Tag: do the work

Slow = Fast

By Brendan O’Meara

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I may have said this before but it bears repeating: slow is fast.

I read a great quote thanks to the brilliant NITCH account, from the actor Viggo Mortensen:

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was: go slow to go fast. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.

That’s so spot on. 

And if you’re a fan of Cal Newport’s work and his concept of Deep Work, it means turning off the notifications, turning off the WiFi and methodically going about the work. Don’t check Twitter or Facebook or IG as it’ll spike the cortisol and make you feel like crap. It’s like a candy sugar high. You might get a bump, but the crash isn’t worth it.

Try five super deep breaths if you need a moment. Try a short walk. Then get back to the work, bit by bit, drip by drip, and you’ll feel much more accomplished. 

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Chopping Onions

By Brendan O’Meara

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Watching “Chopped” several years ago, I remember one young chef talk about his time coming up in the kitchen. He obviously had skill. He was on Chopped. 

But I suspect like most prestigious schools and the entitlement that comes with having graduated with what amounts to a worthless piece of paper, there’s a tendency even in the chef ranks to think you’re above a certain task.

Not this guy. I wish I knew his name.

In one of his testimonials, and I’m paraphrasing, he said, “If there was a pile of onions I had to chop, I was going to be the best damn chopper of onions.”

Man, I loved that sentiment. He wasn’t “above” cutting onions. How many thousands of onions had he chopped to that point? This was a job the dishwasher could do in a pinch. Here’s a trained chef being put on onion duty and he embraced it. The mundanity of chopping hundreds of onions in a shift, hunched over a pile, trying to make them as uniform slices and dices as possible, no doubt eyes burning the entire time. 

In our work, no matter our experience, our privilege, our education, how can we embrace chopping onions? How can we get lost in the most banal of tasks that have overreaching implications? 

He wasn’t really chopping onions. He was become more skilled with his knife. In the meditative trance of cutting onions, he was writing recipes. He was dreaming. He was developing rigor. 

Again, he wasn’t really chopping onions. Not the winners, not the people seeking to make change, anyway. 

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Visualizing those who have ‘made it’

Written by Brendan O’Meara

Quick hit here. I’m having one of those weeks where it’s tough to get anything of merit accomplished. What better thing to do than BLOG about it!

What I like to do when I feel this sense of fear and procrastination is picture the artists I admire (writers, film makers, painters) working and realize that they got to the computer, the set, and the easel and did the work.

Bill Burr has a great line in the latest Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. When Burr did Letterman, Burr said:

Just having to take all of that anxiety and fear and put this over here for the next six minutes. I’m gonna walk out and I’m gonna get this crowd. These are pepole who were just at the fuckin’ M&M store. I can make these people laugh. I’m gonna block out that that icon is sitting over there and I can hear him laugh or not laugh at my shit.

That’s fear. Most artists feel it.

For me, picturing that I’m not alone in my fear is comforting. Any time you step out from the minor leagues is going to be harrowing. Everyone in the Show throws 90 MPH. There’s no let up in the Show. In high school you’ll get one kid who can pop it off at 80, but most throw in the 60s. There’s relief. When you “make it,” you’re facing lightning every day. That’s the nature of the Show.

This post is about fear and I’m procrastinating because of the heavy feeling that I’m in too deep and I haven’t reached my standard. There’s a tightness in the chest that comes with thinking of this stuff too much. The only thing you can do is lose yourself in the work. Don’t watch a movie (even if it’s for research). Don’t read a book (even if it’s for research). Do what it is that you’re supposed to be doing.

Drain the damn well.