4-Point Weekend #121
Hi everyone,
This week’s post talks about changing one’s environment for success, the importance of discipline, being a learner, and becoming who we are.
1) The importance of environment
Rick Rubin on changing one’s environment to propel creative insight:
If we’re looking for a performance of a different nature, it can help to change an element of the environment.
Turning off the lights and playing in the dark can create a shift in consciousness and break the chain of sameness from performance to performance.
Other shifts we’ve experimented with include having a singer hold the microphone instead of standing in front of it, and recording early in the morning instead of at night. To access a greater degree of variation, one vocalist chose to hang upside down while singing.
2) Discipline
Adapted from ancient stoic philosopher Epictetus’ Discourses:
We should discipline ourselves in small things and from there progress to things of greater value.
If you have a headache, practise not cursing. And I’m not saying that you can’t complain, only don’t complain with your whole being. If your servant is slow to bring you a bandage, don’t roll around and yell, “Everybody hates me.”
Walk upright and free, trusting in the strength of your moral convictions, not the strength of your body, like an athlete. You weren’t meant to be invincible by brute force, like a pack animal. You are invincible if nothing outside the will can disconcert you.
3) Learners
Benjamin Barber, an eminent political theorist, once said:
“I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures.. I divide the world into learners and non-learners.”
Source: Carol Dweck in Mindset
4) Quote of the week
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are."
Carl Jung
Thank you for your time and attention this week.
Much love,
Kyle
Strong words. good words, and a good challenge.