Ep146: [CASE STUDY] From “Out of Ideas” to Becoming an Idea Machine | with Paul Del Vecchio

<p>When filmmaker <a href="https://twitter.com/pauldv" target= "_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Paul Del Vecchio</strong></a> reached out to me six months ago, he had a successful career as a high-end commercial editor, director of photography, and colorist. He had climbed to the top of the ladder in his corner of the world - the trouble was that he was at the top of the wrong ladder and didn’t want to be there anymore. How did he end up there like so many others do? Simple - Paul said yes to practically every opportunity that came his way his entire career, an answer driven largely out of fear. He found that every time he tried to pursue his true calling of writing and directing, he had nothing left to give his own projects because he gave all his mental, physical, and creative energy to other people’s projects. In fact, Paul struggled so much to get into the rhythm of writing again that he convinced himself he had run out of ideas.</p> <p>Here’s a Slack message that Paul sent me recently after working through his many fears and obstacles in my <a href= "https://optimizeyourself.me/optimizer" target="_blank" rel= "noopener"><strong>Optimizer coaching & mentorship program</strong></a>:</p> <p><img class="size-full wp-image-16063" src= "https://optimizeyourself.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ep146-paul-dv-slack-message.jpg" alt="ep146-paul-dv-slack-message" width="625" height="326" /></p> <p>Not bad for a guy who was burned out and “out of ideas.”</p> <p>So how did Paul become an absolute productivity ninja? We talk all about the strategies he implemented in todays episode including:</p> <ul> <li>Alleviating his financial fears of not being able to afford saying no to the wrong jobs (which was total BS he was making up in his head)</li> <li>Implementing a system of external accountability and financial management to have confidence he could turn down the wrong projects and focus on the right ones</li> <li>Building in new daily habits to help reignite his creativity that would inspire him to go back to writing again