Your Inner Badass Is Unemployed

You are getting in your own way. The difference between your current self and your desired future state is complexity. The more complicated we make things, the more friction in our creative process, relationships and goals, the more herculean the required effort.

Growth often comes at the point resistance, but the context is often misunderstood. Unnecessary friction created by artificial difficulty merely makes execution more difficult, moving us away from our objectives. Malaise does not signify a breakthrough.

The best creative work is born from a single breath, when you relax, the world falls away and you stop trying to force it. When you have something to say the words flow easily. While not exactly the right words, they begin to uncover the figure within the marble. Your best paintings, piano and poetry sessions occur when perceived effort is at its lowest and things feel fun. This is the experience of a flow state.

You can’t get real results from fake training. Quantum leaps don’t come to those who feign coolness under pressure, they come through necessity. The secret to happiness, heightened creativity and ease is frequently and strategically diving into the most intense part of the chaos. To arrive at the eye of the storm, where we can think and be, we must first push headfirst into the 400 mile per hour wind. Venturing into the unknown perils of a raging storm is where the real growth happens. It’s ride the wave or drown in the ocean.

Mastery is smoothness. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. This is achieved by learning how to be at peace within the discomfort, learning how to breathe into a position. No matter how heavy the load, how rushed you feel or how noisy the construction sounds, when you place your internal anchor, the badass within at last emerges from the fruits of your training.