Adam Kayce

This is the 100th post at Monk at Work — woo hoo! I’m doing a contest for it… it’s unrelated to the main content of the post, though… details are at the bottom. It’s big, so don’t miss it.

At the risk of sounding like a Tim Ferriss groupie, I read a post of his recently that struck a chord. He was talking about eliminating negativity and complaints from our language and lives, and the power of using simple tools to increase our mindfulness of our patterns.

I did something similar a few years ago, where (if I remember correctly) I tried to stop myself from swearing. I wore a rubber band around my wrist, and anytime I let a taboo word pass my lips, I snapped the rubber band. It didn’t draw blood or anything, but it sure brought my pattern to a halt quick!

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Ye may not be knowin’ this ‘bout yer ol’ trusty mate, but fer one day each year, I enjoys talkin’ like eh “gentlemen o’ fortune” (that there’s a pirate, to ye landlubbers).

Don’t be havin’ the Davies, now — I not be the only one; September 19th ‘tis Talk Like A Pirate Day ‘round the world.

Now, if ye be a lily-livered squiffy, ye won’t be wantin’ te read no further. But if ye have a stout heart, and ye be yearnin’ fer a life in the sweet trade, then ye’ll be wantin’ te see the links I be spreadin’ through this here post… they’ll be showin’ ye how to transform ye’self from a bilge-rat eatin’ sprong to a swashbucklin’ buccaneer!

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You’ve got a burning passion to help people, change the world, and make your mark. You believe in the uniqueness of who you are and what you want to do, and you know that people will love your services, if they would just try them.

And that’s the crux of it, right there. Why aren’t people lining up around the block for your service?

Maybe it’s because you aren’t giving them a compelling enough reason to.

If you’re unique, then why are you marketing yourself just like everyone else? Do you really think that just calling yourself a coach/trainer/designer/whatever-it-is-you-do is going to help you stand out from the rest of the vanilla, white-bread, snore-inducing coaches/trainers/designers/etc.?

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Ooh, man, do I love to learn — and I bet you’re the same way. And, there are times when we’re learning for the wrong reasons.

When you need specialized knowledge to accomplish a task (like learning CSS, NVC, or intuition), or you’re just curious about something (flamenco guitar, 17th century naval frigates, or how to grow better cucumbers), then learning lifts you up. The more you learn, the more full you feel, and the richer your life becomes.

But when you’re learning something new because you feel deficient as a person without it, “less than”, or are driven by a compulsion to appear better than someone else, then you might as well be trying to fill in the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon. Because no matter how much knowledge you accumulate, you’ll never feel full.

And here’s the kicker: the same lesson applies to learning as it does to material wealth, food, affection, or just about anything you can think of.

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Sip fruity drinks out of a coconut shell on a tropical island?
Take singing lessons?
Reorganize your sock drawer?

Unless you haven’t been paying attention (and with the deluge of information out there, it wouldn’t be that surprising), you’ve probably at least heard of Tim Ferriss’ landmark book, The Four Hour Workweek. I’ve touted it here before, and the book has made it to #1 on the NY Times bestseller list.

As impressive as the book’s success has been, it’s what within the pages that has interested me the most. In short, it’s a complete recipe for creating the life you’ve always dreamed possible — and I don’t say that lightly. It’s damn impressive, to say the least. And that brings me to the reason for this post.

Say you do liberate yourself to work only four hours a week. For most of you, that frees up at least 36 hours of time that you have to fill… and my buddy Ed Mills of Evolving Times seems to think that most people haven’t a clue what they’d do with all that extra time (Tim even says — and I believe rightly so — that “after a few days of sitting on a beach rubbing lotion on your belly, you’re going to get bored out of your mind”). And since it’s hard to get anywhere without compelling motivation to get there, thinking about the ‘Why’ behind having a four-hour workweek is time well spent.

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Ever have one of those times where life’s events lead you to question the course you’re on?

(Of course, we could philosophize that you think you’re on one course, but life has you on another, and you’re just figuring this out as you go…)

But what I really want to get to is this idea of a crisis of confidence: the feeling that perhaps the path you’re on isn’t the one to be walked… that a course correction is being called for.

Anyone in business for themselves — shoot, anyone in business at all — has got to feel like this from time to time. If you read Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do With My Life, then you know that no matter who you are, or where you’ve come from, the idea that the profession you find yourself in could/should/must change is an idea that’s alive and kicking in us all.

There’s no way I could write a post like this one and not talk about the potholes in my own road, so, here goes:

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You may have seen Priscilla Palmer’s Personal Development List that’s making its way around the blogosphere…

Thanks to Edward Mills, I made the list. And in the words of Albert, the Urban Monk (no relation), I’ve gotten enough traffic from the list not to join in.

So, the idea is here… and I’m adding:

Colleen Wainwright of Communicatrix
Mona Grayson of Question The Mind
The TED Blog
Jessica Hagy of Indexed
Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen

And now, the list…

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