How Seinfeld changed my life

An unusual article about Jerry Seinfeld changed the course of my life when I was 24. And that’s not me being dramatic or over selling the level of change it created. (The irony of this story is that I’ve still never watched all of the Seinfeld show. I’ve seen like 10 episodes of the first season and that’s it. I know I’ll receive a bunch of angry responses because of that so send them my way lol.) When I was 24, I had just become a "professional writer." I was getting paid a whopping $3500 a month for my words. (This was actually a good amount of money to me at the time.) I wanted to become a better writer. I wanted to be one of the best copywriters that ever lived. It was that time that I came across this story about Jerry Seinfeld. I had never been a big watcher of his show or stand up. But this story captivated me. Jerry had a big wall calendar in his house. Everyday he wrote a joke, he put a big red X over that day. After a few days in a row he had a chain of X’s. His goal was simple: "Don’t break the chain." I loved the simplicity of it. I wanted to do it for writing copy everyday. So I committed to writing an email every single day. But after a week or so I realized I didn’t want that to be the practice. It just didn’t feel right. So instead I did exactly what Seinfeld did. I wrote a joke everyday. Sometimes it was a story that was pages long. Sometimes it was a quick story that was just a few paragraphs. Other times it was a one liner. I wasn’t much of a "joke writer." I was more of a storyteller. (Even now, as a stand up comedian, I’m more a storyteller than joke teller.) I didn’t really have a goal with writing comedy other than a desire to commit to a daily practice that was different from what I’d done before. Sure, I was now a "professional writer." But writing comedy was a completely different beast. I didn’t want to be a famous stand up comedian. I had never had thoughts of doing stand up. I was a funny kid growing up. But I wasn’t the funniest. Maybe like third funniest in any given classroom. I could tell stories and do voices and accents. But I wasn’t a student of comedy. I wasn’t the class clown. I didn’t derive my self worth from making people laugh. As I wrote these daily jokes and stories I never really thought they’d see the light of day on a stage. Maybe to my little email list I’d created for my friends…but doing stand up wasn’t on the horizon. As I wrote more and more comedy I realized how much I loved it. It wasn’t work, it was play. After 90 days I hadn’t missed a single day. My ugly-ass wall calendar had 90 red X’s in a row. It was right around that time that the Navy SEAL invited me to go skydiving. (I told this story in yesterday’s email in case you missed it.) After I felt nothing from skydiving I realized I needed to do something that would terrify me enough to give me an adrenaline rush. I had recently met a dude who did stand up. I had never met someone who did stand up until I met him. (Call it fate or the universe conspiring in my favor…but meeting this dude was so random and unlikely that it was clearly meant to be. This guy (shout out to Chris Brooks) is still one of my best friends and I have no idea where my life would be without him.) I called him and said "I wanna do stand up. How do I do it? Can I just go to a club and do 20 minutes?" He said "No, you fucking idiot. You go to an open mic and you’ll get 3 minutes. 5 minutes if you bring friends." I said "Cool, how do I sign up?" He told me to go to a website and put my name in. This next little decision is the one that forever changed my life. I was so nervous to sign up that I needed my roommate in the room with me while I signed up. I went to this jenky ass website and slowly typed in my name and email. My finger hovered over the submit button…my heart was pounding…I could feel my heart beating in my ears. My roommate said "Hit the fucking button dude." I did. Then I proceeded to lie on the floor in the weirdest position ever. I can’t even explain this position…but thankfully my (oh-so-kind) roommate snapped a photo of me in my pit of despair. (And yes, I know what it looks like the sword is doing.) I got what I asked for. I felt the adrenaline. And I hadn’t even performed yet. All I had done is signed up. Later that week I went to the Comedy Palace to do my first ever set. To my surprise and delight, I killed. Every place I hoped they’d laugh, they did. The time went by so fast it felt like a blink. I was completely present in the moment, nothing else existed while I was on stage. The feeling was unbelievable. I walked off stage higher than Cheech and Chong. I knew in that moment that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I did about 7 sets that year in San Diego and then proceeded to basically quit stand up for 4 years while I lived in Austin. The human ability to self-sabotage is truly remarkable. It took my close to 4 years to finally start pursuing my dream again. That’s why this upcoming comedy tour means so much to me. I finally took comedy seriously and it paid off. So here’s the biggest lesson I have for you… If you have a dream, work towards it daily without attachment to the outcome. Even a TEENY TINY step in the right direction…is a move in the right direction. A lot of days all I did was write a silly one line joke or idea that sucked. But I wrote. I did it. You want to build a business online? Do a tiny thing that moves you forward each day. Want to be an email copywriter? Hand copy an email each day…or even just for 5 minutes. Send a reach out to a potential client every single day. Want to get in better shape? Lift for 10 minutes. Then 11 minutes the next day. 12 minutes the next and so on. Commit yourself to your dreams and do NOT stop until you get there. Then keep going. Because there is no mountain top. You’re never done. The people who fall from the top are the ones who stop practicing. The ones who stop pushing. The ones who get complacent. That’s all for now. Hope that story helped you in some way. Talk soon, Ian "can’t wait for the tour to start" Stanley P.S. Wanna see me on tour? [ Click here to see tour dates]( Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( 8020emailcopy, 314 upper lake road, Westlake Village, CA 91362, United States