Creatives tend to be good at a lot of different things. So they usually wear many hats. Look at the creatives you follow on Twitter. Their descriptions list multifarious skills like, “I’m a graphic designer, carpenter, astrophysicist, and bassoonist.” And they’re probably praised by their friends for their skills in each of these areas. But…
Imagine if my dreams at night were as boring as the average life. My nights would be filled with 9-to-5’s, 401k’s, decent health insurance, and working Saturdays. But nobody dreams about those things at night. We dream about flying, becoming a millionaire, and going to school in our underwear. When it comes to our dream…
Anytime you attempt something great, you’ll run into critics. Great things challenge the norms and change situations. It’s natural you’ll receive some criticism. But not all criticism is bad. There are actually three types of critics you’ll run into. The key to responding appropriately to criticism is realizing what kind of critic you’re dealing with.…
Jesus told his disciples, “A prophet is not honored in his own hometown.” He’s saying a guy can have his act together and be someone worthy of respect, but he just won’t get it from his own people. A guy can have all the right answers, but his neighbors won’t give him the attention he…
Blogging is one of the greatest things I’ve done for my job at my local church. It’s upped the quality of Sunday mornings—especially in my departments. Naturally, I think every creative should blog. Blogging does four things for you: 1. Blogging helps you keep track of the things you’re learning. I use my blogs to…
I run instead of walk. I type faster than I need to. I don’t stay places longer than I want to. It might appear that I’m busy. I am. But I’m not too busy for the things I really want to do. I can sit on the couch for an hour with my wife talking…
Yesterday I told you about the tough times I was having getting motived. I did a few things wrong, but I did eventually find motivation. I finally connected with a buddy on Skype and started getting my creative juices going. I got motivated. But I didn’t start creating immediately. I let it stew.
I had the opportunity to hang out with some pretty cool people last week. These guys are doing some cool stuff–influencing lots of people. The thing that struck me most about my conversations with them, is that none of them knew what they wanted to do with their lives. They’re all going about their lives, doing awesome…
Give yourself spaces to create. There’s nothing worse than a spark of inspiration coming when you’re unable to capture it. That’s why creatives need to surround themselves with canvases–spaces to capture their sparks of inspiration. Do you surround yourself with canvases?
We’ve talked before about the importance of purpose in your creativity. Without purpose, creativity becomes trite. We create just to fill time and space. We add to the pile of pretty things–pretty and useless things. That’s why we need to create out of need.