I need to be obsessed and enter deep work
2016 was a year of discovery for me. Through the audiobooks and podcasts I listened to while driving to the office, YouTube creators and the story of likeminded entrepreneurs, I started to discover the influential ideas that will change how I do 2017.
Start with obsessions
Grant Cardone wrote and narrated the book Be Obsessed or Be Average and I loved every minute of it. I highly recommend the audiobook as you get to feel his true passion for the subject.
The thing I like about this book is that Grant gets it. Like in binary where one is the opposite of zero, you either get it, or you don’t. Grant yourself the permission unleash the obsession about what you want, what you will do to get it, who you surround yourself by and finally, the blind belief that it is achievable.
Simply put, I love being obsessed. It gives you an unbounded level of creativity and energy. Like all things, you need to train yourself to enter this state, by doing more with your time and getting more out of every experience. See everything as an opportunity. Only those behind you will ask you to slow down. Those ahead of you will not.
Document, don’t create
Gary Vaynerchuk is probably my favourite thought leader in this space. 6 years ago I tweeted the following
After discovering Gary from his audiobook #AskGaryVee I realised that he fits exactly what I was thinking 6 years ago. He understands people and how that translates to digital and social. He shares a phenomenal amount of content via YouTube, which funny enough, the moment you start doing what he says, you no longer have the time or desire to watch his content. It’s almost an initiation test to get you to move to the next level.
People love stories and they love to join the journey. Gary has in a way given me permission to share my successes and my failures so that I learn, build a community and power through the dips. That might explain why I created a YouTube channel.
YouTube
Everyone knows YouTube, but in 2016 something shifted for me. While not really paying attention to the vlogging scene I did discover a couple of channels who shared that creative process through the lens of their camera. There was something captivating and exciting about the creative process of YouTube, and with very little thought I started daily vlogging.
It lasted several months but during that time I got to explore what worked and what didn’t. I became obsessed with creating which was so exciting. I also set myself the challenge to create a startup and document the process; using the vlog as a carrot to share what I’ve achieved.
I have since stopped vlogging because it was pulling me into a direction of creating videos but not creating my startup. One commenter recommended I check out the book Deep Work and this was the missing piece to the puzzle explaining why I started to feel frustrated that I wasn’t getting anywhere.
Deep Work
Sometimes you just need to shut up and get on with it. At the age of 13 I got into programming computers and I would enter this state of deep work for hours on end. It was bliss. As an adult with a family and chaotic daily schedules, I had lost touch with deep work big time, and I couldn’t even see what I was missing.
So what have I learned? I need to be obsessed and I need to enter serious periods of deep work. I love sharing what I create and will continue to do so via YouTube. I will focus on a quality audience and not chase vanity numbers such as subscribers. I will create and at a level I’ve never experienced before.
