Practices and Outcomes

We don’t always control the outcomes of our choices and actions, though our actions and choices certainly influence our outcomes. When we set out to do something, we usually do it within the context of a goal of some sort. There are a few problems though with how we set our goals, and then how we set out to achieve them.

We have different goals. We may want to lose weight, we may want to make more money, we way want to be happier, or we may want to have better relationships. We probably want any number of these, and more. We may even want all of these things at once, I know I do! I’d love to lose weight, continue to be a better photographer, be happier, have more money, strengthen my relationships, and be a better writer. These are all worthy pursuits – that is they are all quite broad and generally describe the areas that I’d like to find success in.

Within those pursuits, we have outcomes or specific goals – things that we’d like to see happen. We’d like to lose a certain number of pounds, or weigh in at a particular weight. We’d like to make a certain amount of money. We’d like to go to bed without worrying about our relationships; whatever those things are. So when we break down those general areas of pursuits into particular outcomes, we start to understand those intended outcomes. We may even now attach a timeframe to these goals (using the SMART goal framework) – so now we want to weigh a particular weight by a particular date, make a certain amount of money by a particular date, etc. So we’ve added the aspect of time to our outcomes now to give us a sense of urgency, so that we’ll take action on them.

Here’s where things can go sideways for some people, I know this is where it can go sideways for me. We work and work on our goal, then that timeframe gets nearer and nearer, and we start to see that it’s becoming less and less likely that we’re going to achieve that outcome by our intended date to achieve our goal. So, we start to fall shorter and shorter. We start to slow down and lose momentum. Before we know it, another year has come and gone, and it’s December, and we’re making New Years Resolutions again.

We’re too focused on outcomes, and not focused enough on our daily choices and actions – our practices.

Our choices and actions, our practices, ALWAYS lead to an outcome, whatever that outcome may be. There’s always an outcome. When we focus on the outcome, we lose sight of our practices. We get excited about the possibility of a particular outcome, and we even feel dedicated to it. We even start doing things to reach that outcome. But then “reality” sets in. We have slip-ups, we have challenges and distractions, and before we know it, we start thinking “Well, it was a neat idea, but not nearly practical enough.” It becomes an obscured conception – something that was a good idea, but not practical to pursue and hard to see clearly now. So, we go back to “reality”.

When this happens, what we’ve done is lost track of the practices that are needed to achieve that outcome. When we focus on the outcome, we lose sight of the daily practices needed to achieve it. We have to focus on our daily practices that are in alignment with our intended outcome. We typically don’t get to control the exact outcome, but we can control how we commit to the practices that are in alignment with that outcome.

Let’s look at a practical example. Maybe you wanted to lose 30 pounds in 6 months. You set out on day one, and have your systems in place. You know you need to lose 5 pounds a month for 6 months to lose 30 pounds. You start out, and things are going well. You lose 7 pounds in the first month. Great! You give yourself permission to eat a little extra pizza and take it easy on the workouts, so you gain a few pounds. You realize what you’ve done, and start working hard again, but your body doesn’t respond the same way it did the first time. Now you’re two months in, and you’ve lost 7 pounds. You feel discouraged. You know that you need to keep going, but you just don’t feel as excited as you did before. You’re 3 months in now, and lost 10 pounds. That’s good, but you think you should have been at 15 lbs instead. You put on a few pounds, take off a few pounds. Now you’re 4 months in, and you’re at 12 pounds down. Still good, but you realize that you may not hit that goal, so you start to tell yourself that it probably wasn’t practical anyways. Once you hit 6 months, you’re 5 pounds lighter than you were, and chalk it up as a win because at least you’re lighter than you were, but you don’t feel good about it because you fell so short of your goal.

Sound familiar? It does to me.

Now, this isn’t to say that those 5 pounds weren’t hard fought, or that it wasn’t difficult to lose them, or that it wasn’t important and positive. The focus on the entire time was on the outcome though. Now imagine the same scenario, with a different focus.

You still have the same outcome – you want to lose 30 pounds in 6 months. It’s a worthy and attainable goal. You put together your system – diet and exercise. 1700 calories a day, 5 days a week of 45-minute workouts. This time, we’re going to focus on our practices, rather than our outcomes. Week one, you write down your goals – 1700 calories/day and 5 days of workouts this week. Monday – you get it in. Tuesday, you get it in. Wednesday, you end up with an emergency meeting in the morning, skip breakfast, and now it’s lunch and you’re starving and haven’t worked out. By focusing on your practices, you’d make the choice to do the best you can that day. Maybe you end up only being able to fit in 30 minutes of a workout in the evening, and still eat 1700 calories. Great. It’s Thursday, and you’re back at it. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Life is practical, and you make your practices part of your daily routine the best you can. You continue to focus on aligning your practices with your intended outcome. A few months in you realize that you could include getting to bed a little earlier, so you add that to your practices.

Will you hit that goal? It’s difficult to tell, but your practices are certainly in line with your outcomes, and you’re committed to your system. You may overshoot your goal, you may undershoot your goal, we can’t control how our body loses weight; but read back over those two scenarios. Committing to practices, regardless of how each day turns out, will take you closer to your intended outcome than focusing on your outcome. When you focus on your practices, you let go of the attachment to the outcome. You know your daily choices and actions, your practices, are in alignment with your intended outcome, and you can focus on those. When those become the focus, the outcome is still in the picture, but not our focus. We’ll get there, because our practices take us closer to our intended outcomes and our goals. One of those scenarios leaves us with a lack of self confidence for not hitting our goal, while the other leaves us with a sense of self confidence, feeling good for committing to and keeping to our practices.

Focus on your practices – your daily choices and actions. That will take you closer to your goal than focusing on your outcomes.

Old Practices and Thoughts

As part of getting my new website up and running, I’ve been migrating old blog posts from a previous website to this one. Some of these blog posts are 5-6 years old. I don’t necessarily agree with that version of me on things. I also don’t like the way that version of me wrote some things, and I’ve had to decide what to do with these posts.

As I’ve been putting this new website together, the schema for different content types has changed from my last website to this website. This means that blog posts now have different requirements than they did in my last blog in order to publish correctly. It’s not a big deal, I just have to make a few changes here and there and move on.

I’ve taken the opportunity though to go back through and read a lot of my old posts since I’ve needed to update media. After reading many of them, I have a strong desire to go back in and edit a lot of these old posts. I don’t like the way that I worded certain things, I even disagree with some of my previous thoughts. It’s been difficult to decide what to do with some of these old blog posts.

Ultimately, I’ve decided to leave them as is. My mind is drawn to Seth Godin’s Blog. He has been consistently blogging since January of 2002. That’s 19 years of blogging. I can’t imagine that after nearly 2 decades he still absolutely agrees with many of the things he’s written for the past 19 years. I also can’t imagine he goes back and reads and edits those posts to be sure that they do align with his current thinking.

I think having these old blog posts is evidence of evolution – evolution in thinking, writing, and approach. While I’d love to cultivate a well-written and edited collection of thoughts on particular subjects, for me having a blog means publishing thoughts in a journal format that I feel comfortable with in the moment. I get them out, and then move on.

I know that when I look back on old posts that I may cringe a little, and that I’ll find thoughts and ideas that I write today that I may not agree with in the future. I’m glad I’ve recognized an evolution, and I hope that when I do look back on old posts in the future, that I’ll recognize both an evolution and a thread of an idea that helps me to recognize my own self. It’ll be evidence that I’m changing, hopefully for the better.

The Blue Sky

In meditation last year the idea of the blue sky occurred to me. It came up multiple times, so I stayed with it. As I meditated and journaled on this experience, the metaphor of the blue sky found new meaning. It has fundamentally changed the way that I approach life.

If asked what color the sky is, most people will typically answer “blue.” We know the sky as being blue. If it’s cloudy or smoky outside (as has often been the case in the past year), when asked what color the sky is right now, people will typically answer “grey” or “brown.” While when looking up in this situation, the sky does appear grey or brown, it’s only those colors because that’s the color of the clouds or the smoke. The sky actually remains blue! The sky (during the day of course) remains blue, and it’s what comes between the sky and us that change our perception of it.

The clouds and smoke will pass, as they do, and the sky will once again appear blue. This is because the sky’s natural color (during the day) is blue. It doesn’t change, what’s in the sky changes our perception of it, but once those things pass, our perception of the sky goes back to blue. What can we learn from this?

We can be as the blue sky. We can have an identity that doesn’t have to shift with the passing clouds and smoke that will almost certainly afflict us. When we over-identify with the things that are going on around us, we take those problems, challenges, distractions, and obligations and begin to identify ourselves by those things rather than an identity that we want or hope to have ourselves.

Having a journaling habit, I began to write my “Blue Sky” in my journal each morning – reminding myself of my identity every morning. I realized that I had been well on my way to identifying with the problems of the day, and the problems of the world. I realized that when I truly wanted to explore my identity, my “Blue Sky”, that I wasn’t sure exactly who I was without my response to the problems around me. I kept writing my “Blue Sky” every morning, first thing in the morning, to remind myself first thing who I am.

I learned from my friend Chris Orwig that who we are is infinitely more important than what we do. I guess I just hadn’t internalized it this way before. Now I had found a framework for putting “who I am” into practice, each and every day by journaling my “Blue Sky.”

I started to disassociate myself from my challenges. I began to see how I was identifying with thought distortions and distractions. As I journaled, my Blue Sky began to expand as well. It started with a statement of “I am healthy.” Even if I don’t feel it or feel like I look it, I started to tell myself “I am healthy” every day. At first, that’s all it was. Then that identity began to creep into my everyday thoughts, all day long. I found myself making healthier choices throughout the day, almost every day. All the effort and time spent on trying to “become” healthy was a never-ending battle, because “healthy” was always something I wasn’t, and getting there was “difficult.”

Once I identified as being healthy, I realized that “because I’m healthy, I make healthy choices and do healthy things.” It was really that “simple” so to speak. I now had “being healthy” as part of my identity because I chose it – it was part of my personal “Blue Sky.” When I realized that I get to choose my identity, and that I’m not a victim of what happens around me, that was a powerful moment. My Blue Sky expanded. I continued to write my expanded Blue Sky Statement every morning in my journal.

I believe we all have our own Blue Sky. It’s our identity, it’s who we choose to be regardless of the clouds and smoke that will eventually pass. Just as the sky is blue, we have a nature that is far greater than the challenges, distractions, and obligations that are sure to come and go themselves.

As a side note, the journal and planner that I use is something I designed specifically for myself. As I’ve used it and others have seen it and used it for themselves, they’ve found value in using it as well. You can find it at makeroomplanner.com.

Interruption, Distraction, & Focus

It’s been hard to get things done today. Really hard. I’ve had so many interruptions, mostly small, some larger. It seems like every time I sit down to start working, there’s something else that needs to be done. Not to mention the news of the past 24 hours, and COVID-19 happening all around (and to many of) us, the news about what’s happening in and to the United States is proving to be a near-constant distraction as well.

It occurs to me, as I’m working at my desk right now, that there is a never-ending flow of interruption and distraction. Even if I’d make the argument that being informed during this time of the United States’ history could be considered less of a distraction and more an act of staying informed, the constant checking of updates does prove to be a distraction. The odd day without interruption and distraction isn’t the norm, even if what’s we long for as we strive to remain productive. We must find a way to remain committed to making choices that are in alignment with our goals and desired outcomes, especially when it’s difficult to do so.

So here I am, trying to refocus myself, reminding myself that not just despite interruption and distraction, but very much because of them, I have to remain focused on and committed to my practices, having confidence in myself that I’ll know when I should deviate and take care of other commitments, and when I should remain focused. When we remain focused on our choices that are in alignment with our desired outcomes, we can be like the blue sky – blue even when clouds or smoke may make it appear grey. Our practices can ground us, helping us remain focused on what’s truly important.

New Website, New Practices

Well, I figured it was about time to put a new website up. Something that is representative of where I am now – the work I’m doing and the things that I value. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to organize how I should best represent myself, and this website is the result of that time and effort.

With the new website comes a renewed commitment to “The Practice.” The consistent practice of creating, learning, and sharing. This includes writing, taking more photos, and making progress on various projects. In a recent episode of the Chase Jarvis Live Show, Chase interviewed Seth Godin about his new book “The Practice: Shipping Creative Work.” The interview is a shot of inspiration, and in it, Seth and Chase discuss the importance of having a practice, or practices. Things you do every day, regardless of the immediate outcome. You can listen to the podcast episode here…

Seth Godin: Imposter Syndrome, Getting Unstuck and The Practice

Committing to the practices that are in the service of the outcomes we hope for, even if we can’t control them (we most often don’t control the outcomes, only the choices we make) is a noble effort that has it’s own rewards. With the new website, I’m committing to those practices – both the ones that I know about now, and new ones that may surface in service of desired outcomes.

Here’s to a new year, and hope for a better one as we all strive to commit to our practices.

Three Years

Over three years. Three years since I’ve written here. Three years since I’ve tried to figure out how I want to do things. Three years of changing, writing in journals, and getting seemingly nowhere.

Budgeting for Innovation

In addition to photography, I also currently lead the multimedia design team at Webster University (among other things). I’ve been thinking about the word “innovation”, and how education stands in great need of it. The question that I’ve been trying to answer recently is, “How do you create innovation?” Even if you can create it, you still have to budget for it. I’ve been giving the subject of budgeting for innovation some thought lately.

Breaking out the Bezier Pen

It’s been a while since I’ve broken out the bezier pen. I used to work at a label company, creating artwork and tracing over really bad faxes that clients would send to us. I would prep the artwork to be printed. I traced with the pen in Illustrator day in and day out, every day. I haven’t really had much of a reason to get back to it, until recently. So I broke out the bezier pen.

Sometimes We Just Need to Show Up

I went out to shoot lightning the other night. I’d been chasing dry storm after dry storm, desperate for any kind of shot. I wasn’t going to go out on this particular evening, but decided I needed to at least get out and give it a try. On my way out, I said a quick prayer that was basically, “Look, this has been a rough summer, so anything you can do to help out would be great.” I drove out, set up, and Mother Nature put on a 2-hour lightning show – I just needed to show up.

June 29th, 2016 Monsoon Timelapse

Here’s a quick timelapse I did of a monsoon storm over the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. I went out with 2 cameras that night. I just kind of left this one to shoot a timelapse, and then shot with my other camera. I kept coming back to this camera to adjust the settings as the environment changed, which explains some of the dark portions.

The music is “Breathe” by my band, Jearbear.