willie jackson

Month: May 2012

  • Back here on earth

    When we think about honesty and courage and perseverance, we tend to picture the extremes: leaking a story about insider trading to the press, thwarting the attempts of a mugger to keep your girlfriend safe, and committing to mastering a skill by practicing for an hour every day, until the end of time.

    Back here on earth, there are practical applications of these traits that matter just as much: telling a friend that attending UF is not the right decision, standing up for someone being publicly humiliated, and finishing the day’s task before taking a nap.

  • On not giving up

    A recurring theme among people who have a lot more money and influence than I do is relentlessness. New Years Resolutions and changes made in a huff and diets don’t really work because they’re typically short-lived.

    A habit that becomes a lifestyle that becomes a part of who you are is what matters, not the flavor of the week. I’m talking to myself when I say: commit to it (insert your own “it”), full-assed, and never give up.

  • Building character and making progress (by choice)

    You’re faced with your own character and humanity when:

    1. your boss isn’t watching
    2. your kids are asleep
    3. there are no cops on the road
    4. no one is watching

    I’m particularly interested in the idea of personal growth in a vacuum.

    If no one is watching my work, will I do my best?

    Do I maximize my productivity when I’m not needed in a meeting at 3pm?

    Would I continue writing on this blog if no one read it?

    Would I be committed to self-improvement if all signs pointed to my current state being “good enough?”

  • Half-focused, all bad

    Recently, I’ve found myself developing an unproductive habit: working at half (or worse) speed throughout the day because of fatigue, instead of making the time for a proper rest, and returning to my work refreshed.

    This also means that when I’m taking a “break” I’m never really free to enjoy my time. In part because I feel like I haven’t earned a break based on my sub-par output, and in part because I’m not fully committed to the break.

    I guess my heart is in the right place, but bad habits serve no one and certainly don’t impress my CEO very much. The course-correction for me here is to rest when I’m resting, and work when I’m working.

  • Healing through the arts

    My friends Shelah and Shamilia are both using their art and passions to bring healing to communities in Haiti and Rwanda (respectively).

    Sustainable Theater Program, by Shelah Marie

    This August, I will be facilitating a month-long Sustainable Theater workshop for the youth served by T.E.N. Global‘s community center in rural San Rafael, Haiti. By the end of the workshop students will:

    • Understand the traditional playwriting structure
    • Learn how to compose and edit original material
    • Be able to transfer original writing into performance
    • Have a published original play script

    With this workshop, I hope to do three things:

    • Provide an alternative paradigm for education and learning
    • Validate the participants’ creative spirit
    • Incorporate the students’ published work into the body of contemporary theater

    Your donation will help bring this project to life and facilitate much-needed healing through art practices. I’ll be keeping very close track of everything I’m doing on my blog so you can see exactly how the work progresses.

    Visit Shelah’s IndieGogo Campaign Page →

    Theatre in Education for Reconciliation, by Shamilia McBean

    So you may or may not know, I’m working on a masters degree that lets me meld my passions for theatre, community and social change in the field of Applied Theatre.
    I’ve been learning so much and now I have the chance to actually -do- the work where it counts!

    Enter: Project Rwanda, an exchange between my Masters program and the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE). They’ve invited us to share Applied Theatre methods with Rwanda’s teachers in training to be used in classrooms across the country for post genocide reconciliation.

    Visit Shamilia’s IndieGogo Campaign Page →

    I couldn’t be any more biased in promoting these projects (I’m incredibly proud of my friends), but this is my blog so I can do it unapologetically.

    So if the projects resonate with you, please spread the world.

    And donate if you’re inclined. Thanks.

  • What’s cooking?

    If you wait until your product is complete to start promoting it, I’m afraid you’ve missed an incredible opportunity. Several of them, actually:

    1. Determining if people actually care about what you’re doing
    2. Finding out if the idea you’ve selected is your best one, based on feedback
    3. Building up an army of people interested in promoting and buying your product
    4. Seeing if your idea shows signs of being able to survive first contact with the marketplace

    I think it’s possible to both over-prepare (often a form of procrastination and succumbing to Resistance) and under-prepare, but obscurity is an enemy regardless.

    Tell us what’s in the oven unless your kitchen’s already crowded.

    Actually, tell us regardless.

  • What if it all goes wrong?

    I’m giving a talk in two weeks, and I was running some ideas by a new friend of mine who specializes in presentation preparation. He left me with this:

    What happens if they don’t buy into what you’re saying?

    Basically, the worst-case scenario.

    It’s such a great question because my reaction to the unthinkable gives me the poise I need to overcome the uncertainty and Resistance. I’m not particularly fearful of an audience or embarrassing myself, but there’s a human part of all of us that desires acceptance, praise, and encouragement.

    I enjoy making people laugh, so I’m often making small quips during the course of conversations. My “humor” is dry and sarcastic, and my delivery is rather deadpan — some people “get” me, and some don’t.

    I usually stop at nothing maintain an upbeat demeanor and follow up with a barrage of jokes to redeem myself keep it moving if one happens to tank, so my reputation as an aspiring stand-up comedian mildly humorous often remains intact.

    I think the goal is to determine what we want out of things, “pre-experience” what it would be like if the proverbial roof came crashing down on our efforts, and examine our reaction to make sure we’re doing things for the right reasons.

    To be clear: if I walked off the stage in a huff and told the crowd that they were idiots, then my ego was probably too large for the venue in the first place. Additionally, this is an indicator that I wasn’t there primarily to give and share generously, but rather for self-serving motives.

  • Why it’s not crowded where you’re going

    If the level of success and influence you’re after were easy to attain, it would be crowded at the top.

    If all it took was determination and hard work then again, there would be scores of people waiting for you at the finish lines.

    Throngs of successful doers who stuck it out and did what it took.

    But the place you deserve to be…the place that you’re scared to dream about sometimes…the place that makes you blush when you picture yourself there…well, that’s going to take more than hard work.

    It may seem like it will take a year of long nights, but it might actually take six months of short ones.

    You might feel like it’s going to take you getting to a place where everything you touch is fulfilling and refreshing, but it might just require you to always be doing something worth doing.

    It may seem like becoming a machine and exhibiting hyper-productivity during work hours is required, but it might take a purposeful and deliberate pace that intentionally ignores and slips on some things.

    In short, I think the road to where you deserve to be is paved with the very lessons that tell you what’s needed in order to scale the mountain (if you’re open to seeing them).

    Not a Dale Carnegie book or a workflow optimization course, bit rather an awareness and commitment to improvement that transforms you with each lesson.

  • Breaking good habits

    The reason breaking good habits is so bad…is because you simultaneously “practice” something that you don’t want to perpetuate.

    And once Resistance has a foothold, it’s easy for the inertia to do what it does best: keep you off course. Don’t ask me how I know…

    I missed you guys.