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This week I’ve been experimenting with cold exposure. I first heard about it in the book The 4-Hour Body by Tim Farris. Being exposed to sudden cold is said to have an effect on your metabolism, help fight depression, and even help fight infection and ward off colds (believe it or not!). But I chose to ignore it.

Until, one night at 2 am, my friend Dave Whitley says “Let’s go outside and pour a bucket of water on our head!” So, we did. It was 20 degrees outside. I was in a pair of shorts and I proceeded to pour two buckets of ice cold water over my head. Obviously, there was pain. You have to fight for your breath and constantly remind your brain that you’re not going to die. But once it’s all done, the feeling it gives you is incredible and you realize two things:

1) It didn’t kill me.

2) I really want to do that again.

All the health benefits aside, this for me is more about getting UNCOMFORTABLE. We live in a constant state of comfort and as my friend Dave reminded me, we are not designed to live this way. By design, our bodies are built for changes in temperature and light, both of which remind constant everyday. But when we get uncomfortable and realize it didn’t kill us, we feel alive. It’s because uncomfortable is literally what we were made for. That’s why we make such better art when we get uncomfortable.

You don’t have to pour cold water over your head outside in the snow today. (But I dare you to ;)) But If you want to make better art. To make better stuff. We have to get used to what it feels like to be uncomfortable.

Get UncomfortableI Dare You

DARE:

It’s really cold today. I DARE someone to go outside and pour cold water over your head. If you do, tell me about it.

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  • Challenge Accepted » Nyk + Cali | Wedding Photography Blog - […] morning while Cali and I were laying in our warm, cozy bed I stumbled upon a blogpost by my buddy and awesome photographer, Chris Creed. At the end he dared me to go outside and dump a […]ReplyCancel

  • Chris Crimmins - Um wow. I have done the cold showers before, but not the ice water outside deal.

    I really love the uncomfortable aspect though. It does seem that all the magic is right outside of our comfort zone. Thanks for writing this Chris!ReplyCancel

    • Chris Creed - Thanks for reading Chris. Miss you guys today!ReplyCancel

  • Cynthia Haynes - Smiling as I read this, Chris, nodding in agreement and remembering how I did the same when you spoke at What If Portland. My notes from your speech have been dog-eared, highlighted and referenced many times. Thanks to you and your beautiful wife for pouring virtual buckets of icy water over all our heads. Big hugs!ReplyCancel

    • Chris Creed - Cynthia. Unbelievably humbled. Thank you so much and thank you for reading. So, so glad to hear from you 🙂ReplyCancel

  • Kyle Bickham - Ha! I’ll pass on the cold water, maybe another day. Great post. The best things we’ll ever do only come with some discomfort.ReplyCancel

This sign is invisible. There are no signs and there are no maps on for this road. There will be traffic though. There will be slow cars and duck crossings.

We’re creatives. It’s our job to connect new roads and find new places.  No need to wait in traffic. Go ahead and pass.

DoNotPass

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Earlier this year I was on a kickball team with some friends and yes, it was awesome. But this isn’t your average grade-school-gym-class-kickball we’re talking about. It was more like fast pitch softball meet’s Ben Stiller-Vince Vaughn-Wrench-Throwing-Dodgeball. It was intense and way more competitive than it should have been. But alas, fun.

So on the night of our first game, not knowing what to expect, we laughed and joked about how many homeruns we’ll kick and fly balls we’ll catch. When my friend Mark, laughing, says, “I should probably just slow down. I’m trying to frame my jersey before I even play.”

We had no idea how to even play the game yet and we were all talking like they were going to put us in the kickball hall-of-fame! Obviously, we it was all in good fun. And in our defense, we were awesome 😉 But it made think about other times when I’ve tried to “frame my jeresey” before I’d even worn it.

When you try to be an expert right out of the gate, you set yourself up for failure. And when you start comparing yourself to what other people are doing that have been in the game longer, your brain goes to one of two responses:

1) I could never be that good.

or

2) I should be that good.

We put ridiculous expectations on ourselves to be great at something when we haven’t even had time to suck at it yet. Whether it’s writing, photography, speaking, or even kickball, at the start you can’t expect to be as good as someone who’s done it before.  You can’t expect to win all the awards, frame all the jerseys, or impress all the people straight out of the gate. It takes time, it takes relationships, and most importantly commitment.

I don’t like to suck at stuff. If I’m bad at something I want to become “not bad” as fast as possible. Luckily, someone else does too… I recommend Josh Kaufman’s book The First 20 Hours. It’s all about rapid skill acquisition by making it past the first 20 hours of committed practice. He’s says…

“…if you can’t make it past the first 20 hours, you are never going to make it to the part where your really, really, good and everybody knows it.”

Also, check out Todd Henry‘s great interview with him on The Accidental Creative Podcast for a quick intro to the idea.

I just want you (and me) to understand that, yes there all people who are better than you. Yes there are masters.
They all had to start. They all had to learn. They all had to push past the suck to get to the greatness.

Give yourself time to be terrible. Don’t place yourself up against someone who’s been doing it for 5,10, 20 years.

Don’t frame your jersey before you wear it.

Don

 Question:

How much time are you willing to allow yourself to learn something new?

 

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This blog used to be nothing.

It used to be a just a note in my notebook, “write a blog about creativity and work.” I delayed writing because I wanted to make something that mattered. I worried that I didn’t know where to start or how to start or what to say. Because I wanted to make something that mattered, I didn’t make anything at all because I knew it would never be good enough.

Here’s the secret to making something that matters: You have to make something first.

I’m not saying that’s all it takes to be great, but that is all it takes to start. Making something doesn’t guarantee success, but it will always help you to see what’s next. Greatness is not the destination, greatness is all about what you do today.

If you want to be a better business person, Start reading. (Highly recommend The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman)

If you want to be a better photographer, Start shooting. (A lot!)

If you want to be a better public speaker, Start speaking in front of people.

If you want to be a better writer, Start writing.

Just Make Stuff

 

Don’t worry about making something that will change the world. Just make stuff, show it to the world, and do it again, and again. Contribution is how you change your world. Not worrying about rather it’s good enough or not. 

 

Question: What will you contribute today?

Happy Wednesday!

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Ernest Freaking HemingwayThere’s a lot of stuff I don’t know. Like ALOT of stuff. It’s not that I forget that… or that I actively think that I do indeed know all the things. It’s just that I act as if what other people (Peers, colleagues, family, other creatives) have to say is somehow not going to help me. Not that it’s not important but as if I don’t need to hear it. “This is not for me. I know what I’m doing. I’m a professional.”

Well, I don’t know what I’m doing sometimes. Sometimes it’s a big huge fail.

In fact, if there is one thing I (and you) can be absolutely sure of: I don’t know it all.

 

So maybe it’s time I start listening to people who might know something that I don’t.

Because the truth is, we all have unique life experiences that make us all totally different. You see the world different from me. You can make stuff differently, or even better, than me. Why shouldn’t I pay attention to that? How completely caught up in my own stuff do I have to be to ignore such an obvious truth?

Just because we’re creatives, doesn’t mean we have to go it alone. Let’s learn from each other.

Let’s treat each other like a good piece of timeless literature. Like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dickens, or Melville. What if we pretend for a moment that we all are writing a piece of literature that will influence readers for generations to come. With stories so compelling, people will read it to their children and their children’s children.

Now, Doesn’t that sound like something worth reading? Doesn’t that sound like something we might need to pay attention to?

I’m not saying to let everything you hear into your life. I’m simply suggesting that we (I) swallow our pride, suck it up, and listen to what people are trying to say. Not everybody thinks like you do. It’s time to expand our thinking by learning from each other.

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