Strike a Superman Pose...

During the pandemic, my wife was involved in a very scary dog attack.

Unfortunately, it left my wife and dog with serious injuries, and we had to file a lawsuit…

All dogs were ok in the end though! In fact, my wife worked for an animal rescue at the time and we were able to spin it into a cautionary tale for others.

Anyway, my wife and I are pretty non-confrontational so having to do a whole legal battle seemed scary to us. But alas, we were prepared to fight.

During this whole process, our amazing lawyer, Sarah, gave really great and simple advice for calming our nervous:

"Stand like Superman."

I gotta say, for something so simple, it kinda works.

Pumping up your chest and doing something really cool before jumping into a project will legitimately make you feel better about yourself in the moment.

It turns out there's actually some science behind that too…

In Dr. Tara Swart's "The Source," she breaks down the neurological science behind manifestation techniques:

"Attract what you expect, reflect what you desire, become what you respect, mirror what you admire." You create your own energy field with your mind, you just first have to see it to believe it.

But because many of us are just sitting around the couch or at our desk at work, or watching porn (like the other 99%), just hoping for something exciting to happen, we never really actually feel like the person who gets to have that super exciting experience.

That's why something as simple as a vision board is helpful.

Then, striking a pose as your favorite superhero or putting on an "act" as a famous artist or singer is actually a great way to get into the zone…

Speaking of, my brother Andy Schwartz (who is also an incredible film & TV writer) wrote a movie called "The Shadow Effect" about a down-on-his-luck protagonist who has the idea to follow the role model of his dreams (in an almost stalker-like fashion) and essentially copy-cat his life to fruition.

It works, but of course, leads to all sorts of identity complications of its own...

However, anytime you really resonate with a character, someone in your life, or even someone in your industry who is just a few steps ahead, really take note of what you love about them. Start applying the skills and values to your own life.

Now, obviously there are different characters you might want to play for different scenarios...

As weird as it is, I pick a specific DJ to listen to while I write each newsletter based on the kinda "flow" they put me into…

(for anyone interested, today’s newsletter is brought to you by “My Friend.”)

If you're about to write an action movie, stand like Schwarzenegger.

But if you're planning a peaceful creative session, or just a nice day out, you can always cultivate a different type of behavior.

The Buddha mindset is always a good choice to put yourself back into a sort of neutral, detached, yet purposeful, and passionate state.

The Buddha himself said to keep you mind like a "warrior." So If Buddha isn’t your thing, you can also try Teddy Roosevelt entering the “arena” so to speak.

This way you can approach your work with objectivity and total flow state. But also attack it with fervor and passion. Always a winning combination.

Speaking of winning, sometimes I also like to swing a bat like Shohei Ohtani.

Go Dodgers!