I have ideaphoria

“You don’t need more time, you just need to decide”
~Seth Godin

I am an idea factory. They are not all good, and I can’t possibly act on them all. There is a mystical art to self-editing, or knowing what to pursue and what to release. You really never know, so I just go with my gut and start something. It beats the alternative which is waiting… and for what?

Whether refinishing a piece of furniture, designing a logo or website, shooting a photo, or painting a canvas, it is all satisfying to me. Much like not knowing if the path is right until you are looking back at it, the same is true about which ideas to develop. It’s pretty damn validating when you make something because you are simply inspired to and someone buys it.

Try fast and often, and see what happens. Is every piece of art you make that doesn’t hang somewhere a failure? Only if you stop trying. Have you heard about Kim’s and my “famously failed Kickstarter” for our Content Creators Planner? 😂  It didn’t stop us!

Creating is an evolutionary and iterative process, and mistakes are just part of it. They can also result in what I refer to as happy accidents—unintended yet interesting things. Some of my best techniques are actually adaptations of happy accidents that resulted from trying to do something else.  Sometimes they simply make for some good storytelling content, like the failed Kickstarter.

Step back and get some perspective

Painting something really big requires that you step back to see the whole. As the year is coming to a close, it’s a great time to step back and evaluate our journeys. I try to do this every quarter, every December, and at big anniversary milestones.

As I am reviewing the rollercoaster ride that has been 2020, the thing that strikes me hardest is that despite my accomplishments and intentions, I still don’t give enough attention to my own interests. I seem to always come last to client work and other commitments.

My coach and I have chatted about opportunity costs (the cost of saying yes to something) and how unless your answer is a HELL YES, then it should be a NO.  Still, I find it hard to know what to say NO to in order to say YES to something else, the results of which are an unknown.

For example, saying yes to a client opportunity is a sure thing. I will do the work, the money goes in the bank. Saying yes to one of my own ideas has no guarantee. But the thing is, nothing will ever change if you don’t take action. You miss all the shots you don’t take. It’s hard to turn down good opportunities in favor of unknowns… and at the same time, the potential to scale those unknowns is exponential.

That seems to be my greatest struggle. So tell me, what gets in your way?

Author Erica Jong said, “Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.” The dark place isn’t something scary, but rather unknown. Following my talent and childhood urge to make things without knowing to where has been an exceptional journey.

What lies ahead is yet a mystery, but I have a lot of ideas about things I can hardly wait to make.

Try Risk, Blackout poem. Signed, limited edition prints available.