{"id":224,"date":"2026-04-20T20:09:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=224"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:09:46","slug":"your-greatest-limitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=224","title":{"rendered":"Your Greatest Limitation!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/sltHa0dt2O0\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Todays topic is focus outlook and outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won’t be as focused as some of my previous talks, but I think I’ve got some interesting ideas and good information for you. The fact is, I’ve accomplished a lot of paintings, some of them quite good. I’ve made a lot of music, some of which is quite good. I’ve got a book. So I know how to get things done. I know how to get outcomes and I’m going to share some of those insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is, wanting to accomplish something in the world or achieve one of your goals is totally doable. And it all works the same way regardless. You could be somebody that wants to be a race car driver or a world-class gardener. It could be anything. A lot of my teaching on my other channel is about painting, so some of this might be skewed that direction a little bit. But just keep in mind that this could work for just about anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Break Out of the Circle of Process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first thing I want to get into is this: it’s important to break out of your process circle. That is the area where you have collected all of these various insights that will help you accomplish whatever task it is you are interested in going after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s certainly a time and a place for collecting insights into process and I recommend implementing them and practicing a lot. But you won’t really achieve your maximal outcome by being in that place of process. You have to break out of it. You have to be outside that circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process is another way of saying techniques. Techniques will fail you unless they are internalized. On my painting channel, I’m working on a four volume series. About half the topics in that book are technique related or material related ideas. The rest are philosophical. And of the two, the philosophical ideas have a lot more import. They have a lot more impact on what you’re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve noticed over the years that people love techniques. They love materials because that’s something they feel they can hold on to. And it’s all good. But what I mean by internalize is this: techniques become internalized through repetition, through doing them again and again so that they become second nature. I’ve often stated on my painting channel that painting should be like eating or sleeping or breathing. Anything else that you do automatically. And the only way for that to be the case is by doing it a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art Is Magic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Art is magic. Now some of you have heard of Alan Moore. He’s an amazing writer of comic books and novels. He’s famous for Watchmen, which was turned into a movie. He’s a very bright man, very creative guy and a great writer. And in the nineties, he decided that he was going to be a magician. You can laugh, but he’s serious about it. I’ve seen several of his talks and in one of them he said, basically, that art is magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good definition of magic comes from Aleister Crowley. There’s a guy that really applied himself to trying to understand what magic was and implemented it. I don’t know if he succeeded or not. He’s the only one that could tell you that. But basically, magic is reality conforming to your will. What it is you want to occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I might back that up with this: we don’t see a lot of evidence of actual miracles occurring in our everyday reality. That’s not to say though that magic isn’t occurring. Magic often will occur in ways that seem very natural and for that reason is often disregarded. But it’s a good word anyway because it’s a word with a lot of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So art is magic. Both of those words have power. When you are trying to accomplish a work of art or you’re trying to accomplish any goal, anything you want to do, your intention trumps your desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can have desires for all sorts of things all day long and we don’t get them. Whereas intention is a lot more directed. When you have an intention of accomplishing your aim, that’s powerful. You don’t always accomplish everything you set out to do, but it’s good to make a distinction between those two. Desire is maybe the spark, but intention is the mature collecting of your force of will directed at your goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not about magic circles or ritual magic or any of that stuff. You got the wrong guy there. But philosophically I think these ideas are sound and powerful and probably useful as well. I know they are actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop Overthinking It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Whatever it is you want to do is stop overthinking it. There comes a place and a time to research, collect data and information, marshal your intention. But at some point you have to just do. You have to go in the direction of the thing it is that you want to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have to repeat several times before you’re successful, but if you work at it and you honestly believe that it’s accomplishable, in other words, not a miracle, you will accomplish your goal. You will accomplish the thing that you want to occur. It could be a work of art. It could be the dream job. It could be that beautiful house in another country you want. Could be anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be and Do a Lot<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You have to be and do a lot of whatever it is that you’re interested in accomplishing. It’s got to become reflexive. It’s got to be something that you just do. And this is the way that you get what it is you desire in this world. It’s not by climbing Mount Everest, but by like you go to the store for a carton of milk, that kind of thing. It needs to be offhand and repeatable. You need to be it and you need to do it. Don’t overthink it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make something good, to make something great, you have to be and do it quite a bit before you start really clicking. Sometimes you get early successes. But to make something truly great, you need repetition and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There Is No Try<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There is no try. Do or do not. When you do, maybe you’re not that happy with the outcome. Well, do it some more and do it some more and don’t be too hung up on measuring your success or failure in increments like that. Take a long view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you take a long view, I’m speaking from experience here as a guy who’s been painting for fifteen years, the sorts of paintings I do now, the level I work at now, the things that I know do not work, it’s so much greater. It’s like on steroids compared to what I was before. And when I was before it was good. I would say that with all humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know Why You Want It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Why is it that you want the thing that you want? It’s important maybe to work that out because sometimes you say, “Oh, I want money.” For what? What are you going to do with it? You’re going to stuff your mattress with it, sleep on it? No. You want money for the things that it could accomplish for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it’s much better if you’re trying to focus on building something or creating something not to make it about money because that’s not going to do it. You need to think of what you’d be doing with that money and why you would be doing it and why it would be a great thing and live in it. Be it and do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it’s also good to know why you want it. That gives you strength. That gives you a place of solidity that you can start from and build upon. A lot of times people just say, “Well, I want this. I want that.” They’re just frittering their energies. Or maybe they think the thing they want is actually something that if they got it would be really bad. That happens. So it’s good to search your feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Search Your Feelings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When your feelings are in alignment with your intention, nothing can stop you. There’s nothing in this world that can stop you. You will succeed. It’s a given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your mental intention or framework is not in alignment with your heart and your feelings, you are basically impotent. You’re not going to be able to do very much except feel like a failure. And well, that’s a lot of us a lot of the time. And that’s what this talk is directed to. Not just for you, but for myself, for all of us. Because we all want things. We all want outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How do you know what you don’t know? There’s one answer to this question. Only one. You don’t. You don’t know what you don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So don’t worry too much about that when you’re setting off towards your outcomes that you want to accomplish in your life. Don’t set up too many parameters or barriers or beliefs. Because the more of those you have, the more you’re going to have to overcome to achieve your outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Greatest Limitation Is Your Outlook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

What do you think your greatest limitation is? It’s your outlook. It’s your attitude. And to most of us, most of the time, our outlook or our attitude is just AKA reality. We just think that’s how things are. We don’t consider it much. But I’m not the kind of person that believes you should be thinking about questioning every aspect of your life all day long, every day. I do believe that life should be explored. Your existence should be pondered. But there’s things you want to get done. There’s outcomes you’re seeking. It’s your outlook that is your greatest limiting factor. Your attitude. Attitude is everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a boss in the old days, I used to hire people to do a job. I always hired for attitude. When I saw somebody had a great attitude, that’s what I hired. Everything else you could train for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can train yourself. You can change your own outlook. You can change your own attitude. But it’s important to understand that that outlook is based on your personality, which is very, very, very difficult to change. Maybe impossible. I won’t say it’s impossible. You can do it. But it’s easier just to work within the parameters you were given. And that’s essentially what your personality is. Your personality is different from mine. All of our personalities are different. And the universe sent us here with the personalities we have. These are our big, natural limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as a subset of that, are all the beliefs we entertain, some of them positive, some of them negative. And those are going to determine the outcomes. Those basically determine our outlook, which will determine our outcome. So work on that outlook basis. Personality, maybe you could change it. I don’t know. Personality is hard to change. But changing your outlook is easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belief and Action<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you have an intention, there’s something you want to create, might be a painting, might be owning that car dealership that you’ve dreamed of, might be buying a lovely house in another country, you want to look at your attitudes, your beliefs about this. It’s really, really destructive to have a strong desire for something while at the same time having a belief that you can’t have it, that you won’t get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not very good at being inauthentic. But there is a way. If you’re honest with yourself, you have to admit that, first of all, you know you’re limited. Second of all, you have to believe that you can accomplish the things that you dream of. And that starts by going after them, identifying them, maybe not working so hard on the details of them. The big mission is to believe that you can accomplish them and then act in regards to them happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83c\udf10 Website : https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art
\u270d\ufe0f Substack essays: https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.substack.com\/
\ud83c\udfa8 Painting & demonstrations: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MFrancis
\ud83d\udcda Book: https:\/\/www.landscapepainter.co.nz\/book<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do it, be it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Francis McCarthy
The Anti-Influencer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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