I learned the wrong song.

*Sigh*

less than 2 hours from now I’ll be playing drums in front of 100 people… (continued at the end)

Growing Up I Hated Structure:

I used to hate structure.

I didn’t have systems or feedback loops to measure how well I’d do.

Because I saw every performance as a measurement of my value.

Now I love it.

Inside of structure I have so much freedom.

Creating structure and measuring what I say is important to me instead of "doing whatever I want" is so much more satisfying.

The big problem:

You aren't creative.

You are creative yet you:

You wake up at the same time.

Drive the same way to work.

Listen to the same songs.

8 hours mindless work

same paycheck every 2 weeks.

eat the same food.

don’t travel.

watch the same mindless shows.

try something new a few times and give up. (new years resolutions anyone?)

And wonder why you aren't creative.

The comfort of familiarity is trapping you.

what if you were curious?

What if you could make your life a sandbox where you discover more of the the gift you are to this world?

There is something predictable about routine and comfort.

Staying in the same environments, eating the same food, listening to the same music. Why is this is this so easy?

This is a problem because the level of thinking that created your current problems in your life is not the same level of thinking that will solve them.

Pressure kills creativity.

Pressure ensures creativity ships. (especially if there is a deadline)

Quantity of output helps develop skills faster than trying to put out perfect work the first time. (and it’s never perfect, so it never ships)

If you're creative you are very quick to be able to solve problems in the moment. The dark side to this trait is the lack of structure and preparation (and procrastination)

The truth is you need to create and give yourself time to (intentionally) procrastinate.

Without Investing, learning, and developing small ways for you to challenge how you do things, you won't be willing to challenge bigger ideas in your life.

3 big Problems with creativity

1. It requires discomfort

2. It requires imperfection (aka "failing")

3. It Requires Sucking (until you don't)

If you hate being uncomfortable or trying new things your ability to generate new ideas decreases. If you've never used your non-dominant hand to brush your teethe, it's pretty annoying how bad you'll be the first time. You also have to be present for this, you can't default this activity.

The idea of being a beginner again when you've developed many skill sets can be a terrible thought. You think well I'm good at ____ I should be good at this already too.

And many times the correct mindsets do carry over, however it still is a tremendous amount of work to gain mastery of a new skill set. And there is a process:

Curiosity -> Passion -> Purpose -> Autonomy -> Mastery (Art of the impossible frame work)

Creativity is born in the curiosity phase.

Where you allow yourself to be curious about yourself, about what things you enjoy and learn a bit about those subjects, even though they may never be a career or have a specific definable result. It’s okay to be curious, just because you are curious and want to explore you own internal ideas.

Why creativity thrives in discomfort:

“in simple terms, we've learned that creativity is always a re-combinatory process. it's what happens when the brain takes in novel bits of data, combines it with older information, and uses the results to produce something startlingly new.” - Art of the Impossible

Why doing hard things matters.

You can't use use your dominant hand to write (and are in college and need to take notes)

What would you do?

I had learned how to write with my non-dominant hand. (before I knew that I'd need this skill)

I did this because of a conversation with a mentor of mine who has an incredible mind. he challenged himself to write with his non-dominant hand for one month.

I chose to take on this challenge. I also knew I'd be starting college in a month and my goal was to be good enough to be able to take notes in real time with my non-dominant hand.

Over time I got to the point where I'd write part of my work with one hand, then when my hand grew tired I'd switch hands. And now use both interchangeably.

Simple ways to increase creativity & discomfort (and ambidexterity which leads to creativity) Use you non-dominant hand to:

1. Brush teeth

2. Eat with: fork, knife, spoon, chopsticks

3. Use a mouse

4. Learn to tie your shoelaces the opposite way (Left over right instead of right over left)

5. write with your other hand

6. Drive with your left foot (if in an automatic)

Another way to increase discomfort is to look at the things you are already doing, and give yourself enough time to try them slightly differently.

Look at what you are already doing, can you shift it 1-3% and create a brand new experience for yourself?

this can look like driving a different way home from work or to a friends house. This can look like shopping at a different grocery store, it can also look like ordering food or drink items you've never tried before. As you're curious, explore new things. You need to drive home, but you could try a new route, you might see a new restaurant or something that you didn't know about simply by doing this.

The discomfort will be giving up what is familiar.

This can be done in other small ways.

Failure is the price you pay as you learn. I've tried many different offers in my business some that have worked very well and others that have "failed."

Giving myself freedom to fail and learn from my "failure" gives me the freedom to try new things in all areas of my life, without instant condemnation if it doesn't work.

Creativity needs a framework to grow.

Imagine building a building, but you can’t use scaffolding as the building is being built. That’s like trying to grow without having a framework or structure to keep progressing.

How I'm using Benjamin Franklin's secret to success as a framework to grow.

I have a 13 week curriculum that I'm working through. one subject per week. This Diversity of learning combined with ability to focus for one week on one specific interest has been so helpful. I put the key ideas as my lock screen for that week, then change it out at the beginning of next week.

I'm really curious about a lot of things.

I love learning and don't always know what the outcome of my learning will be.

What I do know is the more I learn about subjects I know nothing about (like how lighting effects the mood of a space) the more I'm able to recombine things I already know with these new ideas and have intereting and unique perspectives based on my unique combination of skill set that I already have, and the expansion of my skill tree.

I also know that this is only possible for me because I have a specific structure that I'm using to keep me focused on learning these things (which I've decided I want to learn about)

Freedom to try is what I'm truly after. Curiosity just for the sake of curiosity. Combining things because I might love it, or I might hate it. either way, I learn more about myself.

That is the biggest gift of of the life I'm living right now. Is that I have so much freedom to try new things and see what happens, how it work, if it works.

Ultimately these ideas explode into something brand new, and that's cool, but the internal exploration of knowing who I am, what I like and don't like, what I want out of my life that is the real benefit of the creativity that I've cultivated so far. At points I've felt pretty lost because I have so many things that interest me. I'm starting to see how this diversity of inputs and experiences gives me an ability see people in a different way than others who haven't had all the experiences that I have.

Creativity is a practice - Seth Godin

Creative energy unexpressed is like water that's building up. without a dam to release it in a productive way it will break things and cause destruction. (it has to go somewhere)

I learned the wrong song.

*Sigh*

less than 2 hours from now I’ll be playing drums in front of 100 people…

I got to play drums for the first time in almost a month yesterday. And my entire body feels different like it was reset. like I NEEDED to use my physical energy to make music and serve with this skill set I've developed. It's like my body and mind had highs and lows over the last 2-3 days and somehow playing drums, and entering flow while I was playing drums leveled my energy, and released something in me that I desperately needed.

I also got to learn a brand new song in rehearsal. And I think the level of focus and the necessity of being fully present to play the song caused me to enter flow, because it was something I could play but it was challenging.

It was also an incredible example of how structure and the understanding of how to play drums and my experience of 14 years allowed me to learn and play a song I'd only heard a few times in passing to playing it live in front of people (less than 2 hours later) and really enjoying it.

This is the mental process I went through to learn this song, knowing I was about to perform it.

1. Listen for overall structure of the song. (everything was "normal" except there was an extra bar hold after the first chorus, and an extra bar in the bridge before going back into the chorus.

2. I didn't have to learn a whole new song, just those 2 sections from a song structure standpoint.

3. Groves for each section: (how I thought of it)

   1. Verse 1: Tom intro with four on the floor Intro (used lead guitar line and chord changes to know accent pattern)

   2. Chorus: drums out with light cymbal swells (extra bar before verse two)

   3. Verse 2: Same tom groove 2nd half of verse two add half time snare and build into next chorus

   4. Chorus: Ride Groove snare 2 & 4

   5. instrumental 4 bars

   6. Bridge: kick on 2&4

   7. Bridge: build on toms and 4 on the flour -> 8th Build

   8. Chorus: Same groove

   9. Outro: end on this

I'm not learning everything for the first time. All I did was recombine many different things I'd already learned into a new format.

I've played tons of tom grooves. Just not this one. (combining old things into this new thing)

I've played a lot of Ride grooves and different kick patters, just not this one. (I actually ended up playing the chorus half time during the actual set) because I learned the song so last minute I could not recall the "correct" patter. That's one of the really interesting things about music, if you confidently keep going, most people won't even notice if it was what you intended or not. (and the other drummer who was playing bass is going to steal what I did and do it intentionally!)

The bridge was also a very predictable pattern started with Kick on 2 & 4 and then 4 floor then 8 on the floor as you build. (if you listen to any amount of worship music it's incredibly predictable)

Last chorus same half time groove there is a cue that says outro and that is where the leader wanted all the band to end except the keys and bass, and then just a light swell.

Without structure this process is impossible.

With structure it makes learning a new song look like it was easy.

If I don't already have all the structure I need to plug these new ideas into, last night could have been a disaster. If I only learned songs note for note, and didn't understand the general structure of songs, and have vocabulary of different patterns and grooves, what I did last night would have been impossible.

But because of the foundation, that's been developed of the last 15 years (7 of which playing in live settings weekly) And because I was taught how to learn songs effectively I was able to simply plug and play something brand new to me and perform it with 90% of what I wanted.

That's the strength that structure can be tested under and still stand.

CTA

The most important thing is this:

Try new things. Try things that could be easy, but choose to make them (a little) challenging.

Become curious about yourself. What are things you’ve always wanted to learn about but haven’t?

This can be as simple as ordering something different from you coffee shop.

Shopping at a different grocery store

driving a different way to or from work.

Using your left hand to brush your teethe.

5 steps to increase creativity:

1. Identify current skills and personality traits. (listen when people say you are good at things)

2. Write out things you're curious about or have always wanted to learn but haven't yet.

3. Take this list and focus on one thing for each week (choosing a total of 13 subjects)

4. Make the lock screen of your phone a concept that you want to master during that week. (this will give you reminder of what you are focusing on this week every time you unlock your phone)

5. You will not be good at any of them in the first week. the beautiful thing about 13 weeks is you can cycle that 4 times in a year. Done week after week for 1 whole year that's 4 times through each subject. (this plays on the idea of marginal gains)

Curiosity -> Passion -> Purpose -> Autonomy -> Mastery (Art of the impossible frame work)

Here my current list of things I’m learning about:

1. Enthusiasm

2. Order

3. Unreasonable hospitality

4. Writing

5. Interior design

6. Graphic design

7. Prospecting

8. Closing

9. Language learning

10. Memory training (Remembering names ect.)

11. Theology

12. TBD

13. TBD

P.S. Need your vehicle detailed in the Sacramento area? book now: https://calendly.com/danielbaarns/detail-appointment

Or visit Baarns Detailing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baarnsdetailing/