Getting Your Genius Back

I have been reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk lately. I’m not going to get into the details. But if I were to use one sentence to describe Musk, it would be: a nutty jerk who doesn’t care about anyone individually, yet is also somehow a genius creator who cares a lot about humanity as a whole.

Now, there is one part of the book that really made me think: Elon Musk, when describing his ambition to send people to Mars, and making mankind a multiplanetary civilization, he mentioned that technological progress is not inevitable. It can stop. It can backslide. Just like we made the first moon landing in 1969. It’s been 54 years. You would think we’d have Disneyland and Costcos on the moon by now, but we don’t. In fact, the last moon landing was in 1972 and we never made it back.

When I read this paragraph, I immediately reflected on this sentiment on a personal level. As true as this statement is about human progress in terms of scientific achievements, the same can be said for individual progress.

“People are mistaken when they think technology just automatically improves. It only improves when a lot of people work really hard to make it better.” - Elon Musk

Skills Will Leave You

As we get older, we don’t just automatically get better. In fact, if we don’t actively hone our craft and skills, we get worse. In many cases, a lot worse.

Two years ago, after a five-year hiatus, I decided to pick up writing again, partly to serve you and all my readers over the years, and partly to rekindle the joy of writing.

When I finished my first article, I felt like a bad student who finally did his homework. But as I read the finished product, something didn't smell right. It was the scent of excrement, oozing out of every word of that article, through the screen onto my face. The combination of letters and words were a crime against literature, and each sentence made me want to hurl into a toilet bowl.

If that piece was food, it would have been a smoothie made of spoiled milk, rotten watermelon, and dishwasher water.

“How can I be this bad at writing?” I screamed silently. And moreover, was I ever good at writing?

To figure out my past and hear my writing voice again, I re-read my own book, Rejection Proof, which I wrote in 2015. And to my amazement, it was brilliant! It’s easy to think I am tooting my own horn, but I truly loved reading my own writing from a few years ago. The storytelling, the humor, the manipulation of words, the building of suspense, the onramp/off-ramp from each story, it was truly a great book.

OK, so the almost 2,000 Amazon reviews from strangers weren’t lying or just being nice to me, they really liked my writing, and I can see why.

Comparing Rejection Proof to the article I just wrote was like the grizzled old man admiring a picture of his vibrant youth. But the difference is: it was only five years ago!!!

The realization of my writing atrophy made me want to stick my finger into an outlet, or put a defibrillator on my chest. No, I don't want to die. But I do, however, want to shock the creativity back into my life, like Mel Gibson’s character in What Women Want, when he got the special power of being able to read women’s minds through electrocution.

As I calmed down a little bit, I reflected: this is not surprising. In writing, if you aren’t getting better, you are getting worse. If you don’t keep using your voice, you lose your voice.

This is true in every skill we have and every endeavor we take - whether you are a writer, speaker, podcaster, or entrepreneur.

Ideas Will Leave You

Speaking of books, I also recently read another one titled Big Magic, written by Elizabeth Gilbert. She made an interesting theory: ideas have expiration dates and can travel from person to person. When a great idea falls upon you, whether through luck or divine design, if you don’t grab it and do something about it, it leaves you and travels to someone else. It will be brought to life, sooner or later, through you or through someone else.

That’s why it’s often the case that one day, a great idea hits you, but you are either too busy or too lazy, you just file it away so you can do it someday. But a few years later, you see someone else do it. You either hit yourself with a brick of regret, or rationalize it away with “well I couldn’t have done it the way she did it anyway.”

Well, the truth is, the idea visited you, dwelt in your heart for two months, and saw a lazy and distracted soul, made a stink face, then flew away in the middle of the night without you even knowing.

In my case, I experienced both actualizing ideas and having them flee.

Once upon a time, I grabbed an idea and went full tilt. 100 Days of Rejection Therapy was a great idea. When it hit me, I spent night and day turning it into a blog, a book, a TED talk, and a speaking career.

But after that, I stopped writing and focused on other ventures. Many ideas came and went, and I just jotted them down in a notebook, thinking someday I would go back to them.

Then, when I actually went back to writing two years ago, all my past ideas left me. I mean, the notebook and the list were still there, but the feeling, the passion, and ingenuity associated with each idea were nowhere to be found.

WWII General Douglas MacArthur, in his famous farewell speech in Congress, said “old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

My writing ideas, along with the writing genius, never died. They just faded away. In fact, they dashed out of the door while telling me “you broke my heart” like Michael Corleone said to his brother Fredo in The Godfather II.

Getting Her Back

Well, luckily, real life is different from Shakespearean tragedies. I live in America, a country that loves a good comeback story.

And I am coming back! I am getting my writing genius back. I am like Ryan Gosling, going after Rachel McAdams in The Notebook, telling her “it wasn’t over, and it still isn't over.” And if she accepts, I’ll grab her and perform an epic makeout session worthy of an Oscar nomination for the cheesiest scene of the year.

And if the writing genius doesn’t come back, I am running after her, whether she gets on a plane, or rides a camel through the desert, or settles down in the Amazon rainforest. No matter where the genius is, I am getting her back.

How am I doing it? That’s why I am writing again. This newsletter is the manifestation of my pursuit of that writing genius. Every day I will write, and every week I will publish. I am writing from my heart. Every day is a battle to bring my best writing to the ether. I want the writing to mean something to you, to myself, and to the world.

What’s Your Battle?

Now let me turn the table on you. What’s your own battle of creation? Are you actively getting better at your craft, or are you getting worse by default? How about your goals and your ideas? Are you working with every ounce of your energy and soul to bring them to life? Or are you in the “I’m gonna do it someday” mode?

Just know, if you are in the latter, she’ll be gone.

Let’s fight the battle of creation like your life depends on it. Because in some cases, it literally does. Not your life as living or dying, but your life as the one that is fully actualized with the creation of your ideas and the fulfillment of your potential.

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What’s Happening at DareMe

Lastly, I want to make an exciting announcement for DareMe.

For those of you who don’t know, DareMe is a community I have created for people to achieve their goals through daily actions and routines. In a span of 28 days, whatever goal you have, and whatever habit you want to develop, you can do it through a camp. When you finish the action that day, you text me. My team and I will track your progress through a spreadsheet and hold you accountable throughout the 28-day camp. People have written books, changed careers, got promoted, and done all kinds of cool things with DareMe.

Now here are the announcements: we are going to have hosts for these camp.

Who are the hosts? They are long time DareMe fans and users who have taken up the duty to manage and moderate the DareMe community slack channel. They will provide inspiration, tips and chat with fellow campers.

Some of these camps have existed from the beginning, and some are new ones based on these hosts’ personal interests.

Here are the hosts:

Lily C: Daily Publisher Camp - publish something every day (social media, writing)

Rob B: Inspired Networker Camp - reach out to someone you admire every day

Meredith B: Healthy Mover Camp - exercise every day

Kriss J: Hungry Learner Camp - spend time learning and reading every day

Colleen M: Empathy Giver Camp - show empathy and encouragement to someone every day

Kelly S: Habit Builder Camp - pick a habit to build every day

If you want to join them in these camps, you can subscribe to DareMe.

If you have your own ideas for a camp that you want to host, write me an email. I’m all ears.