The models of mastery that show all-or-nothing obsession are, I think, incomplete, inaccurate, and not useful for most of us business artists. What we hunger after, what we find so captivating, I think, in these stories and images of obsessive geniuses is the promise of flow – that obsessive creative or scientific state.
In this disrupted economy rich with entrepreneurial king and queen makers, it’s tempting to slip into some fantasy, really a siren’s call, of luxury and easy routes and comfort.
A creative insight can be as small as landing on an angle for a blog post or as big as discovering a fresh angle for a new book or business launch.
The moment you gain such an insight flashes like lightning – and vanishes like lightning. If you are not prone to pay attention to such moments, you likely will lose the insight and certainly not be able to replicate the conditions to have such insights again.
But can you become aware of such moments? And can you replicate them?
Let’s root bedtime procrastination within another conversation, the one about how we work and how we spend our time and attention outside of work in nourishing ways. Let’s call “how we spend our time and attention outside of work in nourishing ways as ends unto themselves” as “self-care.”
The question I’m hearing in several circles is this: Are we spending too much time working? Let’s be more specific: Are you spending too much time working?
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Here’s to the creative heroes – the people you admire and who reflect the best in you back.
The people who risk their comfort to make part of the world a little better.
The people who will not be hushed, squashed, or swept aside in service of their creative medicine.
The people who still work hard every day because they find value in real work and in the soul of craft.
Maybe we hold back because we fear we’ll be taken from or that we’ll run out of ideas.
The funny thing is this: When you create something, the very process of creating creates more ideas. When you see that something you created makes a difference to someone, you wake up driven to create more. When you solve one person’s problem, you feel fueled to discover other solutions.
Many moons ago, I let one project after another drive me. You know the impulse. You or your team can chase after one project after another. An Etsy shop. A new tool or product. A new book. A new studio. A…
Take a little Bucky Fuller’s visionary views of the planet and architecture and technology, throw in Terrence McKenna’s views of the mind and evolution, and mix it with a Richard Branson-like optimism and an impassioned artist’s fervor and sensibility for imagination…
At our core, every human being longs to belong.
That’s not a claim this former lone wolf artist makes easily, but it’s what I want to get perspective on with you as we advance your business artistry.
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