Zac Scy | Creative Coach

"You. That's where the journey begins."

[zacscy]

While the premise of #reading a #book on taking #action (isn’t it stopping us from taking action?) sounds silly it does in some ways make sense. We all #learn in different ways. Some #people just need to hear the words “Take action” and they get it. These people simply start doing because their #brain either just gets it or they can decipher the underlying #principles immediately: “If I act on it I’ll get results! By looking at the #results I can adjust as I go along. Great!” Other people need someone to “Dutch Uncle” them into it by being really blunt and explaining the #consequences of their #inaction. Still, other people want to #read a book on the reasoning behind it because that’s the best way for them to #process the #information. I enjoy #listening to #audiobooks, observing people (and #mentors) or watching #videos. That’s the best ways for me to work things through. Then there are those who are able to kick themselves into motion. That’s something we should all #work on #learning. That way we don’t have to rely on watching #YouTube, reading a book, or calling a #mentor. We’ll carry that #skill with us wherever we go. However, until we get to that point we need to work with what we’ve got. If that means reading a book on taking action, then we have to do it. Whatever helps us get things done. Thank you so much for taking the #time to read this #article. Please leave a comment, heart, share, and follow for more. Have a kick-ass ₢eative day! #creativity #education #school #business #psychology #success

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“I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.” — Edith Sitwell “How do I deal with #stupid #people?” Now, this #question seems really “assholish”. Not asked by an asshole per se, but asking it moves us toward the asshole region. It's asshole adjacent is what I'm saying. Even if, by some miracle, they are as stupid as you think they are, how could they possibly be capable of #understanding how stupid they are? It’s the ultimate Catch 22. And it is not worth your #time. My #advice is to stop worrying about all the other people and #focus on turning that #frustration towards something more #productive. I’m serious. This is the perfect chance to start #meditating and calming your #mind. Start building towards a #future where these things are seen through a more objective lens. A lens that helps you actually do something about it. Perhaps you can become a #teacher yourself? Perhaps you can #educate people in other ways? Start #working on things that will help you bring about actual #change in the future. #article #psychology #philosophy #mindset #education #school #work

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“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” — Thomas Huxley “How can I #learn faster?” If you’ve asked yourself that #question, you’ve already taken the first step: Asking a question that points you in the direction you want to go. My suggestion is that you take a deeper look at a few things that interest you. The reason for this is that if you can unlock the underlying #principles of why certain things are the way they are you can apply them to a wide variety of fields. Too often we get bogged down trying to unravel the mysteries and specifics of every single thing. That’s great if you’re into it. However, if you want to maximize your rate of learning, #understanding principles can accelerate learning in other fields. If you #understand one thing thoroughly, for example how to play the piano, you can use the basic principles to learn many other instruments. While the specifics change the underlying principles don’t. It’s kind of like the difference between what to think and how to think. How to think is far more #valuable than what to think. What #knowledge and understanding do you already have? How can you transfer that understanding to understand other things, both related and unrelated? In what way is creating a sculpture related to #business? How is #science like an onion? Why is #meditation similar to growing bamboo? If you already understand one #concept it can make it easier to understand another. By connecting the dots you can accelerate your learning. Can you remember a #time where you’ve connected two seemingly unrelated #ideas and found a common denominator? #creativity #psychology #philosophy #education #mind

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Like many of you I have different #interests and fields I #read about. One thing that’s developed is that I’ve become a T-shaped #reader. What this means is that I’ve got a combination of wide and general #knowledge while going deep only in a few fields. What I choose to #focus on specifically is #creativity, #business, and #psychology. Everything else is a bonus. However, I don’t limit myself to those 3 categories. I expose myself to as many fields and genres as I can. You never know what you can #learn by #reading a #book about your garden variety zombie apocalypse or romantic #novel. It’s just not where my main focus is. What I’ve learned by doing this is that no matter what you read you have to combine that knowledge with #experience. Read a book, live, read another book, live some more, repeat ad infinitum. The trick is to talk about these #ideas with #people and test them out for yourself. You’ll learn a lot more by interacting than by simply having one way #communication with a book and playing around with the things in your own #mind. So, my suggestion is to try out whatever catches your eye and giving it a shot. But in my mind #quality always wins over quantity. Once I’ve read about 10 #books in any given field or genre I start noticing diminishing returns. What I mean by that is that I start to see the same basic #principles and patterns repeating over and over again. While repetition is a good way to remember #information it does become tedious. Be aware that the books you read give you something of #value. Don’t bother reading books and articles or watching TV and movies just because you started on them. Your #time will be better spent on other things you actually enjoy and get something out of. What are the most important #lessons you’ve learned about reading? #article #philosophy #mind #personaldevelopment #selfimprovement #coach

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You’re sitting around and talking with your #friends about #music. You mention that you’ve always wanted to play the guitar. Your friends encourage you so you buy a #beautiful semi-hollow Les Paul and sign up for lessons. During the first #lesson you learn a lot but unfortunately you’re swamped at #work. Plus you want to hang out with your friends so you show up to the next lesson unprepared. You explain it to the #teacher who tells you she understands and you work on some other things. Next week comes around and now you’ve got some reports to fill out which drains you #brain. Again the guitar will have to wait. The pattern continues to repeat week in and week out. The only time you actually pick up the guitar is for your lessons or to show your friends when they come over. If you’re being completely #honest with yourself, are you actually #learning to play the guitar? Or are you just buying the feeling that you are? I find this to be the case for some #people. While it’s understandable, it’s a complete waste of #time. The reason they seek out coaches, #mentors, #teachers, etc is to have some tangible evidence that they’re fulfilling their #dreams. They’re not. One day they’re going to be the people telling #stories about: “I used to coulda…” If you’re finding #excuses for why you aren’t #practicing or doing what needs to be done, you’re just wasting everybody’s time and #money. Do you recognize this #behavior? Do you know people who do this? Do you or did you do it yourself? How did you overcome it? #psychology #philosophy #mind #read #article #personaldevelopment #selfimprovement #coach

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One thing I’ve noticed a lot of #people don’t take into account is how “unsexy” most of our undertakings actually are. We’ve got this warped sense of what it will be like to enter a certain #profession or what it is to live a certain #lifestyle. This can be a good thing, we actually #focus on the #positives of what we want our lives to look like so that we have a #reason to begin. However, this also causes us to miss out on a lot of the stuff that isn’t in focus, and aren’t always seen. Too often I see people giving up because they didn’t realize what it really means to achieve that #goal. We don’t realize that it might mean #working 12–15 hours a day, spending countless hours #studying, doing things that are #mind numbing for a few years, etc. Let’s say you want to play football (soccer to some of you). Ask yourself: “How much of the #time will I actually be in #possession of the ball?” There are 11 players on each side. Twenty-two players in total. Only one person gets to handle the ball at any one time. You’re probably not going to be in possession of the ball for the majority of the next 90 minutes. So, should you ignore #practicing your ball handling #skills? No. Should you spend disproportionate amounts of time on it? Nope. The trick is to find a #balance. You’re going to be spending a lot of time running around, stopping the other #team’s progress, faking injury, etc. Well, that’s a cynical and overly simplified way of looking at it, but you get my drift. What I mean by this is that perhaps the things we feel are #important are only a small aspect of what we’re actually going to spend our time doing. While it’s great to have aspirations to focus your energies on that one thing, most of the time we spend on our work won’t be scoring the deciding goal of the World Cup. It’s going to be spent practicing and honing our #craft. Leveraging our #strengths and #working on our #weaknesses. If we can apply the same #mentality toward life and/or whatever field (pun intended) we’re in, we might stick with it and end up getting better #results. #article #creativity #psychology #business #life #vision #philosophy #mindset #art

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There are countless lists and articles out there covering the essential characteristics of highly #creative #people out there, reading 5–10 of them will give people a pretty decent #idea of the typical traits one might find in them. The single best indicator for me however has been how they use humanity’s most precious #resource: #Time. If you look at the sheer amount of time they actually spend on coming up with their #solutions, #concepts, and #ideas it becomes clear that they do something most of us don’t. It’s not always that they’re just genetically “gifted” or smarter than the rest of us. They’re just more willing to spend time on figuring it out. Now, to get to that point they had to work through a lot of smaller projects to see what worked and what didn’t. Also, to understand why it did or didn’t. I’d say that the amount of #work coupled with the time they can spend on “the big stuff” is what separates the really creative people from the rest. What we’ve been talking about is time in the sense of “chronos”, or sequential time. There’s another form of time called “chairos”. This is a much harder form of time to perceive. It’s based on #information and in some cases on #intuition. Chairos is also known as “the right time”. We seldom know beforehand if what we’re #working on is ever going to experience “the right time” during our lifetime. Take examples like Tesla’s “smartphone” 100 years ago, or Leonardo da Vinci’s “helicopter”. They were ideas that wouldn’t be realized until after their death. The #technology and other things required to create them (at least safely) simply weren’t available. Yet, they had the experiences, concepts, and ideas. Some people are either just #lucky enough or skilled enough to recognize when it’s the chairos/right time to release their work into the #world. I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “#Luck is what happens when preparation meets #opportunity”, but we aren’t always lucky enough to stumble onto that opportunity. Look, what I’m saying is that hard work is required to get to a certain level. That it can be accelerated by being born into circumstances where those traits are nurtured. 🔗 to #article in bio.

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Lately several #people have been asking me how I’ve been able to #read so many #books in the last couple of years. While I’ve enjoyed #reading I only became serious about my reading #habit in 2012. Before that I only read for amusement or because something caught my eye, not because I was being #purposeful about it. Before I get into that, let’s start by looking at what I see as the pros and cons of different #book formats. Physical Book Cons: You have to deal with a thing that takes up space in your shelf or in storage. Your reading speed dictates how fast you’ll go through it. Physical Book Pros: You have the physical thing. You can skim & skip easily. You can easily mark where you left off and pick it back up. You can more easily look stuff up from the references and index. #Ebook Cons: You’re stuck looking at a screen of some form. You don’t really have a physical copy per se. You need an application to read it, depending on the application some features may or may not be present. Ebook Pros: Searching for text, highlighting, and dehighlighting is usually really simple if they’re available in the application. #Audiobook Cons: You don’t have the physical thing. It’s harder to remember where you heard something and look up references. Try remembering exactly where you were in the book 6 months later, yeah. The person narrating might not have a voice you enjoy. Audiobook Pros: You can listen to it while having your hands free to do other things. You can increase the speed at which you read. What works for me is having a combo of an audiobook and ebook (preferably a #PDF). I simply listen to the audiobook at between 1.25–1.75 times the original speed while taking notes on my #phone or making #bookmarks (in the Audible app) and then highlighting them in the PDF. Also, I sometimes send the pages or passages to my email just to save the most important ones. If it’s a book I want to have in my library I make sure to buy a physical copy too. In some cases the books aren’t available in audio or ebook form so I’m “stuck” reading the physical one. They all have their pros and cons, figure out what works best for you and go with that. Link to #article in bio.

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Often #people ask me about how to increase or sustain their level of #productivity. The first bit of #advice is really trite and really true: #love what you do. Ugh, I know, right? But if you really love it, you’ll keep showing up and doing the #work come rain or shine. Now, here’s some actual #practical advice: Define what it means to be #productive and what’s just being #busy. You can do a lot of work during the day, but for most of us it’s just keeping busy and doing, well, stuff. How often do we stop ourselves to ask: “If I didn’t do this, would it matter?” Granted, we’ll probably find some ways of justifying our need to do it. But if we look really hard at the things we’re doing, we’ll find that about 80% (Pareto was pretty spot on) is just bullcrap that doesn’t really make a difference in the big picture. It’s just busy work. Once we’ve eliminated that, we can #start #working on the things that actually matter. Some people will probably object to this number and say: “Seriously? 80%? What if EVERYONE started doing this?” Yes, you wouldn’t have gotten that email asking you to go to that 1,5 hour #meeting on Thursday. Why? Because Bill would’ve instead solved the #problem himself. Because Bill’s boss wouldn’t have asked Bill to spend those 5 hours indexing those papers that turned out to be a complete waste of #time because the #boss realized that spending $10.000 on a #system that scans and turns the papers into searchable PDF:s was a better allocation of #resources, plus all that other dumb shit. My feeling is that if you decide for yourself what being productive really means, you’re golden. The problem is that we don’t have a system to determine what’s #important and what’s not. What needs to get done now and what we can do later. I find Covey’s Quadrants a great way, provided that we put the right stuff in the right quadrant. Do Q1 right now. Then spend your time on Q2. Delegate Q3 whenever you can. Don’t even bother with Q4. What most people do is to alternate between Q1 and Q2, they think urgency means that it’s important. Well, it doesn’t. Link to full #article in bio #creativity #business #psychology #philosophy #personaldevelopment

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Terry had been working at the same #company for 7 years. It’s the classic “from the mailroom to the corner #office”-story we’ve hear many times before. Still, she wasn’t satisfied. She’d become a #master of the paperwork and didn’t want to continue climbing that ladder. Her eyes were set on making a move to #marketing. She made her intentions clear to her #boss who said: “Sounds great! But not right now. We need you to stay here until the beginning of next year. Meanwhile, we’ll look for someone who can take over. Alright?” The months came and went but Terry didn’t see any efforts to find a successor. She brought it up every other month or so. There were always a excuse for why they hadn’t found anyone. Terry stayed on but told the boss that unless they found someone by the beginning of the summer, she’d simply go elsewhere. Since there was only 3 months left, the matter suddenly became very urgent and her boss was very willing to negotiate. Provided she make a good argument for why this was the right move. While her pitch was good and this was a step in the right direction, the boss didn’t feel having her #work 100% with marketing would be to put her abilities to good use. He proposed she do 1/3 paperwork and the rest of the time with marketing. Terry and I had a conversation about this and it became abundantly clear that this was an effort to appease her while still not allowing her to make the move completely. Given her prior #experiences there would undoubtedly be periods where her services were needed more at the corner office rather than in the marketing department. An emergency here, a “We’re swamped!” there. The likelihood of this ending in Terry’s favor didn’t seem to be in the cards. Terry went back and said that it’s all or nothing. This was when the boss said something like: “Terry, you’re too good at this. Why don’t you see it? I can’t have you go to marketing full time when you’re doing such a great job here.” What Terry had sensed hadn’t been made clear until now. There was no way for her to get what she wanted at the company. Her only option was to move on. Link to full #article in bio. #creativity #business #psychology #advice

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I was standing in line at the store when you suddenly hear a woman start yelling at the cashier. I took one look at her and wondered whether the cashier did something really bad or if the woman’s an asshole. After about 5 seconds my mind was made up. The woman was indeed an asshole. The berating continued for about 30 seconds more before the cashier calmly asked: “Do you feel better?” Then something weird happened. The woman started sobbing and I realized just how judgemental I’d been. The cashier probably realized that the woman wasn’t really screaming at her. Her issues were with other things and the fact that this thing, whatever it was, upset her was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. See, that was just one moment in #time. I hadn’t seen what she’d gone through that day. I don’t even know what happened one minute earlier. Just because someone acts in a certain way in one situation doesn’t mean they act like that in all situations. Perhaps it’s even “once in a blue moon”. Is that really enough for us to form a proper #picture of the person? Let’s say all you ever saw a person do was to post #paintings on #Instagram. What would your perception of that person be? That they’re #creative? Organized? Quiet? Antisocial, narcissistic, paranoid, and sadistic? Or should we perhaps just accept that we have far too little #information to go on to make any #assumptions. No single snapshot in time can give us the complete picture of a person. However, we shouldn’t ignore the things #people do either. Despite the cashier’s #understanding the woman still has to be held accountable for her actions. It could very well be an indicator that she has poor impulse control or that she’s unstable in other ways. While jumping to conclusions can be harmful, ignoring the signs could be even more harmful. Hang around someone for long enough and you’ll see their best sides, and their worst sides. #context #creativity #art #psychology #philosophy

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It’s always great to get praised for your #work, isn’t it? Getting #positive #feedback when you do something right just feels good. Recently I got #praise for an #answer to a #question. A question I felt deserved an #article. It was an article about how to get sponsored. The praise made me feel #proud and elated, but one thing bothered me a little. My answer was being compared to other answers that weren’t deemed as “good” or “#constructive”. As I looked at them I could see that while they were ironic and nasty at times, they still held some #value. Sure, they didn’t exactly build up the person asking the question, nor did they really offer any specific or truly constructive advice. What they did do was give honest feedback. I realized that what made me #uncomfortable was that #people were basically saying: “That’s right! You show those snarky bastards!” Yet, the only real difference besides me giving some concrete examples was the tone. Their answers were in essence saying the same thing that I was. This got me thinking, what if instead of only looking at the “tone” of an answer or feedback we instead looked at it as raw #information or #data. To get the proper #context it might be good for you to know that the person asking the question wanted to get #sponsorship for a #gaming laptop from a video #game #company he likes. Let’s look at an excerpt from another answer: “Why would they? I mean seriously. Their #business is to sell #videogames, not give away laptops to people who beg for them. What’s in it for them?” Now, some might find this answer to have a #negative tone to it. Even if it does, what does it matter? There are some valuable things to think about here. “Why would they?” is a perfectly valid question. Why would someone sponsor you? Maybe to get more exposure for their work? “Their business is to sell video games”. Ah, a clue! This is what they want to do. Perhaps they would sponsor you if you could #help sell more of their #games? “What’s in it for them?” is a modification to the first question, but again makes as think about how we could be of service to them so that there’s exchange going on. Link to full article in bio.

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Do you think being #polite is a waste of #time? Well, it really depends on the situation and where you draw the lines between genuine ‪#‎politeness‬, politeness for its own sake, and ‪#‎fake‬ politeness. Also depends on if you mean the way someone acts or the way they speak. I’ll give you some examples. If someone holds up doors, tells you that you look well, asks you how your weekend was, etc and they’re just being genuinely polite and want to that for their own sake, it’s fine. They’ll probably even accept it if you tell them that you appreciate the ‪#‎gestures‬ but ask them to please stop since it’s a ‪#‎waste‬ of ‪#‎time‬ in your ‪#‎mind‬. Someone else does and says the same things out of ‪#‎habit‬. They might be a bit taken aback since they don’t necessarily know they’re doing it, but will generally accept it too. Then we’ve got those who are doing it in order to get something from you. Well, they’re truly wasting both their time and yours. Also, they might be more likely to start acting meanly toward you instead. Now, if it’s an open and ‪#‎honest‬ ‪#‎relationship‬ discussing the level of politeness shouldn’t be a problem. However, if you’re only ‪polite‬ during ‪#‎interviews‬ and ‪#‎dates‬ this leads me to believe you see that there is some benefit to this kind of ‪#‎behavior‬. At least up until a certain point. What about once you’ve started that job or gotten into a relationship? Should you only then show your true colors? Do you feel this is ‪#‎fair‬? Or should you be more open and up front with what you feel so that you can ‪#‎focus‬ on surrounding yourself with ‪#‎people‬ and an ‪#‎environment‬ where you’re allowed to be you, politeness or not? I don’t think it’s a case of either or. I think it’s a case of finding ‪#‎balance‬. Sometimes being polite can in fact grant you access to ‪#‎information‬ that being straight-forward won’t. You never know, that ‪#‎knowledge‬ could end up saving you even more time. If you find politeness to be a waste of time I suspect is that you are a no-nonsense kind of person, which is alright. There’s a place for that. But please remember that politeness has its place too. Link to full #article in bio.

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Aaaah… #Childhood #memories… 😍 Remember watching #SpaceAdventureCobra on #VHS w/ my friend Kim. Gotta give the #OST a listen this #weekend! 🎧😎👍 #anime #80s #retro #nostalgia #music #love

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Recently someone asked me about #reading #books on making #friends. They seemed very skeptical about it, feeling that it bordered on manipulation. Look, in the best of worlds we all would get the perfect parents, siblings, relatives, friends, #school mates, societies, etc. However, that’s not how #life works. We get born into a certain set of circumstances, some of them allow us to grow and develop #human #interaction in an optimal way, some do not. What I mean by that is that our chances to develop our #social #skills are, to a certain extent, developed naturally so that we can adapt and navigate the situation we’re faced with from birth. Sometimes these interactions cause trauma. For example abusive, alcoholic, or distant parents can negatively form the basis from which we build our social skills. If we’re born the middle child we learn how to cope in a different way than if we’re the oldest or the youngest, and so on. Now, we aren’t fixed to those roles but they can be tough habits to get out of, and they impact how we interact with the #world. Becoming self aware and developing your social skills in other ways that aren’t necessarily “natural” is a good thing. We get to see the world through a different lens. If you are born Becky Lewis from Aberystwyth instead of Bai Liao from Chongqing for example, you would’ve “naturally” developed a completely different set of skills. So, the short answer is: Yes, #read a #book (or several) if you feel you want some help developing your social skills. No, this isn’t always a “natural process”, it’s based on a lottery system where some #people get a good shot at developing their skills while others don’t. Now, if you assume that ALL the books will teach you how to “fake” things so that people will like you, then that’s just wrong. Sure, there are those books that do teach you #techniques for how to “game” people, get them to like you, #help you “#influence” them etc. What you will or will not get out of reading books in general, is entirely based on the #quality of the books you read and how well you implement what you learn. Link to full #article in bio! Have a kick-ass ₢eative day! 😃👍

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It’s amazing how we can speak the same #language and use the same #words, yet we still manage to #misunderstand each other. Let’s say you’re sitting with two friends arguing about nationalism. One is arguing for the importance of having pride and being loyal to their country, the other is equating it with racism. How would you look at it? Is either party right? Or are they just #arguing two ends of a spectrum without having a clear and mutual #definition of the #word “nationalism”? This is usually what happens when words are left open for #interpretation. Having a mutual definition of what the hell we’re actually arguing about is #good first step in actually trying to understand each other’s point of view. I’ve found that one word imparticular has gotten bad rap: #negative. It’s understandable. The word comes with connotations of standing in the way of #progress. To a certain degree it is. However, all it does is to stand in opposition to what’s being said, done, offered, etc. If someone says to you: “Do you wanna fight?!” The most common reply would, unless you’re looking for trouble, be a negative: “No.” Right? “Oh, come on… Of course you wanna fight. Don’t be so negative!” There are plenty of ways to argue the pros and cons of #negativity. In #creativity the term “negative capability” is something #people actually #aspire to. Rather than following the tried and true, being able to lean into #uncertainty while creating something is admirable. #Constructive negativity can be a powerful tool depending on when and how we use it. I remember #reading an #article about a blind guy who wanted to cross the Atlantic. He prepared for a long #time and despite ultimately #failing, it became an #inspirational #story of the #power of #positive #thinking. Years later he said during an interview that he couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that people saw him as Mr. #Optimistic. He explained further that he’d made several contingency #plans and packed twice as much food as he needed. The extra food came in handy when a storm hit, almost flooded the boat, and ruined half the food. Link to full #article in bio.

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There’s always been this push and pull between what’s #new and what’s #old. #People want new things, otherwise things get dull. At the same time we shy away from things that are too new, but unless we go for the extremes we won’t know how far we can take it. Yes, there’s always been resistance to #creativity in a sense. It makes us feel uncomfortable and unsafe because we didn’t necessarily have those #tools or things around us growing up. We see this #question repeated throughout #history. “Is this going to be the end of #civilized #society?” #SocialMedia, the #internet, #videogames, grunge, heavy metal, punk, rock n’ roll, #movies, #TV, #radio, #electricity, #art, printed #books, etc. I mean, go back a little more than 2000 years and we have people debating whether or not #pen and #paper would dull our minds. Pen and fucking paper. There’s #good and #bad with everything, it all comes down to how we individually use our creativity. On the bright side, there’s probably never been a better time than now to be in a creative field. You can make a comfortable living without being one of the all #time greats, and don’t have to suffer or die for your #work to matter. We don’t want the things we’ve always known and loved to die. It doesn’t have to. It can still live on as a #memory as something #beautiful that we cherish. But if we get #romantic about it and cling to the old we’re fighting a losing battle. Things will #change. If we embrace the change, it can become something beautiful too. Thank you so much for taking the time to #read this #article. Please leave a comment, heart, and follow for more. Have a kick-ass ₢eative day!