So You Want to Be A Thought Leader?
Actionable Steps to Originality
So you want to write something original, huh?
You want people to reference your work?
You want to change the world and blow down the doors of perspective?
Well here’s a good place to start.
Stop Watching TV
Any TV. Especially news. Netflix included. No exceptions.
When you disconnect from the media filters that exist, you begin to obtain information through different filters and different lens.
Stop Watching Big Box Office Movies
They’re shit. If you absolutely must consume some version of long-form film, focus on international or documentaries. Then at least you’ll learn something.
Stop Using Social Media
You don’t need to know what everyone else is up to on a daily basis. You likely don’t need to know that info on a monthly basis. It is corroding your brain and wasting your time. Cut it out.
Do Crosswords/Sudoku/Mind Puzzles Every Day
Continually be sharpening your problem solving systems. Want to create new abstract thought on a topic? Best learn to flex that muscle.
Read Novels
By Novels I mean books longer than 250 pages. Especially the things you don’t like, and focus on non-business and non-tech books. They bring a new perspective on the world, and 250 pages is just long enough to fully immerse yourself in someone else’s perspective.
Sweat like a Pig
Seriously, go run/bike/lift/swim/whatever your ass off.
There’s this common misconception that your body and your brain are disconnected in many ways, believing that your body is just a vessel to haul your brain around, but in fact the two are directly linked.
Want to think better? Sweat your ass off. Get back in shape. Learn to run and enjoy it. Move often and much.
Eat Properly
Same as above.
You are what you eat, and more appropriately, you think what you eat. Michael Pollan is one of my favourite authors on the topic, and I would highly recommend checking out his books - notably, The Omnivore’s Dillemma, In Defense of Food, and Food Rules - but he distilled the entire concept down to 7 liberating words:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Disconnect from the Cityscape
If it can work for Henry David Thoreau, it can work for you.
Get back into nature. It will do wonders for your thought process.
Stop Shopping at Big-Name Stores
Just don’t do it. They kill small stores, and decimate communities.
They also induce standardized filters over their products. Your goal should be to disconnect from those common filters as much as possible.
Brain-dump/Journal/Write/Paint/Do a Creative Outlet Every Night
This will help to remove some of the lingering thoughts in your head from your conscious mind, which I find not only helps with falling asleep, but actually stores them somewhere in my subconscious where the better part of my brain works away on them. Think of it like running a program in the background on your computer.
Want to solve big problems? It’s going to take more than a day.
Have a Large Bowel Movement Every Morning
So this isn’t particularly pretty, and definitely not table conversation, but trust me on this. Want your brain to function properly? Then the rest of you should be in high gear as well.
Eat more fiber if you have to.
Hat tip: James Altucher
Disconnect from Standard Time Frames
Amazing things happen early in the morning and late at night.
When you disconnect from what is “normal” you begin to see the world in a different light. If you find yourself stuck with writer’s block, try this. Seeing the world at 4am or 3:30pm gives you very different impressions.
When crafting a new or more complete lens, different perspectives help.
Hat tip: Bruce Mau
Stop Paraphrasing Other People’s Crap
Stop reading articles, they don’t show you what the real world is like — get out of your own head, into your own body, and experience the world for yourself.
Seriously, just stop reading them. This article included. Did you actually learn anything original from this? Unlikely.
So if you want to spark that originality, you had best go look where your internal compass is leading - you already know where this trail goes.
Venture on brave traveler, venture on.
Want more from this guy? Come get it.
Care to read more from the VFC Fellows? Check it out here.
