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“But I can’t leave this part out of the story I write. And there are worse ways to start the first day of the rest of my life.”
Nickel Creek, Rest of My Life

Maybe everything’s crazy for you right now. Maybe you’re up to you neck in emails and editing. Maybe you’re not getting as many calls as you would like or as much business. But you can’t leave this part out of the story and you wouldn’t want to. Don’t stop here, it’s just starting to get good!

Dont-leave-this-part-out

Keep waking up. Keep making awesome stuff. Keep creating momentum in your life.

If you feel like your Hustle Is Broken,

If you feel like you’re in an After-Rhythm,

… remember, you can’t leave this part out of the story you’re writing. Stories without struggle are boring. There is an ebb and flow to life, energy, work, and creativity. And sometimes, like my friend James says, you might be ebbin’ real hard. That doesn’t mean it’s time to quit, it means it’s time to rest, take a step back for a minute, then start again.

You can’t leave this part out. Keep telling the story only you can tell.

Happy Thursday!

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Alternate title of this post:

More from The Start-Up of You: #slowestreaderever

I read books slowly. Some books. Others, I breeze through but most books I read, I read slow. The reasons being 1) I take ALOT of notes because it helps my brain to connect the dots. 2) I like to. So there. 3) I sometimes get sidetracked by other books and start reading more than one at a time.

I’m still reading the Start-Up Of You By Ried Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. And If you can’t tell by the other two posts (Here and Here) I’ve written about this book, I like it. The chapter I’m in now is titled, “Pursue Breakout Opportunities.” The Big Idea of this chapter: Success begins with opportunities. Seeking them out, recognizing them, acting on them. This chapter stood out in my mind because these same principles apply to business and creativity.

Some ideas, favorite quotes, and my thoughts from this chapter:

The idea of serendipity:
Pg. 151 “Winning the lottery is blind luck. Serendipity involves being alert to a potential opportunity and acting on it. Still, even if you’re curious and alert, opportunities won’t just fall into your lap. Almost every case of serendipity involves doing something.”

After that quote, he references back to an earlier story he told about a young George Clooney moving to Hollywood from Kentucky, like so many others, in hopes of becoming a star. But he didn’t just sit around, He was auditioning non-stop, playing in bad movies, looking for a breakout opportunity. That’s when he got wind of a show in the works called E.R. He didn’t wait for them to call him, he called the executive producer and let them know that he wasn’t going to let any other actor have that lead role. He auditioned and got the part. Because of the momentum from that opportunity, soon after that came Oceans Eleven and now he’s George Freaking Clooney.

Pretty cool how momentum works. Your doing stuff and doing stuff and doing stuff and it seems like forever. Then when that opportunity comes along, and your paying attention and you act on it, things seem to happen a lot faster after that. It’s like a snowball rolling down the hill collecting snow as it goes. The farther it rolls down the hill, the more snow it collects with each turn. Clooney wasn’t an over night success but it looks like it unless you pay attention to the hustle.

The Idea of Courting Randomness

Love this idea. Sometimes opportunities present themselves when we’re in a random situation that we aren’t usually in. So seek out randomness but give it some direction.

“The best way to ensure that lucky things happen to you is to make sure a lot of things happen.”- Bo Peabody

Connecting to Human Groups

YES! Like real live humans! Connecting with other people is important on so many levels. Hang out with your friends and think stuff up.

“Opportunities do not float like clouds. The are firmly attached to individuals.”

He talks about meeting regularly with friends at a coffee-house to think and dream and talk shop. He tells the story of Benjamin Franklin’s tendencies to round-up friends for regular meet-ups. One of the groups Franklin started, called Junto (“hoon-toe”), birthed ideas such as: public libraries, volunteer fire dept., public hospitals, and the University of Pennsylvania.

“The only thing better than joining groups is starting your own.”

Sometimes just hanging out with friends in a group and talking can bring crazy ideas to life. You might not even be trying, but when we’re in a group full of like-minded people, group creativity can run wild. See for yourself! Start a group and hang out! If it’s good enough for B-Frank, It’s good enough for me 😉

“Chance favors the connected mind.”
-Steve Johnson

You can get this book here:

Start-up-of-you

I would recommend it to anyone who wants to shake stuff up and make stuff happen. Especially if you make stuff for a living.

Loving it still. I keep you updated as I continue to plow through 😉

Happy Wednesday, guys!

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I’ve written about flow a couple of times but I feel that I’m leaving out a vital part. Flow is the state of optimum performance for humans: The feeling of getting lost in your work. It happens to creatives, accountants, snowboarders, weightlifters… all across the board there is a commonality between us and this is the ability to get lost in our work or Flow. An important part of flow, that I was reminded of while writing about Broken Hustle, is the “After-Rhythm.” After-Rhythm is what Steven Kotler, author of The Rise Of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance, used to describe the dip that comes after being inside that flow state, where everything is coming quickly and your work is awesome and you love it, to a place where things just aren’t happening with as much ease. The after-rhythm is natural, it’s normal, and it’s going to happen.

Sometimes we get in a hurry when things start to get slow. Whether “slow” is in the form of us slowing down in energy and hustle or in creativity and work, when things start to get slow we panic. Remember, there will be an ebb and flow. A natural rhythm to our work and our life and we have to learn to not only accept that but to understand it. To recognize when it’s coming and have a plan.

Here’s what to do when you start to arrive in the After-Rhythm:

1) Don’t Panic.
2) Rest.
3) Start taking in (a lot) new ideas. (via books, conferences, friends over coffee…)
4) Start making more stuff.

Flow, After Rhythm
An after-rhythm is the receding wave after the epic crash on the sea stacks as the water falls down the rocks. It’s the calm after the storm of awesome. The most important thing to remember is that it will come again but you can’t force it. You just have to start the process over again and be ok with that. If you want to make awesome stuff consistently over time you can’t give up every time your tank is empty. Just becasue you run out of gas doesn’t mean you bail on the journey.  Just keep an eye on the fuel gauge, pull over, fill up the tank and keep going. Keep making stuff.

Happy Monday!

 

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Let’s be real. We all want to hustle. We all want to wake up and bust it. But sometimes, it’s just not happening. Some days it’s like hustle is just not that into you. You know you have stuff to do but sometimes, it’s just hard. I get it.

hustle, What if my hustle is broken

I wish I had the answer. I wish there was an answer. But there’s not really. I think, especially when you’re working for yourself, there is an ebb and flow in energy and hustle just as there is with creativity. As much as we try to show up everyday, sometimes it’s just not there. It’s not an excuse, it’s reality. If we’re completely honest I think we all go through this from time to time.

Just because your hustle is broken, doesn’t mean you are. Just because you may not feel like killing it today doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It means you’re human. Don’t let the lie that no one else ever deals with this to make you feel like you’re not capable of winning. You are. Winning doesn’t come without the race and sometimes you just need to freaking stop and take a drink of water.

If your hustle is broken today, don’t freak out. Mine is too sometimes. Pause, rest, go for a walk or for a beer (or 2 or 3 :)) Give yourself a little grace and don’t worry, it will be back 🙂

Happy Friday, friends!

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  • Micah G Robinson - Boom! So true

    My tricks; beer with friends, anything with friends, and get off my ass (ie stop sitting in a chair) and use my standup desk!
    But beer with friends, yeah.ReplyCancel

    • Chris Creed - Micah! Dude. Seriously. I get that man. Nothing recharges me like chilling with a beer and some friends! The stand up deck seems like a good change too. Thanks man!ReplyCancel

What will I do that’s new this month? This week?

In an attempt to someday be able to jam with Chris Thile (Probably not gonna happen), I started practicing mandolin this week. Every session I practice scales, new chords, simple songs, whatever I can do to familiarize myself with the the instrument. It’s a slow growth experience. I’m allowing myself some time to suck (because I do) but the experience has become less about being good and more about the act of doing something new and different.

Part of taking care of yourself creatively is breaking away from the norm. Doing something different. Introducing novel ideas (and a lot of them) is proven to be one of the contributing factors to Flow. Flow is the state of optimum performance for humans: The feeling of getting lost in your work. It happens to creatives, accountants, snowboarders, weightlifters… all across the board there is a commonality between us and this is the ability to get lost in our work. Flow.

By doing something new like reading a new book, practicing a new instrument or learning a new skill, we give our brain something to use to connect the old information in our brains to the new. This supplies us with new ideas because of the new connections we’ve made and that is the neurological definition of creativity. #science 😉

It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. It doesn’t even have to be “creative” (i.e. drawing, writing, painting…) it just has to be new. Creativity’s biggest influencer is “The New.”

The New

Here are a few new things you can do this week:

Start a new show on Netflix (Breaking Bad #awesome, Friday Night Lights, The X-Files)
Read a new book (Fiction if you read mostly non-fiction, non-fiction if mostly fiction)
Pick up and intentionally practice an instrument (Don’t just play it. Practice. Look up tutorials or get a beginners book)
Work in a different place for the day (Collaborative workspace, coffee shop, park)
Go to a movie in the middle of the day

Whatever it is, just try to do something new this weekend and this month and see how/if it increases your creativity.

Happy Thursday, folks!

Question:

Have you ever experienced that feeling of getting lost in your work (Flow)?
What are some NEW things you’ve done that have made you ant to make stuff?

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