Eliminating the time between thinking something and doing it

Greetings; Derek!

When I was a student in my early twenties I experimented with a different way my days were structured. I stayed awake as long as it was interesting or fun and slept when I was tired. Very soon I had lost connection to the rhythm of the outside world. Sometimes I went to bed in the afternoon and woke up before daw. My perception of the day changed completely. It was a very interesting time, although I was on my own most of the time.

I didn't even have a phone then.

Derick, Free you mind so the soul can wonder and explore! I’m glad you’ve unlocked some of the secrets to happiness within; I’m a firm believer good-hearted souls can make positive changes for all; I seem to be bringing some of them together through music! I hope you truly realize your actions over the last several years have made a significant positive impact in many of our lives, your sleepless nights and hard work are very appreciated, it sounds like you may have sacrificed your marriage in the process, some individuals can cope with the vision that life is all about randomization and change, sounds like you’ve figured that out!



Ciao for now - ALDO

Hi Derek,

I can understand this perfectly as I am experimenting this way of thinking and living myself. Relationships could suffer of this, and most of people do not understand this point of view because they are "living" the "classical" way, which I experimented anyway of course, just to discover I did not want to end up the adventure of life that way. This kind of choices are often considered selfish and socially not approved, but you have to give yourself the most and the best of choices then you can have the chance to give something back to others, eventually.

All the best.

Yeah, I decided to split for a while too. I'm leaving my lucrative performing career behind and hiking the Appalachian Trail with my two brothers. I've been playing hundreds of gigs a year for the last eight years and I decided to just drop it and go do something different. I hired someone to run my entertainment booking company, got someone to answer the phones and book me for gigs after I get back, got the gear I needed, called some folks for sponsors and the next thing I knew, we were doing it for a charity that I really dig. www.wbafinc.org ; then we came up with a cool idea for gear testing ; www.brotherproof.com Then I decided to film it and just throw it out there; stick up a blog and a collection of short clips from the trip on the website. It's so strange to read this stuff you've put up there just as I'm about to leave. Thanks for sending out inspiration and encouragement. I won't be on the Internet much this summer, I'll be out in the boondocks, backpacking 20 miles a day, but I dig reading it when I can and I've always gravitated to this sort of thing. I'll see you out there. Keep an eye on us and I certainly welcome any feedback. I love that adaption of your quote, "find what you love and let it kill you..."

I hope I don't get eaten by any bears!

See you on the road to happy destiny :)

David Patrone

Raconteur and endeavorist...

Nice is very good and appreciated



Thanks

Surfing lessons...where?? When I'm not playing music, I spend my time traveling for surf, and recently got back from a two month trip in Costa Rica where I was making my pay giving surf lessons.

This too has been a recent discovery of mine. That it's MY life. If I want to do something, do it. If I don't, then I won't.

It's very...freeing.

WOW!!! I STARTED DOING COMPETITION SHOWCASES. VENUE: MADAME X 94 W. HOUSTON ST, NY. I CHANGED MY STAFF, BECAUSE THEY HAD ME STRESSED OUT FOR NOTHING. NOW I'M AT PEACE. WHAT A GREAT ARTICLE, THANKS. I'M MORE SUCCESSFUL NOW. EVERYONE PLEASE SEE MY SITE. www.myspace.com/hotgirlswhat.

Wow..Great comments......I think a lot of people are so afraid of failing and are too concerned about what other people think, that they give up before they even start puttin there plans into action. You must have a lot of courage to forge ahead and make your plans and dreams come true !!I think the most important thing we all have is our time,cause it is finite,,so takeing action on our musical dreams is important..you cannot sit and wait for other people to do it for you..you have to do it yourself and put your plans into posative action...God Bless..Chuck Page.

Derek,

American civilization is young and innovative and needs to learn many lessons that other countries have in their culture, but it's nice to see more and more people working on a more balanced and enlightend way of thinking. I think using simple wisdoms of the ages are the fundamentals of life which can only be lived in the now, and I get inspired by people like you who explore lifes potential and realize we all have the power to choose and take action in our lives.

Thanks,

Jim

P.S.

I think piracy has been around a long long time, before it was against the law maybe it was just sharing, borrowing or free publicity that everyone benefited from, just a thought.

Derek, I don't know if you remember me but I sat with you at a CDbaby meeting in Nashville many years ago, I currently have five CD's on the site and still have much more new music to record and release, but just reading through this last article of yours and thinking about were I am and what I want to do, I hope this guestion is not to much like Dear Abby but here goes, currently I am married 58 and I am totally consumed with my music and the thought of basically just making a living with my music, I have a publishing company, a record label and playing a few datyes myself, and still consider my music something viable to the world, is it never to late to jump off and just do this or is this unrealistic

Interesting article, Coincidently, I've been experimenting with the idea of doing things as soon as you think them lately. It's actually somewhat difficult. I sometimes struggle with it, but I keep trying anyway. It seems that the faster you can do something after you think of it, the better off you are. I sometimes wonder if it is possible to do what you think you want to do right away consistently. Sometimes it's the effort that's rewarded and in this way you see that you do what you want in unexpected ways.

Gotta do what you love in life - and realize that it is short. Several years ago I was traveling and doing guitar clinics and my schedule was really hectic - I was talking on the phone to my Mom and she asked me if I had been doing any fishing (she knows I am a fly fishing junkie) - I told her "Mom, I haven't had enough time to go fishing". - and in one of those simple moments that shake your core kind of experiences, she said "Actually we don't have enough time NOT to go fishing". It was a wake up call for me to not get so caught up in the go, go, go to forget to enjoy life. Since then I haven't turned down many opportunities to go fishing. :o)

Rock on Derek -

JS

Thank you for the tips Derek.

They seem to be useful.

How are your Mandarin skills?

Keep me posted.

Peace,

Petros.

"eliminating the time between thinking something and doing it!!!"

OUTSTANDING !!! I love this !!! So inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing!

I kicked my addictions and replaced them with empowering habits : running and intensive vocal training (these can get addictive too, in a good way :)

Your post raises a question : what next? what am I considering doing but not doing?

I'm gonna share this with my peers, they will love it. Thanks again Derek !

Love&light,

Daya

Hi Derek,

I've just been inspired... I'm creating a list of things I want to do and I'm going to "see what happens". What usually works for me in overcoming my tendency for procrastination, is to do something that exposes my challenge to the public. It helps me to commit.

So, number 1 on my not yet written list, is:

1. I've often been told that I sound just like Phillip Bailey of Earth, Wind and Fire. My dream has always been to get the opportunity to sing one song with them singing Phillip's lead vocal part. My first mind tells my not to be rediculous. But now I an going to try to come up with some creative ideas to "see what happens". I realize, I have absolutely nothing to loose and anything to gain.

So wish me luck! I've just exposed myself!

Thanks!

Dennis

Your an inspiration. I enjoyed the photo of Jim Morrison. I played on the Doors LA Woman CD guitar, and now a proud member of CD BABY! Want to stay in touch and learn more. I've got this CD w SRV trying to promote. Getting Your help is my intuitive thought. So many people are probably interested if I can reach them. Take care friend.

Marc

Your an inspiration. I enjoyed the photo of Jim Morrison. I played on the Doors LA Woman CD guitar, and now a proud member of CD BABY! Want to stay in touch and learn more. I’ve got this CD w SRV trying to promote. Getting Your help is my intuitive thought. So many people are probably interested if I can reach them. Take care friend.

Marc

Thanks Derek

this article to vital to both our happiness and success.. thank you so much for always being there :) i truly appreciate you wherever you are..

Hey, man thanks for the links to all this great information, inspiration and insight!! I really do appreciate it. Aside from the music ( I'm thinking of ceasing a pursuit of it as a careeer, calling, etc.), there's some really great life stuff to contemplate. And act on....thanks a mil. Much peace and blessings to you and your family. ONe.

Hi Derek

I was inspired similarly after experiencing a serious Illness. Prioritizing, planing and compartmentalizing my activities became a premium; as I began to work towards self actualization and the aspirations I held within. I found it very important not to get caught up in the process. The plans leads to where I want to go. I had to learn to follow it and have a life. It's a daily challenge to reach the optimum balance but the rewards are worth their weight in gold!

Be well.

Eric Frazier

www.myspace.com/ericfraziermusic

That obviously works for you, but it doesn't work for me. I ended up getting dozens of Ideas, starting them, and then being surrounded by scads of unfinished projects that drained my energy.

The solution I came up with was to try to find other people to act out the ideas I couldn't do in this lifetime. For example, the idea below still seems to me to be the perfect next thing for you to do with your life. However, I know I am never going to do this myself. Unfortunately, you have been so busy following your own vision you haven't even had a chance to reply to mine. So what can I do? Well, I can continue to badger you with this idea, by posting it on every place where you might see it. Either you'll do it, or somebody else will. That unfortunately, is all I've got time for, particular if I follow your above advice to turn off my computer. So here it is.

TEED'S IDEA FOR DEREK'S LIFE


There needs to be something to replace radio, because on commercial radio the only thing you hear, besides commercials, is Brittany Spears, Hannah Montana, and more of the same. There are, of course, hundreds of thousands of terrific recordings on CD baby, but almost none of those are going to get on the radio. More importantly, the stuff on CD Baby that each of us wants to hear is buried amongst thousands of recordings that we don’t want to hear, and it would take thousands of hours to find the stuff we like. None of us have time to do that. Radio has traditionally done that for us. DJs used to listen to hundreds of records, until they heard one they liked, and then they would play that record. That’s how Murray the K discovered the Beatles. Today no one working for radio ever says “I like that, let’s play it”. Instead they say “Our market research shows that people between the ages of 20 and 35 who make over 70K a year will like this song. Let’s play it, and hundreds of others just like it.” Nobody does what Murray the K did any more, and that is the reason commercial radio is so boring.

CD baby can solve this problem by creating a web page that offers free downloadable podcasts of “the best of CD baby” in each of several styles. These podcasts could serve the same functional niche that radio programs have traditionally filled. They’ll give you something to listen to in your car, and also give you an opportunity to discover new music. That’s the main reason that I still listen to radio, even though I own thousands of CDs. I want the element of surprise that comes from hearing something from an unknown source—even though it means I have to put up with commercials, and songs I’d rather not listen to.

CD baby podcasts would not need commercials because A) they would pay for themselves by generating CD sales and B) You could sell Ad space on the download Webpage. A webpage that gives away free music is obviously going to get lots of hits. And unlike other free music pages, it would be supported and supporting the artists. Essentially all CD baby artists would welcome an opportunity to be included in these compilations, just as every musicians welcomes receiving Airplay. Most musicians would send out mailings to their lists, proudly announcing that they have been selected from hundreds of thousands of musicians to be featured in one of these podcasts (which of course would bring lots of traffic to the site.) Each podcast would also come with a pdf file that gives a bio of each artist and the link to their CD baby site.

Many musicians would welcome the opportunity to prepare their own “best of” podcast, which would feature their music (maximum one song) in combination with their favorites in a similar style. Each musician would have a strong incentive to include only the best artists in their style, to insure that the podcast is popular. This would also encourage musicians to find other artists in their style and thus create coalitions that could eventually produce festivals, tours etc. generating more sales for everyone.

One more thought: Should these podcasts include a host of some sort, that introduces the songs? There is something nice about having someone who creates that kind of friendly atmosphere. That’s one reason why the DJ’s personality is often as popular as the music. But that is something that could probably vary from podcast to podcast

This really sums it up:

"This should lead to radically improved intelligence and creativity. The only cost: turning your back on every convention of social life."

It can be an obsessive pursuit just to keep your head above water as a musician. I have found it very rewarding to employ this type of off-the-grid thinking between tours to work on writing. It's really like there's a mental toggle switch going from songwriter > engineer > graphic design > booking agent > publicist etc...

After all, it IS about the music...

I LOVE this awake and alive stuff! ......and yes, for my 2 cents, I believe that like Siri Dhyan Singh said up at the top of all this we need to have achieved enough discernment to "get it", if we are lucky or blessed enough to appreciate creative spontaneity vs childish impulse. I hope I understood that right. In any case the only way I can create anything at all, even a pleasant day, is to define my own self and Keep it real, my friends....thanks for a fun conversation.

Derek,

Thanks for these postings, musings and observations. You're in a pretty unique position as a result of your efforts with cdBaby...and the fact that you spend so much of your time and effort working to better the lot of everyone in this new music industry speaks volumes.

Just wanted to say that.

James

I hope you do realize that I was only half-serious about having you do this with your own hands, as it were. I thought it was possible, but I also figured that if you didn't do it, you would know somebody who did, or would have someway of working in partnership with CD baby to make this happen. (These days the lines between partners and employees is pretty blurry.) And so you do, and thanks for telling me about it. Can you tell me who at CDbaby I should contact to learn more about this "affiliate cut in sales" agreement? Now that I know that such agreements exist, I think I actually can make some connections with some people who would like to make that happen.

Meanwhile, I'll do a search on "Whole Wheat Radio" and see what I can learn from them. Thanks for staying in such close touch with all of us. I find it truly amazing that you manage to be so responsive, and hope you didn't think I was criticizing you in any way whatsoever.

I agree with Siri: doing whatever you want must be tempered with self government. I study Ed Parker's Kenpo, primarily, along with several other martial arts, and at our dojo, we fight for our belt ranks. This teaches you about your personal abilties and limitations, but more importantly teaches you to respect others FIRST, as Siri suggests.

I agree with Rob: divorce is not happy. The person that says divorce is happy, is likely speaking for themself - I wonder what their ex thinks. My definition of success in music is balanced by my marriage of 20 years. My freedom to express myself in the studio or on stage is anchored by the knowledge that my wife and children are valued and cared for.

Derek,

Thanks for the links!! Your recent journey sounds interesting, inspiring, and filled with new ideas and adventure!

Our continued thanks for all you have done, and are still doing, for indie musicians and artists. For our part, we've continued to balance our musical creations with our work in our piano shop rebuilding instruments etc. Its a great "day gig" for the musical adventure, and pays the bills! Plus, we're having a ball!!

Your e-notices and links and thoughts all serve to keep us on our toes and thinking. Thanks again!! Best, Rick and Jane www.fusionfolk.com

Derek,

While I enjoy the sentiment of your blog, it's interesting that the people you quote are all men...including yourself. None seem to have the responsibility of family. SO while I'd love to just take off and do the things I've dreamed of doing...I have ot scale them down and somehow fit bits and pieces into my life. It's all about choices.... and life situations.

Hi Derek

Thanks a lot for making the time to post this. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and am inspired:)

Great to see a kindred spirit out there like that!

all my best wishes from Seattle

hans

This is a powerful and dangerous concept. However, if you are working alone you can pretty much follow your own muse, and you'll get better results if you isolate yourself in some respects from convention and "normal" time schedules.

For about a year of my life I worked when I felt like working, slept whenever I felt like sleeping, ate when I wanted to eat, and just stared into space when I wanted to vegetate.

I found that I didn't need an alarm clock (I still rarely use one today), also that personally my most efficient cycle was something like working in 15-hour periods, sleeping for 6, and after a while you can imagine that I ended up sleeping at all hours of day and night. But I got a lot done, and I didn't waste time on much extraneous "noise".

I still found time to be with friends, when our clocks happened by luck to by in sync, about as often as I ever had, but I had less anxiety about planning the get-togethers, they just happened. I was much more calm, because I had none of the anxiety that goes along with thinking of all the things I had to get done but haven't gotten done. They just got done.

Although I have now gotten back on the grid, I retain some of the things I learned creatively from that experiment, including to not let anything (even good but unrelated ideas) interrupt a "flow" period (you can read all about the "flow" phenomenon in Mihalyi Csikszentmilhayi's books), to carry index cards with me to write down any and all ideas that occur to me at inopportune moments, and then spend some time each week organizing those index cards in ways I could act on immediately. That set an agenda for me that was rigorous but flexible. I found out later that this was one of the methods of so-called "agile" programming development, which purports to result in faster software development with far less defects.

A lot of the way I work now is based on zen principles. I think that it's important to note that zen is about accepting the present and remaining in it, not simply following every impulse you have, a bit more disciplined but no less free, and less likely to fall into the self-indulgence that can be like spiritual quicksand.

I'm glad to hear that you're finding your way to an emerging life, that's exciting and inspiring. It's always positive to meet yourself again in a new context, may you have good travels.

Derek,

YES! love it dude. I'm in a quandary. I usually allowed no time between having an idea and plunging time and resources into realizing it. However, I had to change that.

Besides music and recording and producing music (two very different things) I've been into photography, had some exhibitions (in Europe as well as US), been a graphic and web designer (still earn $ that way), got inyo mandalas, wrote a mandala course which sells online, been around the world (usually business class, the only way to fly) five times, traveled to India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand (beautiful!), Canada, Thailand, Nepal, all countries in Europe except Norway, lived outside the US for a total of 12 years (I would require one year in Europe or Asia of all students before high school graduation), lived/worked in a spiritual commune for 10 yrs, was a massage therapist, learned a specialized light and color alternative medicine therapy which I still practice in Europe/Asia and wrote two online courses for and distribute in the US - that took five years of training, met an excellent music producer with a beautiful track record who I worked with on my two last albums and sunk app. $25,000 into them, and basically realized:

If I don't get a certain return in cash on my creative efforts I can't pursue them. I've had to develop a way of determining 1) IF an idea has potential for AT LEAST paying for itself, and if so, how long to give it before it starts to realize that return. Otherwise I just go into debt, which isn't a bad thing, but too much of it is.

This quote: “Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness.”

Yes! I've been near death twice in my spiritual search, and I would hate to repeat the experiences, but it's value is inestimable. Love your sharing attitude. Would love to be on "your label" but am afraid I fall short of most of your requirements. My guitar sits on it's stand collecting dust most months out of the year. In 2002 I got a call from a label that had a Celtic/Indian CD of mine, saying that Paul McCartney wanted to hear it for a personal event of his. I had to BUY the CD (I've lost that copy since) to relearn the music I'd written, so I could play it with a band together for him. But I wouldn't give that up or recording for anything either.

Realizing my limitations and working with them has been the greatest thing I've learned in the last ten years. My vocal album (8 original songs, music and lyrics, two covers) I am hoping to finish in Zurich later this year. Only two pieces have my own voice on them, and those I am singing backup only. I started out singing everything, painful but beautiful experience. I am hoping to release this vocal album sometime (it's been five years in the making) and when I do, it will be posted on CD Baby for sure!

Your one of the people I'd like to meet some day Derek, keep up the love,

James

All great thoughts! I'm 15 and my dad is 50. We write together. Between school and work, there is little time for doing what we love, making music!

Still we have fun, try to improve and don't get to hung up on things we can't control!

Kate

Hi Derek

My new motto, If you take care of your music, your music will take care of you !


As i read your stories, i become more aware of myself being a,

"do not stick with the idea, just go do it" kind of guy.

And another interesting thing is that projects find me,( the same for people ore contacts.)

The projects that i do are a mixture of: new discoveries,

going into the unknown, see what's out there and put it all together in a new music-project.

Like i am now doing " The Earth Mars Connection" Project. ( space the final frontier )

I began with exitement and not knowing what to find, now to me the picture is clear,

and the only thing i have to do is writing it down in music, in words and pictuires for the video clips,

so that other people can also expand their minds with the knowledge of the past.

Also recently i became aware of what my drive in life is and where it came from.

I can only call one name: CARL SAGAN.

His TV show " Cosmos" is the reason that i do what i do in my life,

and the reason that i am now in the frontline of exploration of alternative archeology.

It is exiting to be there and a continuous struggle to put,

fragmented knowledge together in a logic way that makes complete common sence.

This struggle is the struggle that i also have in making the music project,

difficult but highly rewarding as i listen to the results, Quality improves every year,

every project is more difficult, but the more rewarding when done.

It fills me with a powerful feeling that lifts my spirit, and strenghten my soul.

This is what gets me going in life, this is why i can get through deep downs,

and come out with astonishing new music, ore new insights about ancient Earth History.

Greetings and take care

Sven Hansen ( you know me well :-)

Hey, Derek! All of these entries are, as ever, inspired but this one in particular is uncanny in its timeliness. All of us (my bandmates - Bipolar Explorer) are on similiar life-changing trajectories both as a group and individually. Really encouraging to hear of your fearless adventures! So, again - thanks. All best to you and keep those posts coming!

With thanks,

Michael, Yves, Sean & Elizabeth

Bipolar Explorer

Derick:

Greetings fellow eccentric! For that is what it takes to do what you have chosen to do. I always tell my children, when they say they want to be famous, that there is ALWAYS a price to pay...sometimes it may be isolation. Having four children makes it difficult to do what you have suggested, but being in ministry, I will be having opportunities soon to go overseas and want to bring all my children with me...we're sort of like a VonTrapp family, so they're involved in the ministry, too. I must say, I REALLY enjoyed this article...it only served to confirm everything I have been feeling and everything that has started coming to pass in my life. Thank you.

This is beginning to sound a bit like my bio...ie: been thinking about doing my music things but got sidetracked by "getting a real job"... then found CD Baby. ....been thinking about getting better at playing my instrument...so found a group to make music with...what a soul satisfying experience that's been. Been thinking about becoming fluent in Spanish, and looked for and found a wonderful teacher (no text books-just movies, magazine and current event articles AND especially great conversations about interesting topics).

And mostly deciding to DO rather than plan to do the things I love!!!!

Connie

Hey all you c.d.Baby friends! I was really gonna say something Awesomely philosophical but you've all taught me so much I just need to go do something with all this great wisdom you've shared!

Keep Rockin'

Love ya!

Lori

That endless check list where things never get checked - exactly what I'm changing in my life!!

“Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness.”

The problem with this and so many other so called profound quotes is that they assume so many of us are alike and basically don't know our own minds.

Referring to the quote above - I'm sure that a very large proportion of people who are genuinely happy, are mainly that way because they are comfortable.

There are way too many people out there who have the incredible arrogance to think that they can enlighten the "shallow" creatures on this planet (that's everyone bar themselves!) so they will have more fulfilling lives. What's more, they even draw diagrams for the poor souls who still can't grasp it!

I'm not religious but one of my favourite quotes is "Man know thyself". Quite right too! and don't let anyone try and tell you to do something different when you're happy as you are.

Great post, Derek! Looking forward to many more. It's inspiring seeing someone doing what they were created to do.

Now...a shout out to Marc Benno. Mark - I met you at Ribeye Thacker's home years ago when I was publishing Austin Blues Monthly. Glad to see you are going strong!

Brilliant!

And I am reminded of an interview I heard about two years ago on NPR's "Fresh Air" with actress Annette Benning. Host Terry Gross asked her how she managed to "balance" her life as an actress, a mother, and a wife to Warren Beatty.

Ms. Benning's response stopped me in my tracks.

The essence of her response was to deny that "balance" was a worthy goal-- in fact, it's overrated and probably unachievable in any healthy sense. She articulated that her satisfaction comes from immersing herself thoroughly in different components of her life at different times. When she's working on a role, she's an actor, period. When she's done, she craves--and returns to--life as a wife and mother. And the cycle repeats, over and over.

It was the first time I'd ever heard anyone suggest that "balance" isn't necessarily a worthy goal. And it resonated with me fully and thoroughly.

Feeling the need to write? Let me do it without excuse and without a need to balance it with the rest of my life. Feeling the need to be part of my clan? Let me love on my husband, walk the dog 12 times a day and garden til the cows come home.

It's not about shirking responsibilities, it's about responding to the moment's calling. (Since my mama raised me to honor my responsibilities, the bills still get paid on time.)

It doesn't always get to be this way, but I'm happiest and most productive when I can manifest the opportunity to do exactly what I need to do, when I need to do it. Perhaps it's a thoroughly selfish approach (which I'm happy to own), but I suspect the people around me like me a whole lot more when I'm in my element --whatever that looks like in the moment.

Thanks for a very inspiring post!

Jean Synodinos

(say it like this: sin-uh-DEE-nus)

Austin, TX

http://www.jeansynodinos.com

http://www.myspace.com/jeansynodinos

I'm in a position to start doing and I have to say it's kind of scary. That's good because it feels exciting. I don't have to work 40 hours a week, my wife is going to hold the household down so I can focus more on my music and school to get my B.A. in Marketing. This article and others you wrote are giving my the confidence to start working part time at work and full time on my music career. Thanks Derek!

Mr. Delonso

Siri Dhyan Singh (commented above) hit the bull's eye, at least from my perspective. Thank you!

My lyrics: ..."in a limbo, between thinking and doing" (Song: Newdance - album: Through The Shadows - artist: The Spiritual Bat)

What gets you stuck in a limbo is fears.... It would be great to reduce time between thinking and doing, we'd get a lot more things done... But what if we thought wrong, or didn't think enough, or the practical application of what we had thought involved unpredictable obstacles or turns... Or, if we are talking about creativity, what if reality gets in the way....

Anyway, thanks Derek, your articles are helpful and inspiring... I should read them more often...

With much Respect,

Rosetta

Hey Derek!

Met you at TEDGlobal. Love your blog! Totally agree with Wozniak. One of the most inspiring and productive periods of my life, I was living just like he described.

Take care!
xxx

вы русский?

ну вы жжете:)

In my 2008 post, I said "There needs to be something to replace radio, because on commercial radio the only thing you hear, besides commercials, is Brittany Spears, Hannah Montana, and more of the same." The idea I suggested was websites with downloadable podcasts. I've since discovered that these have grown up all over the place: sixty second hero, the soupygato show etc. Some of them have played my music. But I realize now that the thing that has solved everything I was concerned about, and then some is Pandora. I listen to them all the time now and essentially never listen to the radio any more.

good site!!
you wrote the Chinese version of the blog also? fantastic..
I hate hesitating too! but at the moment I don't know what the next step is...so still wasting my time on the boring job I hate..
any advice?

Love this post and philosophy, Derek! I've been gorging on your website for the past few weeks - your notes on books are phenomenally useful,for example - and I am not yet sated. Thank you!!

I've been cruising your blog a bit and I LOVE your view on life. I'm just finishing 4HWW and so I am totally in that mode of DO IT. Thanks for the insights, direction, and nods to masters like Wozniak. This especially rang true "You must clarify your goals, gain knowledge through spaced repetition, preserve health, work steadily, minimize stress, refuse interruption, and never resist sleep when tired. This should lead to radically improved intelligence and creativity.".

Thanks a lot Derek, all the best.

Hello Derek Sivers

Nice to meet you.
I am a president of indie's label.

My label name is Fountain Music.
And sub label is Plaza In Crowd.

Our releases are seriously so small like 100 to 200 for CDs and digital download amount is 100 around per one track.

So we just start to distribute through CD BABY to ask for more sales.

I just have introduced this website from my friend artist.

I would ask you how to make many sales through CD BABY. Would like to be consulted into detail.

As note I am aiming to release more than 2000 CD albums through my life.
Hope 10000 CD is my dream.

And make ourselves major record company and build label building.

My imagination when we release music , I am always imagining our music to reach to all mankind.

This is a aim to make mankind and my life beautiful.

I will we can connect and get some involve to make the earth beautiful.

Fountain Music is also don't stop to make position in music industry.

Love to your exciting blogs and get in touch if you can.

Yours sincerely

Shinji

I'm wondering - how does this article relate to your one on being a slow thinker?
Acting upon decisions. — Derek

I have always been a very thoughtful person, of those who reflect long before doing. Recently, I followed a Coaching course, here's the site, www.prometeocoaching.it/scuola-di-coaching/ , that helped me understand the importance of the action. In fact, Coaching is all about doing, about action, because thinking too much can be a disincentive to action. It is a wide and interesting theme. Thanks for the cue, good work.

I see more comments on experiments and observing life than on procrastination.
I haven't directly targeted procrastination,
(except for pressing pause on my DVD and doing something every commercial that I might otherwise put off)

but indirectly I have been experimenting with my life by, this last season or two, thinking that life is a fractal:
Just as how I do anything is how I do everything, (and how I do my days is how I do my life) so too, how I do my weeks is how I do my season.

That is my experiment, weeks as the building blocks of my seasons. I think I'm more productive this way, without feeling any more stressed. Just more aware, and happily choosing, I guess.