đ The power of a mantra
This post will change your life.
This post will change your life. This post will change your life. This post will change your life.
Thatâs my mantra for this post.
I freakin love mantras. I believe in them so much. Mantras are not magic (like The Secret), but more pragmatic. Pragmagic, if you will.
Make a mantra, change your life.
This post is another in The Dad Story series. You can tell because it has that blue book emoji (đ) in the title. You can go here to see the table of contents. This is essentially chapter 15. And The Dad hasnât even been started! Weâll get there.
At this point in the story I am working at 84.51, progressing my 5 year corporate escape plan on nights and weekends, learning to write internet content. The Dad is but a sparkle in Vinit Bhararaâs eye (and my dreams).
I got a taste for creating content professionally, working with Jill Smokler and Scary Mommy. And I LOVED it. Combine that with the fact that at 84.51, my boss, who I really liked, put me in charge of defining a product strategy for the company, but other than him, nobody wanted to listen to me. (Also I spent an hour commuting EACH WAY to this job.) Even though I adored 84.51, the culture, and the people, I was sooooo ready to move on.
It was around this time I embraced a mantra.
I will do creative stuff full-time.
Simple, definitive. I think it probably had a cuss word or two. Mantras are more effective that way.
I wrote it down all the time. Almost like doodling. If I found myself frustrated and had a sheet of paper or even Notepad open on my laptop, I would write or type it over and over. If I was on the bus on the way to work after dropping off my son at daycare, staring at traffic, wishing I was working on all the fun projects in my head, I would say, âWhoa hold up,â stop those thoughts, and begin repeating in my mindâŚ
I will do creative stuff full-time.
When I started the mantra, I had no idea if it was even possible or how it would happen. The Dad wasnât a possibility at this time. AND YET: within a year⌠my life was COMPLETELY different. I was doing creative stuff full-time.
The Secret got a lot of attention a while back. âThe Law of Attractionâ and all that. I seem to remember a bit in the âfilmâ where someone wanted a bike so they thought over and over again about the bike they wanted and then a bike just materialized into view.
This is not like that, exactly.
A lot of people hate on The Secret. I think itâs⌠fine. Itâs just another way of tricking your brain into prioritizing the things that matter the most to you. Itâs a variation of a mantra.
I recall The Secret was a bit more focused on material things. âI will be rich.â âI will have a fancy car.â Or whatever.
Might as well say âI will be spectacularly unsatisfied forever.â Because if your goal in life is acquiring stuff, youâll never have enough.
This post will change your life. This post will change your life. This post will change your life.
Alright, this is the hands on portion of this post. Letâs make you a mantra. Letâs change your life.
The best mantra is:
singular
at least partially within your control
in line with your values
achievable in theory, but otherwise⌠HUGELY ambitious
1. Pick the single most important thing. Donât make your mantra a list of 3 things. Just one. This mantra is going to intensely focus your thoughts and energy in such a way that you only have enough for one.
2. A mantra is not magic. A mantra will just inspire and motivate you to progress towards your goal in a tiny way. Feeling discouraged? Write your mantra over and over. After youâre done, youâll feel less discouraged, but most importantly: youâll probably think of a small thing you can do to chip away at making the mantra reality. This will happen subconsciously. But in order for it to work, the thing needs to be something you can personally affect. Even if you donât know how yet.
3. Donât pick something materialistic. I mean, you can, and I do think if you put all of your time and energy on achieving a thousand dollar purse or whatever, you probably will. But then youâll be disappointed. And next youâll need a two thousand dollar purse. A mantra should be a lifechanging type of thing. Go big. What are your life values, the things that spark your soul? Family, community, creativity, invention, progress. Your mantra should be about those.
4. Make your mantra hugely ambitious. It should be such that even if you get halfway there, it will change your life. Donât be afraid to take whatever is swirling in your head right now, and double it. Double it again. It should feel out of reach, but still, in theory, attainable, some day.
Alright you got your mantra? One last step: Add a cuss word for emphasis.
Get a piece of paper, or fire up Notepad or an empty email. Write your mantra 10 times. And then 10 more.
Iâm serious! Do it! Weâll waitâŚ
K, how ya feelin? Inspired? If you want to close out this post and go GET TO WORK, go for it.
I will do creative stuff full-time.
A year after I started writing that obsessively, I was creating stuff full-time. I never took it for granted. It still feels surreal.
In 2017 I was in a Kroger building writing âI will do creative stuff full-time.â And a year later I was in a meeting at Kroger headquarters, because Kroger was paying us to create co-branded content with The Dad!
Pragmagic!
And get this, tomorrow I am going back to the 84.51 building, for the first time since my last day 5 years agoâŚ. for a paid speaking gig.
Mantras work.
Go change your life.
(Took this photo on my last day as I left the building for the last time. See you guys tomorrow!)
Okay this is life changing. Do you get royalties if weâd also like to use your mantra.