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Do the verb to be the noun
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Hey Reader,
A lot of people want to be an athlete without going to the gym.
Or they want to be a comedian without bombing at standup.
Or they want to be an author without writing every day.
But you have to do the verb to be the noun.
Austin Kleon has an on-going series called Newspaper Blackout where for years he’s blacked out all of the words on a page except for a few to reveal a poetic message.
Here’s one where he expressed a similar sentiment:
James Clear also talks about identity-based habits and how goals centered around outcomes aren’t as likely to stick as those centered around identity.
James says if you want to become a better writer, you need to become the type of person who writes 1,000 words a day.
When I was in London recently, Ali Abdaal interviewed me on his podcast. Among the many things we talked about, my story of writing 1,000 words a day for 600 days really resonated with him.
In fact, one of Ali’s main takeaways was that writing 1,000 words a day was an anchor habit he needed to adopt.
Looking back on that time between 2012–2014 reminded me of how much incredible work I created by writing every day.
On the one hand, it feels like a chapter of my life that’s over. But on the other, it produced such amazing results for me, it’s kind of crazy I didn’t pick it up again.
Jay Clouse in a recent post referenced “doing the verb to be the noun”. He said, “I've always believed that, professionally, I would be known as an author. But if I'm honest, I'm not writing enough for that future to come true.”
Sometimes we can get so caught up in wanting to be the noun that it distracts us from actually doing the verb.
The next time you catch yourself dreaming about who you want to be, ask yourself, “What’s the verb I’m doing on a regular basis?”
PODCAST
Unleashing Your Secret Identity
Todd Herman joins Shane Parrish on his podcast, The Knowledge Project, to talk about how he worked with Kobe Bryant to build his “Black Mamba” alter-ego.
I'm a big fan of both Todd and Shane. This episode is worth your time.
Watch or listen to episode »
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On sharing failures
People often selectively share only the highlights and their success stories. So I don’t mind featuring Shane for a second time in this newsletter because I appreciate his willingness to also share the failures.
He flew all the way to New York City just to film a podcast interview…
…and bombed. Not only did he feel the interview went poorly but the production team decided it wasn’t even good enough to air.
He beat himself up the entire flight back, but two things helped him:
Happy New Year!
—Nathan
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.