Black Hole Focus

Isaiah kicks the book off with a story about his experiences as a kid shearing sheep.

His job was to corral them into the shearing station. And, apparently, it was really easy. All he had to do was team up with a few other farmhands, get behind the sheep and start banging a couple of big sticks together. (Apparently sheep hate sticks.)

The sheep would move quickly away from the sticks toward a triangular pen. Once there, they’d be led by carrots into the shearing station.

Carrots and sticks was all it took.

Alas, most of us are about as easy to manipulate. Sticks of disapproval from society combined with shiny carrots and #bam. We’re sheared of our deepest purpose and wonder what happened.

The alternative?

We need to become strategists—step outside of the carrots and sticks being offered and actually think about what we really want. Like, REALLY want.

As Isaiah says, “A strategist is someone who can see the end from the beginning and who acts independently from other people’s expectations. A strategist is someone who maps out their purpose in life and works backwards to fulfill that purpose.”

Helping us figuring out WHY we should care about living our purpose and HOW to go about being a purpose-driven strategist is, of course, what the book is all about.

Let’s explore some Big Ideas on how to go about doing that.

Ikigai.

(Pronounced icky-guy.)

The rough translation? → The reason you get up in the morning.

That begs the question: Why do YOU get up in the morning?

Your ability to answer that question is going to shed some light on your purpose which is going to be correlated to your well-being.

In short, if you have a strong answer to that question, you likely have a strong purpose and feel pretty darn good. If not, you probably don’t have a particularly strong purpose and, unfortunately, you probably don’t feel super energized and awesome.

As Isaiah says: “Your purpose—your ikigai—is fuel for your internal engine. It’s what gives you direction and keeps you moving forward. The more purpose you inject into your life, the brighter your internal spark will burn, the longer you will live, and the more productive you will be while you’re alive.”

We all need a strong reason to live.

We all need a strong purpose.

What’s yours?

#ikigai

Now, I’m not a huge fan of animal testing, etc. but WOW. That’s crazy staggering.

Quick re-cap: The average rat could swim for 15 minutes before giving up and sinking. If rescued and then put back in they could swim for 60 HOURS.

Think about that for a second. 15 minutes vs. SIXTY HOURS—240 TIMES LONGER!!!

*rubs eyes*

Why?

The researcher says it was because of HOPE.

Remember our definition of hope? Science says it’s very simple.

Basically, hope = believing that your future is going to be better than your present. (Thank you, Shane Lopez via Making Hope Happen—see Notes.)

Once our rats had been rescued, they could “see” a better possible future. And that led to a staggering 240 times (!!!) increase in endurance.

Taking liberty with the metaphorical comparison: If YOU don’t see a better future, your “average swim time” before giving up is going to be a paltry 15 minutes. With hope? 240 times longer. Nuts.

As Isaiah says, “Purpose equals hope equals energy. Defining the path in front of you will give you the energy you need to complete it. The key is to positively visualize the end at the beginning. You don’t have to actually see the finish line; you just have to envision it. Vision creates hope, or a feeling of expectancy. And hope creates energy.”

Purpose = hope = energy.

Can you see a better future?

Let’s put on our swim trunks and work out our hope muscles (again! REPS! :) with one of the most powerful hope + optimism-building exercises: Imagine your life in 5 years. You’ve worked hard. Things have come together. What’s your life look like? Think about it. See it. Feel it.

KNOW your life is getting better. Get energized.

P.S. Remember another crazy stat on Hope: 69% of individuals whose leaders/managers at work inspire hope (again: hope = make them believe their futures will be better than their present) are engaged. For those whose leaders do not inspire hope, only 1% (ONE!) are engaged.

Inspiring hope is huge—as leaders, coaches, parents, etc. INSPIRE HOPE!

Here are the first two steps in actualizing your potential and achieving greatness.

Step 1. Know you can achieve greatness.

Seriously. KNOW it. Self-efficacy 101. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” etc.

Step 2. Decide what you want to be great at.

As Isaiah says, this part is a little harder but, let’s be honest, it’s not *that* hard—just requires some courage to go with what you’re currently leaning toward and then test, adapt, etc.

Reminds me of Gary Vaynerchuck and Carlos Castaneda.

First, Gary Vee. I laughed as I read this passage from his new book called #ASKGARYVEE (Note soon). (The book is laid out as a series of questions and his responses.)

Q: “I have a ton of strengths. What’s the best way to drill down on the best and move forward at a faster pace?”

A: “Shut the f*** up, pick the one you like best, and start winning.”

HAH! Thank you for simplifying, Gary.

Carlos Castaneda puts it this way (see Notes on The Wheel of Time).

First, he establishes that “Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: ‘Does this path have a heart?’”

I like it.

Then, he says: “But how will I know for sure whether a path has a heart or not?’ ‘Anybody would know that. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.”

Ouch! Tough but true.

We know… The question is, do we have the courage to follow it?

P.S. Let’s speak about greatness for a moment longer by reflecting on two extraordinary quotes Isaiah shares in the book.

First, Tim Ferris: “It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming … The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals … Unreasonable and unrealistic goals are easier to achieve for yet another reason. Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal. Realistic goals, restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel.”

And, John F. Kennedy, Jr. (from this goosebumps-inducing speech): “But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? … We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

Imagine having a singularity of purpose such that “every thought you have, every decision you make, and every action you take is pulled by this force.”

That’s black hole focus—the physics of your purpose.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi echoes this wisdom in Creativity (see Notes) telling us: “After creative energy is awakened, it is necessary to protect it. We must erect barriers against distractions, dig channels so that energy can flow more freely, find ways to escape outside temptations and interruptions.”

And, Stephen Cope tells us pretty much the same thing in The Great Work of Your Life (see Notes): “Having first named and claimed our dharma, we next begin to systematically organize all of our life’s energies around our calling.”

How can you organize your life around your purpose a little bit more today?

← Let’s do that.

Before we can create the singularity of black hole focus, we need to DECIDE.

We need to cut ourselves off from any other option.

Stephen Cope echoes this wisdom as well: “Naturally, there is an obstacle to all this wonderment. Alas, it turns out that the process of unification requires saying ‘no’ to actions that do not support dharma—saying ‘no’ to detours, and to side channels of all kinds, even to some pretty terrific side channels. It requires snipping off all manner of ‘other options.’ The root of the word ‘decide’ means, literally, ‘to cut off.’ To decide for something means at times to decide against something else.”

What decision do you need to make?

Let’s move from vision to decision to black hole focus as we optimize and actualize!