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For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a fear of losing things. In college, I once called my little brother at 3 am to see if he could look for my Gameboy at home because I just had to know where it was RIGHT THEN! You get the idea. I’m crazy like that.

So also when I was in college I had an iPod and a North Face backpack on me at all times. The iPod was the first video iPod and had a whole 30 GBs of space that held some SNL skits and the theme song from Family Matters and Saved By The Bell. Awesome.

On the night of my best friend’s 21st birthday I drove him to get some wings and a beer, took him to his place and I come back to mine and go to bed. The next morning I get in my car, to find my passenger side door unlocked. I didn’t really think much of it until I got in, reached around for my back pack… and it’s gone. I think “Well maybe I left inside?” Nope it’s gone. Along with my iPod, several books, and $1.45 in pennies.

My worst nightmare, right? I couldn’t believe it. I mean who steals stuff?! We never found it and I had to learn how to let go. And it was hard. Not because I relied on those things. Not because of what they were. It was because I missed the way it FELT to have them.

I was thinking on this today and found that I also have a problem not wanting to lose memories of times spent with friends and people I love. That’s why I love what I do. I get to help people remember specific, once in a lifetime events and times in their life. I get to help them remember what it felt like to be in that moment and document it so that everyone that was there, or who ever sees it, can remember what it felt like to be there as well.

How will people describe what it felt like for you to be here or to be around you?

What are you doing… What am I doing to make the world WANT to remember what it felt like to have us here?

I want to be a “Waker” as Hugh McLeod calls them: “A waker reminds you on a constant basis, just how alive you really are.” Someone who talks to people like they’re real and that they matter as if they’re the only person in the room. I’m learning to be better at this. And I will continue to strive for it. Because If any one word is going to describe “What is Chris Creed like?” I want it to be: awake.

Awake or not, we will leave a mark on the universe. How big it will be and how people will describe it, will be decided in the work you do today. Go make something awesome.

Life, Quotes, The Work Blog

Question:
What quality do you have that you want people to use to describe how it feels to be around you?

BE AWAKE!

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“I used to race stock cars.” He said.
My grandfather, 72, told me a story last night of the fateful night that ended his stock car racing career forever.

It was just another race. Racing was his passion. He built his own engines and fixed his own mistakes. His blood and his soul ran with the purr of the engine and his heart beat for the thrill of the race. But everything was about to change.

On the night of what would be his final race, his wife was in attendance, with their son on her hip. In his own words:

“I was near the final lap. Just around the curve was a Buick that was on my tail. You could tell the difference in the Buick engine more than anything else. You could hear it. He was eatin’ me up!”

Just as they rounded the corner, right in front of the flagman’s stand, his back wheel came loose and flew off. It flipped him around and the Buick that was on his tail ran over his car taking the top of the car with it… along with his helmet.

My grandmother, clutching their young son, looked on in terror as the helmet flew from the car. In a panic that caused her to drop him, she ran toward the track.  As she approached, the smoke lifted, the cars settled, and my grandfather, miraculously unscathed, stood up from the wreckage.

“I sold it that night. I’ve run a many of race. But the if good lord brought me through that? I’m done.”

What my grandfather didn’t say but that I believe to be true is: He realized his life wasn’t about him anymore. It was about his family. He put the value of them over one of his greatest passions. He did get to stay in the game for a while after that by building engines for several different racers and car owners. He also continued to enjoy the races…. safely from the stands.

Our priorities define us. By choosing to do one thing, it means that we are choosing not to do somethings else. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. Or it could be that both things are good, but we choose to do one over the other. I may mean to read everyday but if I don’t make it a priority, it never happens. Nobody will come in to my house at 6 am and make me read instead of watching reruns of Boy Meets World. Both good things but it’s about which is going to give me the highest return.

When you make something a priority, you make it happen because priorities keep you focused on what’s important. In order to make stuff that matters, you have to know what matters.
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John Maxwell talks about the importance of priorities in his book Today Matters.

“Nothing has added more to my success than the principle of priorities.”

He advises to ask these three questions when thinking on priorities,

1.) What is required of me?

2.) What gives the greatest return?

3.) What gives me the greatest reward?

 

So do what is required of you (Be very mindful and considerate with this one because this is what matters the most), then do what gives you more in return, and then do what rewards you back.

It’s important I think to understand the difference between return and reward.

Return- as in return on INVESTMENT. You get back what you put in.

Reward- as in it gives you personal satisfaction. You are fulfilled and content. You love what you’re doing.

Think of my grandfather’s example. His priorities post incident might look like this:

Family and Responsibility (What is required of me?)

Working to provide. (What gives me return?)

Building engines and attended races (What gives me reward?)

The success of your day depends on your priorities. Make sure everything falling into the right space.

Happy Monday!

Challenge:

Write down lists under each category today:

Required (what you must do today)

High return

High reward

Use these questions to guide your prioritization and see how it affects your work and contentment. 

 

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A couple weeks ago I experimented with varying and limiting my time on everyday activities such as email and social media. In that time I added things like writing, reading and shooting (Photographing) personal work. I knew I had a wedding to photograph that weekend and I wanted to see how this might affect my creativity. So I shut down all social media starting on Thursday and read and wrote every morning up until the day of the shoot. The result was some of my favorite work of the year.

Chris Creed Blog, Jen and Chris, The Work Blog

www.jenandchriscreed.com

I woke up the morning of the shoot not really feeling any different. If anything I felt tired and it was raining… so that wasn’t very inspiring. I was convinced that all the work I’d put in was for not and I that was going to suck. When I started shooting though, things started to happen naturally. As in: I wasn’t actively thinking up ideas but they were just happening to me as I went along.

I believe this experience was something called “Flow.”

Flow is a term proposed by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi and basically describes the feeling of getting lost in your work. This happens to me when things just start lining up due to preparation and immersion in the task at hand. It’s kinda like the Force. (yeah… it’s totally like the Force)

We’ve all heard that Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Luck= Preparation + Opportunity

Well, Flow is what happens when preparation meets opportunity meets immersion

Flow= Preparation + Opportunity + Immersion

So you prepare for it, look for it, get lost in the task and then look for it again. Don’t think that because you don’t have an idea for a perfect shot that the perfect shot won’t happen. It could, you just have to be there, be present, and make it. BUT in my opinion (and experience), the only way you can do this consistently and not burn out, is to take care of yourself creatively. You can’t leave out that part of the equation.

I am convinced that priming your brain by filling it with more awesome stuff will allow your brain to make more awesome stuff. Let your brain connect the dots for you and then sink into that feeling while you work.

Hey, it’s the same advice Yoda would give you.

May the Force be with you.

Happy Halloween Folks!

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For a time that makes it so easy to connect with each other it’s hard to really connect with each other genuinely. Going through and adding a whole crew of people on your Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or going to networking events and “making it rain” business cards all night, may help start a conversation with someone you could possibly connect with in the future but it probably won’t provide the results you want. Without having conversations with people and being real, the connections you make become transactional. Meaning one of the two people involved only care about what they get out of the relationship. Transactional relationships aren’t authentic, genuine, or (in the long-term) beneficial.

Reid Hoffman (The Start-Up Of You) has this to say about the difference between building genuine relationships and traditional “networking”:

“Old-School ‘Networkers’ are transactional. They pursue relationships thinking only about what others can do for them. And they’ll only network with people when they need something, like a job or new clients. Relationship builders, on the other hand, try to help other people first. They don’t keep score. They are aware that good deeds get reciprocated, but they’re not calculated about it. And they think about relationships all the time, not just when they need something.”

I’ve been really fortunate to have met a lot of awesome people who gave great examples of what true authentic and genuine relationships should look like. Here are a couple things to help make sure that you’re a “relationship builder” and not a “Making-it-rain networker”:

1.) Help people. Don’t expect anything back. Don’t give conditions. If this is someone you trust and you want to have a relationship with, help them. They would do the same for you and they probably will in the future.

2.) Be authentic. And by that I mean just be REAL. There are people who try to be authentic. You know who I’m talking about and you know that you can feel the Fake-Realness before they even start talking. Authenticity is about truly caring, listening, and, as Hoffman says, asking What’s in it for us ? not What’s in it for me? Don’t try to be authentic; just be real.

The Work Blog, Relationships, authenticity, business

If you start here with being real and helping people you’ll start to build genuine relationships that will add value to your network and challenge, or better yet, demand you to grow.

Nobody woke up this morning wishing they had your business card. But somebody woke up this morning and needed help. Someone woke up this morning and wished someone would be real with them. That’s were we have to meet people. In that space.

HUMP DAY!!! 🙂

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  • Sarah Koh - I completely agree Chris. Thank you for being you! XO Sarah Koh ( Free Your Authentic Spirit )ReplyCancel

“I posted a cool shot on Instagram. I just blogged an image yesterday. I gotta get up and see if anyone likes it! Maybe they’ll even comment and tell me how awesome I am!”

This is me. ALL. THE. TIME. Seeking gratification that can only be found through the “like” button and justification that can only come from the gushing compliment of a stranger. Why? Because I am human. And there is a part of all of us that needs approval and goes looking for it every chance we get. There’s a part of me that needs to be told how great I am so that I can go on and be truly “happy.”

But what if I post an image that I like and nobody digs it? What if nobody hits the “like” button? Does that make it any less creative? Does that make it anything less than what it is? Does that somehow negate the fact that it was in my head and now it’s out into the world? Does it take away it’s value?

No.

I heard Todd Henry say once, “Work has value for the sake of work. You may be recognized for your work and that’s fine. You may also labor in obscurity doing brilliant work your entire life and that’s fine too.”

Todd Henry Quotes, The work Blog, Chris Creed

The most important thing you can do today is make something. Make something only you can make. The question of will people like it or not is irrelevant. Just contribute.

Question:

Is the idea of celebrity or approval hindering you from making something that really matters?

What steps can you take to break the cycle of approval?

Don’t let the fear of rejection stop you from making something only you can make. The Value of your work has nothing to do with a “like” button.

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  • verdant1 - Ouch! You got me 😉

    I must admit this has become more of a problem for me since people actually started reading and following my blog – before that I spent well over a year writing whatever I liked without seeking the approval zing (instead I was pleasantly suprised if someone read something I’d written).

    I think the mix of ‘putting your creative stuff out into a public place where people do see it’ and ‘immediate notification of likes and comments to whichever-appliance-you-like’ are promoting and supporting this instant gratification/justification.

    But you are most certainly correct that public approval does not give extra worth to something (neither does lack of it make it worthless). It is what it is – if people like it, that’s a nice bonus… though it can also give us creative types hope that there are other like-minded people somewhere on this planet!ReplyCancel

    • Chris Creed - Totally! Yeah there is nothing wrong with wanting to be liked. I just don’t want that feeling of the NEED for someone to like my work to keep me from making something awesome 🙂ReplyCancel

  • Tom Schaber - Chris,

    What an interesting take on approval. I have been approval prone my entire life until three years ago. I had one of those life changing experiences that truly does alter the course of your life. I’m getting the hang of joy doing what I do best and if it helps someone-awesome; if a yawn ensues so be it. And thanks for stopping by my blog site.

    TomReplyCancel

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