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How often do you think about what you’re thinking about? How often do you find yourself in a negative thought process?

I think most of us end up there if we’re not careful. There’s negativity all over the news, all over your Facebook and Twitter. If you’re not careful, it will affect your thoughts, your actions, and eat you from the inside out. Our thoughts are important. They form how we treat people and ourselves; and for creative professionals, how we think is how we make a living. You literally get paid to think the way you do. So being intentional about our thinking is not only a good thing to do, it’s necessary for our work.

Positive thinking will never have a negative effect on your work. So how do we make sure our thinking stays positive? On purpose of course 🙂 By intentionally thinking about good things.

positive thinking

I love the question John Maxwell uses every day to keep his thinking in check. It’s simple:

Has my thinking been positive or negative today?



or, if you want to go ahead and make the decision ahead of time:

Will my thinking be positive or negative today?

You take what you do seriously and so do I. I know that my thinking is huge part of my process to make stuff. That means I have to guard it intentionally, every day.

Don’t forget to think about good things today. It will affect your work. The work that makes you money.

Happy Friday!

Chris

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I subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog. On Friday I got the post in my inbox and the last line said this:

“If you treat the work as nothing but an obligation, you will soon be overwhelmed by competition that sees it as a privilege and a calling.”

It challenged me to think about the work that I choose. I choose this work because I feel called to be doing what I’m doing. Not because I have to. Not because the universe demands it. But because it’s an honor to wake up and serve the people we get to serve and make the work we get to make for them.
Work-you-choose

What work do you choose? What work do you feel called to?

Your best work is likely to never happen through obligation. Your best work comes from the uncomfortable place where your vision, your goals, your contentment, and your dreams connect. Obligation will almost never have those things in mind.

Choose your work with these things in mind. Because we have to make stuff, the right stuff, wildly. Think about the work you choose and make sure it’s the work you feel called to make. Because if not, don’t be surprised when someone else wants it more and does it better.

Happy Thursday!

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  • Mark Brown - As I’m sitting here getting rusty, completely out of my rhythm – I needed this post and it’s linked post.ReplyCancel

    • Chris Creed - Dude! Thank you man. And I need this daily. We all need to be thrown back into the fight. 🙂ReplyCancel

I want you to take a some time to think about these five things.

What is your work?

Why do you do it?

Who is it for?

Who is it not for?

What does success look like?

Answer these questions, put them on a card, laminate that card, and look at it when:

You’re ready to quit.
You want to take a job because of money.
You’re wondering if you should take on a client who isn’t the right fit.
You find yourself comparing your success to others.
Remember-why

This is your Remember Why List. If we don’t keep these things fresh in our minds, we will forget. Answering these things may take some time and soul-searching but knowing the answers is essential to being able to serve people with your art… and also, to your happiness.

Happy Monday!

Chris

Question: If you want to share, how would you answer the questions on your Remember Why List?

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So a few months back, I committed to practicing playing mandolin for an hour a day for a couple days a week for a 2 months. No expectations. No real destination. The sole reason was to be doing something different that required practice for me to become better. The results were as I expected. There were times I wanted to quit. I got frustrated a lot. But I got better. The practice of doing something different fed my creativity by introducing something new into my routine. And now I can bring a mandolin to jam sessions 🙂

So, What do you practice? Everyone needs something to practice. Getting better at stuff is something that’s easy to skip as we get older. We’re not in school anymore. Our parents aren’t telling us what to do (unless we ask :)). It’s just easy to keep doing what you’re good at and just camp out in good. But having something to practice gives a chance to get better. Because we’re not here to stay the same.
What-Do-You-Practice

If you don’t have something that you practice, not your work, not what you get paid for, but something else that you can actively get better at doing, find something. Practicing something builds better thinking and will help you build better stuff.

Find something you can practice.

Happy Friday!

Chris

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  • James - I started programming lessons/practice about a month ago. I am making progress, but it really makes me feel stupid. Here’s to progress on things we’re not experts in! Thanks for being such a great encouragement, Chris!ReplyCancel

When Jen and I were in Colorado we drove out to the Great Sand Dunes National Park for a session. The drive was through a lot of nothing. Just beautiful mountains, empty roads, and ghost towns. The whole time we were all wondering when we were going to see the dunes and trying to guess which mountain they were going to appear under. We drove and drove, until we rounded one final curve and saw our first glimpse of the Sand Dunes.
Colorado-sand-dunes(pp_w860_h573)
They were small from this distance. It looked like someone took several dump trucks full of sand and dropped it right in front of a mountain. But as we got closer, the dunes got bigger, and bigger. All we kept repeating was, “I just don’t know what’s going to happen when we get there.” As we step out and look at the true vastness of it, the mountains of sand, we realized that what we saw earlier from afar was just a tiny glimpse of how awesome it is. But the view from where we are now, is unbelievable. Truly.
GriffinRoss0446
When you see a glimpse of awesome, stick around to see what happens next. Don’t ignore those flashes of insight into a “could-be-something-awesome.” If you see a glimpse of it, stick it out and see what’s next. It may blow your mind.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Chris

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