 If you want to grow an audience, you need to create consistently. To create consistently means that you need to question your discomfort during the very act of creation. So, for example, I did not feel like starting this video. Why am I recording? Because I know that I will feel glad that I did at the end. And that is how you know that you are in a moment of personal growth. You are stretching beyond your comfort zone. And of course, you don't feel like stretching beyond your comfort zone because it's comfortable here. You don't feel like it and yet you stretch anyway. And afterwards you feel glad that you did. Then you know that you have just experienced personal growth. So many of us have this illusion. I don't know where we got the idea. Well, I think I do know where we got it. It's from Hollywood that the creative person is the one who is like inspired. I mean, this is what we see in the movies. That we see those rare, I mean, that's what we see on screen, right? We see those rare moments of inspiration. You know, the actor goes, you know, gets struck by lightning metaphorically or literally. And then they go in and then we see scenes of them madly creating some making some invention or creating some piece of art. We grow up with those images with those ideas in our heads. So we think, well, you have to be struck by lightning metaphorically, hopefully before you can create. Well, I have this secret that I share with many other creators. When I say creator, I mean writers, video makers, artists, business creators, inventors. The secret that I share with many of them is that I don't feel inspired to create until after I start working for a while. For example, I am just starting to get into feeling inspired to make this video. Not quite there yet. You'll you'll you'll see the difference. Those of you who watch my longer videos, the ones that are, you know, usually 20 to 20 minutes or so long, 20 to 30 minutes, you'll notice that my energy shifts throughout the video. And that's the root of that because you'll notice that I get more and more inspired throughout the video. And by the end, towards the end of the video, well, maybe there's a kind of an arc like this like in the beginning I don't feel inspired. And right now I'm still in that state I'm observing myself I'm still making myself talk. Yeah. Did you think that I'm just naturally before I start the camera I'm just like going around spouting wisdom or whatever you want to call this. Before this I had just gotten up from a nap and nap right here on the on the office floor you don't you don't see the mess right behind me because I'm clever while you see the dog bed right there. But there's two dog beds. When when this one big one is usually used by the cat. So the dog is like backing off there. So that's all we have this smaller dog bed for the bigger dog dogs bigger than the cat but anyway. I just got up from a nap. And then I'm like all right, it's time. My schedule says that it's time to publish my blog post and make a Facebook live video this is done on Facebook live. And so I just simply and humbly try. That's all. The next thing I'm asking of you is to simply, if you wonder what that was just a cloth that I put on cloth that I put over the table to absorb sound, just some logistical stuff for making videos just try to have fewer flat services. Anyway, I just simply show up and try. That's it. This could be one of my mediocre videos. I'm trying to make it mediocre. I'm trying to show up for you. And to share some kind of energy and wisdom that could actually help you move forward. That's what I'm here to do it now. What helps me is that at the beginning of each creation session at the beginning of each work session. I do my energy reboot practice. I followed my content for a while, you know, I talk about the energy reboot a lot because I do it very often. I did it right before I made this video. And before I made this video, I was finishing some, you know, the blog post that that's associated with this video and I did my energy reboot before I started editing and completing the blog post. So I do the energy reboot practice as often as I can throughout the day. It's usually at least twice an hour. And if a task is difficult, I will do it. You know, every five to 10 minutes I do the energy because only takes 30 seconds, usually less than 30 seconds. If you don't know what the energy reboot is just go to Google search energy reboot. And then find my article and video about it. All right, so I simply and humbly show up to what my schedule says to do. If the schedule says to write a blog post I simply and humbly show up, and I try. Like I already told you, it can take me five writing actually takes me quite a bit of time to get into feeling inspired feeling like I want to do it. Yeah, usually when I look at my schedule and it says this afternoon I have to write. I feel some dread. I do. I kind of dread my schedule my oh, I got a right later, because I don't think I'm a good writer. I don't. You might say George that's a negative affirmation blah blah blah yeah it could be. But here's the. Here's the weird thing about it. Sure, you might feel more inspired with you use positive affirmations and, you know, but I just am trying to be honest with myself yeah I'm sure I'm a harsher critic of myself than anybody else maybe. I saw all the time. I know my mistakes right, but I don't think I'm a good writer. I still don't to this day. And now you might say George I beg this differ your, your, your posts are getting a lot of likes and you're only seeing my 10 to 20% good stuff. You don't see, I mean, most of the time, because I've written over 1000 social media, well over 1000 social media posts and blog posts. When I say social media posts, I mean it's could be like a short blog post and a blog post is a bit of a longer one anyway, I've written over 1000 pieces of writing over the past, you know, seven years, over 1000. And so, you don't see most of those 1000 these days because I've written so often. I now post mostly the best of my past stuff. Did you think I was brilliant, like all the time. No, you're only seeing my best 20%. You don't see my, the other 80% that went nowhere. I posted it and they barely anybody liked it because barely anybody understood it. So, this is what happens when you are uninspired, but willing, you show up. You just try. And in that period of trying, in that period of just trying to write something. Oftentimes, something, I mean, usually when you try writing something or you try speaking something this video by the way, for some reason I'm still not feeling inspired by it. Whatever I'm still here. Right. But, you know, usually I feel inspired within five or 10 minutes of a video but let's let's let's let's continue on and see what happens. But like, with with writing, you know, I had a hard time and those of you who have read my blog post about writers block I have had writers block most of my life. So with writing, I show up not excited to write not interested in writing not inspired, but I just say well, I'm going to pick a topic now you might say well we're ready to get your topics. Okay, so this is the part where inspiration comes in. I'm inspired, like one to 5% of the day. So when when is that usually like if I'm walking that when I'm walking the dog. I'm taking a shower. When I'm working on some other project, I might feel inspired about something else. So it's one to 5% of my day suddenly there's a moment of oh there's an idea. Ah, there's something I could write or speak about Oh that's a business idea I could build into my business or what like like a short short percent a small percentage of the day, I'm inspired. And when the ideas come. I quickly write them down on my phone. So that's what I do with inspiration I try to capture inspiration as quickly as I can. If I'm in the shower, I will memorize the idea. And then, when I get out of the shower I will write it right down as quickly as I can. And then, when it's time for me to work. I then go to my list of ideas that came in the 5% of my day that sometime in the past, I wrote it down. So when it's time to work so for example when the schedule says write a blog post, I will go to my blog post ideas. I will see which one seems most, you know, energizing to me at this point, even though I'm still not excited to write because the writing process is hard. For some of you the writing comes easy and you should be very blessed and I hope you write much more than the most of us do. But for a lot of us writing comes hard. I mean the finish starting from an idea and finishing a piece is is hard work. Now, hard work doesn't mean we have to suffer. Pain doesn't mean we have to suffer. Pain is required for growth, but suffering is optional. The pain I'm feeling right now not being inspired by this video. And I can I think I can tell you why I'm not inspired by the video to be honest, I've already recorded this video two other times, because the first time I recorded this idea of uninspired but willing was probably, I don't know, I made one in 2019 I know that but I might have made another one in 2017. I've recorded this idea of uninspired but willing several times already. So at this point I'm doing it because I'm about to publish my job for productivity books so I'm kind of updating the chapters and uninspired but willing was one of the chapters so whenever I update a blog post I also make a video to go along with it. It's just my rhythm. Right. So this is like the third time I've said this same and not just the third time I've already, I've also said the same topic, dozens of times in my client group over the years. And so I'm not feeling inspired about this topic anymore. It's, it's like an old, old hat for me and I'm just saying it because it's part of my blog post to have a video. And so, but I'm still here and some of you are hearing for hearing this for the first time this uninspired but willing idea. I'm here for you, who are hearing for the friend some of you are hearing it for the second or third time and hopefully it'll remind you and give you some energy and some reason to create more consistently. That's my hope. So, like I said, the tiny percentage of the day when I'm inspired I write down the ideas quickly as I can. And then at the end of each day, I categorize my ideas into the appropriate buckets. I have, I have another blog post called capture, categorize calendar, capture categorize calendar that's how I work with ideas. So you can look that you can Google that and find it. So I capture ideas when they come to me as soon as I can. I categorize them at the end of the day, meaning, oh, this idea is a blog post idea. Okay, I'll categorize that blog post ideas. Oh, this is a idea to improve my marketing. Okay, I'll categorize that in marketing improvement ideas. Oh, this is a blog. This is an idea for talking with this client when I see them next time. Okay, I'll categorize that idea in client notes for that client. So like I get inspired, I capture the ideas, I categorize them at the end of the day. And whenever my calendar says to do something, let's say it's to write, I look at I go to that category blog post ideas, I choose an idea, and then I do the hard work of writing. Now, when I said we feel pain, those of us creators feel pain, pain is, so this is what I hope you will normalize. You're supposed to feel pain when you create. I'm going to say it right now. And by pain, I don't mean physical pain and like emotional agony. It doesn't go that far. That's when you have given too much energy to the pain and you're now in the land of suffering. Right pain. I could see. I'm using the word pain, we can easily use the word discomfort, or uncertainty, or doubt. These are all pains, right the feeling of doubt is painful. Right, it's not she it's not fun to feel doubt, the feeling of uncertainty is painful. It's not great I hope I feel uncertain about this, whether this thing is going to be successful or not. Nobody wants to feel uncertain everyone's know. Oh, if I'm working on something that I know that's going to impact a lot of people everyone wants to feel that everyone wants to feel that way. But the reality of the creation process is painful. There's uncertainty. There's doubt. There's self, you know, judgment. There's frustration that the thing isn't quite coming together just like I said this video isn't coming together the way I hoped it would. There's lots of, yeah, the mental and emotional blocks. Those are all pains. Right, you know, those are all feelings of discomfort. And if you thought that you're not supposed to feel those things when you create. You probably, you know, were raised by Hollywood images of inspired joyful creators and they're always joyful and that's Hollywood, you know, the in any movie there's that sequence like I told you several times in this, you know, in a movie about a genius so great. But the reality is when I sit down to write. I don't know if I could even write a few sentences about that topic. I've got the topic. Okay, I've got the idea. I don't know if I'm going to write a few sentences and if I write more than a few senses I don't know if people are going to understand it if it, if it's just all my head, how do I structure this thing so that it makes more sense. Should I add more, should I write, those are all doubts, and those doubts are painful. But what I've learned and practiced over time and this is the practice, the practice is to go. Well, to do my energy reboot in the beginning, and if my uncertainty doubt self punishment or or self judgment and frustrations start to reach a level of suffering. In other words, when I'm starting to give more energy to those negative emotions and thoughts than than needs to, then I catch myself and go, I'm starting to spiral. Right. I do my energy reboot again. And that resets me to at least at least a little bit higher higher up the spiral of creation, rather than spiraling down into suffering and like quitting and things. There's a little bit higher up where like there's a possibility here. I doubting, but there's still a possibility that this might work out. Okay, I still have some optimism and help some a little bit. And that's when I continue to work. That's when I continue to write another sentence, or try editing that previous sense, or try starting another, you know, paragraph with a different idea that's related and maybe you'll be able to put this somewhere else. The writing process is like that. Right. Same thing with any other process of I know a lot of you. If you're if you're working on building your business you have to work with technology. And a lot of you don't love working with tech, because it didn't you didn't grow up with it. You think doesn't come naturally for you. Right. So, when it comes to working through a technical technological problem like trying to figure out how to run Facebook ads or trying to figure out how to automate a particular business process. Again, it's the same pain is there that the pain of not knowing whether you're doing the right thing. I'm feeling like, oh, I don't maybe there's maybe I'm at a roadblock. Right. So feeling a little bit a little bit of despair, right, all those pains. What do you do with it. Do you let those pains do you focus on those pains, and they're go there by go into the land of suffering and thereby quit. Right. Or do you catch yourself sliding down that spiral into into hell, essentially, right. What's on earth is your emotions when when they are spiraling into into fierce negativity. Right. Do you find yourself spiraling down and you catch yourself go. Oh, I'm giving a lot of attention to this negative, these mental negativity, giving a lot of attention to it, catch yourself, and then do whatever you need to get back and reset to that smidgen of optimism and hope and thereby positive action to keep looking for a solution to keep trying to work with what you have. What do you do. I'm curious, when you are uninspired. What do you do to get back to the point of willingness. Right. Uninspired, but willing is how I work through my whole day. Pretty much. The exception is when I'm in a meeting when I am talking with one person when I'm helping one person. Then it's so much easier, isn't it, because the other person's requests and the other person's energy naturally inspires you to do things. What's usually uninspiring is working by ourselves when we're not in a meeting we're not helping somebody when we're not teaching a group of people or whatever, you know, that is the superpower that I hope you will practice and develop. You, if you do your whole business and your whole work is just responding to other people, whether it's being in meetings and responding other people or responding people's emails, or social media posts. You're only responding to others. You are sure you might be a brilliant or helpful responder. You are not practicing the area of value creation that is that all of us self employed people need to eventually practice which is working by yourself when nobody is asking you for anything. Nobody asked me to post this. Nobody asked me to write about uninspired nobody did. I thought, you know what, one day I got this idea uninspired the willing. I wrote it down. Didn't really know what more to say about, but then when I sat down to write I started writing more and it's like well let me think about what I could say about this. Okay, and then this became like this blog post and this video. So, the superpower to practice is to work by yourself. When there's nobody asking you for anything or requesting anything to create value that you then deliver to others, and whether or not they find valuable, you keep creating day after day. Now, one thing that does help me to get into the process I mentioned, you know, my energy reboot. I said that, but also focus mate. I point focus mate because I have an old phone that I don't use anymore and I put on a tripod this is like $20 about years ago this gorilla pod, and this is my focus mate station so it's always next to me, my computer and pretty the only thing I open on this phone is the focus mate website and I schedule a session and I, you know, I do focus mate as often as I can whenever I'm not in the meeting during the day. I'm usually on focus mate, and I recommend that you give it a try as well. So, long story short. However, the only doubt you should be doubting in your creative process, whether you are writing making videos, building your business, create inventing something, you know, or working with technology, or any process that helps move your goals forward. The only doubt you should have is the, the only doubt you should have is that discomfort is not right. That's what I hope you will doubt. No, no, no, no, you should, you know, you should say to yourself, no, no, no discomfort is evidence that I am stretching beyond my comfort zone. It's literally how you grow. You should never stretch beyond your comfort zone. You know, you would still be a, you know, baby or I guess an adult on the floor, not knowing how to walk or talk. Right. Thank goodness as a baby you didn't have these self doubts. Right. Thank goodness we weren't born with all these doubts about, oh I can't walk. I can't talk. I don't know if babies just try to talk and then eventually mama or papa, right. Eventually the right words come out we get praise, right but all those other words all those, you know, gobbledygook the baby say, oh that's cute that's nice or whatever. Oh walking how many times you fall I don't know all of us babies right we had to, but thank goodness. So, go back to the beginner's mind, the mind of a baby that the part of the mind of a baby that doesn't have any doubt. And just as I'm going to try walking. I'm going to try talking. I'm going to try writing. I'm going to try making a video. I'm going to try working with this tech that's previously frustrating for me. I'm going to try improving my marketing. I'm going to try reaching out for clients or for collaborations. I'm going to try, even though I'm uninspired, because now I understand that discomfort is supposed to be normal in the creative process. No matter how many affirmations you do, no matter how spiritual and holistic and enlightened you are this comfort is the definition of getting outside your comfort zone something you haven't done before. And so you might fail. You might make a mistake. Normalize that feeling of discomfort. When you normalize it, then you realize you don't have to slide into the hell of emotional frustration confusion doubt self punishment self judgment. You don't have to slide down there anymore because you're oh it's normal to feel this way but I can go back. I can go back up with my energy rebate practice, whatever practice helps you to get back to a little optimism and hope and possibility that I just need to work through this discomfort. To the other side, which is value, which is having created something that may or may not help others, but at least you tried and thereby you grew. Because when you stretch beyond the comfort zone. It's not comfortable during the process but afterwards you go, look at me. I did that. Don't know what the results going to be that's beside the point. That's a different topic. But I showed up sat here, worked through it did my energy reboot or whatever to reset myself to not go into to negativity. And I've created. It's what I hope for you. So go forth. Understand that, you know, we are all with you on this journey. When you feel uncomfortable next time, because you don't know how how something's going to turn out. Keep creating knowing that all of us are doing the same along with you, all of us creators. Yeah, we're here with you. So keep going. Start something today or keep creating. And I look forward to hearing how it goes. Be well. Take care.