If I see success in someone or something, I want it too! The best and fastest way to achieve success is to model myself or my product after something that is already successful.

Here’s what I did.

For my photography website, Lars Lentz Photography, I looked at several other photographers and their websites. Peter Lik is known worldwide right now for photography. He has fantastic photos, successful books, galleries, and even a television show. Who better to model my photography website after?

I went online to my photography site provider (Smugmug), and proceeded to learn CSS, HTML, and JAVA in order to change my site and make it look just like Peter Lik’s site. I got it to where it looked about the same and now I really like it. It is professional-looking and modeled after one of the greatest photographers out there today. Peter Lik has since changed the look of his site, but mine looks exactly like his old one, and I’m satisfied with it. Besides, I don’t like his new one as well as I did his old one.

For my photography logo, I did the same. Scott Kelby is one of the greatest photography instructors for both in-camera and post-processing techniques. I noticed in one of his books that in Lightroom, his logo appeared in the upper left (Lightroom lets you put your logo in) of the screen. It was his name in red followed by the word “photography” in black (or was it white?). I made my logo in the same style as his and I like it!

For pricing of my photos, I did the same. I looked at what successful photographers were charging for their prints, and I set my prices accordingly. I also learned what size of prints they were selling and on what type of materials. I made a spreadsheet with dozens of photographers names on it along with their print sizes and pricing. I put my pricing just below the middle of the bell curve of price, so I can have slightly lower prices but not too cheap. I like my pricing now and learned a lot about the business by just modeling my print sizes and prices after what others have done. I not only learned what price to sell at, but also what products sizes and media to sell!

The “look” of my photos is important to me. I found that I like a certain “look” — vibrant, full of color, sharp detail, and rich, vivid landscape-nature shots. I looked at other photographer’s photos online and found the ones (photographers) that I liked the most. I then searched with Google to find any time they mentioned what techniques or equipment they used to get their shots. For each photographer, I made a folder and put in it the copies of the photos of theirs that I liked, along with my notes about what I found about their processing or shooting techniques. I saved any articles that mentioned their styles, and then I started learning how they did what they did to get their fantastic photos. When I was able to take similar shots and process them in similar ways, I was able to achieve similar results to their most successful photos. I had modeled my style after theirs! Now I take shots that are on par or better than those photographers whom I first modeled myself after! I have achieved success!

These are just a few of my examples of what I have done to model success. You can do this in your field too! It doesn’t have to be photography, that is just one example of mine. I do the same thing in engineering, and farming, as these are my other professions at the moment.

Starting a new project or profession can seem like an insurmountable task, but by modeling what is already successful, you can often shortcut several years of work!

¹ Modeling can also be known as “benchmarking” although benchmarking is only one part of modeling. While benchmarking finds what is out there, modeling goes the extra step of taking action and making something very similar to the benchmark activity or product.

Note: Modeling is often best followed by deliberate practice and other disciplines that are described in several books on my suggested reading list.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

It turns out that the state of flow comes more naturally to some people. Some people are Autotelic  and this means that they have self-motivation and are internally driven. This quality of their personality makes them “gifted” when it comes to being able to achieve the state of flow. But others can achieve this state as well if they know what to do to achieve it.

How do you achieve it? There are certain factors that allow the state of flow, and they are…

1. The activity must have a clear set of goals. This gives direction and structure to the task and allows the person to feel some control.
2. The person must have confidence that they can do the task or activity. They have to know that they have the skills required or could reasonably stretch their capability to achieve the task. There is a balance between feeling like they can do it and not being too overloaded to take it on.
3. The task at must have immediate feedback that is clear and continuous, so the person can adjust their approach continuously to achieve the goal. This means working in the present moment.

How do you know if you are in the flow state? Here are the factors that go along with any experience of flow:

1. The goals are clear. The challenge level is high. The required skill level is high, but you are confident.
2. You concentrate on a very narrow field. Focused attention.
3. You are not self-conscious. You are taking action while being aware. Another way of saying this is that you are not being “micro-managed” and you don’t have a feeling that you are “being watched” during execution of the task. You are working on your own time schedule.
4. You lose track of time. You usually feel like time is moving faster or slower when in this state.
5. You are getting immediate feedback directly from the task or activity. This allows you to adjust your approach.
6. The activity is not too easy, but it is also not too difficult. It has a good balance between the two.
7. You are in control of the activity or situation.
8. You feel personally rewarded just for accomplishing the activity. You may feel like you learned or did something for yourself intrinsically and not because someone told you to do it.
9. You work tirelessly. You don’t respect personal health needs during your work toward the goal. You may forget to eat or drink for example.
10. You’re completely absorbed into the activity to where you can’t really see things outside of the activity. You may put unrelated other things into the context of the activity when you talk about them.

You may experience only some of them or maybe all of them. Either way, you know you are in that state when these items appear. It may take some self-awareness on your part in identifying what you feel.

An underlying theme about the state of flow is that a person who is intrinsically motivated will naturally feel it. This goes back to the concept of intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation that I wrote about in another post and I think that a good understanding of the two types is necessary in order to see how to obtain the state of flow.

What do you get by achieving this state of flow?

The payoff is huge!

People who can achieve the mental state of flow can experience intense feelings of joy and happiness! Now who wouldn’t want that?

Click on any of these to see a page with more. My short reviews of each book/audio are below this list.

1. Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement (book and abridged audio (1 CD)) – Tony Robbins
2. Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! (book and audio (2 CDs)) – Tony Robbins
3. The Art of Exceptional Living (abridged audio (2 CDs)) – Jim Rohn
4. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated) (book and unabridged audio (8 CDs)) – Timothy Ferris
5. Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else (book and audio (1 CD with MP3 files)) – Geoff Colvin
6. The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ (book and ebook) – David Shenk
7. Dreamcrafting: The Art of Dreaming Big, the Science of Making It Happen (book and ebook) - Paul Levesque, Art McNeil
8. The Idiot Factor: The 10 Ways We Sabotage Our Life, Money, and Business (book) – Larry Winget
9. Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big And Small (book) – Barry Nalebuff, Ian Ayres
10. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (book and ebook) – Seth Godin
11. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (book and ebook) - Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

The Tony Robbins and Jim Rohn books and audio are extremely good at motivation and personal development and should not be missed. Read these if you don’t read anything else.

For pure motivation to become self-sufficient and leave the rat race, “The Four Hour Work Week” is an essential read and has lots of good resource links and tips.

Also for general motivation and just plain common sense delivered bluntly, “The Idiot Factor” is your best bet. Larry Winget writes several books in this style and I would recommend any of them.

The books “Talent is Overrated” and “The Genius in All of Us” are both about “deliberate practice”, a way of excelling and becoming an expert at anything you want to do. Read these and you will learn how to speed up your development process and make training programs for yourself that will boost you beyond others. They also give hope because nobody is “gifted” and it is never too late to change course and learn something new when you have these techniques in hand.

“Dreamcrafting” spells out the essential “macro-skills” that are needed by anyone to succeed and breakthrough some of the common barriers put up by themselves. I would say that this book is also an essential one because it is a backbone of many of the others. For example if you can’t master the “macro-skills” in this book, you won’t be able to implement any of the “Four Hour Work Week” items either.

“Why Not?” is a book about principled problem solving, and while not technically a development book, it does give you essential skills to use to solve common problems – and these are invaluable, so its on my list.

“Linchpin” is almost opposite of “The Four Hour Work Week” because it describes how to become invaluable at your current job. I see it as essential though because we can’t all go out a just quit our jobs right now in favor of a dream. This book will help you feel more secure in your job (if you implement the items in the book).

“Flow” shows the reader what it takes to be happy. Who wouldn’t want that? Basically, there are some conditions to achieve the “flow” state, and in that state one can feel happy and satisfied. Very much worth reading.

First, I’ll describe the two types of motivations, and how they occur in my life and yours every day.

Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within. It is the so-called “self-motivation.” You may experience it when…

1. You feel like what you’ve done so far in learning a task, has succeeded because of the effort you have put into it.
2. You feel like the goal is obtainable, but not too easy.
3. You have a real interest in the topic you’re learning, and are not just doing it to get grades or a paycheck.

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources. It is more of a rewards-based motivation. You may experience it when…

1. You do a job only because you are getting paid for it or are getting graded on it.
2. You feel a “what’s in it for me” type of feeling or attitude toward a task or learning experience.
3. You are under threat of punishment if you do not do a job or do it well.

It is very important to note that almost all businesses subscribe to the model of extrinsic motivation, and if you’ve worked anywhere, you’ve come across it. When extrinsic motivation is applied to workers, they begin to work only because they have to and not because they want to. Been there? Experienced that before?

Good managers and leaders in companies can identify workers who have intrinsic motivation and those who do not. And, they can provide guidance without control to those who have it, and by doing that they feed the motivation of the individual and get better work from him or her. For those who do not have intrinsic motivation, they can “turn them around” by allowing the worker to choose tasks and side-projects, and play a bigger role in determining his or her destiny.

And, if extrinsic motivation is needed, the type of extrinsic motivation that supports the intrinsic drive of an individual should be used. What is this type? It is when there is criticism that confirms someone’s proficiency, or “constructive criticism.” Any extrinsic motivation that includes a controlling aspect will not work and will go against the intrinsically-motivated individual.

Sadly though, the standard route that managers usually take is one of controlling the intrinsically motivated person and forcing more work on those who are not intrinsically motivated. These actions result in worsening of the situation for both types of workers.

• The intrinsically motivated person appears to a boss as a risk because they are outperforming the others and working in ways that the boss doesn’t understand. The solution in the boss’s mind is to control that. By doing that though, it takes away the motivation of the individual. In this case it should be more of a “not broke, don’t fix” situation.
• The unmotivated person appears to be unmotivated, lazy, or otherwise in need of correcting. The solution in the boss’s mind is to challenge the person more by giving more of the same kind of work. By doing that though, he feeds the problem and worsens the situation because the worker will now move directly to the overloaded state where he or she sees it as futile to try to complete the work.

So what is the answer? The answer is stated best in the book “Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from EverybodyElse” by Geoff Colvin. There is a fine line between what type of motivation works and what doesn’t and there is some complexity involved. Because I think you should read Mr. Colvin’s book, I’m not going to spoil it here by telling you much more about it. “Deliberate practice” is also discussed in his book and is its main focal point – why some succeed to a great degree and others to lesser extents.

In the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi the author discusses the concept of “Flow” that comes from the intrinsically-motivated person.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are at the core of many issues and they are worth understanding in more detail!

I’ve noticed this because I have worked with foreign cultures for years now and have adjusted my writing style in emails to foreign contacts in order to accommodate their limited understanding of my English language and grammar. How, you ask?

I regularly catch myself writing in a style that over-simplifies my message because I want to avoid the pain of having to restate it. When I do this, I secretly hope that my simplification will allow my message to be understood the first time by the foreign colleague I’m writing to because I don’t want to waste time and energy in explaining it again. But this degrades my writing to the point where I not only write this way in emails to others, but also to my home-country colleagues. I also speak in this way to them, and I’m finding that I am not saying what I mean to say and the meaning is getting lost. I’m not being understood!

My fix: My tactic will be to now write in a way where I use fully-formed English sentences and grammar. If I’m unclear about the clarity of my message, then I can run it through the online clarity checker at Infogineering, or proofread it. It may take some extra time, but this is a small price to pay for getting a clear message out, and preserving my writing and speaking styles!