Site icon Matt K. Head

Stealing like an artist, your ideal week, and building character for success

Matt K Head
shallow focus photography of paintbrush

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Welcome to “The Looking Glass”, a weekly newsletter journey of personal growth into mindset, meaning and mastery in work.

#31 – 25 Nov 2022

Hello friend,

Thanks again for being here!

Here’s an insight, a question, and a quote I reflected on over the last week.

💡 Steal like an artist 

You know how you’ve always been told that stealing is wrong?

Well, not all “stealing” is bad.

Stealing is actually essential for creativity.

Have you ever had a truly original idea?

You might think you have, but on some level, you’ve been influenced by something that led to you connecting the dots and generating the idea. 

This is creativity. There is an element of “stealing” but then making it your own in some way.

“The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.”

David Bowie

Austin Kleon has a great little book Steal Like An Artist:

Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path. Follow interests wherever they take you – what feels like a hobby may turn into your life’s work. Forget the old cliché about writing what you know: Instead, write the book you want to read, make the movie you want to watch.

So get comfortable borrowing others’ ideas and then weaving them into your own. 

Heck, It’s what I am doing in this newsletter, collecting ideas throughout the week and then expressing my own experience around it through writing. 

Over time you develop and refine your own voice.

You need to take your influences seriously. 

Austin Kleon reminds us of the old maxim:

Garbage in, garbage out.

Go through your sources and cull ruthlessly:

Leave only those sources that truly inspire you to rise to your potential. 

This is powerful! Channel the influencers who resonate with you into your own voice. 

You will develop a remarkable voice for our times. One that will never be repeated, as no two people have exactly the same influences and experiences. 

We all have our place to shine. 

I love this line from Austin, which bears repeating:

What feels like a hobby may turn into your life’s work.

So, go on… there is a lot at stake here.

It’s time for you to step up and start stealing, like an artist.

❔Your ideal ordinary week 

You know you could be more intentional with your time, right?

Ali Abdaal shared in his newsletter how he uses an “Ideal Ordinary Week” method to regain control of his time in a meaningful way. 

Here’s how it works.

Imagine your ideal week, with all the activities you’d make time for – work, exercise, time with family, hobbies etc.

Then create a blank Google Calendar and block out reasonable times for your top priorities.

For example:

8-9am every Tuesday and Thursday for exercise.

6-8pm every day for ‘family time’.

30 mins of reading each night, and lights off at 11pm.

You’ll end up with a fairly full calendar.

I have found this planning helpful as an antidote to stress and overwhelm. Usually, during a significant change, when old routines are disrupted, you need to find innovative ways to make the most of your time. 

For example:

Prioritising and scheduling what is essential can ease some of that tension. 

Even though our life may feel like it’s spiralling out of control at one level, we can find some peace in knowing we are checking off those meaningful activities. 

One of the biggest insights from this exercise is realising you need to get better at saying NO, if you want to achieve what matters. No to all the unimportant things that suck your precious hours. There are only so many hours a day, most of which are used up by sleep, work and family/house commitments. 

Your scheduled priorities and unavoidable daily commitments will take up most of your week. You will probably struggle to see space in the day for the three hours you spend scrolling social media and email on your phone. What’s more important, the scrolling? Or reading a book, going to the gym, or having dinner with your best friend?

You have to be intentional to pursue any meaningful personal projects.

Didn’t you want to:

You don’t want to be that person who always talks about the next big thing but never does it – the business, the podcast, the art project, or the marathon.

Get in the habit of doing the thing rather than talking about it.

And this starts with taking ownership of your calendar.

What would your ideal week look like?

Take 15-30 mins to jot down your ideal week or schedule the blocks in your calendar.

What insight does this generate for you? I’m sure there are some sacrifices to be made.

Try it for the next two weeks.

BONUS: 

Another nugget from Ali was setting a daily calendar reminder, at 10pm: “No more devices, bed and reading”. 

It’s a friendly reminder from your better self to turn the tv off, or put the phone down and get some rest. 

Tomorrow you are building your life’s work.

💬 A quote to ponder
 – On character being more important for your success

I was about to give up and try something new when I got served a hard lesson, one that I needed to hear as a young entrepreneur…

If there are people making good money doing what you do then the business isn’t the problem.

You are…

… and if you try to do something else, you’re going to repeat the same bad business habits that are causing you to fail in your current business.

(Now a plot twist – this is NOT the lesson I want you to takeaway).

Yes, the lesson above is very true and honestly saved my life.

I took those words to heart, dug my heels in and learned everything I could about operating a successful business.

I also discovered another important lesson… Pay attention because this is the one I want you to understand…

Character is more powerful than capabilities when it comes to your success.

Joe Polish

📣 What happened this week 

In this section, I share something actionable that I learnt or implemented in the last week. 


Best possible self

I discovered the Best Possible Self exercise. 

We can foster optimism for the future by imagining our best possible selves. This motivates us to get to work, making this desired future a reality.

Exciting, isn’t it?

I reflected on how I previously built optimism into my life when I was lost and confused about my career and life direction. 

This particular time was also a period of change for you.

Do you remember when the pandemic struck? 

Suddenly all your plans went out the window. 

No travel. No bars or eating out. No concerts or sports.

Your health, loved ones, job and livelihood, were suddenly at risk.

You felt like your whole world had been upended. 

How would we ever recover from this?

But here we have a choice.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space is our power to choose our response.

In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Viktor Frankl

We can feed into the negativity, or we can take positive action steps where possible. 

I decided it was time for a career reset. 

This was a voice of emotion that I had been stomping down and telling to “shut up” for years.

You’ve probably heard a similar dialogue in your head:

You know you are capable of more. 

You can make a real difference to others. 

You don’t want to be another replaceable cog for the rest of your life. 

The company will hang you out to dry the minute their revenue dips. 

No, you want to take matters into your own hands.

Choose growth

I decided to go on a process of learning and self-discovery, taking multiple online courses and coaching programs. I wanted to explore my curiosity and grow my capabilities to venture outside my finance career, which I was beginning to resent. 

You know that horrible feeling of something pulling you away from the great potential and unexpressed creativity inside you?

That was eating me up inside.

My curiosity about human potential led me to complete a Positive Psychology and Wellbeing diploma. This course included a similar but different Best Self exercise. 

I was a little hesitant and timid at first. 

Maybe I didn’t deserve to be my best self.

It was a low point for me. 

But I ended up completing the task at hand, and wow! It was an enriching process to restore that sense of hope, optimism and wholeness. 

I was suddenly excited about my future during this dark time. I had a crystal clear vision of what my future could be. It wasn’t something I wanted to drudge through painfully, but rather something I wanted to run towards excitedly!

 Do this 15 minutes a day for two weeks:

Take a moment to imagine your life in the future. What is the best possible life you can imagine? Consider all of the relevant areas of your life, such as your career, academic work, relationships, hobbies, and health. What would happen in these areas of your life in your best possible future?

For the next 15 minutes, write continuously about what you imagine this best possible future to be.

Greater Good Science Center

Caveats for the process:

Who knows what possibilities may emerge for you… 

💭

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It would be great to have you on board!

Cheers!

Matt K. Head

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