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It’s been done…

a.k.a. excuse #5678 why you aren’t going to do anything about your ideas. Why you shouldn’t write what you’re going to write, or take that image your going to take, or start that business you’re going to start. It’s NOT a lie. It’s a cop-out.

You’re right. It has been done.  Do it anyway.

I listened to a sweet young lady talk about contribution yesterday on Chris Brogan’s Owner’s Mind Podcast. Her name is Cara Lumen, she’s 81 years old. When asked about what she would tell people to write about, she had this to say:

“Write what calls to you. Write about what you need to know.”

Chris then talked to her about how something she wrote was very similar to something Ralph Waldo Emerson written and Chris had written something similar as well. He asked, “Nothing is new. Does that mean you and I shouldn’t tell people again?”

Cara: “No, because they don’t remember… But you know what’s even better… They may not be in the right cycle for it. Our lives are all in cycles.”

its-been-done

I’m going to take this a step further and make it about making: Make what calls to you. Make what you need to make right now. Yes it’s likely been done before. Do it again because you need it and it needs to be made by you. If you need it, chances are good that somebody else needs it too. By not making it, you’re cheating yourself and the world out of something that needs to be made. Make what you need because we all need it too.

“It’s been done” is just an excuse. A lame one. Make it anyway and make it good.

Happy Friday, Yo!

Chris

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You don’t always have to do what’s expected. Great art will always have an element of Unexpected. Great ideas, great businesses, great thinkers, great brands, great stories, all have an element of unexpected that keeps people coming back. It’s why people binge watch tv shows. It’s why people are committed to certain brands. It’s why certain stories that were crafted over 2,000 years ago are still told today. This happens because something was involved that was unexpected and we love it.

This makes me think of this commercial:


The dude dropped the mic, and walked away. #awesome

What kind of story are you telling? Are you living a story that’s expected? Or are you intentionally making it unexpected?

 

Story telling

If you want to make something out of the norm, that’s not like everything else, that’s not the “same,” add some unexpected. People will notice. The unexpected makes the story more interesting. It makes people wonder what could possibly come next. Some people won’t like it, but it wasn’t for them anyway. Your show is for the binge watchers. Make it memorable. Make it unexpected.

Happy Thursday!

Chris

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This is a guest post from my friend Mark Brown. Mark is the writer of the awesome blog and future book Notes-To-Self (which I highly suggest you subscribe to and get in your inbox every morning… NOW!) and he’s also a brilliantly talented speaker. I love his work and it’s an honor to have him write for The Work Blog. You can connect with him through his blog and on Facebook.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Three Pillars of Creation

Creativity:

This, while seemingly obvious, is difficult at times. Creativity is not a constant,inexhaustible attribute gifted only to a few at birth. There are many times when inspiration is absent, and we still must consciously choose to create. Creativity is a mindset to be producer instead of simply a consumer for a period of time. It’s a wonderful openness to impress a point of view upon others AS WELL AS have points of view pressed upon you. It’s malleable. It’s evolving. It’s a “living” seed that needs nourishment, patience, and care.

Proactivity:

This, in my opinion, is the hard part. This is the part that takes tremendous courage, faith, and diligence. This is the part we have to internalize that KNOWING IS NOTHING– that the only way for our art to take it’s first breath into the realm of real is to DO. Here we must put pen to paper and choose not to let our gift suffocate and expire within the parameters of our mind. When we truly understand proactivity, we release the illusion of tomorrow and take action now.

Humility:

Because of the mammoth amount of self-talk, self-persuasion, and self-imposed confidence it takes for any creative to actualize their art, sometimes we forget to turn these mechanisms off after the fact. But it’s imperative to do so. As creatives, artists, workers, and makers we must simply release our piece into the world and allow the community to react naturally (simple, yet hard). I personally like to think of our work as a child. As such, I ask myself how I would like to hang out with new parents that only boasted, bragged, and could only carry a conversation about their child? The short answer is, I respect their decision to do so, but then no longer desire their company. Let’s be humble when it comes to our creations and, heck – our lives in general. If the late Mother Theresa could be humble about her work, certainly we can be humble about ours.
Pillars-of-Creation

I’m excited to see your work. Be well!

Mark

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Last night, Jen and I finished Friday Night Lights. We started binge watching it about 4 weeks ago on Amazon Prime because we were tired of hearing people tell us how awesome it is. We absolutely loved it. Afterwards, thinking about how much I’m going to miss these people and these stories, I thought about what the show was about. Yes, it’s about high school football and all the stories that go along with that. But I think there are certain themes that really carry the show and make you want to keep coming back.

These are the three things I learned from Friday Night Lights:

1. The Power of Good Stories
A good story, is a good story, is a good story. The story telling in this show is classic.

Why is it important? Because there’s a power that lies in a good story. A power to draw us in and keep us for good. This show is excellent at telling them. It’s just a good freaking story and for that, I am a sucker.

2. The Power of Good Leadership
There is leadership in this show that inspires change. Coach Eric Taylor (in the show, he’s called on more than one occasion a “molder of men”) has some crazy awesome leadership moments. He also has some crazy epic leadership fails. But as you follow the story, you see that he understands his failure but doesn’t let it defeat him and more so, he learns from it. This makes him a good leader. Tami Taylor also shows exemplary leadership throughout the show as well. She’s pretty much spot on as a guidance councilor, principal, and mother.

Why is it important? Because good leadership can inspire change. We need it. We need to learn it.

3. The Power of Good Relationships
Relationships. How to make them work, how to break them, what good relationships look like, why we need them. All of these things come through in a powerful way.

Why it is important? Because understanding how we relate to other people should be a part of our plan for success. We live in a world with other humans. We need to learn how to live with each other. Relationships are very, very important.
Friday-Night-Lights

It’s just a TV show right? Yeah it is. But these things that it deals with? Those are real life. Those are real ideals that we can adopt to be better creatives, business owners, and humans. I believe that’s what keeps people coming back. Because we want these things to be present in our own lives. Clear eyes, full hearts…

Happy Monday guys!

Chris

 

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What comes before winning?

It is so painfully obvious that we miss it. It’s so incontestably right in front of us that it’s hard to see. You see it on a poster in high school football locker rooms. You see it written on motivational posters. You see it on that dude’s shirt at the gym. It’s cliché, but it’s true…

What comes before winning?

Commitment.

Commitment to seeing it through. Commitment to accomplishing what you set out to do. Commitment is a decision. A single decision that must be made everyday. A decision to do the things we said we would do and see through the things we start. A decision to choose, everyday, to do the things we may not want to do in order to reach our goals.Success-is-never-owned-rory-vaden2

 

Commitment is not something we can decide on once and forget about. It’s not a New Year’s resolution. It is a daily decision to wake up and do what needs to be done in order to win. It’s commitment, and re-commitment, and re-commitment. Everyday.

If you want to win, commit to winning. Not just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard.

Happy Friday, folks!

Chris

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