In a coaching session, Jason told me he wishes he was better at writing.  Me too!  It’s something I’ve encouraged him to work on improving.  I decided to loan him a book I really like – Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury.  Of course, I couldn’t help but flip through it before I handed it off.  It’s a great book.

It reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule.  The key to success in any field is practice, a lot of practice.  Ray says, “Remember that pianist who said that if he did not practice every day he would know, if he did not practice for two days, the critics would know, after three days, his audiences would know.”

My problem is that I want to be successful at a gazillion things:  writing, horse training, speaking, leadership, coaching, entrepreneurship, design, history, etc.  My business coach has often told me, “Less is More.”  I need more 10,000 hours.

Maybe I am fortunate to be so passionate about life.  Ray says you will be a better writer if you, “look to your zest, see to your gusto. When you think of good writers you think of their zests, appetites, hungers.  Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind.  If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.  The first thing a writer should be is – excited.  He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms.”

I think this is good advice for anything you want to be:  leader, father, writer, horse rider or poet.  If you are living without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun you are only half living.

I have told my staff to Be, not Do.  I’ll contradict that with this poem.  Yet it still applies, BE a leader.

Doing is Being Doing is being.To have done’s not enough;To stuff yourself with doing-that’s the game.To name you each hour by what’s done,To tabulate your time at sunset’s gunAnd find your self in actsYou could not know before the factsYou wooed from secret self, which much needs wooing,So doing brings it out,Kills doubt by simply jumping, rushing, runningForth to beThe now-discovered me.To not do is to die,Or lie about and lie about the thingsYou just might do some day.Away with that!Tomorrow empty staysIf no man plays it into beingWith his motioned way of seeing.Let your body lead your mind-Blood the guide dog to the blind;So then practice and rehearseTo find heart-soul’s universe,Knowing that by moving/seeingProves for all time:  Doing’s being! ~From Ray Bradbury’s book Zen in the Art of Writing

Here I am loving with Gusto!