16: Crush Your Barriers Creatively

Aristotle once said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."   It’s a quote I think of often as I go through my life, taking a look at what I repeatedly do and wondering how can I take what I do on a regular basis and level it up, make it better, so that I can level up my life, my impact, and break through barriers.   So, today’s focus is on growing a limitless mindset by identifying your barriers.   Before getting into anything yet, just think about that for a minute. How do YOU identify your barriers?   I truly believe that you can do anything you set your mind to. It’s just up to you to believe in yourself.    Like Steve Jobs said, the world was made of by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it.   In short, there's nothing different between you and those you aspire to be more like.   Fear, self-doubt…they’re totally normal and I can’t name one person I’ve interviewed who didn’t have fear and self-doubt. In fact, most of the people I meet and interview (multi-millionaires, successful entrepreneurs, the greatest movers and shakers of our time) continue to struggle with fear and self-doubt.   We all have barriers and sometimes the hardest part about breaking a barrier is actually recognizing it and seeing it.    Then, the next step is grabbing the sledgehammer.    I’ll talk another episode about self-limited beliefs and how to pop that balloon on another episode. Today, I’d like to talk about how we can recognize our barriers.   Break Your Personal Habits    Sometimes we need to break our habits — yes, even the good ones, to recognize a barrier.  Setting up a creative routine like Todd Henry mentioned on episode 10 is crucial to achieving greatness.    Why? Because a routine and sticking to a schedule means you’ll actually get something done.   I mean, seriously, if you wait for an idea to strike, you’ll be standing in a field by yourself for a long time. And forgot about actually making a living off your work.    Sometimes, however, to break a barrier you need to break routine. You need to step outside of your cave and go, “oh, interesting” and go on a stroll to the unknown.   Sometimes going out of routine can spark creativity and, even better, help you connect the dots in your life.   I recently sat down with the founder of Neurons Away, Sally Safadi, and talked about how we can be more creative and recognize barriers.    Sally showed me how little 5-minute writing or drawing prompts can help someone think different. So, I don’t mean you need to do anything huge to identify barriers. I’m just talking bout 5 minutes here. And the great thing about Sally is that her work is backed by Neuroscience.    She studied neuroscience in school and then decided to create a book that asks people really strange questions with the goal to spark an emotion and curve the brain to think different.   So, the thing here is not to wander for a long time (though vagabonding can definitely feed the soul). What I’m learning is that having good productive habits and being a bit more scheduled than I’d like to be can help me be consistent and more productive.   But it’s crucial to meander a bit off my scheduled path because that’s where creative insight could strike.   Break Your Social Circle Habits: Talk to people outside of your community.    I’m a pretty open-minded guy or at least I try to be, but one thing I learned about myself is that I often tend to stick with other people who empower me. Often times, these people tend to have similar belief systems that I do.   So, I make sure to have conversations with people who may think very different from me.   In business terms, that means having conversations with people outside your field of understanding. If you’re a coder, for example, go talk with a sales representative. If you’re an actor, go talk to an accountant.    Or, in your personal life, engage in meaningful conversation on topics that my mother said I should never talk about at the dinner table.   Religion  Sex Politics  Philosophical Stuff   Throw a potluck at your house and ask your friends to invite someone you don’t know.   Start a meetup using Meetup.com and hold a socratic cafe discussion. I love socratic discussions.    I remember having an amazing talk about living authentically at Columbia University. Included in the discussion were a motley crew of personalities: me, a homeless man, a professor, a dancer, and others.    We definitely did not agree whatsoever, but we listened and had an open dialogue.   Conversations like this get me to think different. And maybe that will for you too.    So, what about you? How do you get yourself to think different? How do you identify and then break a barrier?     Let me know on Twitter @markwguay or send me an email at [email protected].