In part 1, I spoke about shifting your intention to content creation.
Release the safety of hating social media so much and just choose to get better.
No more work required.
No video editing tutorials.
No stealing someone’s hook.
Just a commitment that each video is going to be better than your last one.
You’ll know what to do.
If nothing else, I bet that’d be more fun than continuing to hate it.
I hope you’ve been practicing that.
It might be all you need.
Today, I want to share another idea with you that will improve your content with less energy.
In fact, when you implement these you will free up energy to create what you truly want to create and therefore get better work done in less time.
The Hawthorn Effect
There’s this girl, Timarie, with a hilarious bit on Instagram where she freestyles until she gets Drake’s attention. Most recently, “Day day 68 of freestyle rapping until Drake notices me”
With the most liked comment being:
Inadvertently, yes.
Surprisingly, no.
In psychological research, the reactivity effect refers to the phenomenon where individuals alter their behavior because they are aware of being observed or assessed. This can compromise the validity of studies, as participants may not act naturally.
One notable form includes the Hawthorne Effect where participants improve an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.
Timarie can’t not become a better freestyle rapper.
It would be inhuman.
Consciously she knows she’s being witnessed by putting content out there.
Whether she’s consciously trying to get better or not is irrelevant.
That’s the beauty of this Hawthorne effect. You don’t even have to try. No extra energy required. You don’t have to do more work. You simply have to have a willingness to be witnessed.
Based on what we discussed in part 1, she is doing the following:
- Consistency: It’s day 68
- She has an intention to improve: Getting Drake’s attention
[SIDE BAR]
Does she actually think Drake will notice her?
I’m not sure, but it might be best to assume he never will, that way she’s less attached to the results.
If she doesn’t think he’ll actually notice her and reach out to her then who cares, this all gets to be fun and games.
There are various reviews (1,2,3,4) that show having more fun and being relaxed help improve learning. One review found that, “emotion has a substantial effect on attention, learning, memory, problem-solving, etc. … When the brain is less focused on worrying, more resources are available for learning.”
I’m sure we have all been in an environment like an interview where you’re nervous and they ask you about yourself and you seemingly have no idea what the hell to say. Or you had practiced the perfect pitch and when you get in front of that person or audience, you freeze.
You are in fight or flight. You can’t allocate resources to some silly little pitch.
Likewise, we have had experiences when we are relaxed and spit bars.
I believe the art of detaching from results is some of the most powerful work you can do so you can get into that fun, relaxed, flow state as often as possible, but that’s an article for another time.
[END SIDE. BAR]
Back to the Hawthorn Effect.
Imagine you are in a study that tracks how often you’re on your phone.
What are you gonna do?
“I’m gonna show them. I don’t need my phone. I won’t touch it once all day!”
I know I’d do that.
I’d want to be the guy in the study who didn’t touch his phone at all.
The guy everyone is in awe of.
The power if being witnessed is magnificent.
It’s like a hack.
I have proof too.
The Voldemort Project [IG Reel]
Publicly sharing my goal to make $150,000 in the last six months of the year.
My god, I have shown the fuck up for myself!
I have done so many things I have been putting off and too afraid to do for fear of rejection.
It is yielding so much profit.
Literally dollars yes, but I’m talking about energetic profit.
I’m talking about what psychotherapist Phil Stutz calls “Eating Death Cookies.”
Doing the thing you know you should do but continue putting off because it’s scary.
Eating Death Cookies can be anything from having that conversation with your partner, scheduling that doctor’s appointment about that lump, or following up with your leads.
Continuing to put it off is slowly draining (killing) you, but when you do (eat) it it’s so rewarding cookie).
It free’s up energy to do more of your Soul Work [read: Becoming a Soul Creator]. Not doing these things weighs on you day after day and makes it difficult to write that newsletter, make that content, build your new program or attract aligned followers.
It pours into the rest of your life too. It makes it difficult to go out for that run and feel like you can run for miles, or dominate that tennis match, or be your cutie little self on that date.
When you do it, it’s an act of proving yourself you can do hard things and with each Death Cookie you eat, you become more of the person you dream of being.
That’s what the Voldemort project has done for me in so many areas of life all because I allowed myself to be witnessed.
What can you commit to and who will witness it?
Could it be as silly (but vulnerable) as freestyle rapping on IG like Timarie.
Could it be as heavy as sharing your financial journey on IG like me?
It doesn’t have to be on social media (though I recommend it because it’s a crazy accelerate to getting over your fear of being accepted and needing love from the world).
Whoever you choose to witness you, don’t choose someone who will let you off the hook, but do choose an environment you will be celebrated (despite your fears, social media is that place too)
Go be witnessed.
Summary
These last two articles were designed so that you can create content with less energy and they will if you implement them.
- Shift your intention around content creation to, “I am here to get better,” without worrying about the how.
- Commit to consistency
- Share the journey publicly. Be witnessed.
You will free up so much energy when you stop rejecting what you truly want and hiding the fears that come with those desires.
That said, the most important thing I could share… learn to love all parts of yourself.
Love,
Matty Ice. The realist. The illest. Chitty chitty bing bang bop.
Get weird, stay weird.
Say hi to your mother for me.
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