The Productive Creative

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Category: Blog

  • Document, Don’t Create

    Document, Don’t Create

    Like most non-creatives, I had a lot of resistance to publishing content online. I felt I didn’t have a body of work ready to publish. But I’ve been encouraged by watching Ali Abdaal’s YouTube videos➹.

    Ali Abdaal recommends the same book to everyone who tells him about their impostor syndrome: Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon➹. The title comes from doing school assignments where you receive credit for not just the final answer, but for showing how you got there.

    “I really like Gary Vaynerchuk’s concept of ‘document, don’t create‘. Document the things you are doing already. Document the things you are already learning. Don’t try to ‘create’ new content.”

    Ali Abdaal. YouTube. How to Make Money Online in 2022➹

    In this video, Ali is interviewing the teacher of online writing, David Perell➹.

    “Sell your sawdust. What are the things you’re already doing. How do you take that and turn it into something useful.”

    David Perell. YouTube. How to Make Money Online in 2022➹
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  • Starting The Creative Craft

    Starting The Creative Craft

    It’s amazing how much time I wasted before I started to create some content. Eventually, I did come around to dropping all my fancy ideas for a website and committed to sitting down every day to write.

    Read This Post →
  • I Don’t Want A Team

    I Don’t Want A Team

    Building a team is often described as the big win in levelling up a content creator’s success. If we delegate the tasks we don’t want to do, then we can double down on what we love doing.

    But running a team is the kind of office work I chose to remove from my life.

    Substituting doing something I don’t want to do, with managing someone else doing it seems like a compromise. What happened to Hell Yeah, or No!➹?

    Perhaps I can transform some of the have-to’s into want-to’s. Previously, I got sick of trying to make a website do complicated things, and settled for something simpler. This allowed me to focus on the core challenge of writing. I’m much happier.

    My content creation is meant to be logotherapeutic. So it needs to be kept up close and personal.

    Either love it or cut it.

  • Loafeur

    Loafeur

    Solo-preneurs of the world, Disunite!

    It sounds like the revolutionary call for the workers to unite. But the path of the greater resignation is one of independence.

    The word saboteur➹ is derived from workers wearing wooden shoes called sabots who interrupted production. But sabotage is a negative behaviour.

    A nice pair of slippers, on the other hand, is part of the creative loafing experience.

    The shoe called the loafer➹ got its name because it’s easily slipped on, without the work of laces and knots. That sounds like a metaphor for the independent, creative career I have in mind.

    So maybe those who choose the path of the greater resignation are loafeurs.

  • This Blog Is A Form Of Logotherapy

    This Blog Is A Form Of Logotherapy

    In a book I’m reading about ikigai➹, the authors have introduced logotherapy. The two ideas are related, being about having a purpose to live for.

    It seems relevant to the journey of my great resignation, which is how this blog got started.

    The Five Steps of Logotherapy

    (1) A person feels empty, frustrated or anxious.

    (2) The therapist shows them that what they are feeling is the desire to have a meaningful life.

    (3) The patient discovers their life’s purpose (at that particular point in time).

    (4) Of their own free will, the patient decides to accept or reject that destiny.

    (5) This newfound passion for life helps them overcome obstacles and sorrows.

    Once the patient has established their purpose, they can press on with life, breaking the mental chains of the past and overcoming obstacles along the way.

    Where Am I In This Process?

    (1) I started this journey by quitting a job and a lifestyle that I disliked. The hope was that I’d find a working life that satisfies. I called this hope my great resignation.

    (2) I’m trying to replace a work life, with a life-work. That’s why I was reading about ikigai. So I already have the direction of travel.

    (3) Step three is my work in process. I know that I want something greater than the great resignation. I’m just not sure how it’s going to work.

    Writing is Thinking

    I started this blog with the statement “I Am A Writer“. The intention was to push myself to write, even though I didn’t have the ideas clear in my head. Writing would be the act by which I figured things out, because writing is thinking.