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No crap & Personal Leadership

13 Aug By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

At the place I work which is the Swan Youth Program in Cyril Jackson where I work as a classroom teacher for disengaged, disadvantaged youth we have a ‘No Crap’ Policy. Rather than a punitive policy it actually a program that rewards positive behaviour under the idea that students won’t start crap as long as no one starts crap with them. It’s a tentative truce of sorts that doesn’t always work but still reinforces good behaviour.

I only bring up the subject because I wish I had the same policy in some areas of my life, and how ironic it seems that the virtues we try to instill in our youth we still battle with in our adult life. It certainly is easy to blame others but the central premise of the ‘No Crap’ philosophy is simply one of personal leadership. I truely believe that the hardest thing to lead is yourself but t’s also the most important and rewarding.

Personal leadership is not only giving yourself goals and following through it’s giving yourself permission to be visionary and to envision something that many people will find hard to see. Personal leadership is about building a sense of character and certainty in a sometimes uncertain world. I forget who said the quote but it was marvelous person who said

‘Character is doing something long after the motivation is gone’

I’ve noticed in myself that I go through spurts of being motivated and not, and then character rears its head and proves to me the mettle I am made off. Sometimes I am found wanting and sometime I inspire myself.

It seems that you can only ever control somebody superficially for a short period of time, but you can inspire people for much longer. And you can do that by first being a leader to yourself.

Vision Board

11 Aug By Samith Filed under Blog, Samith Pich. No comments.

I spent last night and tonight creating a vision board by going through Google and saving the exact images I wanted to focus on and putting them into a file. I got pictures of places I wanted to travel to, the pictures of the exact cars I wanted to drive and the gadgets I wanted to own and I got pictures of our happy family and the love me and Iris share. I then imported them into iPhoto and created a vision screen saver that would come up instantly whenever I needed to be inspired.

I think the vision process works because it keeps in your mind the things that will inspire you to be and do the things you need to do to get what you want. All the things I want seem so close yet so far. I know I just have to continue to take it one step at a time.

4 Stages of Competency

10 Aug By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

Reading GuruBob’s blog I re-discovered the 4 Stages of Competency. It seems that as we go through life and learn new skills we go through these four stages/ phases of competencies. Everyone goes through them and we can actually be really competent in some areas and totally incompetent in others (me and ten pin bowling). Instead of having a big moan it’s useful to pin point at what stage one is in and then be clear about what one can expect to be feeling and doing. The Four stages of Competency are:

Not aware you lack a skill (Not knowing what you don’t know)
Aware you lack a skill (Knowing you don’t know)
Actively working at a skill although it requires a lot of effort (Trying to know)
So skilled that you no longer have to even know about it.

We can take this competency matrix and put it in the analogy of learning to first drive a car or any skill. Before you start laerning, most teenagers would have no idea how much they don’t know. When I was starting to master a clutch, and as the car shuddered and lurched forward I became acutely aware of how bad of a driver I was and how bad I was at driving my dad’s car. As time went on, I started to put the peices together and I worked hard on learning to drive. But it took countless hours of practice and many mistakes. Do you remember the first time you need to turn a corner, over take or change gears through a round about? Now I can happily class myself in the ‘so skilled I now no longer have to consciously think about it.’ I can listen to music, look at scenery, occassionally eat something and (naughtily) make a phone call. In fact, sometimes it’s so much on auto pilot I’ve been many a time known to drive straight home when I was actually needing o go past it – it just happened by condition!

At the moment I am hovering between Stages 2 -3 in regards to Internet Marketing and Stages 3 -4 in terms of Art. GuruBob continues in a later blog post about how we can more easy move through the stages. Two factors seem to be really important in moving through the stages and they seem to be:

Motivation – are you internally or externally motivated? Are you motivated by pain or pleasure, or motivated to move towards a goal or away from something?
Ability to follow through and the length of time it takes to be successful.

Being motivated from the inside without having to be told to be really helps you attain your goals. But the second part of that is the following through and continuing to learn until you no longer have to ‘consciously’ think through the steps. In regards to the time to being successful it all depends on the individual. We all know people (depending on the circumstance) that give up on something after a few tries but in other situations cling stubbornly to their guns, impervious to mortal cares such as sleep and conversation until they have attained their goal (Me and God of War).

Along the way to reaching your big goals it helps if you give yourself small rewards after you’ve reached small milestones along the way, but only AFTER you’ve done them and not before!
I know I can reach my goals if I follow through and take action. And so can you. Is that motivating enough?

Sick & Rest

31 Jul By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

Oh the irony – the bug called Samith caught a bug! :p Stayed in bad all afternoon, sick as hell. Then later Iris came home and we were sick together. Read More →

Opportunist VS Strategy

28 Jul By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

On Monday I stayed up till 3am to listen to a webinar by Rich Schrefen, on buisness mindset. It’s really got me thinking. The main thesis of his argument was that many entrepreneurs (espeically onlne) are opportunist, learning heaps and chasing after the latest shiny object on the web that promises millions of dollars and being overwhelmed by what they have to do and most of them never get off the ground.

Sounds like me so far! He argues that by being an opportunists we become fodder for ansavory, or even savoury ‘Gurus’ that need someone to buy their product. They know that we will buy anything because we have no other criteria than the promise that it will make money.

Well obviously this has to stop. Rich argues that as entrepreneurs we MUST leverage our strengths and focus on our passions and what we innately do well and easily already. We would all be much more focussed and happier if we knew our crietria when we went out into the marketplace. Then, when are ‘Guru’ offers us a product we must ask ourselves ‘How does buying this product or program fit and align into what my strengths, purpose and vision are?’

I missed the second webinar (stayed sleeping) but it has really got me thinking into what are my strengths, what I can excel at and wher I can give the most value.

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Update: Caught the second webinar replay and my head is still spinning. Rich Shrefen is someone I HAVE to work with.

Biggest takeway point: Get to a point where I can work on my business and not in it – and working on the business’s vision and purposes and goals is where I should be. It’s actually simply a choice. Do I want to be a master technician doing all the wheel turning or do I want to own a hundred wheel turners that drive me to my better destination?

Focusing on my vision and goals…again

100% Responsibilty

22 Jul By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

A few years ago I looked around at my life and the circumstances I found myself in and I didn’t like what I saw. I realised that by my late 20′s I had focussed (if you could call it that) on just surviving and then coasting the remainder of the way. I had a realisation that if I continued to do excatly what I was doing and living my life like I had, the road of ‘someday I’ll do that…’ would lead me only to a ‘town of nowhere’.

So I started reading books and going to seminars, learning about successful people of the past in numerous fields and a part from the whole Ra-Rah aspect (which was a lot of fun) it confirmed for me success’s first and in my opinion most important lesson:

Nothing will amount to anything until you accept 100% total resposonsibilty for your actions.

And only when you take 100% responsibility can you claim the successes and failures that are rightful yours, or in the words of America’s foremost business philosopher Jim Rohn ‘When you change, everything changes.’

It’s so easy to complain, and blame others. We now live in one of the most litigious countries in the western world (1st place only being America) and more often it is easier to find fault with our circumstances than to see the fault in ourselves. But all this scape-goating and blame shifting only actually disempowers us only further. The only way to ever really claim your personal power is to take 100% of the responsibility. There are risks, and heart ache, and effort and learning that comes with responsibilty but there is also glory, and success and personal achievement and quiet pride that you can truely own your achievements. Whether your achievements are in work, family, sport or life, nothing comes about until you accept personal responsibilty.

To prove my point please watch the short but hilarious video on what happens when we put the responsibility of our happiness in the hands of others instead of ourselves.

Time Managment

21 Jul By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. 3 Comments.

Yesterday I discussed with my daughter my priorities, she was very insightful in helping me realise they were:

Family
School
Art
Internet Marketing

She’s a smart cookie. At the time I was wondering which task I should do first, a) Learning my internet marketing or b) get prepared for school work tomorrow or c) Contact arts buyers.

Looking at the degrees of importance and general urgency we came up with the above ‘priority list’. It helped me tick off – what does my family need? What does school need? What does my art need? What can I do on internet marketing? I realised if I could ensure higher priorities were met I could then continue on with other activities stress and guilt free.

Procrastination.

I was listening to a long lost time management MP3 when this really helpful tip beating on procrastination hit me. The presenter said:

Procrastination is simply a condition where you are not experiencing enough pain to force you to do something and not enough pleasure to urge you to do it anyway

Actually that might have been a Tony Robbins speech. Anyways the next point was even better:

‘You need to train yourself out of procrastination by rewarding any action with an immediate reward, often with a very small but enjoyable reward that you would do yourself anyway. I.e eat a treat, brush your hair, go for a run, go on facebook for 1min timed!’

The point was we already reward ourselves when we DON’T do something. Instead of doing something that needs to be done, we go and eat, have a shower or read an email. Our minds assume we are rewarding ourselves for NOT doing something which creates a stronger habit.

So at this very moment I would love to go for a shower, but I won’t, not until I’ve done this daily blog post. And you know what it’s working, today. So treat yourself, AFTER you’ve done that thing you need to do!

Also, I’m trialing some time management software that was recommended by Mark Ling. It’s free and in a few moments I’m going to check off this thing I’ve done!

Clockingit Free Online Time Management.

Ciao. Samith Pich.

Rejuvenated

14 Jul By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

Read a fantastic article on ambition by the late Jim Rohn:

What is the origin of true ambition? There exists really only one place to find true ambition and that is within you—in every thought, in every movement, in every motivation. Your ambition is an expression of who you truly are, your own self-expression.

Isn’t self-expression really self-direction? How you think, how you move, how you motivate yourself. Ambition is a result of self-direction, and self-direction is one of the six key principles necessary for building ambition. Positive self-direction says, “I know who I am and I know where I want to go. I’m accumulating knowledge and experiences and feelings and philosophies that will help prepare me for opportunities that I know will show up without notice or any help on my part.” Because you know where you want to go, you have already been working on the parts of your personality that will make you better. Working on your attitude, working on your health, working on your time management skills. Putting it all down on paper. And you constantly see yourself in the place you want to be, going in the direction you want to go.

Direction determines destination.

Suits & Chicken

10 Jul By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

Things I like:

Pork buns from little Asian groceries on Saturday mornings
Groomsmen in spiffy looking suits
Small children working hard on maths problems
Moet & Chandon champagne because of the bubbles
Enjoying a feast of apricot chicken and veges on rice with lots of sauce – but not necessarily the process of creating it. (A bit like the process of painting, aren’t artists supposed to like the painting process?)

How to write a short Artist Statement

13 Apr By Samith Filed under ART, Blog, Exhibition, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

In preparation for my next solo exhibition ‘The Flight of Icarus’ in June, I had to revamp my short artist statement.

An artist’s bio begins with the past and works it’s way up to the present. An artist statement starts with the present in mind and looks towards the future. And a ‘short’ artist bio is probably no more than 1 paragraph in length, it’s what marketers would class as their ‘elevator pitch’. Have a good look at yourself if you can’t sum up what you do in less than 100 words – how about 30 words??

Some things to jog an artist statement out:

Who are you and what makes you you, and your art yours? Do you include humour, do you specialise in animal portraiture? Do you do underwater yarn spinning? Whatever.
What are you working on right now? How do you go about it?
What do you value in Art? In your work?
What do you want to point out to your viewers that might not be blindingly obvious, and then add the obvious.
Do you have a juicy story?

I had a look at my short artist statement and I cringed, it was obvious that I had moved on stylistically and thematically. But that’s ok, that’s what a short artist statement is for, it’s for constantly updating, it’s a work in progress, just like you are.

Here is my new short artist statement:

Born in 1979, during Cambodia’s civil war Samith arrived with his family, aged 6, as refugees on the shores of WA, grateful to be alive. Unable to initially speak the language Samith fostered the love of communicating through drawings and images. Fast forward 25 years and Samith has developed a uniquely figurative style and a thematic repertoire in which his paintings inhabit a world of silent hopes, trials, love and tribulations. He utilises the shared experience of the body as a canvas to explore and investigate the landscape of the human condition; love, trust, freedom, hope, and failure. Samith has exhibited for a number of years, won various awards, and recently celebrated his first solo exhibition ‘The Mango Tree’. Samith lives in Perth, with his beautiful fiancee, two daughters and two guinea pigs named Charlie and Mr Foster.

I could go on and on, but I won’t and I can’t. This is an example of a short artist statement.

Feedback is always appreciated.

13 Steps to an Art Exhibition Opening

12 Apr By Samith Filed under ART, Blog, Exhibition, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

I wish all I had to do towards an Art exhibition is just paint whatever captures my fancy, however, that is not the case. I will blog about my progress towards my second solo Art exhibition, and hopefully it will help others learn the steps to do the same or as a case study on HOW NOT to create art exhibitions. Yes, I’ve already had one, but I had heaps of help from the wonderful crew at Kulcha, I really feel this is the exhibition with the real learning curve. I am giving myself less time to do more things. Let the frivolity begin!

Art exhibition by Mitra Farmard

13 Step towards an Art Exhibition Opening (in no particular order)

Exhibition concept/ idea check!
Update Bio
Update Artist Statement – to make it relevant for the exhibition
Book the exhibition space – How much does it cost?
Update the website
Update mailing list and utilise it!
Arrange catering
Arrange drinks
Can you get funding or a grants?
Submit press releases to radio/newspaper/ online (MARKET MARKET MARKET)
Create and send invites
Arrange guest speaker if necessary – prepare speech
Set up exhibition

All the while, you must paint and paint! So… take a deep breathe (because I am) and lets get to work!

First Icarus works

6 Apr By Samith Filed under Blog, Journal, Samith Pich. No comments.

Icarus Takes Flight 2010 Pencil Wash & Gold Paint on Canvas 100 x 80cm

Icarus Takes Flight II Work in progress