As you consider the gift that you have to offer - the expression that is uniquely yours, and yours alone to give away - consider this: the impact of a gift given away in freedom is vast, while a gift spent on the giver quickly fades.
What is the first thing you do in the morning? The last thing you do at night? Your first action when taking on a new project? Your impulse when receiving good (or bad) news?
If you asked those questions to many highly productive creatives, they’ll have immediate answers. Not because they are micro-obsessive about their schedules, but because over time they’ve developed predictable rituals around key areas of their life and work.
Here are three career investments that I think every single creative should be making now, and should continue to make consistently. These are the three aspirations that you should be chasing in order to ensure that you won’t be left behind.
Feeling a bit stressed? Manage your energy and bring more of your best effort every day by establishing buffers between important meetings and tasks.
For creative pros - those charged with turning our thoughts into value every day - the promise of a quick path to successful work is alluring. If there were proven ways to avoid the uncertainty and pain of the process, they would be worth their weight in gold. Unfortunately, they don't exist. Not really, anyway.
In my brand new book Die Empty, I examine the common places where bright, sharp, talented people eventually get stuck in their life and career. The goal, of course, is to get your best work out of you every day and to not leave it inside or take it to your grave with you like so many people do.
We each have danger zones we have to watch out for in the course of our work. They can be particular habits or patterns we fall into when we go into "coast mode" or areas or situations where we are likely to get irritated and short-circuit collaborative relationships.
To get attention for your work, regardless of what it is, requires effort and persistence. It also requires that you gain an understanding of how to approach those who might help you get the word out.
Ever get inspired in the shower? Have a good idea while driving in the car? Of course you have. We all have. But why do our moments of greatest epiphany happen at the least opportune times?
Discipline is sometimes perceived as a "dirty word" because it's interpreted as pushing through the muck, doing the unenjoyable activities first, and forgoing the chocolate cake for the steamed broccoli. However, I think this is a gross misunderstanding of the word.
Ideally, you'll have all three kinds of mentors (pathfinders, virtual, truth tellers) to turn to when you're stuck or generally need advice.
Still using lists, facts, and to-do's for your notes? Try sketch notes as a way to open your mind and generate new ideas. In this interview, author and illustrator Mike Rohde shows us how.
Be purposeful about stoking the fires of your imagination, and seeking patterns in the world around you. This is the best way to ensure that your mind is actively chasing insight and to position yourself to be brilliant when it counts most.
In case you missed it, Facebook launched a new product for the Android platform last week called Facebook Home. In the ads, it seems Facebook is tipping its hand for what they think a digitally connected life should look like.
The lag is the gap between cause and effect. It's the season between planting a seed, and reaping a harvest.
Uncertainty is an uncooperative dance partner. You have to move in concert with it to do your best work.
Unnecessary creating redeems useless time into time spent doing genuinely meaningful things for yourself and others.
The generation of a great idea is just a small precursor to the real work - the execution.
Time alone is not sufficient to do great work. You also need to have the focus and energy to be able to engage.
What do you do when you're burned out? How can you begin to reclaim your creative energy and get "back in the game"?