Good morning,

A few months back, I saw an HBO miniseries I’d strongly recommend to anyone interested in creating anything: The Defiant Ones. The four-part series tells the story of music producers and entrepreneurs Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine (the latter of whom got his start producing for John Lennon, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Nicks, among others).

The last of the four episodes is particularly powerful because it contains a bunch of one-liners about creativity, from a bunch of creative geniuses.

Like this one, which I love so much: “Genius can come from anywhere.”

But the one I want us to sit with for today’s prompt came from Iovine himself. He said, of creating anything from music to business endeavors, that the name of the game is to avoid paying attention to anything but your creative vision. He elaborated, explaining that’s why they put blinders on horses, in racing. Otherwise, the horses would look at the horses around them, get distracted and make the wrong step. He spoke this example over footage of a racehorse making a misstep, taking a tumble, getting completely run over by the horse behind him, who then all also tumbled over each other into a hot mess of horses and jockeys.

The parallels between this horse in blinders analogy and your own vision of creating something —anything—in life are fairly easy to see, as are the lessons.

Get distracted by looking at the wrong things, make the wrong step.

Get distracted comparing your life to others’, make the wrong step.

Get distracted comparing your life to the life you thought you were going to live, make the wrong step.

Get distracted comparing your life to what somebody else thinks you “should” do, or what culture says you should do, or what your family has taught that you can and cannot do, or with your own past and. . .well, you get the drill.

In reflection, though, I feel like the distraction point is in some ways way less important than the real principle deeply present in the example of a horse in blinders: the principle of focus.

Focus on your now, make the right step.

Focus on what feels resonant, what feels expansive, move toward that. Make the right step.

Focus on what feels expansive, and that grows. Make the right step.

Focus on what feels purposeful, meaningful, solid and also fun or joyous, make the right step.

Focus on moving into and through the past of least resistance, make the right steps.

Focus on what is noble and right, which you know because it feels that way, make the right step

Focus on growing your capacity, for productivity but also for love and joy and fun, step rightly.

Focus on using your words to bless instead of curse, others and yourself, make steps that result in more blessings, more life and more love. For you and for them.

Prompt of the Day [POD]: Horse in blinders

How does it feel, the idea that you get to be the boss of what you focus on?

Do you give yourself permission to ignore what doesn’t serve you? Do you give yourself permission to focus on what does?

What comes up for you when you think of blinders as a metaphor for your internal guidance system, in that it both steers your focus away and towards the right direction for your steps?

Head up + heart out

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