FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY & SUCCESS

In this episode, I discuss the nuts and bolts of putting together creative projects and how that relates to productivity techniques etc with fellow podcaster, writer and filmmaker Ian O'Neill. LINKS TO IAN'S PROJECTS HOW THEY DID IT FILMMAKING PODCAST LINK: http://howtheydidit.buzzsprout.com/ TWITTER: @hfilmmaking TWITTER 2: @ianwrites INSTAGRAM: @howthediditfilmmaking FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/HowTheyDidItPodcast/ FACEBOOK: THE CLOSET MOVIE FILM: OFFICIAL SITE ON THIS LINK   BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THE SHOW SYD FIELD - SCREENWRITERS WORKBOOK AMAZON USA: (This link is NOT monetized) https://www.amazon.com/Screenwriters-Workbook-Step-Step-Instructions/dp/0385339046/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=screenwriters+workbook&qid=1582826875&sr=8-1 AMAZON UK: (This link is not monetised) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Screenwriters-Workbook-Step-step-Instructions/dp/0385339046/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=screenwriters+workbook&qid=1582826838&sr=8-1   RISE OF THE FILMTREPRENEUR: HOW TO TURN YOUR INDEPENDENT FILM INTO A PROFITABLE BUSINESS AMAZON USA: (This link is NOT monetized) https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Filmtrepreneur-Independent-Profitable-Business/dp/1087853680/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15NYSOVIIDOUF&keywords=filmtrepreneur&qid=1582827573&sprefix=FILMTRE%2Caps%2C212&sr=8-1 AMAZON UK: (This link is not monetised) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Filmtrepreneur-Independent-Profitable-Business/dp/0578608650/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Rise+of+the+Filmtrepreneur%3A+How+to+Turn+Your+Independent+Film+into+a+Profitable+Business&qid=1582827717&sr=8-1   The next show #55 will be Episode 1 of Season 4 which is titled "Rejection and Resilience".   You can find out more about this show on these links.   OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/ TWITTER: @filmproprodpod FACEBOOK: @filmproproductivity CONTACT: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/contact   Thanks: Music by A Himitsu Track: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8  Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A 

This is my second mailbag episode where I answer questions from listeners. You can read a full transcript of this show on the official website @ https://www.filmproproductivity.com/post/episode53 This is also the first episode where the show title has changed to FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY & SUCCESS QUOTES: Building smart processes to streamline the workflow can make the work easier and the results more reliable, which keeps my head above water and my clients happy. Mark Mason “Bob Proctor is a master thinker. When it comes to systemizing life, no one can touch him.” Doug Wead “Self-assurance doesn't come from looking perfect and having a great title, but from accepting yourself with all youR mistakes and eccentricities.” Cecelie Berry “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Peter Drucker  “Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.” Barbara Kingsolver  “Too many of us are not living our dreams, because we are living our fears. Decide to become fearless. Face the thing you fear the most. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for. If you can laugh at it. You can move past it. You have the ability to do more than you have ever hoped, imagined or dreamed. You have GREATNESS within you!” Les Brown   OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/ TWITTER: @filmproprodpod FACEBOOK: @filmproproductivity CONTACT: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/contact   Thanks: This episode was sponsored by Petra Kolb.   Music by A Himitsu Track: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8  Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A    

This episode is an "off the cuff" style show (unscripted) where I talk about my new experiences in planning the year ahead using Jinny Ditzler's excellent book MY BEST YEAR YET. You can listen to my previous episode on her book here: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/post/episode16  You can buy the book on these links: AMAZON USA: (This link is NOT monetized) https://www.amazon.com/Your-Best-Year-Yet-Successful/dp/B01FIYP25U/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KFHQK9XLEPRW&keywords=my+best+year+yet&qid=1578061080&sprefix=MY+VEST+YEAR%2Caps%2C235&sr=8-1 AMAZON UK: (This link is not monetised) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Best-Year-Yet-Successful/dp/0007223226/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2H3QV0P3IITK6&keywords=your+best+year+yet&qid=1578061169&s=books&sprefix=your+best+year%2Caps%2C219&sr=1-1 Also in this episode, I talk about what will be happening this year with Film Pro Productivity and thank all of the supporters and sponsors of season 3 for their contributions> I also talk about where the money has been spent so far. The next show #53 will be a mailbag episode where I will be answering a few more tricky questions from a few more listeners.   I end with this quote from Mark Twain: The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and starting on the first one.   OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/ TWITTER: @filmproprodpod FACEBOOK: @filmproproductivity CONTACT: https://www.filmproproductivity.com/contact   Thanks: Music by A Himitsu Track: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8  Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A 

Today’s show is brought to you by film students Connor and Annalise Tazz EPISODE 51 – 5 OF THE BEST AND LOOKING FORWARD Intro I can hardly believe that I’m able to sit down, at last, to record this show because it’s been such a long tough journey this season. Today’s show not only marks the end of season 3 but it also celebrates the first 50 episodes and a NEW YEAR with new hopes and possibilities. Albert Einstein said Learn from yesterday, live for today and so I will be looking back in this episode and choosing 5 of my favourite pieces of advice, tips and tricks from the first 50 shows to bring to you today and then looking forward to another year and another decade, which if we seize control of it, and utilise the skills and advice I offer in this podcast - will be a very successful and fulfilling one for all of us. Learning the lessons of the past allows you to walk boldly in the light without running the risk of stumbling in the darkness. This is the way it's supposed to work. M. Russell Ballard UNQUOTE Despite some ups and downs for me, this year has overall been a very positive one. I should probably cover why I said I was going to release 18 x 10 minute episodes this season and then promptly went ahead with 18 shows which were about 20 minutes or considerably longer. Well, I have to admit that I got myself into a lot of trouble with that one and the truth is that the topics I have been tackling just didn’t fit into a 10-minute format. I quickly realised, and this is a topic for a future show perhaps, that I had underestimated my timings and the amount of work that I was taking on but as I am a man of my word, who had promised 18 episodes this season, I soldiered on. Season 3 contains just over 8 hours of original content, where I’d originally been aiming for 3. It’s put a real strain on my time and resources but in the end, I feel that it’s been worthwhile. With all that said though – lessons have been learned! The other thing that went well off target this year was my own plans. I had used Jinny Ditzler’s BEST YEAR YET book to STRATEGISE my year ahead and set out at the start of the year with a ten-point plan to achieve things. By the time I got to my 3rd deadline I had unfortunately been derailed though – I talk about that in my EST LAID PLANS episode though so I won't go into detail. Jinny says that “The principal value of our mistakes and failures is our ability to learn from them”. This is backed up by Napoleon Hill in my LAW OF SUCCESS MINI-SERIES when he says that we should reframe failures, in our minds, as TEMPORARY SETBACKS. As I covered in detail during episode 34 - BEST LAID PLANS, I made a lot of mistakes this year, but learn from them I did. The title of the book YOUR BEST YEAR YET is very clever though as using Jinny’s system every year can be BETTER THAN THE ONE BEFORE. I can now move past and learn from my mistakes and make a new plan to achieve things in the year ahead. 2020 will be my best year yet, and when 2021 comes around I’ll give it the same focused effort as the last. My objectives will change as I move forward but EVERY NEW YEAR that arrives WILL BE MY BEST and I will continue to adapt and develop to achieve great things. I fully expect to be making more mistakes but I will build on them and likely report on them here, as they occur. BTW this is exactly the time of year you should check it out too so go to episode 16 to listen to last year’s NEW YEAR SPECIAL - YOUR BEST YEAR YET to find out more. There are many other factors that have contributed to the overall success if 2019 and I’ve had a few great wins along the way. Hitting 50 episodes was a tremendous landmark with this show, but I also had great developments in my personal and family life and have had great times with my dog Angus. I’ve directed fights on 4 feature films, a few theatre productions too, maybe 3 or 4 of them and a couple of short films and on I think 41 episodes of various high-level television shows. Despite a few hard knocks financially and spiritually that resulted in my giving up on making films I have come out the other side with a year I can call a success! Lesson All great achievements require time. Maya Angelou UNQUOTE Well passing the 50 episode point certainly feels like a milestone and no mistake, and today I want to bring to you 5 of my favourite tips for productivity from those first 50 episodes. These are in a kind of rough order for the sake of an exciting (ahem – or at least informative) episode, but to my mind, they are all valuable. I’ll call them my favourites but in truth, I have many many more that if I had time I would list here. The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny. Albert Ellis UNQUOTE 1st on my list is what I talk about in episode 1 of this show and it’s a switch in your head that needs to get flipped if you are to get yourself out of the mundane rut of directionless uncertainty that you find yourself in. What I am talking about is developing a HIGHER LEVEL OF THINKING which some call INTELLIGENT THOUGHT and getting yourself into a headspace where you can work ON your life and career at the same time that you find yourself living and working IN it. I’ll say that again - Getting yourself into a headspace where you can work ON your life and career at the same time that you find yourself living and working IN it. This realisation - that WE CAN DIRECTLY ASSESS AND TAKE CONTROL OF OUR LIVES AND CAREERS instead of just floating along through life like a passenger was the kick-off point I had into this whole world of productivity. I don’t know where I first heard that phrasing but it’s not really my words, or maybe it is a little, but as I always try to credit where it is due I must say that I’m pilfering someone else’s ideas here. If up until now you have just been FOLLOWING THE RANDOM FLOW OF YOUR LIfe and doing your best to make sense of it, without actually realising that you may have to STOP AND STEP OUT OF YOUR OWN LIFE AND WORK even just briefly on occasion to assess what you have been doing, and HOW THINGS ARE WORKING OUT FOR YOU, then you are not getting the best out of life. Stopping every now and again and looking at your levels of success or failure, what you may have learned from those failures and what might be the next steps to take on your journey through life is absolutely possible, but only if you flick that switch and decide to take back control. I invite you now, and if you are listening already to this podcast you are already likely on this wavelength, but I invite you that aren’t to step up and join us. Join those of us who have engaged the process of HIGH-LEVEL THINKING IN THEIR LIFE AND CAREER AND TAKE BACK CONTROL. HIGH-LEVEL THINKING will help you to avoid the skirmishes, stop wasting your time and mental energy on the unimportant and focus on the bigger picture and the bigger win. Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Emma Stone UNQUOTE And so the 2nd on my list for today is an extension of this. It is a topic I’ve covered in a number of my episodes but most recently in episode 40 THE LAW OF SUCCESS part 1, and that’s the lesson specifically relating to having A DEFINITE CHIEF AIM IN LIFE. I talk about this quite regularly as in productivity terms it’s important. Let’s not take forever to cover this, you can just listen or re-listen to episodes 40-45 for the very full and incredibly valuable LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS miniseries to discover more - BUT the point in HAVING A PLAN AND A STRATEGY, is simply that if you don’t know where you are going, you are possibly never going to get there. If you do know what you want out of life, you will know what to say NO to and what to prioritise in what lies ahead. With a sense of purpose comes focus and certainty. Now I fully understand that it may take you a bit of time to decide what you want to do with your life, but you can still make plans for 5 years from now, 1 year from now or even just to achieve something you want by the end of next week or today. It’s also perfectly possible, that as your life proceeds and your priorities change, that you will intelligently choose to change your direction in life somewhere down the line, and that’s okay too. If you know what you want to achieve though, you can get to it far more easily and more directly, WITHOUT DISTRACTION, and without finding out that you’re actually working to achieve someone else’s life dreams and goals instead of your own. That way leads to MISERY. Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. Napoleon Hill UNQUOTE 3rd on today’s list is a really simple anti-procrastination rule that I use every day. It’s from episode 9 FOUR GREAT HACKS TO AVOID PROCRASTINATION and it’s the ONE-TOUCH RULE. The one-touch rule is simply that YOU MUST PROCESS AND COMPLETE A TASK THE FIRST TIME YOU TOUCH IT. It was formalised by Productivity consultant Ann Gomez who explains that “It's a simple trick to help you batch your work into scheduled, focus blocks: you won't open an email until you're ready to give it your full attention, or you'll decline to accept your co-worker’s rough draft until later when you know you'll have the time to sit down and do it.” I have a difficulty on occasion with overwhelm, which was talked about in the November mailbag episode. Sometimes I just can’t handle all of the communications and problems that come my way as they come in, so I have to prioritise what I do tackle. See episode 3 for more on PRIORITISING btw. Once they are prioritised I won’t even look at or consider the non-pertinent stuff – actually sometimes I will if I am NOT FEELING OVERWHELMED and they are very quick to deal with, and that is the TWO MINUTE RULE also covered in episode 9. The reason I don’t open non-pertinent stuff though is because I have systemised myself to use the ONE TOUCH RULE. If I can’t complete a communication in one sitting, if I am about to start a task that I know I cannot finish right there and then, I WON’T START IT. Sometimes, if it’s urgent, I will reschedule my day to ensure I CAN finish things in one sitting, or I’ll split tasks into two or three sections so that I can at least complete a defined bit of it, but generally speaking, I don’t like to have what I call OPEN DOORS in my life. Those are unfinished pieces of work or communications or personal matters that I will have to pick up the pieces of later on. That just clogs up my brain and messes me up. If you find you have a task to do that you know you can’t complete in the time you have or that isn’t urgent then don’t touch it until you know you will have time to complete it. The ONE TOUCH RULE is a very powerful weapon in the productivity-ists arsenal. 4th in my list of favourites is PROTECTING YOUR MENTAL ENERGY – that’s all of episode 18. It’s something I first heard discussed by one of my favourite productivity experts ISAIAH HANKEL. In his awesome book, THE SCIENCE OF INTELLIGENT ACHIEVEMENT he says that “Mental energy is the world’s hottest commodity. People are going to try to steal it, drain it, and suck it up every second you’re awake. Yet very few of us protect it. Few of us know how.” Mental energy is what I was thinking about protecting with the ONE TOUCH RULE when I talked about not opening too many doors. My brain simply can’t adequately cover all the bases if it is constantly getting pulled from pillar to post by too many worries, too many commitments and too many open or unfinished tasks. When you are trying to remember dates and special occasions, and loading all of the commitments of a busy modern life and work onto your brain, you will find that you very quickly begin to drop the ball. You must PROTECT YOUR MENTAL ENERGY AT ALL COSTS though as you only have a finite amount of it to use each day. “Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.” – Dale Carnegie UNQUOTE And that fatigue he talks about is a waning of your day's supply of mental energy. I regularly utilise brain dumps, that’s getting all of the stuff that’s in your head out and onto a piece of paper or a whiteboard so that you can sort through it. You can then eliminate the unimportant and the non-priority junk that’s in there and focus on the important and the urgent stuff instead. You can also use CALENDARS and SCHEDULING SOFTWARE to remember dates etc and just take the burden of remembering all of that stuff off your mind. When you do this you’ll find yourself functioning more EFFECTIVELY and EFFICIENTLY and with FAR LESS STRESS and ANXIETY. Protecting your mental energy is one of my favourite shows so if you haven’t yet had a listen, then get in there. Accuracy is the twin brother to honesty and inaccuracy to dishonesty. Nathaniel Hawthorne UNQUOTE My final choice for today is ACCURATE THOUGHT. This is lesson 11 in my LAW OF SUCCESS mini-series and I’ve flipped over to this as time and again I see problems arise and great swathes of time wasted by woolly, unclear, lazy, or just mistaken thought. The lesson on ACCURATE THOUGHT teaches us that we must separate facts from MERE INFORMATION. It goes on to say that we must then separate our FACTS into TWO CLASSES just as I talked about a minute ago. These classes are the IMPORTANT and the UNIMPORTANT, or, the RELEVANT and the IRRELEVANT. Napoleon Hill explains that FACTS WHICH WILL AID YOU to any extent whatsoever in THE ATTAINMENT OF YOUR DEFINITE CHIEF AIM are IMPORTANT and RELEVANT; and that all that you cannot use is UNIMPORTANT and IRRELEVANT. Developing a habit of accurate thought I believe is essential if we are to be productive and here is why. Peter Drucker says “It is fundamentally the confusion between effectiveness and efficiency that stands between DOING THE RIGHT THINGS and DOING THINGS RIGHT. There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency that which should not be done at all.” It’s a quote I’ve used several times before, but   In the lesson Hill talks of “the law of evidence” and “the object of this law is to get at the facts. Any judge can proceed with justice to all concerned if they have the facts upon which to base their judgment, but they may play havoc with innocent people if they circumvent the law of evidence and reach a conclusion or judgment that is based upon hearsay information.” This world that we live and especially data gleaned from the internet is a minefield of misinformation. It affects me in several ways: For example - If I put up a quote and I have the time, I will investigate whether it is correctly attributed or not. I’d say that one in every 20 or so quotes that I put up IS INCORRECTLY attributed in my online reference materials. This might be regarded as a small thing but at the other end of the scale we have, I think a bigger problem, and that it’s what is known as SPONSORED CONTENT. It is amazing how many people there are who are "honest" when it is profitable to them but find myriads of facts to justify themselves in following a dishonest course when that course seems to be more profitable or advantageous. Napoleon Hill UNQUOTE Paid sponsorship is making it near impossible to find a balanced opinion out there. Reviews that represent themselves at a glance as TRUTH, are very very often in fact just commercial content that is designed to dupe us. South Park does a great skit on this where they describe marketing in terms of SkyNet in the Terminator Universe where the commercials adapt and become more intelligent in order to infiltrate our lives. Sorting THE TRUTH from THE LIES in today’s world is increasingly difficult. The trouble is if you believe the hype and the misinformation which we are manipulated to understand as truth, that you will find yourself wasting time and money and energy on stuff that later proves to be a waste of all of that. You may also find too that you have unknowingly have fallen into a marketing funnel and been deliberately led away from the truth which you are seeking. Getting to the facts in today’s society is just immensely difficult, but is worth the effort. There’s another side to accuracy of thought - and that is being ACCURATE AND TRUTHFUL TO YOURSELF. I see people faking their way through their lives, and I don’t actually have a problem with a FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT STRATEGY if it works for you, but what I see sometimes is someone starting to believe the bullsh*t they have been inflicting on other people and that is when this becomes a problem. If, as you move forward with a FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT STRATEGY, you lose your ACCURACY OF THOUGHT and START TO BELIEVE YOUR OWN HYPE, then you are getting yourself into no end of trouble. I’ve seen actors telling people they are in a movie, for it to be released later on and seen just as liars or fakes when they are clearly not in it. I’ve seen writers convincing themselves that they have relationships with high flying Hollywood producers only for their work never to get made, because they missed the real opportunities that were passing them by as they imagined themselves to be “better than that” and I’ve seen filmmakers who will tell you that they have a definite financier for their film crumble under my questions about it, when I discover that they don’t have anything in writing and they have just convinced themselves that it is true. Napoleon Hill helps us to get to the facts when we are faced by things like this, by asking one simple question. How do you know this? Under scrutiny, those who believe their own hype, but who have exaggerated their position, fall heavily on their own swords. Difficult though it may be, occasionally you have to ask that awkward question, in order that you do not get drawn into a world of false hope. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wasted my time and energy on something that later proves to be someone’s fantasy. Even this year I pushed for a hard guarantee on something I had doubt was going to happen, and that despite many assurances just didn’t come to be. As an ACCURATE THINKER, it becomes your DUTY to avail yourself of the facts, even though you must go out of your way to get them and ask those difficult questions. If however, you permit yourself to be swayed to and fro by all manner of information that comes to your way, you will never become an accurate thinker and you will be duped time and again by some seemingly credible peoples woolly brained fantasies or downright lies and manipulation tactics. ACCURACY OF THOUGHT combined with HIGH-LEVEL THINKING allows you to intelligently assess virtually any situation you find yourself in. IF YOU DO NOT THINK ACCURATELY though will be constantly distracted and likely NEVER attain your DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life. So that’s all 5 of my for want of a better word “favourites” from the first 50 shows but if truth be told I embrace far more than this in my day today. --- *STEVE MARABOLIS said “As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better. We stand now at the precipice of a new beginning. At least it always feels that way when a new year comes about, but our NEW YEAR’s RESOLUTIONS are fleeting and very quickly begin to slip away as life starts to disrupt them. If you truly want to achieve things in the year ahead, then you need to know where you want to be and you need to plan for how to get there. Achieving your EVENTUAL DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life will involve strategising and working hard to make it all happen. Last year’s NEW YEAR SPECIAL goes into great detail about this so if you want to learn about Jinny Ditzler's system for achieving things in the year ahead and achieving you own BEST YEAR YET then please go back to episode 16 and have a listen. Alan Watts once said that No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen so if you have fears and anxieties about what lies ahead don’t allow them to disrupt your flow or your focus in life and work and family. The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written and I say that the pen for writing it sits firmly in your grasp. Call To Action This season I spent a lot of time creating a six-part series called the LAW OF SUCCESS IN 16 LESSONS based on the book by Napoleon Hill. In it, you will find a system so powerful that it cannot be understated. It’s not a short listen though, it’s a full 3 hours of content spread over the 6 episodes that will involve you really engaging your mind in what it teaches. Your call to action is to go back and listen or re-listen to that series which is covered in episodes 40 through 45. This will give you a very powerful start on the road to achieving success, in whatever form that might take, in the year ahead. Ending “If we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward.” John Wooden I wish you the very best for 2020 and I hope that this podcast will continue to aid you on your journey. Take control of your destiny and use that higher level of thinking which I talk about. With that, you will be able to move forward with a certainty of purpose that will propel you towards your dreams and goals. REMEMBER TOO, THAT A NEW YEAR CAN START FOR YOU AT ANY TIME OF YOUR CHOOSING. If you are listening to this at another point in the year and decide you need to make a change for a better life and start again, whether it’s January the 1st or July the 22nd, you can do it. I said a few weeks ago that this show will be back at the start of March. I had miscalculated that actually. It will be back at the end of March, roughly 3 months from today with a new 12 part series which is possibly going to consist of 6 interview shows and 6 standard episodes. I’ll put out a couple of inbetweenisodes to keep you sweet in the interim too. In the meantime, I can highly recommend a few shows for you to check out during the offseason hiatus. There’s great filmmaking interview shows like THE FILMMAKER’S PODCAST, HOW THEY DID IT FILMMAKING, THE REEL FILTHY PODCAST and of course INDIE FILM HUSTLE with Alex Ferrari. If you are interested in learning more about podcasting AND WANT TO START YOUR OWN PERHAPS then please try Scotland based PODCRAFT or the US-based shows THE AUDACITY TO PODCAST or THE SCHOOL OF PODCASTING. I can also highly recommend THE STEPHEN ROWN SHOW which is a great listen and if you need a productivity fix please check out Julian’s show PRODUCTIVITY MATTERS. He started his at the same time mine did and he’s already got a load of content over there. http://thefilmmakerspodcast.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-they-did-it-filmmaking/id1434224016 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reel-filthy-podcast/id1305380866 https://indiefilmhustle.com/podcasts/ https://www.thepodcasthost.com/podcraft-podcast/ https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/ https://schoolofpodcasting.com/ https://www.stephenrowanshow.com/ https://anchor.fm/productivity-matters For now though - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, and join me next season on Film Pro Productivity. The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review. References:  Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A

Today’s show is brought to you by THE DAVE BULLIS PODCAST Wow, so here we are at a very grand milestone for Film Pro Productivity and I’d like to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules and joining me here on this very special occasion. I’m not going to launch this one with any grand fanfare though as next weeks episode is not only the final show of this season but it is also the New Year special. I’ll talk more about that a little later but first let me look back at the last show, which was all about OUTRAGE CULTURE, a blight on the modern world if ever there was one. In that show, I delve into that topic and shed light on a grand manipulation pulled by strings held by the world media. It’s called Outrage Porn and it's available to listen to right now so if you have a few minutes to spare, go check it out. Now Albert Einstein once said “…the exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.” And that feeling - spoken by a man that most today would regard as an unprecedented genius, is a very good example of how IMPOSTER SYNDROME manifests itself. I often have to remind myself that the topics I cover here, some of which I have been thinking of for many years, are often entirely new concepts to many listeners. The term IMPOSTER SYNDROME was coined in the late ’70s by psychologists Dr Clance and Dr Imes and describes the feeling that HIGH ACHIEVERS have when they cannot recognize their success and are afraid of being exposed as a fake. According to these doctors, it can be identified in three ways: Feeling a fraud and being afraid of being ‘found out’. Attributing success to anything but your own achievements. Downplaying your achievements. The term imposter syndrome is interchangeable for Imposter phenomenon, fraud syndrome or impostor experience but I’m going to refer to it as mostly today as IMPOSTORISM. Impostorism is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". I’ve touched upon it before in my season one episode entitled THE INNER CRITIC but today I want to get very specific about what it is, how it limits and damages us and what we can do to overcome it. A recent study noted that 70% of successful people had experienced feelings of imposter syndrome in their lives... And as it’s only the most awesome and highly successful people on the planet that listen to this show, I figured that this episode will be particularly relevant to you today. Initial studies of this phenomenon were focussed on women but over the years there have been many more and it’s now very evident that the problem of IMPOSTORISM is something that to an extent affects all genders and ethnicities. Even now in my quiet moments, I suspect that I am going to walk onto a film set to discover that I just don’t know what I’m doing and that someone of import there is going to ask me to leave and bring in someone to replace me. Over the years too I have very often dodged the bullet of direct praise by bouncing it off onto others that have been involved. I’m simply not comfortable with praise. I find it kind of embarrassing and try to slink away from it when offered. I don’t mean to be rude when this happens I just don’t like being in the limelight. Mostly though, I’ve been able to control these feelings. It took me years and years but I can now say pretty confidently, that I not only know what I’m doing in as much as it is possible to do so but that I’m really very good at what I do and deserve the payments and the accolades which I’ve had over the years. It’s hard to say that without sounding arrogant but I’ll stand by it. The pressure of not wanting to sound like I'm full of myself or arrogant, especially since I’ve worked with many people who really were arrogant and I don’t want to appear to others as they appeared to me - is something I do struggle with though. I find that it is always easier for someone else to announce how wonderful you are, rather than to do so yourself, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t believe it in yourself of course. A couple of things have happened recently which have strengthened my self-belief. The first was pretty simple. Partly due to my role here as the host of this podcast, I came to the realisation that everything doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough. That knowledge takes the pressure off feeling like you are expected to know it all and to be perfect – which is good news indeed for a recovering perfectionist like myself. I have an affirmation I use, and I talked about affirmations a few episodes ago – check it out if you missed it, but the one I use now is that I CAN ONLY SEE SO FAR. No matter how hard I plan, I may still have to adapt on the day. This realisation takes the pressure of perfectionism off everything that I do but still allows me to plan in detail what I am doing. Secondly and I kind of hate going on about it but I got treated very badly a couple of times this year and have had to change my outlook and my way of working quite considerably as a result. As I mentioned numerous times this season, it actually resulted in my giving up on filmmaking, which I’d been doing for 12 years, but there’s only so much a person can take. Being looked down upon by idiots who have little or no understanding of matters on which I am an expert got me so annoyed that I finally called them out and when that happened the switch flipped in my head and I realised – wait a minute here – I AM THE EXPERT HERE not THEM. I won’t allow myself to be treated as an inferior again, and so I’ve worked hard to subdue my feelings of imposterism and stand up for my rights. A few episodes ago I also tackled the topic of bullying, and you may have to use some of the advice from that show to get back control for yourself. Lesson Now Jodie Foster famously suffers from this (She passed me once at the Cannes Film Festival and smiled in my general direction – just an aside - but I feel I know her now) She famously said - ‘When I won the Oscar, I thought it was a fluke. I thought everybody would find out, and they’d take it back. They’d come to my house, knocking on the door, “Excuse me, we meant to give that to someone else. That was going to Meryl Streep.”‘ That’s a really common theme with imposterism btw, Have you ever looked at someone else in your line of work and thought, I’m not as good as them, or as worthy of my place as them? I know I have… So to follow up on Jodie’s quote there,  Meryl Streep said on this topic ‘You think, “Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?”‘ Unquote You can never be a mind reader folks, so don’t even try. It’s getting you nowhere. The human brain has a negativity bias so you will always think the worst. The sort of people who most often suffer from the syndrome include “Perfectionists” who set extremely high expectations for themselves, “Experts” who feel the need to know every piece of information before they start a project, “Soloists” who feel they have to accomplish tasks on their own, and if they need to ask for help, they think that means they are a failure or a fraud and “Supermen” or “superwomen” who push themselves to work harder than those around them to prove that they’re not impostors —and feel stressed when they are not accomplishing something. I think I was one of those for a while. It didn’t end well. Do you think you might fit into one of these categories? And why do people suffer from Imposterism? In an article in Time Magazine by ABIGAIL ABRAMS, we discover that there’s no single answer. Some experts believe it has to do with personality traits—like anxiety or neuroticism— Psychologist Audrey Ervin focuses on family or behavioural causes. Sometimes childhood memories, such as feeling that your grades were never good enough for your parents or that your siblings outshone you in certain areas, can leave a lasting impact. “People often internalize these ideas: that in order to be loved or be lovable, ‘I need to achieve,’” says Ervin. “It becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.” Unquote. The IMPOSTOR CYCLE is described as follows. First, they’ll become anxious, which can make them spend too much time on the task or procrastinate and then rush to finish it. Once the project is done, they’ll feel relieved and accomplished. The feeling of relief when a project is over is something I have experienced many times. I am nearing the end of this series which has been very tough for me, and this feeling of anxiety about it all is extremely heightened right now. Next, The cycle continues as they won’t accept positive feedback. They’ll ignore the fact that they could actually be smart or talented — insisting that they got lucky, or just worked a lot without having real skills. They don’t think they deserve success, which creates more anxiety, so the cycle repeats itself once more.   IMPOSTORISM takes what we all know as self-doubt and magnifies it. I am trying to be careful not to drift too far from the topic so I’ll leave more general issues about confidence and self-belief for another show. If, however, what I’m going on about here is something you think applies to you then don’t panic - there are some simple ways you can start to overcome it: First things first - remember: everything doesn’t have to be perfect. Remind yourself that your best is good enough. As I said on my episode on perfectionism though, this is not a that’ll do, It’s accepting that your GOOD ENOUGH can be really very good indeed. Talk to someone. You are not alone – I’ve been researching for this for a few days and I can say that without exception, everyone that I have spoken to about it has recognised it in themselves. Share what you’re feeling with trusted friends or mentors. People who have more experience can reassure you that what you’re feeling is normal, and knowing others have been in your position can make it seem less scary. If you want to delve more deeply into these feelings, then seek out a professional psychologist. There’s no shame in that and it is affordable despite what you may think. Having a really strong support system and getting on-going feedback that validates your efforts and outcomes is important for improving confidence levels. Lastly, believe in yourself and ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS. Take recognition for the work you did, treat yourself and move on. I’ve mentioned this before too and it’s part of what is known as the CYCLE OF PRODUCTIVITY. If you don’t acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, if you miss that part out, then YOU ARE DOING YOURSELF A DISSERVICE and burying your accomplishments in the past. RECOGNISE YOUR SUCCESSES and THE FAILURES FROM WHICH YOU HAVE LEARNED and celebrated them. Write down lists of your achievements, skills, and successes to demonstrate that they really do have concrete value to share with the world. When it’s there in black and white, it can’t be denied. Summing Up Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck, also fought feelings of inadequacy – he said “I am not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people.”  Imposterism can be debilitating, causing stress, anxiety, low self-confidence, shame and in some cases, DEPRESSION. Perhaps the most damaging part of dealing with imposter syndrome is that it can limit our courage to go after new opportunities, explore potential areas of interest, and PUT OURSELVES OUT THERE IN A MEANINGFUL WAY. Remember “You can still have an impostor moment, but not an impostor life.” Call To Action If today’s topic has resonated with you then I want you to begin to understand the power of your attitude toward yourself. How you perceive yourself, how you talk about yourself, and how you represent yourself eventually becomes a reality for you. One of the first steps to overcoming impostor feelings is to acknowledge your thoughts and put them in perspective. And this is a huge part of productivity too – Self-assessment is an ESSENTIAL SKILL to develop if you are trying to improve yourself. “Simply observing your thoughts as opposed to engaging them” can be helpful, so try and ask yourself ‘Do these thoughts help or hinder me?’” And if it happens that you're putting yourself down, belittling your worth, and making light of your talents, then you will come across as self-effacing, low in self-esteem, and almost a part of the wallpaper. You will also come across as I believe I did myself to some, A PUSHOVER. Your call to action is Take a few moments RIGHT NOW to celebrate your victories and achievements. Take this further by identifying a specific time each week where you can look back over what you have achieved and celebrate it each and every week from now on. Don’t miss out this crucial part of the productivity cycle. If you have a diary, write it in there. Write my achievements and schedule 15 minutes to look back and think on them. This is part of the productivity cycle – if you DON’T do this, you are setting yourself up for a much harder journey ahead. The 15 minutes you commit to this, and it may take less, are more valuable than having 15 minutes of free time. Ending Comedian and time-travelling international man of mystery Mike Myers says “At any time I still expect that the no-talent police will come and arrest me.” If that sounds like you, then I hope this episode will guide you to a better place. Today’s show was sponsored by THE DAVE BULLIS PODCAST and if it wasn’t that show I wouldn’t be here today. I have listened to and enjoyed his shows as I went to and from many a gig and they certainly have taught me a lot and inspired me to do more, not only when I was making films but as a podcaster too. His episodes are incredibly informative and engaging and he has created a body of work which is very significant. Sadly though this hasn’t timed in too well as at the end of this year Dave will be taking down all of his shows and stopping his podcast. It is my hope that they will be repurposed and re-released in some way but as for now, you only have a few days left before they will disappear. In Dave’s last show he recommends this show and Alex Farrari’s Indie Film Hustle and for that too, I thank you Dave. I just listened to his final show a week or so ago and it was absolutely incredible, so if you are a filmmaker and you plan to shoot a feature in 2020 I am ordering you to go and download it right now. Download as many as you can in fact because once they are gone we may not see them again. I’ll link to THE DAVE BULLIS PODCAST in the show notes and if you are on apple podcasts you may have to go there to listen as I think it’s already off of that platform. https://davebullispodcast.podbean.com/e/the-final-episode-alex-ferrari-rise-of-the-filmtrepreneur/ Next week’s show will be a retrospective look over the past 50 episodes with a TOP 10productivity tips section and a good bit of advice for moving forward into this new decade too. Please join me for that and for another 50 awesome episodes yet to come! Let me end with the words of Roy T. Bennett who wrote The Light in the Heart “Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.” Now - take control of your own destiny, keep on shootin’, and join me next time on Film Pro Productivity. The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review.   References: https://www.learning-mind.com/imposter-syndrome/ https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity-quotes-on-impostor-syndrome-434739 https://www.grammarly.com/blog/imposter-syndrome-quotes/ https://fairygodboss.com/articles/confidence-quotes https://time.com/5312483/how-to-deal-with-impostor-syndrome/ https://www.wikihow.com/Build-Self-Worth   Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsuCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A    

This episode is sponsored by the host of Carradine's Cockney Singalong, Pianist and singer Tom Carradine Don’t be offended! In the last episode, I looked at AFFIRMATIONS and how they can be used to change your life. They aren’t some hippy-dippy placebo for making you feel better, they really can be brought to bear and make a difference to your life and work. If you haven’t yet checked it out yet then please get on it! This has been a long season for me and I’ve been reworking it a lot as I go and today’s topic is one of several that I nearly had to drop to make other things fit in. It is something that’s been increasingly on my mind but as with many of my shows, it’s not something I hear being discussed all that often. It did actually migrate into series 4 for a while, but it’s been reinstated as the episode I’d planned to put in here - which was about DELEGATING - is one which I’m going to run a few tests on before tackling. For example I’ll try using a virtual assistant for a time and see how it goes – I just need to get it very clear in my head what I’ll actually be asking for help with! I’ll be able to report back on whether that’s a good or bad experience and talk about it in a later episode and if you have any experience of successful, or I suppose unsuccessful DELEGATING then I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Lesson Today’s show began simply as a HEADS UP about something which I have come to believe sapping away our limited supply of mental energy in these strange times. I decided to raise it here as a sort of PUBLIC WARNING as it COULD BE wearing away at your ability to be productive without you knowing it. During my research I’ve become more and more certain that it’s something we should be very wary of and learn to shut out AND IF we can intelligently acknowledge it we will be able to protect ourselves from it. According to wicktionary.com the term OUTRAGE PORN was Coined by New York Times writer TIM KREIDER to emphasize the way THE MEDIA deliberately provoke feelings of righteous indignation in us by pandering to people's self-indulgent desire to feel OUTRAGED. It occurs in almost every form of media but is perhaps most often seen in 24-hour news programmes, newspapers (remember them) and on the internet. We are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind. Edward Bernays UNQUOTE OUTRAGE PORN is when the Media ensures that a statement or report is released which is deliberately skewed in a way to make the reader or viewer or listener etc. so furious about a topic that there will be a public outcry. That same media then reports on the outcry which it has carefully set up and so creates a perpetual news cycle of OUTRAGE over NOTHING AT ALL. In episode one of this show I talk about finding and honing a higher level of thinking. It’s described elsewhere in productivity circles as intelligent thought or achievement. Napoleon Hill describes it in the Law Of Success as Accurate thought. It’s there that Hill urges us to question the “facts” that we hear and separate those PROVEN FACTS from MERE INFORMATION. He asks us to separate facts into two classes; the IMPORTANT and the UNIMPORTANT, or, the RELEVANT and the IRRELEVANT. All facts which will aid us to any extent whatsoever in the attainment of your definite chief aim are important and relevant; All that you cannot use are unimportant and irrelevant. If you haven’t yet listened to episodes 40 through 45 which cover Hill’s amazing and powerful book, THE LAW OF SUCCESS in 16 lessons then you are doing yourself a disservice btw. Hill also says If someone presents a fact to you, you would do well to ask them HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS before accepting it as truth. We don’t get this opportunity though when bombarded by Outrageous stories in the press. It’s a world of ever-increasing falsity that we are living in, Beware. Carter Ferguson UNQUOTE haha only joking – try this for size. The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who MANIPULATE this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. Edward Bernays UNQUOTE As an aside here btw, do you know what you find when you look up quotes on manipulation of the masses? Quotes from Hitler – I kid you not. He talked a lot about manipulating the masses – “the greater the lie, the greater the chance that it will be believed.” is one of his and “If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things.” And “Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” – You want a good reason for why we should be worried about Outrage Porn, look to Adolf Hitler. We are bombarded with news stories designed to manipulate in us, this all-too-familiar emotion: OUTRAGE. And the mainstream and lesser-known media outlets are taking full advantage of it. If we aren’t careful, we may allow Outrage Culture to change our society so drastically that we embrace tribalism and choose to interact only with people who are exactly like ourselves. Jeff Charles UNQUOTE The Urban Dictionary describes OUTRAGE CULTURE as follows. “When people play the victim card and bend over backwards to be as offended as possible when they really aren’t. Using hissy fits, political correctness, character assassination, and a false sense of moral authority, the OUTRAGER hopes to gain power and public recognition for their brave act of justice as well as a sense of control over their meaningless existence.” Now I had recorded a section in here that gave a specific example of this behaviour in an individual – but I’ve cut it as frankly - I am frightened of a deliberate misinterpretation of my words. And that’s the aim of course of some people who use outrage culture to manipulate us; to use fear of public retaliation to silence perceived opponents. I really tried to script neutral comment on the matter, but no matter what way I came at it, I saw trouble. What I have realised is that some people, who have perhaps become activists for social issues due to their profile as actors or influencers or whatever are building careers out of all of this. They deliberately using outrage to raise their profile and sometimes just to get attention. I’m really trying NOT to make this episode become what it is trying to warn against but on this particular point though, let me say that: There are some individuals who deliberate misuse OUTRAGE to serve their own personal and promotional agendas  - Their actions though, as their behaviours are questioned more and more, weaken the true causes that they are supposedly fighting for. On that note too - Let’s not forget here that MANY WHO PUSH BIZARRE SOCIAL AGENDAS ARE ACTUALLY TROLLS who don’t really believe the stuff they are putting out. – and an example I saw recently was someone tweeting about, and getting a lot of angry replies too, about how they will be taking to their vet about how their dog is TRANS – It was clearly a wind-up but it certainly worked. A lot of the stories that appear are just wind-ups and attention-seeking, but they have a damaging effect in that they can belittle and misrepresent the real voices and the real problems of the world. Journalist Jeff Charles writes that Outrage culture is marked by a tendency for people to become overly offended at the slightest occurrence. It could be an offhand remark about race that someone assumes to be a microaggression. Perhaps a talk show host made critical comments about the president. In some instances, it could be a politician failing to comment on a particular situation in the way you believe they should. He goes on to state, when talking of the USA, that - unfortunately, as a nation, we have become addicted to outrage porn. The article I took that from was published in June 2018 and it references three major stories that resulted in a tremendous level of internet outrage. First, actress and comedian Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. Then, talk show host Samantha Bee gave a profanity-laced rant against Ivanka Trump, implying that she has incestuous relations with her father. Not to be outdone, more offensive blog posts written by MSNBC host Joy Reid surfaced. Once you start to become aware of this stuff, as I’m sure many of you out there already are, you start to see them everywhere. One that I saw causing chaos and offence everywhere this year was the seemingly racist tweet by British comedian and radio host Danny Baker who posted an old black and white picture of a man and woman with a chimpanzee, with the caption "Royal baby leaves hospital." Next thing Meghan Markle and him got dragged into a completely manipulated racism row. The thing is… I didn’t know anything about Meghan Markle's heritage either. I just don’t follow the whole ROYAL thing. When I saw what he’d tweeted, after the fact, I saw a vaguely amusing joke about CLASS, but - because it’s not on my wavelength to think in racist terms. I just wasn’t brought up that way. The perceived racism in it just would never have occurred to me. What worries me there is that I could easily have fallen into the same trap and so I became somewhat fascinated as the thing unfolded. What I realised right away was that the media were deliberately pushing forward and quoting from the negative tweets that were appearing and stirring a proverbial hornet’s nest of trouble that resulted in him ham-fistedly apologising, which was just weird - and then getting fired from his job. I looked at the twitter accounts that had been chosen by the press to represent the initial outrage and they came from virtually new accounts, with virtually no followers. Many of the initial posts were from, in effect, troll accounts or accounts with a political agenda, winding the whole thing up. Then came the backlash of genuine hatred for the guy from people and organisations who were, in the end, comparing him to Hitler. (Which is RICH given those quotes I  have just given you) My point is, whether you believe Danny Baker decided to deliberately after 40 years in the business suddenly reveal himself to be a closet racist via a random tweet on twitter (he isn’t btw) or not - that the media, and possibly something beyond the media if I were to get quite dark about all this, deliberately chose to lift only the tweets where people were most outraged and report on them. The press kept this FAKERY going for about 3 weeks in the end and constantly fanned the flames of a non-story, at the cost of a man’s livelihood and Meghan Markle’s privacy because the frenzy of outrage was so strong. The cost was greater than that though as many many people all over the world, expended energy on the matter, got riled up attacking OR defending him, and that in turn created a kind of mini race hate war for no good reason whatsoever. It was an expenditure of energy and effort that should have could have been spent on more positive and productive matters. That’s my point here today. If we allow ourselves to be drawn into this shit, we are allowing ourselves to be manipulated on a quite a major level. Btw in each of the stories I mentioned before, the offender apologized for their actions, but people’s decisions on whether or not to forgive them following this seem to be based primarily on their political leanings. Right-leaning individuals are more likely to forgive Barr, who is an outspoken Trump supporter while people on the left accused her of being a racist. The same might be said about the Danny Baker story. These types of occurrences are nothing new, and the media is all too happy to use these stories to divide us further. The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. Philip K. Dick UNQUOTE It is my belief that this is something which has probably always existed but has been magnified by the world wide web and the invention of 24-hour news. It may even be thanks to them that we, the masses which Hitler talks about, have started to notice the manipulation. I can go to twitter right now and pick out a manipulative story. The one that’s popped out today  was that a TV network has banned the use of the word UPPITY after a single complaint. Unsurprisingly this is a Meghan Markle related story as she is used as a pawn in these outrage stories at every opportunity by the UK press. It took me 10 seconds to find this example and if I look tomorrow, or later today, if all goes as planned for them I will find a bunch of stories about how half the people in the world are outraged by the banning of this word and how half the people are not as it was, and I’ll push the boat out here, RACIST. Another tasty piece of outrage bait that I can see is this one about the studio exec that wanted to cast in 1994, yes we need to get HISTORICALLY OUTRAGED at peoples behaviour too, but he wanted to cast Julie Roberts to play Harriet Tubman. Thanks to the Wikipedia I can tell you that Harriet Tubman, was a black American abolitionist that died in 1913. I doubt, if this story as true at all, and they present zero proof that it is, that some probably white movie exec would have known this. I doubt many a black exec would know it then either for that matter. His suggestion is easy to get riled up about if YOU LOOK FOR WRONG IN THE WORLD, but in reality it was just a stupid thing said at a meeting. We’ve all done that in our time. Let he or she that his never made a mistake in life throw the first stone at that guy. But you better get a time machine to do it as he’s probably dead already and even if he isn’t does saying it make him a racist? The word RACISM is slopped about like a wet fish in the world of OUTRAGE.  Another story out today which was passed on to me by several people is that USA today reporter Tom Nichols was accused of being a racist as he said he didn’t like Indian food. Don’t worry for him though as he can report tomorrow on how he laughed at the outrageousness of it all, and continue the news cycle. By the way, the word BAN has become an outrage inciting word in itself. Everything is banned these days if you believe the press, and we MUST BE OUTRAGED by it. I could probably come up with a list of 10 words right off the bat that would be used to invoke outrage, RACIST is a good place to start, but let’s try, SJW’s, TRUMP is a good bet, SAFE SPACE, PRIVILEGE, BREXIT is certainly a goldmine of outrage here in the UK, any number or RELIGIOUS or POLITICAL REFERENCES, VIRTUE SIGNALLING and I’ll end with STAR WARS as I had to sit through The Last Jedi and I was certainly offended by that. I’ll leave you to think of more but the internet will always provide if you draw a blank. One thing worth mentioning , is that Outrage CULTURE  prevents us from engaging in the exchange of ideas. Discussions seem to have become nothing more than contests to see which side has more of a reason to be offended. I’m well aware that by merely tackling this topic I’m going to get it in the neck from somebody, too, as the offence reaction gene is soooo ingrained in some of us that they go out of their way to be outraged. I mentioned this in the bullying episode, as it has become for some a form of bullying and I kinda deliberately used the term snowflake there as I knew for those people who do virtue signal their way through life on a crusade fuelled by hate, that they wouldn’t like it.  Yes, sometimes I’m bad that way. I need to wind this up some time but I believe that some of us, the AWARE of the world, those that listen to THIS PODCAST for example, can break our addiction to outrage culture by refusing to be influenced by outrage porn and CHOOSING not to be offended by every story the media forces upon us. True unadulterated outrage does though have a place in this world. Without it OPPRESSION WOULD NEVER BE RESISTED and SLAVERY WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABOLISHED. But this fake outrage, this adopted human need to get a fix of outrage, never to be let go of, must be put to death and to do that it must be ignored. Not silenced though - as if you push back it will just cause more outrage and continue the cycle. Ignoring it, for me is the solution. You see we are never going to make a positive impact on our lives, on our careers or on HISTORY by getting mad at some fucking celebrity for making a comment we disagree with or that pricks our delicate opinions. Only by NOT responding, NOT retweeting, liking or sharing, NOT engaging in any way, NOT raging and NOT getting outraged by the outrage, are we going to neutralise this toxic fad known as outrage porn. I didn’t realise all of this stuff when I started this episode - I just wanted to say that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to get manipulated by the press and waste our time and energy on Outrage Porn. I never knew that my research would open up such an Alladin’s cave of TOXICITY that I think I could extend in a future episode in some way but which I will leave for now. We are clearly being manipulated, but WE CAN CHOOSE TO SAY NO AND IGNORE. Summing Up If you have been ever riled up in a pointless celebrity news story or by some outrageous suggestion within it or in an internet argument with someone who will say white when you say black just for the fun of winding you up, or in tit for tat chatter over a point of little or no practical value, meaning, or relevance ON SOCIAL MEDIA then you will have already experienced what we now know as OUTRAGE CULTURE. When we these exchange fiery back-and-forths to try and defend our points and even if we don’t respond at all, but walk away angry or frustrated or unhappy we have still find ourselves affected by it. Next time you sense that you are getting riled by a troll, or an aggravating virtue signaller, they are a problem as they “slippery slide between the lines trying to be your friend but subtly undermining your arguments and will never allow you to get the last word in on discussions” Janet Hill UNQUOTE, then just identify the source, and utilise the BLOCK function on whatever site you are on. Block and mute and just walking away are sure-fire solutions to silencing the problem of outrage culture. Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right. Ricky Gervais UNQUOTE Call To Action Your call to action this week is to work on improving your outrage antenna. Instead of allowing yourself to get pulled in and wasting your time and energy getting riled up about whatever the latest outrage porn manipulation is, shut it out, block it out if you have to and work instead on improving your own life. Keep control of your emotions and live a happier healthier, less stressful life away from the manipulations of the press or trolls. This is an extension of what I call the BULLSHIT ANTENNA which I must do an episode on. That’s needed these days to separate news stories from SPONSORED CONTENT sometimes known as LIES, to separate genuine product reviews, from PAID REVIEWS or as I like to call them LIES, and to separate the Ad’s from the news story, which possibly lies anyway, that you are trying to read beneath the WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY pop up which I call DO THEY F7CK. I’ll post a recent screenshot I took from The Independent as an example of this. Ending So that’s the end of today’s episode. I hope you’ve found it interesting. If I have offended you at any point in all of this, then do a self-assessment to double-check if you really are offended or if you are just automatically responding in this way to get a dopamine kick. I don’t want to give HITLER and more oxygen today but I did eventually find a quote of his that I agreed with earlier. He said THAT A POLITICIAN SHOULD NEVER ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED IN A BATHING SUIT which is a fair point. It's time to quit being offended though folks so I’ll end with a quote from Dolly Parton  who said I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde. Next week will be, just before CHRISTMAS too, the 50th – YES YOU HEARD ME – THE 50TH EPISODE of this show and the topic will be IMPOSTER SYNDROME. For now though folks, take control of your own destiny, don’t believe everything you read on the internet or get worked up about it either, keep on shootin’ and join me next time on FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY! The music you can hear right now is Adventures by A Himitsu You can view the show notes for this episode on the official website filmproproductivity.com You can follow my personal account on Twitter and Instagram @fight_director or follow the show on Twitter @filmproprodpod or on Facebook @Filmproproductivity Please support the show by subscribing, spreading the word and leaving an AWESOME review. References: https://www.libertynation.com/the-disturbing-rise-of-outrage-culture/ Thanks: A Himitsu Music: Adventures by A Himitsu https://www.soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music released by Argofox https://www.youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://www.youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ––– • Contact the artist: x.jonaz@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ahimitsuhttps://www.twitter.com/ahimitsu1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgFwu-j5-xNJml2FtTrrB3A