time, energy, and resources.

You’ve probably heard that there are three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what just happened. You’ve also probably heard the adage of “good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” Well, it’s pretty clear that the most admirable person would be the one who makes things happen. And as you might assume, this person would be engaged in the exercise of producing more and consuming less. Therefore, if we’re to maximize the concentration of our energy towards a worthwhile outcome, then we need to be mindful of how much input is coming in versus our output. And if you think about it, the majority of our input comes from social media these days. Which, when you think about it, isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. However, the problem is that we’re generally not good at filtering what comes in. And as such, we find ourselves accidentally investing more time into the task of having to scroll through all the non-value adding posts in order to get to the value adding ones. But at this point, we may have just lost 30+ minutes in order to find something suitable that only took us 2 minutes to read through, or 30 seconds to look at.

When we consume other people’s content, we do so in order to get inspired, distract ourselves, or to evaluate our creative output to that of others. However, if you’re a true artist, your job is to create and present YOUR point of view, not other people’s point of view. So while this will sound super counter intuitive, a worthwhile practice for us artists is to actually consume less content from others, starting with the cleaning up of our social media feeds. So what this means is that you’d have to audit your entire account in the same way that you would if you owned a media company—which, ironically enough, you already do, by the virtue that your personal account serves the same function as an actual media company. So this means that you’ll need to go through and make sure that everything you’ve posted, or have allowed to occupy space on your pages, are congruent with the brand that you’re trying to amplify. And this goes for people as well, “as you shall know a company by the company it keeps.” So once you’ve audited your friends list as well, then hide everything and everyone from your news feed. Now that you’ve eliminated all distractions, allow only the people and pages that are inspiring to you to come through your feed. That said, this doesn’t mean that you should go on and stalk their pages for more inspiration as a daily practice, as that would nullify everything I’m telling you to do. You only need to check in with them when you NEED some new input from those particular sources because you need a quick boost of inspiration from a different perspective. Aside from that, just post you own content and interact with those who engage with it. After all, the purpose of what you post serves as a honing beacon for your real audience to find you. As for those other folks, who may very well be near and dear to you, simply call them or go visit them if you really want to connect. If not, hide their content as well if it’s not a source of valuable input to you. I promise you, you’ll be SHOCKED as to how many more hours throughout the day you’ll have to engage in the work that’s the most meaningful to you.

Suggested takeaways….

a) Spend over 90% of your time posting your own content and responding to those who engage with it.

b) The point of posting your own content is so it makes it easier for your potential audience to find you like a flag on a flag pole. And by doing so, it’ll prevent you from having to spam the world with your ideas. Instead, it’ll allow you to spend more time honing your craft while attracting those to you who actually care about what you’re putting out into the world. Again, this will be a huge time saver!

c) Being vulnerable enough to post your own content will get you more comfortable with accepting the responsibility for owning your truth, as opposed to merely backing someone else’s. Furthermore, in doing this exercise of marketing your point of view, it forces you to have to keep having real experiences to report a point of view about, because if you don’t, you’ll never have anything to talk about. Also, the process of engaging in real experiences creates a layer of credibility for your assertions. So even if someone doesn’t agree with your takeaway, they can never invalidate a lived point of view.