Ten Lessons From One Crazy Year
Ten Lessons From One Crazy Year
These are things I've learned. None that I've mastered, but ones I've seen to be true and worth pursuing and committing to memory. Not necessarily in any particular order, although you'll see that some are linked.
Find your why. Simon Sinek has a famous TED talk titled "Start with Why", where he illustrates a simple concept: If you know your purpose or driving motivator in life, it is easy to align your goals and every day actions with it and live a more fulfilled life. After leading a book club around Sinek's companion workbook, Find Your Why, I found clarity of purpose that now is directing my work and helping me feel like every step I'm taking is more aligned with my purpose than before.
Work backwards from your goal. Similar to finding your why, stating your goal first before starting a project is a simple, seemingly obvious step, that we creatives often miss. For example, when I had the idea last year to start a Youtube channel, the initial inspiration was simply "this might be good for my branding and business." This is true, but I never actually started the channel because this wasn't a strong enough motivation. Now that I connected it to my why (which is to encourage people in their own creative pursuits), not only do I have a direction to take the channel in, but a purpose that encourages me to complete it.
Prioritize physical health. This seems obvious, but as creatives, it's very easy to become obsessive with our work and develop unhealthy habits, from poor diet choices to inconsistent sleeping and lack of exercise. I'm someone to prioritize my mental acuity and creativity over anything else, but I realized more clearly than ever during this pandemic, that you can only keep the mind so strong without a strong body to sustain it.
Connect others. Build a network not just of people you can contact when you're in need, but one of people you've linked together to strengthen all of us. You'll be appreciated for it, and it's a way for you to make an impact and make yourself a valuable asset to those around you (instead of always expecting to take from others).
Don't be afraid to ask for or accept a favor. I'm stubborn (: so it took me a long time to realize that people are more willing and interested in helping than you think, especially if you've done a great service for them before. There's nothing wrong with asking a strong contact to put your name out there if possible, to pass along info to an event you're hosting, or refer you to clients you might be suitable to help. Of course, like the previous lesson, make sure you're the first one to do the same for them and connect them whenever you get the chance. Renowned marketer, Guy Kawasaki, goes even further, saying that you help people by letting them pay you back: “You might think that when someone owes you, you should hesitate on letting them pay you back… The better thing to do is let them pay you back because it relieves their guilt and it solidifies your trust.”
Focus on giving value, both on social + in your relationships. For one, use your social media not just to showcase your work, but to connect with people and give them a reason to come back. It could be tips for professionals like yourself, or even just a behind-the-curtains look that makes what you do seem more achievable for them. But also in your relationships--be mindful of when you're just taking and think of ways to give.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." This is such a great proverb that simplifies so many of my own challenges, but has encouraged me to focus on building strong relationships and working on finding projects I can work on that benefit all of those involved and helps us make the most of our current skillsets.(Also, and this is for free: always look for possible collaborators + subcontractors. Don't just wait till you need one to start looking.)
Check in on your friends and family. Otherwise, what's the point? If we're working to find creative + professional freedom and fulfillment by pursuing our dreams, a key and natural outcome of that should be to be able to spend time with those whom we care about the most.
Focus on finding inspiration. When you're in the middle of those busy seasons, don't forget to do things that inspire you, because that's what energizes you to do your work. Creative ruts often happen because we're too busy to fill our creative containers. We go too long without going to see a movie, eating somewhere new, reading a book about our favorite creators, or even just going for a stroll in the park. Living an interesting life and engaging with interesting art is how we make interesting work, so set time aside for that weekly, if not daily.
Try new ideas as often as you can. I started to--though somewhat inconsistently--plan for one shot during each shoot where I tried something totally different from what was on the mood board, if not totally different from what I've done before. Always fight against growing stagnant and repetitive in your practice. Avant garde artist, Brian Eno, has these great and ambiguous prompts you can use and freely interpret to spark a new direction while in the middle of creating: http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html.
What have you learned from 2021? Here's to a strong 2022!