The Paradox of Epic Productivity and Sleepwalking

If you want to know more you must notice more.james-arthur-ray

I’ll begin by saying that this blog is somewhat paradoxical.

On one hand I’ll encourage that you must habituate mundane activities for epic productivity; and you must.

Create systems so you don’t have to think.

On the other hand I’ll encourage that if you want to know more you must notice more.

Slow down, see more, wake up, and get uncomfortable.

So James, which is it? Habituate and automate, or particulate?

Both.

Confused?

Good.

Confusion means you’re just about to learn something.

Learn to push the edges of your own confusion.
Confusion means you’re just about to learn something.

I was in Manhattan for the Tribeca debut of my documentary film “Enlighten Us” last week; and I had the opportunity to catch up with some of my friends and colleagues in NYC.

Over breakfast, I shared with one of my long term videographers how I had taken my assistant to Times Square. This was her first time ever in Manhattan and she was enthralled.

His immediate response was, “That’s the place where no New Yorkers go. That’s just for tourists.”



I get it. It’s crowded, and noisy and dirty and crazy.

Yet it’s a literal feast for the senses.

I related to my own experience by reflecting upon how many times I go visit the ocean these days in my home state of California.

Slim to none.

I watch the deadened faces as people hurry through life. Staring at their phone or staring into space. Their body is here but their spirit and soul are elsewhere.GSP93hl

It’s the finer nuances of life that bring more life. When we homogenize life we become a carbon copy. A sequel versus an original. An amateur not a master. We sleepwalk and exist versus authentically live.

You can risk being wrong, misunderstood
or attacked or you can be boring.
But you can’t be both.

It’s time to wake up. It’s time to live.

It's time to Live Your Purpose. Are you up for it? Read more here.

If you run a business it’s by noticing and doing the small things that you stand apart.

Returning your emails, return your phone calls, look at your creation through new eyes, find unique approaches for art and value. <reference Your Work As Art>

While some of these things seem so simple and mundane, they’re just simply not applied in today’s fast-paced world.

Small things done consistently in strategic places create major impact.

Yes, you must automatize your mundane activities. Like choosing what to wear and what to eat. But when you automatize your life you don’t live.

Eat similar things to save decision fatigue and increase health. But when you do eat, you must taste and enjoy.

When you work you work.

You focus on the task at hand.

Not the 63,000 words of distraction that the world bombards you with daily.

Not the 7 times per hour that the masses pick up their phone per day to scroll through their feed and look for God knows what.

No one wants to be starting all over again from apparent scratch in the middle season of their life.
But then again, the other option is autopilot; and the death of creativity.

Maybe it’s time for your turnaround. 13095927_10153604161945983_3202603554898533250_n

My marketing expert from Florida was in NYC with me. A former resident he stated, “It’s always great coming back to Manhattan because I notice so much more now than when I lived here.”

Sleepwalking.

The devil is in the details. Yet, the devil is just God in disguise.

It happens to the best of us.

Maybe it’s time to break what you’ve built and have the courage to create anew.

Maybe it’s time to dissect it and recreate it.

Maybe it’s time to notice more.

Maybe it’s time for your turnaround.

Just a thought.

Stay Awake, Love Life and Be Epic!

james-arthur-ray-signature

James