Hello!

I’m going to be honest, I did not want to post the above video this week. I probably just needed to eat before I filmed, but it also felt like I had nothing to say.

Yet I still posted it, and realized… yea, I didn’t have much to say. But I was showing up.

At the heart of it, that’s the point, and it also speaks far better to how things have been going then the simple answer of “It’s going pretty good. Just keeping on.”

There are no grand gestures here, and not only that but I’m pretty sure chasing big things have been one of the major downfalls for myself.

I set a semi-long term goal for YouTube, for a year. I told myself that I wouldn’t judge the numbers, I wouldn’t try to chase views or subscriptions, or even start THINKING about any of that stuff until a year into making YouTube videos.

And these videos aren’t perfect, but they are becoming lessons for myself. Lessons on why it’s important to speak coherently, to speak succinctly, to have a script and actually study the script. But maintain humanity, and authenticity.

It’s teaching me how to edit that one shot. Me sitting in front of my bookcase, (a little out of focus on this one) and testing color, or when my white balance is off, how can I fix it?

It’s the same with my book.

Showing up for a little under 6 months has gotten me to 76,558 words. And it was a SLOW start too. Writing more like 3,000 words per week in the beginning.

Now I’m closer to 5,000-6,000 per week on average, which is a substantial jump in terms of writing.

But I just kept showing up. If you’re only writing 3,000 words, you’ll eventually get to 90,000 words if you’re tenacious and you never stop.

It’s the same with the job. Come in, keep showing up, and keep knocking down the debt. That’s really it.

And it’s not glamorous, it’s not pretty, it does nothing for the ego, and I wonder if maybe that’s what got me a little bit. I sat in that chair and was maybe realizing that:

A: I was speaking about the wrong subject, and maybe I’ll film this newsletter’s topic in next week’s video.

B: It’s doing nothing for my ego. I’m not excited talking about the question of “How is everything going?” but I am incredibly proud of myself for how far I’ve come. And I guess I’m a little more excited talking about the tenacity that it takes to get this far.

I just… keep going, and I’m realizing sometimes that’s really all it is. How many times can you pick up something after you’ve put it down? How many times have you struggled with it and let it challenge you? How many times have you been blocked, but decided to try and push through anyway?

Any good thing comes from iterations. Iterations on the subject, on the idea, on the practice and craft of it, on the creation of it, and the distribution of it.

It would be unreasonable for your parents to think that you might come out of the womb walking. Your little knee is going to falter, unable to hold your weight or find your balance, but when encouraged to try again and again, you’ll eventually get to standing on your own. Then, walking on your own. It’s not like you’re very good at walking even at that point either.

All the same, the gratification of reward still seeps into our skin, it does for me too. Our phones, social media, all satiates the need for gaining something. AI can do everything for us. It can scan all these things down and pump out a… product of some sort.

But if I had a book that appeared in my hands day one because I said a couple of things that I want in it… I think I’d be very bored with it. I doubt I would really want anyone to read it. I definitely wouldn’t value it for anything at all. I’d toss it aside and nothing about it would be fulfilling.

Because it’s not about the product. When we’re chasing a pursuit, a goal, we spend 99% of the time on the sides of the mountain, and we’ll have that 1% of time on the peak.

But if you helicoptered up there, that view would not taste as sweet as if you walked up there on your own two feet.

Cooking a dish always tastes a little better, makes you feel a little better, than fast food, getting something quick. Because you have had your hands in each ingredient for the most part, and are the one who has cooked it, or failed to cook it.

The process counts. And this video is me on the side of the mountain, not a great video, talking about who knows what, “How am I doing?” And that’s it. The newsletter… well, maybe I’m a little bit more proud of it, because I think I’m getting a little closer to the root of what it is that I’m trying to say.

But that’s the process. And I’m taking one more step up the mountain, because eventually I’ll reach the peak, and maybe I’ll find out there are more mountains to climb. But it depends… does that excite me or make me want to curl up within myself instead?

I think we’ll have to find out, because I don’t necessarily have that answer yet.

COACHING

I have a few slots available to take on students.

I focus on the Chekhov Technique, but invite other concepts into it.

My goal, always, is to help you grow as a holistic human being who creates art. Using art as an avenue to do so and share it with others.

If you’re interested, sign up for a free 30-minute session to see if this would be a good fit for you.

Sign up here:

https://calendly.com/matt-piper29/30min