The Lab
The Lab is where I think out loud. These are my raw notes, half-formed ideas, scripture observations, clinical patterns I’m noticing, things I’m working through, and who knows what else.
I also like to make things, so The Lab is my way of holding myself accountable.
This is where it happens before it gets polished and market-y. Newest posts at the top.
What Lucille Ball Can Teach Us About Audacious Belief
/in The Lab/by loriI would’ve loved to watch everyone performing a craft in an exciting new medium, before anyone knew what television would become.
I’ve long admired Lucy for not just her comedic talents, but her perspective on her career. By her own admission, she was not a funny person. In fact, she said in several interviews that she’s quite serious.
I came across an interview that captures this perfectly.
Because she was funny, I think she stayed under the radar for the harder lessons of what they were actually building.
According to this interview, she was just enjoying the ride and not planning any more ahead than what they could see.
The cast didn’t think the show would last more than a year or two. Lucy thought the show would be something fun to share with their kids as a home movie.
Yet they created a show that changed television.
Her husband, Desi Arnaz, pioneered the three-camera setup that changed how sitcoms were filmed. But they weren’t thinking about legacy. They were just solving the problem in front of them.
They didn’t have any real expectations, so it was all a big surprise when it did so well. Lucy said it was about the work, and that they were happy in their work.
This is what Audacious Belief™ actually looks like. It’s not a vision board with a mapped-out path or having a “confident feeling” that you’ll succeed.
It’s believing enough in the work in front of you to keep doing it, even when you can’t see where it’s going.
Check out the whole interview here on Facebook,
MORE FROM THE LAB
Why I’m Wearing Blinders for My 30-Day Video Challenge
/in The Lab/by loriI’m not a horse person. But I think the reason for the blinders is for the horse to not get distracted by what it doesn’t need to see.
Perhaps there’s some sort of undesirable behavior that occurs if the horse was hyper vigilant about everything going on around it.
The horse has the one task — move forward. You’ll get the next task when you get to the next place.
I have to have such blinders on for this 30-day video challenge task.
Between normal everyday life and the distractions driven by dopamine, I’m finding it quite the challenge to simply stay focused on this one thing.
The efforts I’m measuring are narrow in scope:
That’s the whole effort right there. Having said that, there are quite a few tasks rolled up into each one of those.
Videos, even less polished ones, belie many tasks.
Don’t be fooled, those off-the-cuff videos you enjoy from your favorite YouTuber have more details than you know.
Between searchable titles, descriptions and other identifiers for YouTube, to schema code for easy-peasy AI travels to my website, there is real time involved.
This is before I even think of going on social media.
It’s tempting to want to make the social game part of my focus.
But right now, I’m measuring consistency and the results of that compounding over 30 days.
I’m gathering metrics on all of it, for sure. But I’m forcing myself to stay objective, and to hover above the numbers to have a bias for consistency above all else.
I’ve never had a problem with consistency when others expect it from me. But I’ve struggled to do it for myself.
Without the external pressure of clients or bosses, it’s easy to kick the can down the road.
But the road is starting to get shorter. One day, the can is going to hit the wall with a dull clank, and I’ll have run out of time.
So that’s why this video effort is so important to me. I have to demonstrate to myself that I’ll see it through even though very few eyeballs are on this thing.
Yesterday was a challenge. I had some technical issues. And by the afternoon, I was about out of gas. The people around me who love me were giving me a wide berth.
I apologized for my intensity. But they all said the same: “It’s important. I get it. Just let me know what you need.”
I’m blessed.
And until April 16, I keep creating.
MORE FROM THE LAB
30-Day Video Challenge: Building Consistency
/in The Lab/by loriI found an eight-year-old recording of myself explaining why I’d never do video. Tomorrow I start posting one every day.