If I have learned nothing else in comedy, I have learned that I have to learn how to embrace failure. I didn’t get into the Laughing Devil Devil Cup festival, and for that I was a little upset. It didn’t bug me as much as things used to though. I still have an audition at the club, I still have a chance to prove myself to be on the normal roster.
I am slowly realizing what comedy is, and I think all art is like this as well. You start off with 99 no’s to 1 yes. As you get better, the scale starts to tip the other way. Soon it is 2 yes’ then 4, then 8 and soon it flips over. You gain the confidence along the way, and build the stories of someone who has been through the war.
I have been trying to groom myself to have a growth mindset. It would help a lot with that process, because I need to make the most of my opportunities. Every day I work is another day I get to turning one of those no’s into a yes. Every failure is another step to success.
I was groomed in life to have the opposite mindset, a fixed mindset. I think most people are. Basically, a fixed mindset doesn’t see the yes growing from the no’s, but as a fixed thing. A yes is a yes and a no is a no. This leads to grudges, and it shakes your confidence. 99 no’s becomes a huge wall in front of you. 99 nos makes you thing that doing any of this is impossible, pack your shit and go back home, or stick to your day job.
I feel like in a few years, each of these no’s will turn over, and I will be able to look back to see that there is positive motion in my career. I want to build, so I hope that my state of mind can go positive as well. Growth not fixed.
New roommate coming into my apartment. He is someone I mentored in college, and with him living here, it will be three guys living in a 3 bedroom. I think this will work, because it is temporary, it helps me out in the money department( I need to temper my spending habits a little more) and he is a good guy, who wants to make everything work.
I hope he does. He is arriving today to get a feel of the territory, get used to the train system, and figure out what he needs to survive when he is up here. If he makes it a permanent move, I will look for an apartment for all three of us to have our space.
If that day comes, it will be weird to move out of this place. This is my first apartment in the city, and living here has taught me a lot about being self sufficient. But I think I am thinking too far. Lets just see if the kid makes it first.
Warren Buffet 500 pages a day has stuck in my mind continuously. 500 pages is a ton of information, and when I tell other people this, they automatically dismiss it.
I have heard everything from “He has an assistant reading” to “It must be nice to be able to do nothing”. This makes me want to persue it as a habit more. The commitment to acquiring knowledge is a difficult one because most of us are scared to find the chips in our mental armor.
Getting more information scares us because it puts our sacred cows in danger. We may have to turn our back on things we knew were true. To be honest, it has slowed me down a little bit. It is an odd exercise to pick up, just to read and try to do 500 pages a day. Even so, it is compound interest. You do learn a little bit more. It is work, but if I can figure it out, I think I will be that much better off to work on my own.
Pushups every morning. I am starting small. Just ten. I want to get better form, and do them slowly. I don’t know what it will get me, but I constantly think of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, starting his day with 100 push ups.
Fantasy character or not, it has come to light that physical exercise makes you smarter. I want to be able to think faster, write faster, and read faster, so I guess the secret is integrate workouts faster.
Old Mixtapes have interested me lately. I am listening to Detroit by Big Sean. For the most part, since my generation has the ability to generate new material so fast, we give things 2 or 3 listens and move on.
There is a lot of joy in some of these older recordings. It goes along with my process this year of simplifying and taking in art as a whole. There are lessons to be received in them if you just listen.
*They told me no and I reversed it I’m on. *
Should have kept in Roy Hibbert. I think this will be a more interesting series though. Heat in 6, but the Pacers are not going to go out without a fight.
Do: 3 Things | Wrap up | Pushups
Not: Meditation | Vegetable Juice | 16/8(15/9) | CPAP | To do | Water | Thank You
From the desk of Adam Thomas 