One of the things that recently started to scare me was the idea of losing all of my backed up files and documents, which essentially contains my life. We basically trust that servers in California won’t ever crash and lose everything.
So I’ve started the process of working my way back through the process, as far back as a decade ago when this started and rediscovered much of the work that I wasn’t aware at that time would become and form a large part of my most important work to focus on.
When it comes to information, I am a hoarder. I collect and keep everything. Forever. So if you’ve ever engaged with me, or made any sort of digital communication with me, like the FBI, I probably have a file or two on you!
Because I always suspected that all of this might add up to something someday. And as I sat down to begin this process of revisitation, what I’ve come to realize is that much of what I was doing over time was mixed with other things when it actually needed to be extracted and focused on as the subject itself rather than a part inside another subject as the main thing itself. And given that I’ve collected all this information and kept these ideas and kept working on creating, developing and evolving iterations and mutations over years, one thing stands out: each year that goes by a lot of new knowledge is brought into the process and therefore more experience gained and each time with better knowledge of what exactly is the right thing to focus on next.
Even just so much as the past six months has brought a whole new dimension of thinking and subjects that would have been impossible for me to dip my hands into before, due to an inability to understand and too difficult to read and learn. But it’s recently become enjoyable.
The current process involves a process of backtracking: going back in time, revisiting history again and spending time with small details which can easily get missed but may prove to be significant later. For example, I had one screenshot that I almost skimmed over from 2020. But then stopped to dig into it and realized that this one screenshot I could take 20 minutes to really sit with and go deep into all the details and contents of this single screenshot and turn it into a piece.
The contents of you are about to read now has therefore been produced today from looking at a single image. And there’s 125,000 files, so nothing is going to happen in a hurry. But that’s a great thing. Why? For one, it’s going to take a long time. And two:
WHO CARES? NOBODY IS WAITING FOR IT
So whatever you set your intentions to work on will come to pass and it will be a better day if you take the necessary time that is essential to be sure that you’ve devoted as much as it takes to giving it everything it deserves and all you possibly can. There is no shortcut through this process.
One day you will wake up with such a large database of information and research, as it continues to build with each passing day. The more you keep discovering, the more that leads to the discovery of more. It’s an endless cycle of learning where every time you follow a path, it leads you to the path of something new or different again. In a way, you actually don’t want it to end. Don’t rush and do not try to hurry. For what does the end actually mean?
WHAT DOES THE END LOOK LIKE?
Given that hundreds of thousands do this each year, what does it even matter when? There is no rushing your way to great work. Especially if the goal is to stand the test of time.
So there is this experience of overwhelm that arises but it isn’t so much about how much information and work there is to do but rather, how much could get lost and never be attained if it doesn’t. I use cloud services such as Evernote, Dropbox and Voice Notes to backup my memory. It’s like having several brains. Books containing notes and notebooks with notes and notecards covered in notes. And so there is this desire to act with a sense of urgency in case it ever gets lost. There is no better way then to make use of this than engaging with it and putting it out there. For fun.
If it wasn’t already obvious because it seems to many that it wasn’t, much of my interest is geared towards the creative process: the act of idea creation, what to create, why create and the best way of learning how to create the best thing you can create.
And this act includes being extremely patient and learning how to wait, meditating on ideas and letting them grow organically, trusting the process to unfold over time until it can become the best possible version of itself.
And it seems that a lot want to miss or would prefer to skip this step. But this is foolish impatience from undisciplined minds. These are the same kinds of people who don’t know what to focus on a day, never mind for years ahead. So even if done in a hurry they still wouldn’t get it because they lack the personality and attention to do important or meaningful work.
The worst thing you can do then is listen to the voices of others who not only don’t understand your work but don’t understand themselves. They lack purpose. So what is the point in trying to impress people who have no idea who they are or what to do with themselves?
THE BENCHMARK TO PRODUCING GREAT WORK
10-years is the minimum amount of deliberate practice time it seems to even reach the ability of being able to start trying to produce great work.
The whole point then is to slow down and be more deliberate in order to develop the skill of learning how to see: cultivating the ability of being able to see more than you could before. And you cannot get past this barrier until you have been engaged with the process for long enough. Time and experience therefore are your two biggest obstacles and not something to try and avoid.
For even the smallest chance of great work to occur you need these two things to happen first. The only way you can do that is to let things happen naturally by continuously engaging with the process. And as you come up with new ideas, new thoughts, new discoveries, new and different ways of seeing the problem, this engagement with the work, the task you choose to focus on, the research leads you to finding better by always digging deeper while playing with your ideas.
This vast assimilation of knowledge over an expansive period of time will also not fail but lead to qualitative changes in the structure of your brain, influencing and developing how your mind works in the future. Over time, you will begin to see more. Things which you never noticed before. But to get there you have to be willing not to endure but to ‘enjoy’ this process.
Anyone who has made remarkable accomplishments rarely does this inside less than a decade.
It should have been obvious, but it seems the direction wasn’t always at times. And since no one was paying attention, I’ll revisit this again. As doing it for its own sake is the reward. And also, because I’m also afraid to lose it.
Structure is important, however that will follow later. The main thing right now is to rework the work. Therefore much of the contents may be repeated but only for the purpose of tying everything together as more new patterns emerge into seeing better ways of piecing it all together.
Work hard to produce the best work before it’s too late. Act with a sense of urgency. You could be dead by morning. So in that case, work as hard as you can with the time you have left.
Enjoy the process of revising, revisiting, re-editing and re-making. It will be the most exciting part of the process.
FLOW: ON DEEP IMMERSION AND HIGH QUALITY FOCUS [HOW TO ACHIEVE THE HAPPIEST STATE OF MIND]
Before we start with why we need to start with how. And to do that requires going backwards through the process in order to start by arriving back at the beginning, when everything started to change. Not just how and why but more importantly what, who and when.
WHY IS FLOW IMPORTANT?
“Flow” is a mental state identified by complete absorption in a task that brings on deep states of focus. It is a highly energized force of intense concentration which can feel so intense that a person’s experience in consciousness will temporarily shift, radically, and normal experience of everyday life is temporarily altered, entering a period where reality is suspended.
This experience feels so enjoyable that a person may even take great risks to achieve it again. The only way to achieve it is by deliberately increasing the difficulty of tasks through increasingly challenging goals that are always just about manageable but to the point of being difficult enough to require strenuous amounts of physical and/or mental effort to overcome.
One’s skill level must therefore always be tested with deliberate efforts to want to increase those efforts to reach the next skill level in whatever activity they enjoy to bring on the experience.
STANDING AT THE HORIZON: LIVING AT THE EDGE OF YOUR ABILITIES
This euphoric high that an individual experiences whilst in this state can be so intense that you would need to consume a cocktail of class-A drugs [that would kill you] to even try to feel the same level of pleasure experienced from the chemicals released that flood the brain during an episode of flow. It’s easy to say then that achieving this quality of experience is not easy at all.
For a person to get into flow they must invest all of their attention into specific, well chosen and always difficult goals that require the person to engage on a level that is far beyond their present ability, using all of the power of their mind and body to reach this elevated state. Unlike drugs however, which are always bad for you, and only bring on short term pleasure and always with long term negative side effects, flow, once achieved, not only elevates you to a higher physical and mental plane but the feeling that arrives from the experience lasts and can go on and on.
Flow is always a positive experience. As after each episode a person will return more than they were before going into it and will achieve an increase in cognitive complexity. While seeking flow can be perceived as risky, this element of risk can heighten a person’s senses, reaction times and awareness speeds. In other words: cultivating a mindset fit for purposefully enjoying difficulty for its own sake, will make you better at doing difficult things. Follow this process for long enough and there is no telling what physical and mental results you will experience.
Although flow can be as dangerous as drugs, as many thrillseekers have lost their lives chasing this elusive state from always flying off the handle and into the face of the unconventional by deliberately seeking ways to achieve the impossible, if one gets really good at this and learns how to maintain control, in situations where many others would lose it and they keep getting to the other side successfully, the person’s psychological structure will even shift and completely change.
In flow, a person’s experience in consciousness is completely altered. Reality gets suspended temporarily and normal everyday life gets pushed to the side. And for the duration whilst in flow, nothing else in the world will matter. Concentration becomes so total that there is simply no room leftover in the person’s attention to think or care or about anything.
The idea of failure vanishes to the point where even the concept of time collapses. During flow the individual experiences time dilation which completely alters one’s subjective experience of time. This is also known as time transformation where time will either speed up or slow down.
Attention becomes so focused that there is no room leftover for any error whatsoever, even failure. As it could spell the difference between life and death. We could say they have fallen deeply into the present moment.
Concentration is so total at this point that no irrelevant information can arrive into consciousness. They become undistractable. Everything internally is functioning optimally which allows them to experience complete harmony within the self. Any external information not related to the goal can therefore be perceived as a distraction which could disrupt or break their state causing the deep level of focus to be lost.
Therefore going to a place deliberately for getting into the specific headspace required where there can not be interruptions is critical for meeting the conditions to enter this state of mind. It is therefore inevitable that each time a person achieves getting into flow they are at the boundary of their current skill level and at the point of attaining the next level. Flow requires maximal efforts to be expended towards stretching the limits of your physical and cognitive capabilities. The only way back into flow is to continually increase the difficulty level and push yourself past the furthest last point.
It is therefore impossible to experience boredom in these conditions. Flow is in fact the complete opposite mental state of boredom. Flow is also known to be the happiest state of mind to experience. If one always knows how to get into and back into flow, then it is impossible for the person to ever feel bored. The flow state can’t be reached in low level engagement activities or anything distracting which doesn’t pose a challenge to the person’s ability. Mindless consumption activities such as watching television, scrolling social media, or even pointless gossiping will never bring on flow.
Flow requires precise, deep concentration towards the attainment of self directed goals that are higher than the present level self. If these elements are missing, the state simply cannot be reached and will therefore not be achieved.
FINDING FOCUS: FLOW STATE MASTERY
Take this as an example: right now I’m currently sitting in a library at the time of writing this, by myself, surrounded by books. Not just the libraries, but I’ve brought 5 of my own books with me, a journal, notecards, laptop, phone, several pens, and a ruler (I really like to write extremely straight lines so I write each line on a ruler).
The reason for this is simple: libraries are extremely quiet places and perfect undistracting spaces where you can immerse yourself into work. I can sit down at a very large desk all to myself which is different from my typical environment. And by making this commitment to travel to a physical location, more specifically a library where many people have stopped going, and with the goal to do this work with all of my tools I am forcing myself into deliberate practice, entering a novel environment for the sake of channeling my energy under conditions where there is zero distractions to completely narrow my focus on the task at hand with no interruptions whatsoever, the very conditions you need to meet for flow.
And whilst my phone is on silent I still use it nonstop for research but will only let myself stop in case of emergency notifications. If what I see appears is not urgent I will simply ignore it to eliminate anything competing for my mental resources. Not allowing anyone or anything to have my attention whilst writing is critical to getting it done.
Why?
As the staff member who approached me on entering the library said: are you here for the group today? Group? That sounds awful. That sounds like teamwork. I hate teamwork. I’m here to be alone and write. Where’s the quietest place I can sit where no one will be for the next hour?
ACT FROM A SENSE OF URGENCY: DO IT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT [BECAUSE IT DOES]
Time is of the essence and lunch only lasts an hour. So if 60-minutes is all you’ve got then it is important to get as much from the hour as you can possibly give. You only need 1-2 hours of intense focus per deliberate practice session. And even a couple of these a week will be more than enough. Quite possible is it then to squeeze out more productive work when working against challenging time constraints. Having all of the time in the world can actually be a bad thing. For I’ve seen many people who do 8-hour days but only do a few hours of actual work spending more time caught up in meaningless distractions.
How can you get more done inside 1-2 hours than 8?
It’s simple, but not easy: be extremely disciplined and show up with an attitude to want to work really hard then work really hard within the little time you have to work. Your time is limited and especially when there are already a multitude of demands vying for your attention each day. It’s therefore vital that once you sit down to start that you actually work hard to produce as much as you can and to the best of your ability. You need to push yourself to squeeze as much as you can in every tightly constrained minute. With time working against you and the desire to get it done, these constraints create a sense of urgency. It then becomes an exciting challenge racing against the clock to see how much you can get done in an hour.
We are now touching on the subject of deliberate practice, which really is the only way to consistently produce and get yourself into a flow state. If you are not always working hard on trying to get better at doing harder things, you simply will not achieve this state.
THE ELEVATED MIND: INCREASING COMPLEXITY IN CONSCIOUSNESS WITH FLOW
Get yourself out of your comfort zone today in order to find your way back into the zone. Get into the habit of following this process of always trying to make things a little harder and more difficult than before. Engage with this practice for long enough and you will experience tremendous rewards, a total transformation of your mind and character. Not only experiencing the transcendental joy that arises in flow, but also the ability of being able to break past your limitations, elevating your mind and body to the next level.
You can begin this process several ways and there are strategies I employ that help always get into this state.
But we will have to follow up with that in the next part because lunch is now over and I have done this instead of eating again, and my attention now needs to be elsewhere.
And to think, everything I’ve written here that you’ve managed to somehow read I’ve drawn entirely from looking at a picture. That’s what 10-years of training and experience will do to you.
Deep learning over time becomes tacit knowledge. When knowledge is no longer consciously considered but intuitively felt and work can arise seemingly from nothing out of nowhere. But nothing ever comes out of nowhere. An endless amount of time needs to be spent in order to make something timeless.
The goal is not to merely work hard to make a bestseller, but to aim on making a perennial seller: something that lives on long after you are gone.
Listen to your intuitive voice and follow it to its ultimate end. It will always know what is right for you and which is the best way for you to go. Even when no one else understands it. Even when no one understands you. Fight back against that noise. By ignoring everybody and learn how to listen to no one. Promise me you will always be and stay your strange and weird self.
The ability to shut out the world to concentrate your forces on completing tasks with a sense of urgency is an important skill being lost in today’s world. When was the last time you did something for the first time? Find your way back. Seek out those activities that force you to push and stretch yourself above your present ability. In a world that is only becoming more distracted through endlessly spinning digital media passive consumption, find your way to the library.
Remove all unnecessary noise from your life and declutter distractions to focus solely on the most important of tasks: using your mind and attention productively with purpose. In other words: get into the habit of finding ways to make things harder. The more you keep chasing above the threshold, the more you’ll experience what exactly this is we’re at. Don’t be a fool who hides behind the idea that they read books. Go to the library, yes. Hide behind books, okay. But making sure you are actually there and reading them is a far smarter idea.