My mom lives in Morocco, so it's not easy to avoid flying.

But here I am at the airport for work.

And honestly, I could have organized things differently, but everything happened so fast.

The success of an offer I put together kind of accelerated my life. And since the situation was new, I didn't have the right reflexes to find an alternative.

Goes to show you have to think about it ahead of time.

But before you can think about it, you have to decide to think about it. In other words: notice it when it happens and make a mental note for the next time the situation comes up. That's the real beginning: noticing and taking note.

So there you have it: I'm taking note. Literally.

When people used to ask me "what do you do?", I'd always say:

"I make films."

I never dared say "I'm a filmmaker" because that would've implied I made a living from it, which has never quite been the case. (I've made money, sometimes good money, but not enough to live off it consistently.)

And it also felt more honest: I'm not just a filmmaker. I write, I produce, I edit... I make things.

Recently, I've changed my answer. Now it's:

"I make films and work in communications."

Because with ChezFilms, I help experts and innovative companies tell their story to take off. It's starting to work really well.

So when I give that answer, people can choose which direction they want to take: they ask me a question about films, or a question about communications, and either way, I've got stories to tell.

Or they don't ask any questions and the conversation moves on.

That works too.

Something my son said yesterday while we were out walking:

"Nobody wants problems.
But some people have problems."

What could I do but agree? It reminded me a bit of Chevalier and Laspalès' "some tried, they had problems" sketch.

I'm blown away by the relevance of my posts 😎.

For me, only.

I realize two days after posting a video, or three days after adding a note right here, that the content in question answers exactly the question I'm asking myself right now.

But like... exactly.

So much so that it's mind-blowing that I don't realize it while writing or filming it.

No: I'm convinced I'm talking about something else. Something personal, yes, but at no point do I feel like I'm providing a solution to my dilemma.

And yet, when I connect the dots, it's impossible to doubt that I was indeed talking about that.

It doesn't surprise me. I know full well that art works this way: whatever the subject, as long as you create in the moment, you express what's deep down.

But I wasn't expecting such a masterful and daily demonstration of it.

--

Related:

• Controlling Is Resisting
• Zen & Creation
• Creation and Freedom (French Instagram video)

I'm not happy with all the daily videos I post.

I find that some are a bit unclear, poorly told, that they don't carry a clear momentum leading to the conclusion.

But I also realize that some videos take time. I circle around a subject for several days, exploring the theme, until I finally manage to truly express the heart of it in a strong and precise video.

The comments help a lot.

By understanding what people don't understand, or what they disagree with, I realize what I've been trying to say all along.

Because sometimes, I've forgotten the key elements that led me to think what I think. I've lost sight of the path that brought me where I am.

The comments help me find it again.

Swamped today.

So many different types of tasks: three appointments, shooting five pro videos for next week, editing the ones for today and tomorrow, writing this note, shooting and posting my personal videos...

The good news: all these tasks are quite enjoyable. I can tackle them without grumbling.

That's worth noting.

Compared to... say, three years ago, everything is so much more aligned.

That's not to say I'll get it all done.

But still: it's huge progress.

--

Related:

• One Thing Done Right
• Time and Productivity

When it rains hard on the house, I feel a little stress.

A few years ago, the roof had problems and there were regular leaks inside.

That's fixed, but recently we discovered there was water seeping into a shared wall.

Rain is the anxiety of repairs we can't afford to make.

(This reminds me of that cartoon: a guy is woken up at night by a noise and finds a ghost in his living room. He's relieved it's a ghost and not repairs to do.)

When stress arises, I use meditation to place my attention on it. I make the knot in my stomach or the tension in my body the focus of my attention.

Usually, it goes away quickly. To pass, emotions—like ghosts—need to be lived, felt.

But this time, it took longer than expected.

As if I had stumbled upon a "pocket" of anxiety that had accumulated over years and needed to be drained.

A stress that seems superficial ("eh, it's nothing") but keeps coming back often has a deeper cause. On the surface, it looks like just another puddle, we don't pay attention to it. Except that you only need to step in it to realize you could easily sink.

The work to be done (on the house) will be all the easier to undertake once we've done the inner work to manage the anxiety.

Deal with the emotion before the action, always.

--

Related:

• All in the Body
• Two Ways to Solve Problems

A kind gentleman pointed out to me that people couldn't sign up for my professional newsletter.

Which made me realize I had completely forgotten to add a signup form for La Boulengerie as well.

And... That's important.

If we don't want to depend on Musk, Zuckerberg, and the rest to build connections, we need ways to stay in touch with each other without going through social networks.

Because one day, Instagram will change its policy. And decide that I'm not interesting. Or you.

So let's get ahead of it:

And if you have a newsletter, feel free to share it too.

Recently, many Instagram followers have asked if I had any reading suggestions or content recommendations to delve deeper into what I discuss in my videos.

Answer: yes, I have plenty!

My personal journey—officially begun 7 years ago with meditation—has been accompanied by countless readings, audio recordings, videos, podcasts (...) that were essential in providing a framework for what I was discovering.

Problem: most of my sources are in English... and haven't been translated.

Worse: I found that the few French sources I came across were... how should I put it? Less rigorous. They mixed everything together: spirituality, wellness, alternative medicine, astrology...

What I've truly found in most of the sources I'm recommending here is a certain rigor. Not always, not everywhere, but generally speaking: they don't use pseudoscience to justify what is spiritual in nature; they remain very conservative in their everyday advice; they rely primarily on practice and personal reflection rather than devotion to anyone; they encourage free and independent thinking rather than belonging to a sect.

Another problem: some of the sources I'm recommending here are paid. It's not astronomical, but these are books or recordings I haven't found freely available.

If you're not discouraged, here they are, in order of my preference 👇

Meditation is about bringing your attention to the present moment.

The arm. That tension in the neck. The bird singing. A thought arising. A sudden feeling of sadness. That shifts and disappears. The foot against the ground. The breath. The bird, again. The head moving.

(To start, it's sometimes recommended to focus your attention solely on the breath. See what works for you.)

This is called the flow: perceptions, thoughts, and emotions arise, transform, then fade away. Everything passes.

But regularly, we get stuck on a thought.

We wake up as if from a dream, realizing we've been ruminating on something for several minutes. This fixation that blocks the flow is called (quite fittingly) "an attachment."

It's normal, it's part of the process: we notice it and come back to the present.

Some even say that this back-and-forth between thought and the present is the heart of meditation, like a muscle you work through the repetition of a back-and-forth motion.

Then, you carry a bit of this flow into your daily life.

And everything becomes easier.

--

Related:

• All in the Body
• Thinking Is Not The Solution
• What meditation changed for me

I've discovered that I work like ChatGPT.

And you probably do too.

Meaning that my next action is essentially determined by whatever context elements I happen to have in my head at that moment.

And, like ChatGPT, that context is minimal.

We don't carry our entire lives with us at every instant. Depending on the day or time, we focus on this future problem, that current difficulty, this trendy goal.

The resulting decisions are based on a tiny, anecdotal sliver of our cognitive heritage—and most importantly: one we don't consciously choose.

So lately, I've decided to change all that.

Every morning, I read the same note containing the context elements that seem relevant for my day. That I've consciously chosen.

I no longer let social media, TV, or impromptu calls fill my head. I fill it myself, every morning, with hand-picked thoughts: positive, strong, and organic.

In this fertile ground, the right action grows effortlessly.

--

Related:

• Shaping Your Day
• It (Re)starts Today

Three people recognized me on the street in Paris because they follow me on Instagram.

One the night before last, and two this afternoon.

All very kind, each time.

So what do I do, quit everything? 😅

I realize there's a very temporal aspect to professional jealousy.

In rivalry with peers, we want to do it before the other.

The hardest moments to go through are when those we admire or envy reach a summit before us. We feel left behind—even if it's not exactly the summit we were aiming for.

So we want to enter the race, to hurry to do it now.

Sometimes losing sight of what we really want to do.

Because, at the end of a career or a life, does it really matter when we did things? Doesn't fulfillment come rather from having done exactly what we wanted to do, regardless of timing?

So it's easy to lose sight of what matters.

Image

Deeply moved by this sad but dignified lion walking through the flowers to commemorate the Bataclan attacks ten years ago.

Verbal thought is just commentary. (We've talked about it.)

It's not what chooses the action. No: it observes and comments.

A bit like a babushka sitting all day at the foot of a building:

"Did you see that? They chose to raise their right arm again. What kind of world are we living in, I tell you."

Sometimes, she uses her memory to interpret the body's manifestations:

"You feel that knot in your stomach? It's the same one we felt during the divorce. They have regrets, for sure!"

Except most of the time, the babushka is wrong. Because her world revolves around two or three obsessions that loop endlessly and that she thinks she sees everywhere.

So, rather than listening to the interpreter, you need to return to the source: the physical sensation, the body's manifestation.

By inspecting the present, by simply observing what arises, you'll start to learn the language.

Soon, you'll be fluent.

And believe me: it's a more important language than English or Spanish since it's the one you'll use your whole life to dialogue with yourself.

--

Related:

• Without a voice in your head?
• All in the body

Personally, I've reached 12K followers on Instagram.

I remember a time when I wanted to create discussion groups with friends: virtual salons where I could find conversation and company 24/7. It never worked out. Now I have something like that with the channel's messages and comments: at any hour, conversations with people interested in the same topics as me.

It creates a lot of opportunities. I say yes to many things. Projects, meetings. Not everything.

Professionally, the channels I've created for ChezFilms are taking off too. (Insta, TikTok, Youtube and Linkedin.)

The numbers aren't astronomical but it's working for what matters most: I'm getting client inquiries.

This week, I have five phone meetings with qualified prospects: people who are interested in exactly what I offer. (The hardest part was defining that offering precisely.)

We'll see how it all works out. It's exciting. But we're not letting up.

--

Related:

• The Mechanics of Success
• Time and Productivity

Everything is so clear when I'm present.

When I'm curious about the moment, when I inspect the colors, sounds, and sensations that come to me... The world is no longer mysterious. It's no longer frightening. Stories of success and failure seem far away.

Action becomes easier, too.

Every gesture feels obvious and problems seem to solve themselves.

Yet I spend most of my time elsewhere.

Even though I meditate in the morning and return to presence several times a day, I regularly let myself get caught up in urgency and fabrication. Less than before, perhaps.

In those moments, though, it feels like going back to square one. Everything becomes serious again. The past and future are threatening again. We're back to trying to solve problems that didn't exist two minutes earlier.

Apparently this is normal: we move in and out of presence.

The goal is to stabilize, to truly change our operating system.

I'm going to work on that.

--

Related:

• Controlling Is Resisting
• The Ego and the World
• Thinking Is Not the Solution

Hit ten thousand followers on Instagram.

Does that officially make me an influencer?

The best part: the messages and comments.

It's helped me find a whole bunch of people who are interested in the same things I am.

And I also get tons of messages from people my videos seem to be helping.

And for now, the videos are quite easy to make.

So that's good.

--

Related:

• 4000 followers 😯
• One video per day (again)

Yet another abandoned project (for now).

Animated science fiction short film about the life of the first human on Mars... who happens to be a 7-year-old child. 

Image

When technology became advanced enough to reach Mars, every government on the planet wondered... "Who should we send?"

"I know!" someone answered. "What if we sent a child?"

And everyone thought it was a brilliant idea.

But if you ask me...

It was a crackpot idea.

Race car drivers want to drive race cars at 300 km/h on tracks. To win.

To achieve this, they need to know how to do other things: prepare physically, be mechanically savvy, build a network of partners, etc.

But a driver who only prepared physically, day after day, wouldn't become a driver: they'd become an athlete.

Another who was interested solely in mechanics would become a designer or mechanic.

As for the one who invests all their time in networking, they'll end up an agent or manager.

You must never lose sight of the goal.

What you do now is what you'll do later. Preparation can become your entire life.

The whole game is finding a way to do it now, even when conditions don't seem right.