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I’ve been living in the need to lately. 

I’ll catch myself all the time saying I need to do something.

I need to write that.

I need to buy that.

I need to go there.

I need to do this.

Harmless statements. Until it becomes more than a statement. Until it becomes procrastination.

I’m lucky to be married to someone who will call me on my stuff. 

My wife said to me recently, “You know I love hearing your ideas. But you’ve been saying ‘I need to…’ a lot lately. How about you just do it?”

Touche.

How about you just do it?
Chris Creed Blog, Work Blog, Creativity

Living in the ‘need to’ can trick you into thinking you already did. Saying we need to do something over and over again, can make our brains believe we actually did it. The only problem here of course is that no one else is inside your head but you. The world doesn’t live in your head. The people who need what only you can give don’t live in your head. Believing that you need to do it is not enough.

When does ‘need to’ become ‘Done?’

‘Done’ is when good stories happen.
‘Done’ is when people start to listen.

You can only talk about needing to do something for so long before people start to believe that you’re never going to do anything. Or worse, they think that you must not need to do it. Because when you need to do something, you do it.

How about you just do it?

I don’t want to hear myself talk about all the things I need to do. And neither does anybody else. Things that are done… those are good stories. And everyone will want to hear them.

Question:

Do you ever get caught up in the ‘need to?’
What’s one thing you can do this week that you can strike off your ‘need to’ list?

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I’ve been reading The In-Between by Jeff Goins over the weekend. A book about living, embracing, and taking in the life that happens in between big events or big steps. 

Books like this always seem to find me when I need them most. Which is a cool thing that I’ve noticed since I’ve started reading a little more heavily. The books you tend to gravitate towards are the ones you need the most. It’s weird but it’s true 🙂
So a few pages in, I read this phrase: The Slowness of Life.
chris creed blog, chris creed, creativity, intentional living, slowness of life

The slowness of life. Life is slow. It’s slower than we want. It’s slower than we expect.

Traffic.
Travel.
Long work days.
Waiting, waiting, waiting. For something more awesome to happen. For the big next. For the real life to start.
We rush it. We push it. We try to make it something crazy and wild and new but the truth is, as Jeff points out in his book, the real awesome defining moments happen in the slowness. The slowness of life is the best of life.

Life comes at us fast AND slow. Slow enough to see it all go by and too fast for us to realize that this is it. Don’t rush this time. Don’t miss this incredible gift of slow. Because that is exactly what it is… A gift.

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Failure, Chris Creed Blog, Success

There’s not a right way to be creative. There’s not a right way to write a book or a song or to release an album (as Beyoncé taught us all last night).

There is no right way to make progress. You just make it. Sometimes progress looks like winning. Sometimes it looks like losing. But it will always be progress.

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To Rebels,

You’re going to shake stuff up. You’re going to make stuff that will blow peoples minds. Whatever conversation that’s going on in your head today telling you’re wrong. Telling you you’re failing. Telling you it’s over and you lose.
Forget it. You’re a Rebel. That’s you.
You win.

Rebel, Chris Creed, Chris Creed Blog, Work Blog, The cool thing about being a rebel: You don’t have to listen to the haters. Because they’re fighting for status quo. They’re fighting to keep things the same. Change is the their enemy. Which means you.

Making stuff will almost always come with change. Change will always come with critics.

“The critics are ALWAYS wrong.”
-Seth Godin

Happy Thursday 🙂

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I wish there were a ‘life cost’ tag on activities. Not a price. We know how much money we are willing to spend on things. But I’m talking about how much ‘life’ will this cost? How awesome would it be it you could look at something and see “This will cost x amount of life.” It would certainly make it easier to prioritize. What if there were a tracker that kept track of your time on Facebook vs. Your time spent outside? Your time spent with your family and friends vs. work? And at the end of the month, you would get your Life-Cost Report filling you in on where you spent the most time and energy.

If you could see these numbers, where would you want the most ‘Life’ to be spent? Thinking about this will make it easier to know the things that are important to you. And when you know what’s important you can make something that matters. Because in order to make stuff that matters, you have to know what matters.

The cost of living is paid for in time and energy. Deciding where to spend it is the most influential decision we will make today.

Cost Of Living

Work.
Social Media.
Friends.
Family.
Being outdoors.

All these things are good. They are all worth our time. We just need to know when and how to spend our time and energy in order to keep our cost of life from getting away from us. You can’t make any more time for today. You can’t make any more energy for today. You have today to spend today’s time and today’s energy.

How will you spend today’s ‘Life’?

Happy Wednesday, guys!

**If you’re interested in tracking your time, I use the iTrack My Time app. It beautifully designed and easy to use. It provided some insight into where most of my time and energy was going.**

Question:

Where do you suspect most of your time and energy is going this week? Where would you like it to be spent?

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  • Tom Schaber - I’ve read thousands of messages, posts, emails, words of wisdom in my 68 years but this post is the best I have ever read-bar none! It nails accountability to self right between the eyes. If you do not pay attention to this why bother paying attention to life. Thank you!

    TomReplyCancel

    • Chris Creed - Wow, Tom. Thank you so much. I just think the decisions involving our time and energy will influence our lives in ways we can’t even imagine. Not just our mood, but our life direction, and goals are affected as well.

      Thank you for reading, Tom.ReplyCancel

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