Blog | Justin Mulvaney

Lately, there have been a seemingly insurmountable number of fires to put out in my life. Whenever one shows up, I have a tendency to blindly react, to drop everything I’m doing and put it out. While this works for small inconveniences, life inevitably hits with bigger fires, to the point where blind reactivity fails miserably.

It seems counterintuitive, but when shit really hits the fan we need to step back and plan our attack. Rather than reacting as quickly as possible, we need to allow the fires to temporarily grow while we figure out how to put them out. I’ve found there are two advantages to this:

Next time life hands you a fire, take a minute to breathe. It’s probably not worth the worry anyway.

Trying something a little different today…

I tend to stray away from recommending people read, watch, or listen to anything (we all have enough of that in our lives), but when you find something that impacts you so deeply you can’t imagine your life without it, you share. Time to put my hypocrite pants on.

Around a month and a half ago, I took a dive into Creative Live’s 30 days of Genius. I expected it to be a waste of my time. I finished it inspired and with my ass in gear.

What it is: Over the course of 30 days the founder of Creative Live, Chase Jarvis, interviews 30 brilliant individuals (a few of said people: Marc Cuban, Arianna Huffington, Sir Mix-A-Lot). Interviews range from half an hour to an hour and half.

Yea, it’s a lot. While I think there’s a benefit to watching them all (you never know which will speak to you personally), these are my 3 favorites. I’ve watched each at least 2 times. Links take you straight to the videos.

My ask: Find time over the next week to watch the first ten minutes of whichever one interests you most. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Pro Tip: Set YouTube to 1.5 speed via the settings gear on the video. Take a third off of all the times.

I’m currently smack-dab in the middle of a few hustle-and-bustle weeks- the kind where you find yourself asking how the HELL you’re going to get everything, ANYTHING, done.

Part of this hustle-and-bustle was an amazing weekend with a few good friends, with another one coming up. As I’ve taken a breath in-between, I’ve been blessed with a moment of clarity- how fucking trivial my worries are.

Despite the busy-ness, the seemingly constant pressure, and the long-list of things I have yet to do (each one a stressor that I established for myself), this life is so good, rich, and undeservingly beautiful.

Life may seem (and actually be) difficult right now, but try to take a moment to appreciate the surplus of amazing people, opportunities, and even things that we have in it. We can never display too much gratitude, and it is so important to leading a happy life.

On that note, thank you for still reading and showing up everyday. I appreciate you more than you can know.

So many good things in life suffer from the problem of the chicken and the egg.

We’re unkind to others because others are unkind to us. Communities aren’t built because nobody shows up. Nobody gets behind an idea because no one else is behind it.

The hardest part is always starting the engine, reversing the trend. It demands an outlier, someone to swim against the current when everyone else is going with it.

Clarity is rare. It often strikes like lightning: fast, intense, and unsuspected.

When clarity arrives in this fashion, it’s because we waited too long. Hidden truths built up in our subconscious until they reached a critical mass, bursting through the fold.

There’s no reason we can’t cultivate clarity, catch it before it bursts.

How? Allow for space. For silence. Find a place to simply be. Make space, and clarity will come singing through the fold.

Nobody thought running a 4-minute mile was possible, until somebody did it. Within a few years, all sorts of people were doing it!

You’re probably capable of far more than you realize. Raise your ceiling of possibility. In doing so, you’ll raise everybody else’s too.

No real influencer has ever referred to herself as an influencer, visionaries don’t think of themselves as visionary, and thought leaders wouldn’t be thought leaders for long if they started calling themselves that.

Focus on doing the work. Let others bestow titles.

How often, when we decide to learn a new skill, start a new project, or try something new, do we acknowledge the effectiveness of our goal and the system we build around it?

“I want to learn piano” – vague and meaningless. It won’t help you adhere to a practice and it provides for no sense of accomplishment.

“I want to weigh 160lbs at 10% bodyfay” – better, but you have a narrow margin between “too easy to provide motivation” and “so hard it discourages me”. Not useful for starting up.

Consider starting with quantified intent:

You don’t need to master the songs, and the workouts don’t have to be long or hard. Commit to showing up. Quantifiable, easy to win, and still positive even if you fail.

With nearly universally applicability, this principle is probably one of the most valuable you can apply to your life.

Forming a relationship? Seek first to understand the other person.

Building a business? Seek first to understand the problem and the people you’re solving it for.

Creating art? Seek first to understand your vision and who you’re making it for.

Seeking fulfillment? Seek first to understand yourself.

Regardless of your aim, take the time to understand the essence of it.

(If you’re looking for more on this thought, see Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s half of one of the habits.)

A good heuristic for your ability to grow- Can you change your mind when presented with a good argument?

It’s not likely to win you an election, but it will almost definitely spur intellectual and emotional growth.