In between stimulus and response (or reaction) is belief.
Often we get distracted and overwhelmed by too many stimuli, which causes us to respond faster and faster in order to feel like we’re keeping up.
But belief is the filter it all goes through. The often forgotten filter. The ever important filter. The filter worth spending time focusing on. Even at the expense of some stimuli or responses.
At least not based on effort alone.
Why do some artists put in an exceptionally high level of effort but still not achieve the success they’re hoping planning for? And why do artists who seemingly put in a lot less effort sometimes achieve the highest heights?
Because effort doesn’t equal connection.
Success as an artist has more to do with connection than effort.
And there’s an emotional element to connection that effort alone can never replicate or sidestep…emotional connection is mysterious. As much as we want to bottle it up, it can’t be. It’s not transferrable and can’t be duplicated.
It’s both the most heartbreaking and inspiring thing about being a professional artist.
New Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple
We can’t live inside the magic of a song forever. We can play it again but it always comes to an end again.
But that vibe, that hook, the way the singer sings that word…for a moment we are lifted. A little taste of something higher. We wish we could stay there forever but we can’t…that’s part of the charm.
A good costume has something specific about it that tells everyone what it is.
A uniform, a wig, a pair of glasses, certain shoes, face paint, a hat, a helmet…it’s immediately recognizable and tells the story.
Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Steven Tyler, Katie Perry, Bono, KISS, John Bonham, Amy Winehouse, Paul McCartney, Slash…
You know how to dress up as all of these artists. And that’s not a coincidence. Like Brian Epstein said, or at least thought, ‘if you wear the same thing all the time you’ll be more recognizable’.
We don’t want an IQ test to take five seconds.
We want it to take at least thirty minutes…or maybe a couple of hours just to make sure our brains were appropriately mined.
Even if it only actually takes five seconds, we don’t want to believe such important results about ourselves could be discovered so quickly…so make the test longer. It will make us feel better about ourselves no matter what the score is.
What do people want to believe about your product and process and how could you make it more true?
»» Michael just wanted the numbers re-crunched.
Once you know the basic plot lines of Lord Of The Rings you could skip ahead a hundred pages and probably be ok.
And similarly, you could hit ‘summarize’ on the whole series and get the gist in three pages.
But the point Lord Of The Rings isn’t to know the story…it’s about reading the book. Living in it. Imagination. Stimulation. The fact that it’s long is one of the best things about it.
This is what we have to do as artists. Make things that are so compelling that being informed of them is not enough…it must be experienced. And when it is, it’s well worth it.