Earlier this year, I went through #ship30 as a bit of a skeptic. But after writing and publishing for 30 days in a row, I'm a believer (even joined the Captain's Table mastermind it was so good).
A quick thread about my biggest takeaways I got from this phenomenal course:
You don't have to know everything to be qualified to write about it. Create for you from 2 years ago. What do you know now that you wish you would have known then?
I used to feel pressure for every self-help book I read to completely change my life.
But the more books I read, the more often I felt confused by contradictory opinions on a topic.
So after reading over 200 books in the last couple of years, my process has changed.
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I no longer go into a book expecting to agree with everything the author says. Instead, I simply look to find something that resonates with me.
You don't have to agree with everything in a book for it to still have the ability to change your life.
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How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler helped me realize that reading a book is an active process.
Reading a book is a conversation with the author where we're trying to figure out 1) what arguments the author is making and 2) what we think about those arguments.
I've always understood the value, but occasionally struggled making it stick. I'd get frustrated when I had a bad day because the prompts always focused on outcomes.
The secret? Use Daily Question (from @coachgoldsmith) instead.
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I first heard about Daily Question in the book Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith. He explained that journaling prompts (passive) measure how we did, but daily questions (active) measure how we tried. They reinforce commitment & are a much better vehicle for behavior change.
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Daily questions are simple. You just ask, "Did I do my best to...?" and rate your effort from 1-10.
Every day, I ask, "Did I do my best to..."
• Grow spiritually?
• Love my wife?
• Love my kids?
• Be a good friend?
• Learn something?
• Create something?
• Exercise?
About 2 years ago, I downloaded @obsdmd to see what the hype was about and give it a spin.
Today, I have over 33,000 plain text notes in the app and it is the center of my creative tech universe.
A short thread on my use cases for this incredible app.
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#1: A Cross-Reference Library for my Sermon Notes
This is what got me into Obsidian. I create a new note for each sermon, embed my sketchnote, and link to every verse mentioned. Then I can use the local graph to navigate from note -> verse -> note in my personal study.
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#2: A Repository of My Book Notes
Each book has its own mind map and outline, then I break apart key ideas into their own "atomic notes" so I can link them to other books that mention those same ideas.
I recently read The Messy Middle by @scottbelsky about finding your way through bold ventures. It occurred to me that a lot of the challenges in the book apply to creatives as well.
There's a lot to glean from this fantastic book. Here are my top 5 takeaways.
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Takeaway #1: No one likes talking about the hard part.
Everyone talks about starts & finishes. But no one mentions how hard it was in between.
Share your struggles. Normalize the struggle.
You never know who it might help.
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Takeaway #2: Prompt clarity with questions.
Breakthrough often comes when you ask a new question or find a new problem to solve.
Learn to ask better questions. As @marcchampagne says, "you are one question away from a different life."