Back to Coach and Jed.

Jed: Coach, as you see I’ve been making 1 or 2 more cold calls everyday. I suppose you’re gonna tell me that I shouldn’t really expect a big change in sales until I make a lot of calls?

Coach: Yes, and no. Yes because, as a numbers game, your chance of making a sale goes up. No, because it takes more than just calls to make a sale.

Jed: I’ve been trying holding a pencil between my teeth while talking, the forced smile does make me feel a little more cheerful after a while. It feels kinda fake, though.

Coach: But it works! But what really tips the chances in your favor is belief: the conviction you can do it. Outcomes are not preordained. They unfold. You always have your hands on the mallet. The question is what’s on your mind when you’re about the strike the chisel.

Jed: You’re saying whatever image I have on my mind about the outcome, my belief that I strike well, and the desire to produce real art is what makes the statue? I’m having trouble with that, Coach.

Coach: OK. You need to have a studio, of course, resources, the help of others like myself. But what truly matters is belief, and training. Every time the artist puts his hands on the mallet he imagines the end result, hears the pounding in his mind and tells himself “This strike is going to be right” . Michelangelo said it best:

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

Michelangelo (1475-1564)

What’s holding you back?

Jed: I sometimes tell myself, “I can’t do this,” “What if I fail?”, “Who am I to even think I can do this better than anyone?” Michelangelo’s a big guy, Coach. “Where is this leading to?”

Coach: And you may thought: “It’s not as interesting as I thought it would be?”

Jed: (nodding)

Coach: OK. One by one.

First, You think you can’t do it? Well, not in one step. Maybe 10,000 steps, who knows? Instead, tell yourself “I can do this. I will put one foot in front of the other”. You can do that. Even if you feel like you want to leave things for tomorrow, just think of something that will take just 1 minute of your time. Only the start is hard. If you think you don’t know how to proceed, ask for help! People are more willing to lend a hand than you think.

You can’t do it because you don’t have the resources? Then tell yourself “I will find the resources!” We often do in the end. If not, we change the terms.

Second, What if I failed? Change that to “What if I succeeded? What if I won? What if I found the solution?” It’s just a What If but that’s a creative question that artists and scientists ask all the time.

What if you already failed? Same: ask yourself What if I succeed in reversing this? Your current “failure” is not the end of the story, which again, is not preordained.

Third, “Who am I to think I can do this well?” That’s the impostor syndrome. You’re probably someone who can tell who’s the real deal on the floor. You should give yourself credit for that. But comparing yourself to others? Don’t get in there. Let your bosses do that. You should really only be comparing yourself to your goals for the day. The question you should ask is: “How can I do this better than yesterday?“

Although, do try to be the best, or else you’ll never be good. The operational word is try.

Jed: What if I got a bad review, really screwed up? It’s not important that I’m actually the best, just trying to be the best?

Coach: Yes. If we give you an award, fine. If we don’t, fine. If we sanction you in some way, go through some administrative s**t because you screwed up big time, fine. If we are unfair, you think you could make a case if you shot yourself in the foot before facing the boss? If you really, truly try to be the best everyday, you will be able to make your case, believe me.

Fourth, “Where is this leading to?” It might not be clear to you; maybe you got it wrong. Ask for advice. Remember, communication is how people respond. If you didn’t respond well, maybe we are the ones who failed to be clear. But you might also be unclear because your priorities have changed, you’ve learned stuff about yourself and the work. These don’t necessarily mean you drop your dream, get it? Optimize, maybe, but not drop.

Jed: I do ask myself sometimes “Where do I want to take this?” I’ve written my vision out, Coach; I know I want this life. I don’t need to change everything at once; small incremental improvements add up. Focus!

Coach: You know, a sculptor cannot be distracted. Otherwise he strikes badly; he breaks the stone, he hurts himself. I take it you haven’t seen the inside of a workshop? It’s full of the statues that didn’t work out.

The samurai have a saying: Think only about cutting. Don’t think about winning, don’t think about being killed. Miyamoto Musashi said as much in The Book of Five Rings. Remember, the outcome is never preordained.

Jed: Then finally, as you put it correctly, I do feel my goals are no longer as exciting as they once were.

Coach: We call that the marathon of the middle. After you’ve made significant progress, a point comes where you ask “Why did I even get into this in the first place?” Happens to me to, happens to everyone. It even happens to people who are already at the top of their game. But that’s precisely when you have to push. That decision, in the middle, is a mature decision, compared to the decision we made at the start of our quest, clear but still in many ways childlike. The quality of your work owes much more to the decisions you make in the middle. A runner is defined by crossing the finish line, not the starting line.

Tell yourself the truth: “This is worth it.”

Jed: And maybe I just lack sleep; I usually feel down on those days.

But, I suppose I might be held back by things like, the company asks me to do unethical stuff, or my supervisor hates me, or I could see the company is sinking. Yet even in those, I ultimately have control over what happens to me. I like your idea of sculpting. And I think the samurai analogy is so cool!

Coach: One more, then. The samurai have a saying:

If the spirit is straight the sword is straight also.

Samurai saying

(Q.C., 260614)