21LA Podcast - Episode 4 | The spark is when there's no spark, and you do it.

April 15th, 2026. 2:52pm. The Dock, Wynwood, FL.

I used to think you would become this different version of yourself. 
That through hard work, consistency, and all of that stuff, I would change into this person who finished my music. Who is consistent with my fitness. Who is the type of person I want to be. 

But I have seen that to be false. 

It’s a choice ever day. Every day, I wake up and have a choice to get out of bed. Every day, I have a choice to hit the workouts and training I’ve decided align with the life I want to live. Every day, I have a choice to show up and write 1.000 words to the book. Every day, I have a choice to create. Every day, I have a choice to go up to them and talk to them. Every day, I have a choice to tell them how I really feel. Every day, I have a choice to offer them an orange. Every day, I have a choice to be kind when I’m feeling down. 

Every day, it’s a choice. 

But that’s the real magic. 

I was in LA talking with this guy about music. He told me the real spark isn’t in the beginning when we first start creating. When we’re super inspired. When we’re learning everything we possibly can and staying up all night creating. But the real spark is when that goes away. When the inspiration fades. When the flame seems to be gone. But sitting there, and showing up anyway. Creating anyway. Deciding you do not need a spark to be there. 

I think that applies to everything.


The day is like a race.
You don’t have to win in the beginning.
Just stick with it.

Transcript

unknown 0:00

Alright.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I could get hit with this. Okay. Looping a little something I just made in the background. Um, podcast number four. Okay. What I want to talk about in this is uh is um why endurance training. You know, I've been making music for a very long time at this point. I mean relative for my life, like uh eight, nine, uh somewhere in that many years. And um I realized how the first seven years I just couldn't finish anything. Like I'd get things so close, I'd get things right to the finish line, um, but just stop. And it was like, I mean, I I I was like, why can I never finish anything? And then I was questioning, like, should I even be doing this? Like, am I even supposed to be doing any of this if I can't finish it? Like, is that showing me that this isn't what I should be doing? That's a whole nother story. And then I um, you know, I kind of decided to not run away from anything and instead sit in one place for a very long time and let the dust settle and see kind of what rises. And it kind of showed me that, um I mean there's a reason why I was never able to finish things. It was because the belief system that I had built, the mindset that I had, the handshake I made with the ways I was raised in my life experiences through just life, how it put me in directions, getting on changer. Basically, what we worked on and why endurance training. I I was wondering and testing the hypothesis of committing to the process of endurance training, if that can show me similar ways that I can apply that to the creative work. Because, you know, like I would go, I would make a song every day for a hundred days, or I would go and stay up really late and do these heroic ballots of inspiration, but I could never tie the bow on them. And I was like, okay, I wonder there's an idea that I talk about of the inspired amateur versus the committed professional. Think of someone that's just starting to work out. They'll be inspired, they'll go to the gym really hard, they'll do all this stuff, they'll track their macros, they'll do all these things for a couple weeks. Maybe three, if they're really committed. And then they miss a day, and then they miss two days, and then they're back where they started. Same thing with creating. We'll create things, we'll be super inspired, we'll be super committed, and then it'll fall off, and then blah blah blah blah blah. Where the stuff I was talking with this guy in LA, and he told me the actual spark isn't when you first start making music. It's when that spark goes out, and you choose to sit there and light it yourself. And in spite of not wanting to do anything, you choose to do it anyway. And I realized that was an area of life that I really lacked. So I came at it from a bunch of different angles. That's why I stayed in Miami last year for 12 months. That's why I went back to the job I did for two years instead of changing things. That's why I did the endurance training to practice that on a physical sense of just sitting with something and committing to it. When I'm on the bike for two hours and I want to get up, that's kind of similar to sitting and making music when I'm questioning why the frick am I even making music? This sucks, this is trash, I'm just completely wasting my time. It's kind of the same vein that you're tapping on with that. So, if we talk about running, you don't get fast by running super far or by running super fast. The thing that actually really builds your fitness is slow, consistent, medi low medium runs, zone two training. A speed where you can have a conversation with your friend the entire time that isn't an extremely long run. If you do those on a consistent basis, they're boring, they're not exciting, you're not doing anything flashy. It's like it's like eating your vegetables. But if you do that and you commit to that, that's when you actually start to build your aerobic base. That's when you actually start to lay bricks of your fitness. And then once you have those bricks laid, when you start to layer the heroic bouts of speed, the big distances, that's when you start to like, oh snap, I've got this foundation of these boring ass runs that I've been doing, that I can now build fitness on top of them. Okay? What if we apply that to the creative world as well? I wonder if there's something similar. Or if I build a foundation of writing and of creating, that's my foundation, that's the muscles that I'm flexing in. That's building my instead of an aerobic base, my creative base, whatever you want to call it. And then the days when an idea strikes, or the long bouts where you're like, oh my god, listen to this idea, and you stay up till midnight or 2 a.m. working on it. You layer, like that's when the magic happens. But we can't bet on magic and rely on it. I mean, I guess we could bet on magic, but it's more like we can't expect it. It's a happy accident if it happens. What we can commit to is that process of showing up. And my favorite part is aligning that process of showing up with the life you want to live. Or an idea of what you want to test out that life is. I mean, even the last three weeks, like after that half marathon, um, I'll be honest, I've been kind of like off my jam. Like, I've done maybe five workouts in the last three weeks, only running, I haven't biked, I haven't swam, and um it's something that I'm still working on staying consistent with that stuff, staying consistent with things. Um but it's not a destination. It is I've realized this. I'm writing this down. It's not a destination. It's a choice every day. I used to think I would become this person that was working out. I would become this person that could make all this and create and make music and make write books, whatever it is. But nah. It's not. You don't actually become that person. It's a choice you have every day to be that person or not. I have a choice every day of am I going to do the workouts that I've realized align with the life I want to live. I have a choice to write a thousand words that I've committed to writing towards this book. I've got a choice. And um that's um that's what I care about. The outcome of things don't matter. It's simply can I commit to my creating and can I commit to my training? Um that's like the fun game that I get to play. I'm playing my game, but the important things, you know, friends, family, living life. Like that's at the end of the day, what really matters. But that's kind of where we're at. And um this weekend I've got a training camp that I'm doing with my uh trashlon team. I'm really excited about. And um, you know, like I said, it feels like I was kind of falling off the wagon a little bit. I'm not gonna go out there and try to do some heroic thing getting back on track. I'm gonna be smooth, I'm gonna carve that wood, and I'm gonna show up, and I'm gonna be consistent, and uh just keep showing up, things start to lay. And then when you really start to layer that consistency, that's when some real stuff starts to build. And I think I'm just getting to that part of learning how to actually truly commit to things. Um, so that's where we're at. So that's real quick podcast number four of 211. And um Yeah, I think I'm gonna make a little piece of music as well. Uh, this one that I was making. Because this is um me making ideas like this and putting them together. That's like me showing up and getting a little run for the day. So I'm gonna have some fun with that. Um maybe I'll share it, maybe I won't, but we've made a little bit of it, and I'm gonna go tie the bow on it before I get ready for tomorrow. 21 L18, spread love, it's possible. And um see you next week.

unknown 9:04

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Yeah, boy.