What’s the trick? What is behind the success of women and men who have achieved their goal and realised themselves by doing exactly what they came into the world to do? The answer can be as simple as it can see seem complicated for each of us, children of such a frenetic era.
Here are some clues.
Did you know that author Steven King writes at least 2,000 words every day, regardless of what else is going on in his life? “Not a day without a line” was also the motto of Beethoven who wrote music every day; Director Robert Rodriguez has a habit of writing and directing a short film every month, no matter how busy he is with other projects; Serena Williams, one of the most successful tennis players of all time, has a habit of training daily and practicing her shots; the American entrepreneur and founder of a multimillion-dollar company, Sara Blakely, who in 2012 was nominated among the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2014, was included by Forbes as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world, has always had the habit of selling regularly, committing to make at least one sales call per day; Painters such as Pablo Picasso (who created around 2000 canvases in his lifetime), Vincent van Gogh and Georgia O’Keeffe used to paint daily working on their canvases for hours; American chef, writer and TV personality Julia Child practiced her recipes and techniques every day.
By focusing on a single thing, each of them has been able to hone their craft and become successful and a celebrated personality.
In fast-paced everyday life, the greatest risk for each of us is exactly to lose sight of ourselves. Every day there are business appointments, deadlines to meet, meetings, family matters, and problems to solve all the time. Of course, it’s life and also the beauty of being alive. Despite the fatigue, the efforts, the chaos, and all that agitation, however, it often seems to us that we are not exactly where we would like to be. How come? Because in spite of our commitment to all the activities we deal with, we don’t always give the right space to what are really our natural priorities. To advance, to achieve what represents our personal success for us, we must not lose sight of that single crucial thing for ourselves and dedicate some time to it.
The Americans Gary Kelly and Jay Papasan, authors of “The one thing“, publication about personal productivity and approach to work, offer interesting reflections to simplify and minimize stress and excess work by obtaining maximum personal satisfaction. In their book, the two authors encourage us to dedicate ourselves to what really interests us, to what will make the difference, to that one thing we really need in order to achieve the results we want in our work and therefore in our lives. The book, which became a bestseller, is an inspiration to countless people today. In “The One Thing,” it is argued that success in any area of life can be achieved by focusing on the single most important task each day. Through practical advice and inspiring stories, the authors tell how by eliminating distractions and putting all our energy and attention into this thing, we can make significant progress towards our real goals (not those imposed by others or by the contingencies of life) and enjoy greater satisfaction. Thus, one of the book’s key insights is the importance of prioritisation. Our to-do lists are often clogged with an overwhelming number of tasks, making it difficult to determine what’s truly important. By effectively focusing on one thing each day, we can reduce stress and increase our productivity. In fact, the book also covers the importance of setting and breaking down the most important and complicated goals into smaller and more manageable steps. This helps to stay focused and motivated, as well as increase our chances of success. In this way you can live a more fulfilling life and also have a lasting impact on the world. There are many anecdotes mentioned by the authors. I am sure that regardless of the different fields of interest of each of you, a source of inspiration and motivation can be the stories of people exactly like us, who have found their own personal strategy to proceed and find the path that led them to their objective. Such as the story of comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld. He used the power to focus on his “one thing” to achieve success in his career. According to the book, in fact, Seinfeld had a habit of writing jokes every day regardless of what was happening in his life. To help keep himself focused on this, he would mark an “X” on a calendar for each day he wrote jokes. The idea was to keep the chain of “X” as long as possible, with the ultimate goal of not breaking the chain. Over time, the habit of writing jokes turned so ingrained that it became a key part of his success as a comedian. He reportedly wrote every day for years, even when he didn’t have a show or concert scheduled. By focusing on “the one thing” that he knew would make the biggest difference in his career, Seinfeld was able to become one of the most popular comedians of his generation.
Often, it’s what we hold most dear, or really care about that we overlook or fail to address. I’m sure many of you experience that. So instead of starting work on that project you’d like to do, you find yourself procrastinating, finding any excuse instead of getting to work. How many times rather than writing that text you need, or editing the video you care about, making a couple of phone calls to go ahead with your activities, or starting to do physical exercises to get in shape, do you engage in other things like doing cleaning at home, or scrolling through social media.
WAR OF ART
On this point too I have a book to suggest. Together with the volume by Gary Kelly and Jay Papasan, I gave a reading to “War of Art: Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battle” by Steven Pressfield which talks about the resistance we put up when it comes to concluding projects we care about. Resistance is “the negative energy that gets between a person and their dreams”. Think that as many as 92% of those who make New Year’s resolutions are defeated by the “resistance”. An important goal, such as writing a book, can be daunting to face on a daily basis, but a more achievable goal, such as writing for at least 30 minutes every day, can be easier to achieve (and here the aforementioned text by Kelly and Papasan already comes back to us useful).
Every creative person is faced with a resistance, a force that tries to prevent the work from being carried forward. This resistance can take many forms, from self-doubt and procrastination to fear and frustration, and can therefore be a major obstacle to success. Pressfield offers a range of strategies for overcoming resistance and breaking creative blocks, including developing a strong work ethic, embracing fear, and focusing on the work itself rather than external validation. This work, as well as the previous one, offers a roadmap for overcoming the obstacles that prevent us from realizing our full potential, an invaluable guide for anyone looking to break their creative blocks and pursue their passions with determination.
The book also offers many examples of writers, artists, and personalities who have overcome their creative resistance to achieve success in their field. Director and producer David Lynch is mentioned in the book as an example of a creative professional who was able to overcome creative resistance by developing a habit of daily meditation. In fact, Lynch credits his daily meditation practice with helping him tap into his creativity and overcome his own doubts. The painter and sculptor Henry Moore was able to overcome the doubts that can often arise in the creative process by engaging in the daily practice of drawing. And even the novelist, Ernest Hemingway, faced his resistance by writing every day, no matter what. This habit allowed him to produce a great deal of work and become one of the most celebrated writers of the early 20th century.
All of these examples illustrate how powerful it is to develop a daily habit or practice to overcome creative resistance and achieve success. By engaging in consistent practice and focusing on the most important thing, we can overcome our own resistance and create the work we are truly capable of.
In short, whether you are an artist, a creative, a professional, I hope this can be of encouragement and inspiration for you to keep fighting to find your voice, not to lose sight of it, and to pursue your dreams. Being the first to appreciate our own uniqueness, fighting for it with conviction without letting ourselves be overcome by doubts or fears, are the basis of love for ourselves and for the aspirations of which we are made of. Our goals represent us and they are precisely what will make us happy.
A Neapolitan in Cambridge 