Creative Discipline

"Productise Yourself" Naval Ravikant

To achieve leverage, you must productise yourself. Unless you can code, creating media is the most accessible route. Like investing money, the more we invest into content, the greater our returns can compound over time. Despite these possibilities, many aspiring creatives do not build the body of work to access these possibilities.

If I want to craft a different outcome, then my priority should be the art of removing barriers to creating. I am an expert at making barriers instead.

Either I think I need to learn more, or that it's not good enough, or that I'm on the wrong platform, or maybe on the wrong project, or I don't have the time. I have compulsively chosen to frame my situation in a way that creates barriers instead of dissolves them.

I can always make it simpler, make it shorter, practice humility - whatever it takes to publish. The most important thing is to create - not where, or how. Just create. Long-term consistency is more important than any other detail. Building momentum is the priority.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT NEXT REP, as Jay Acunzo calls it. Not what that next rep looks like, or who sees it, or where it lands - just getting it done. If we keep the reps coming, we'll get lots of chances to improve.

Tim Ferriss shared a life-changing question in his interview with Chase Jarvis, a question he had been using to reframe his entire life:

What would this look like if it were easy?

I am now using this to keep my creativity alive and fun. I believe that if I keep the reps coming, they will provide the opportunity for reinvention, and over time, I will build a body of work I can stand on.

"Creativity is just repetition (do that thing again...) plus reinvention (...slightly better than last time) over time. (You know the time, right? It’s the thing none of us wants to admit our work still needs? The thing that separates us from those we admire, even though we prefer to believe there’s some kind of magical hack or cheat or secret? But, no, it’s time.)" Jay Acunzo