I experienced some pretty major creative blocks this week. For instance, I’m writing a book. I have about 15 chapters finished. But the last two chapters I wrote were the exact same chapters I’d previously written. I thought I was writing new material, only to find I’d been rehashing the same stuff. Nothing new was…
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I ordered a particularly cool cell phone case. I was excited for it to arrive. Finally, the box showed up. On the outside of the box, they’d written, “Look out for a stow-away-asaurus.” Well, that was weird. I opened the box and found a little plastic T-Rex. The stow-away-asaurus.
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I was chatting with a freelancer friend of mine. They were expressing their feelings of self-loathing for wasting about 50% of their time on social media. It’s a huge temptation for freelancers, self-employed people – frankly anyone who works a desk job. It’s super easy to be super unproductive. I’m experiencing that temptation daily. That…
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This is the story of a mouse. Let’s call him Pipsqueak. He was small. He was fuzzy. But his voice was unique. He squeaked. He was surrounded by bigger creatures: birds, beasts, people. They had such big voices. Their voices carried far further than Pipsqueak’s. Early on, that bugged little Pip. He wanted his voice…
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I’ve been working on a book. And by working on a book, I mean I have one-third of it completed, sitting in an untouched folder buried in my computer’s file system. I started it a month or two ago. I got super excited, wrote a bunch, then put it on the back burners. I still…
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Have you ever heard a song and said to yourself, “Almost.” That song was almost good. In fact, it might have become your favorite song. But it just didn’t make the cut. It’s a decent song, but it’s not great. Conventional songwriting goes like this: Write. Refine. Record. But conventional songwriting creates conventional songs. Conventional…
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I’m self employed. I have been for a few months. At first I was a hustler. My survival and ability to eat depended on my ability to work hard and innovate. But I’ve finally reached a point of comfort. I’m making a sustainable living. And now I find myself drawn into TV programs, video games,…
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On Monday I launched a new issue of Sunday| Mag. This one was completely different than the others. I interviewed one church on their creative process for Christmas – and wrote 12 articles covering it ad nauseum. It was a risk. So I hit publish and waited. I was scared. Immediately I got 20 unsubscribes. I…
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This is the story of two asks. Ask 1: I was approached by an acquaintance to help him set up his blog. I dreaded each text and call. I really had no desire to help him. Each time he asked me a question I felt the life draining from me. Blech! Ask 2: I was…
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I’m writing an article for a magazine. It’s going to be seen by about 30,000 people. Needless to say I’m a bit nervous. I want this thing to be perfect. And perfection means procrastination because I know it will never be perfect. So it’s keeping me from writing. Here’s the funny thing. Each month, 30,000…
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