What do you believe about yourself?

I once enrolled in a prayer counseling course called Elijah House which was held at the home of my great friend Josh Weaver.  Overall I found the course to be an amazing experience and I grew as a person tremendously.  On the first night of the course a woman came with a large bag of gifts that each had a letter attached.  She said that she'd been praying for each of us and that she believed that God laid a message on her heart for each person enrolled in the class (she didn't know any of us).  She opened the bag and let us each come up, one by one, and pull out our present.  As we all read our letters, I heard sobbing around the room and whispers of "oh my God".  I was shocked at how well I felt like the letter pertained to me personally.  Many others in the room felt the same way.  The following is a transcription of my letter:


"Have you ever been in snow country?  Snow falling gently to the ground in amazing softness.  It brings a quiet and stillness to the soul.  You can find a peace that stills things all around you.  Nothing is hurrying and all the animals are stepping softly and slowly.


But then in the midst of your stillness you hear a sound, it is not still and it is not quiet.  It is a trailblazer.  Someone coming along where no path is and making the way known that someone is there.  This is you; you are one to make your own tracks.  Going where others have not yet stepped and showing others can come too.  This trailblazer can be a skier, a snowmobile, or a truck in 4 wheel drive.


Four wheel drive that is you.  All the wheels turning to get where you want to go.  It does not matter if others have done it but somehow there is a way to get there.  You know where you are going and it is with fun.  Sometimes we have to figure out the way to get there because surely there is a path somewhere.


Only sometimes the snowmobiles hit a barbed wire fence hidden in the snow.  Snow that is soft and flying suddenly becomes a bed for you to land in.  There will be traps, and hidden snares along your journey of life. Things that will trip you up or throw you.  But there is still a path to go on.  There is still a trail to go on.  Someone must make a new path in the wilderness that is the leader in you.  We need that someone who will make things happen especially for others.  They used to say pioneer, now it is called progress.


There is a process of being made or developed that intrigues you.  You want to know the in's and out's of things.  What makes things tick, so to say.  It is like the 4 wheel drive giving power from the drive shaft.  If I use all 4 wheels then i can get better traction under difficult conditions.  You make the best of things; you try to find the good in hard times.  The power to go on in you encourages others.  You see no obstacles; you just see a way that has not been before.  You know how to ease the friction.  Friction is needed to keep going forward or to make progress.  You can take the friction and use it to propel you into a better place or person.  using all the means possible to get where you are going.  That is why you love a challenge, it keeps you going.


You are going somewhere and you know how to use the friction in your life to get there.  Today it is described as character building or integrity.  So as you journey through this class and through the obstacles you will face, know that it is good that all 4 wheels are turning.


You are blazing that trail so others can follow in your tracks.  Be the leader you were meant to be and as you go along to figure the way, know may others will see your trail and follow.  Happy 4 wheeling!"


I believe that the stranger was right, this was a message for me, inspired by God.  What do you believe about yourself?  

Never Stop Learning

The internet has ensured that there will never be a shortage of information or tutorials or resources.

You may have some great skills, but you should always add to them.

Are you a good musician?  Learn a different style.  Learn a new recording technique.  Learn to sing.  Seek out new music theory.

Are you a good writer?  Learn new features of your editing software.  Study some grammar.  Seek out new words.

Are you a programmer?  Study some new math.  Make 'hello world' in an unfamiliar language.  Enter a programming contest.

There's always a field just next to yours that you may find a lot of fertile ground in.  Never stop learning.

Contradictions in Productivity - Part 2

Part 2: Pride vs Humility
 
Should we take pride in ourselves and our work or be humble? Is it possible to be both? I say yes, and that we should seamlessly shift from one position to the next.  Pride without humility makes one deaf to imported ideas and creates an offensive person to work with.  Humility without pride is self-deprecating; it closes doors before they open and prevents your work from being taken seriously. I believe that it is necessary to be both humble and proud, but the right approach must be used in the right situation.

Have you ever seen someone present their work and in the same breath apologize for its quality?
Examples include:

• Presenting technical information and saying something like "sorry about the small font on this chart" or "sorry about the resolution of this image".
• Playing a musical recording to your friend and pointing out the mistakes in the performance as they occur.
• Asking a colleague to read your draft article and saying "there are probably a bunch of typos" or "this is a real rough version".
• Sharing some art with a potential client and throwing in comments like "I'm not so sure about this part" or "the colors here didn't turn out the way I wanted" or "this is the best I could do in the time allotted". 
• A speaker stammering over a word and then pointing it out with a nervous chuckle and a phrase like "Gosh!  I just can't talk today".

These types of self-criticism (destructive humility) can distract from your message and color the audience's appreciation of your work. It's better to not call attention to your own imperfections before someone else does.  This undermines your work and highlights flaws that may otherwise go unnoticed.  Communicate that you are proud of what you've done.  The frightening thing is that people may come up with their own opinions and you must always produce to your own standards.

On the other side of the coin, we must be humble. When showing a draft to a colleague, mentor, or client we must be ready to take any constructive suggestions in stride.  It's pointless to try to invalidate someone else's criticism, even though we may not agree with it.  It's far better to validate the opinion of your boss or customer as opposed to making excuses.

Serve with your excellence and present it as such.  Take pride in your work and don't make excuses.  When others criticize your work (lovingly or otherwise) humbly discern what you need to learn in order to become an even more excellent servant.  Humbly pursue new skills and take pride knowing that it will pay off.

Time to turn in the homework

As promised, here's the music and animation that represents the creative project that I mentioned in last week's post:

 
I wrote this guitar piece about 10 years ago just after I moved into an apartment with some friends.  I was playing in a metal band at the time, so I didn't do much of anything at all with it until now.  I ended up making the audio recording in 2003.  My friend Joel, who ran the studio, wrote "Sam's Home" on the CD he gave me, so that name just kind of stuck.

I started aimlessly tinkering with the animated rhombuses several months ago, but didn't make much progress on it.  I firmly believe that having the deadline gave me the much needed push to produce this animation.  Now I have something that is among my best animation work.

What projects do you have lying around that need a deadline and an audience?  Set and communicate an appointed time and place to show your unfinished project.  Then, get to work.  Once that time arrives it's time to wrap up all of the loose ends and turn in your homework.

Initiate Launch Sequence

Do you have an unfinished creative project? A half-developed idea that you have lying around? An outline, sketch, riff, verse, program, design, note, problem, chapter, or melody? Is your brilliance gathering dust? One sure-fire way to get it off the ground is to assign to it a deadline. Broadcast this deadline to other people and then there's no turning back.

A deadline, when taken seriously and used appropriately, can bring tremendous stimulation to the creative process and yield thrusts of prolific output.

I've seen this principle in action many times at work; a huge developmental milestone in the team will occur when faced with a customer related deadline. It is during these times when entire systems get pulled together, problems get solved, decisions are made, synergies happen, teamwork blossoms, designs are finished, processes are streamlined, and ultimately projects get launched.

Your work needs to be launched. Start the countdown. Define a clear moment in time where all preparation ceases and the project is published, sent, shipped, mailed, handed off, shown, shared, recorded, posted, played, performed, displayed, or launched.

I'll call my own bluff. Today is 9/4/2011. In exactly one week I'll post a rather ambitious creative project here that I've neglected for quite some time. Now that I've said that, it's time to blow off the dust and get to work.

The Stars Need Not Be Aligned To Launch

Did you ever use the sun and a magnifying glass to burn your name into something?  Usually it was something precious like your 'lucky bat', because you wanted to mark it permanently.  In order for this process to work, everything seemed to have to come together perfectly:

-The right time -The right focus -The right medium -The right goal

(A sunny afternoon so the sun is bright and high... an aligned star) (The light and your attention had to be concentrated) (A metal bat wouldn't work, for instance) (Once you start burning, you can't erase... no 'second takes')

Indeed, some creative projects do require precise execution.  The stakes are raised even higher towards necessary perfection if the safety of others is involved (orchestrating a rocket launch, for instance).

However, I believe that the vast majority of creative projects thrive on imperfection.  Such work is a cycle of improvisation, observation, and distillation.  Once you have an idea:

• Start the work and chase the expression of your idea through improvisation.  Finish.
• Take as step back and see if what you made communicates your idea to yourself.  When it comes to your own work, you will have far greater powers of observation than anyone else.
• See what worked and what didn't.  Some parts can be thrown away, some kept, some refined.  However, don't get carried away with distillation.

Finally, break the cycle and launch.  Show it to the world.  Boldly place it high for all to see.  It's easy to get overwhelmed by perfection when it seems like our work is permanent.  However, most of the time our work is 'merely' a stepping stone to the next piece.  It may turn out that the most permanent thing is what you learned along the way.  Keep it up and eventually you'll launch your work into orbit.

When should you start working on your idea?

The instant you have an idea it is time to get to work; there is nothing to be gained by waiting for further inspiration or clarification.  The first step should be to involve your senses in the process of communicating the idea - even if it is to yourself.  Seeing, tasting, hearing, smelling, and feeling your idea will give it momentum.

• Details of a painting will manifest themselves no sooner than when an artist begins to sketch her vision.
• The true form of the code evolves as the programmer is typing, not at the whiteboard.
• A tangible variation of the melody in a composer's head will crystallize only when it is sung or played on an instrument.
• Interesting new questions that beg for answers are only revealed to the researcher through experiment.
• A recipe evolves through tasting, smelling, and refining.
• The characters of a story come to life as the writer lives them out on paper.

A laborer cannot stare at a field and expect it to bear fruit.  Neither can the creative worker expect the seed of an idea to grow without rolling up his sleeves and planting it in its proper medium.

"Vision without execution is hallucination." - Thomas Edison

Contradictions in Productivity - Part 1

It seems that in order to produce creative work, one must be o.k. with the cognitive dissonance that comes with accepting two seemingly opposite viewpoints at the same time.  I'll share a few examples that we face when doing creative work.

Part 1: Making It Perfect vs Getting Started
You certainly wouldn't want to launch your new software product without first testing its primary features.  On the other hand, if you're determined to work out all of the bugs then your project may never see the light of day (and you'll never truly get started).

We've all heard about writer's block, lack of inspiration, paralysis of analysis, and the fear of permanence as being barriers to producing creative work.  However, the process of just working on your art* is likely to spark the muse and cement your conviction in what you have to say.  If the fear of not perfectly expressing yourself stops you from getting started then you're missing out on the refining, constantly perfecting nature of just working on it.


*Art, as defined by Seth Godin's brilliant book Linchpin, means "emotional work".

Why do creative work?

I believe that we were all created.
Take that at face value; I'm still undecided as to exactly how we were all created.

I believe that we were all created on purpose.  No "accidents", no "surprises" but purposefully created in the image of the creator.

It seems obvious therefore that there would be such a huge divide between humans and the animal kingdom; we're created to be creators.

Rick Warren (@RickWarren) tweeted this week: "A society cannot teach its youth they are merely animals then be shocked when they act like it."

So why do creative work?  Because that's what you were made for.

Seeing The Invisible

How often is there something right before your eyes that you never notice?

• A tragically flawed process
• A new solution to an old problem
• Someone else's needs
• Your gifts
• A sign

As a literal example, see take a good look at this square and note what you see:

Did you notice anything?  Take another look.  There's something there that you probably never noticed... something about yourself that you probably never noticed!

Give up?

You should see a very faint yellow and blue 'cloud' in the center of your field of view.  This is known as "Haidinger's brush", and it's your eye's response to polarized light.  Yes, you can 'see' the polarization of light!

Didn't see it?  Take a look again but this time follow these instructions:

• If viewing by laptop/desktop computer, tilt your head side to side like you are touching your ear to your shoulder on each side.  Do it like you're trying to shake water out of each ear after a swim.
• If viewing by mobile device, make the white rectangle large and then turn your screen left and right like a steering wheel.  Go ahead and turn that thing like you mean it!!!

Go ahead.  I'll wait.

...

Like looking in the back of the book for an answer to a homework problem, once you see it then it becomes obvious.

Many things can block us from seeing the invisible:

• Fear (being wrong, being taken advantage of, looking silly)
• Preconceived notions (there is nothing to see)
• Lack of effort
• Lack of faith

What are you missing in life that is right before your eyes? 

*This example will only work if you are viewing this blog on a flat panel LCD screen like a smartphone, flat screen monitor, or laptop for instance.  

A Clockwork Orange

Sometimes real life strikes me with a parable that I'll never forget, and I think I'll always remember to apply it to business and my creativity.  My family recently provided such a parable.

I have an autistic brother who is in his 20's and lives at home with my parents.  I'd say that his autism is quite severe.  He seems to always have an unshakable fixation on something.

Every time I speak with him on the phone he describes the shirt he's currently wearing.  Not in any great detail; you almost have to pry it out of him.  A typical conversation may go:
Me:  "Hi, brother, how are you?"
He:  "I have a blue."
Me:  "You're wearing a blue shirt today?"
He:  "Letter A"
Me:  "Your blue shirt has a letter A on it?"
He:  "Blue"
Me:  "Is the A blue or is the shirt blue?"
He:  "I have a blue"

It can go round and round in circles like this for a while.

His current fixation is "going to the Mexican restaurant".  Before even having breakfast, he'll go out to the driveway and fuss by the car until someone gives in and takes him to "The Mex": a simple little local Mexican restaurant with orange vinyl booth seats and so-so food.  As he's banging on the car shouting "Orange" and resisting any lures to come inside and do something else, it's clear that there is a total fixation.  Before too long, my parents give in and off he and my parents go to the restaurant.
This pattern has been going on for months.  When I talk to my mom on the phone and ask how brother is.  I hear the same ol' story about "the Mex".

Recently, a conversation with my mother came around to my brother's daily Mexican restaurant tantrum but this time the story had a fascinating twist.  After a particularly persistent stance in the driveway by my brother, shouting "Orange, Orange, ORANGE!", they arrive at "The Mex" wherein my brother immediately headed off to the restroom.  Since he is capable of doing that business by himself my parents didn't typically follow him in, but this time my frustrated mother goes in with him.  What she saw must've been a bit of a revelation and a bit shocking as well.  A happy brother points to the urinal stall and says "Orange".  Lo and behold there, guarding the patrons from foul odors and providing a target of relief, was an orange urinal cake which my brother promptly made use of.

It turns out that, for my brother, going to "The Mex" wasn't about getting food at all.  It was about relieving himself.  He was holding it until he got to the restaurant that had the fascinating facilities!

I instantly wondered how often people ask for 'X' when what they really desire is 'Y'.  When someone asks something of you, remember that the underlying need is likely to be more urgent and fundamental than what they can or will communicate.