Category: Creativity
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Highlighting the practice
My friend Nik wrote something kind about me and this blog. I really appreciated this excerpt: A writer who can maintain a daily blog through the chaotic storm that everyday life can be is a much stronger writer than someone who only types when they feel like they have the time for it — and…
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Determination vs. desperation
At some point in your life, you will need to cut off your options and make a critical decision. You send a message out to yourself, and to everyone else, that you are committed to follow through. There’s no other option for you. All the epic metaphors come to mind—you are making a leap of…
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Write a new future today
50 Cent’s favorite rappers are KRS-One and Kool G Rap. Still, he hasn’t patterned his career after theirs. He asks in Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter, “What would be the point of that? They were both incredible in their moment, but I’ve always been more concerned about creating my own moments rather than copying theirs.” In…
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Practice, audition, and performance
These are three very different experiences with different goals. When you practice, the goal is to improve. It’s as much a safe space to try new work and techniques, as it is a space to refine your current techniques. Having fun and gaining energy is critical to maintaining a good practice. At this stage, you…
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Read your old journals
Writing a journal is nice, but it’s just as rewarding—maybe even moreso—to go back and read it. It’ll give you hints—or direct advice—when you feel confused. I highly recommend adding your own old journals to your reading list. One helpful technique is to combine sources—for example, you can look at a journal entry from 10…
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Say what needs to be said
It took Wattpad co-founder Allen Lau decades to learn to speak up, instead of stopping himself when something needed to be said. He writes, “For me, I kept telling myself I needed to err on the side of speaking up too much. Trust me, even with that, the end result is that on many occasions…
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Choosing how you feel
My friend Peter has been running Barrel, which has grown into Barrel Holdings, for 18 years. In the past, he’d constantly feel the worries of what could go wrong the following week, even on holidays. If you’re an entrepreneur or independent, you’ll know exactly what Peter means—when the buck stops with you, you’re ultimately responsible…
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One sitting vs. many sittings
When you commit to making something, and not stopping until you’re finished, you’re tapping into an incredibly powerful energy. This is the power of one sitting. It has the same energy as a sprint. For example, hackathons take this force to the extreme, stretching the time window out to a full day or two. If…
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From 0 to 3,000 book sales
I recently found out I’d sold over 3,000 copies of Creative Doing in under two years. My goal is to promote the book until I sell 10,000 copies, a number which represents the point where people are discussing it via word of mouth. I am well on my way towards it. I have been putting…
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Afterthought vs. forethought
Marvel has made a bunch of really great, cohesive, films that fit together well. You’d think that they had it all planned it out, and that’s not the case. Rather, the studio looks back at its previous body of work for material that could turn into solutions. C. Robert Cargill, screenwriter on the 2016 Doctor…