Hey everybody!
Michael Gebben here and I'm super excited to be with you on another rockin' Wednesday.
Today, I wanna talk to you about a blog post that I recently read titled "Choose your Own
Adventure."
It was written by the world renowned photographer, Chase Jarvis who also runs a super amazing
educational site called "Creative Live" that I encourage all of you to check out.
So this post actually, which was really interesting, I'm writing a book right now and that's how
I want the book to be.
Choose your own adventure.
Each individual chapter could stand alone and you could read it without having to read
the whole book.
But that's not exactly what this post is about.
Choose your own adventure in the words that Chase Jarvis to me means stop reacting to
the world.
Stop reacting to the emails, the people, the places, all these things that pop in, text
messages, Facebook messages, whatever that you're reacting to on a daily basis.
Do you wait for your inbox to send you that message that now you can react to that and
that's what you do.
Instead of the things that matter, these things that will get you to where you've been wanting
to get to for so very long, the things that light you up, do you sit here and you continually
take on this crap work that doesn't again light you up?
How many times do we do that?
In the creative field, which is who he's kinda referring to, whether you could be an author,
a photographer, a filmmaker, a videographer, whatever it is, how many times do you take
on that crappy work over and over and over again to end up saying three, four, five years
later, I have nothing that I'm proud of.
You ever heard of that?
I have nothing I'm proud of because everything I was given was just crap.
Well that's you.
You have that choice to continually take that on.
For me, I've chosen to actually do free work.
Not free work in the sense of somebody comes to me and says, "Hey dude, is this for free?"
But free work in providing value to others, always trying to provide value to others but
doing work that lights me up.
By doing that free work when I started out to be able to create work that I was proud
of so that I could attract the people who are awesome, so I can do more work that lights
me up, more work that I'm proud of.
And in anything you do in life, that's what you have to do.
You have to do things.
Find out ways to do things that light you up so you can attract the people, the places,
the things, the jobs, the opportunities that will light you up.
Quit chasing that shiny object syndrome.
Believe me guys, I've been really, really bad at this at times in my life.
When you can actually see a project through, instead of chasing the next best thing all
the time, too many times we say, "Oh I could do that.
Oh I could do that."
And you do that 10% of the way and then you go to the next thing.
Completion is key.
When you complete things, great things can happen.
When you're consistent with things, great things can happen.
Another thing that ties in here is normal.
When are you gonna stop doing what everybody else says that you should do and start doing
what you know that you should do, what you get excited about?
Because when you're chasing what everybody else is doing, especially in a world where
nowadays, it is competitive, it is difficult to get a job.
It is hard because there's so many people out there competing for the same things.
It's so much easier to gain access to all the things you need to do these things.
How do you stick out?
Because if you're doing what you're being told to do or what society, or what's cool,
or what different things like that tell you to do, then you're doing what everybody else
is doing.
If they're not getting the results that light you up, if you're not getting the results
that light you up, like getting the jobs, getting the work, getting the things that
make you excited, that make you fulfilled, maybe you should think, "Maybe I should stop
doing what everybody else is doing and start sticking out."
Start being different.
Start doing those things that really light you up.
Instead of saying, "I need this best thing and that best thing..."
"And before I have this or before I get this, I gotta learn this."
"And I gotta do this before I can start."
How old are you gonna be when you quit that job that sucks, that thing that you hate.
It doesn't matter what it is.
Some of us have started our own businesses, started our own things, digging ourselves
a hole into something that we don't just enjoy.
You have a choice and you might not think so.
And I think I've done a video on "You have a choice."
You go back and watch that.
Ultimately, you do.
You have that choice every single day to get out of that thing that makes you miserable
and to do that thing and work towards that thing that lights you up.
And even that thing that lights you up, it won't be easy all the time.
I tell you what, when you're doing something you love and that gets you excited and it
just fulfills you so much because you're giving so much value and you're just doing so many
fun things and exciting projects, the hard times, you'll get through it.
But it's really difficult to get through the difficult times when you're doing something
you hate.
And then you wake up and you go, "Uh, I don't wanna do this."
My challenge for you today is "When was the last time that you took a day, uninterrupted
to do what you want to do, to do what you want to do and stop reacting to everything
around you?"
I can tell you right now, Tim Ferriss who I might add, I've been mentioning a lot of
the podcast, I never thought his book changed my life.
"The Four-Hour Work Week" back in 2010.
I never in a million years dreamed that right now, my podcast is in the business category.
I don't know if it would still be there when you see this.
In the business category, it is right next to his podcast that he just launched at the
very top of the business section.
I never in a million years thought that four years ago, when I read that book, that I'd
be sitting next to him on iTunes with my very own podcast and his podcast.
Anything, my friends, is possible.
What I wanna tie in from him into this uninterrupted day that you need to have to choose your own
adventure, is he has a little thing called, "Let little bad things happen."
I can tell you right now, I've probably done that to the extreme at times and if you're
worried about what's gonna happen if I don't respond to that email or that text message,
that phone call, that voice mail, or this or that or the other thing.
I can tell you right now, it'll be okay.
Because just like you, and how busy you are in your life, so is that other person.
There are some people I really look up to and sometimes after they do an event or they
do a certain thing, or they're holding some kind of training, they'll show their phone
and their phone has like 200 missed phone calls, 300 missed text messages, 800 emails.
How do you expect to keep up with all that all the time?
So what I'm telling you is, the little, bad things happen, if that was gonna put you out
of business or ruin your career, I would have been out of business and I would have a ruined
career long, long ago.
But where I'm weak, I'm strong somewhere else.
It's just there's always something to balance.
Ultimately, for you to do that thing that lights you up and fulfills you, and excites
you so much, you've got to choose your own adventure every once in a while.
Do that thing that'll help you work towards what you've always dreamed of, what you've
always wanted.
Chase says in his blog post, "It's great to be a people pleaser.
It's great to answer that phone and do that thing but if we never take time for our self,
what's it worth?"
Take time for yourself today.
Choose your own adventure in the next coming week, maybe this weekend.
Just say, "I'm turning it all off and I'm gonna do X.
I'm gonna do this.
I'm finally going to start this.
Today is the day."
My friends, you truly rock.
I appreciate every single one of you.
I love all the positive comments.
I appreciate you leaving reviews, downloading, subscribing to the brand new podcast which
I'll have linked up below here again.
If you wanna get on the GEBBS VIP list, that's linked up below.
We'll be sending you guys out some awesome stuff for all those true fans, those super
awesome people who come here every week and watch every single episode.
We're gonna be giving you guys some cool options and stuff now 'coz I know you're like Oh,
I've got all these different things.
How can I get it all centralized?
Well, I'll have some fun things for you guys here real soon.
I appreciate you all so much.
Thank you.
I wouldn't be here without all of you commenting, subscribing, watching each and every week.
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE because we bring you new, rockin' video every single Wednesday.
My friends, choose your own adventure and we'll see you next Wednesday.
Rock & roll.