Fuse Chamber

As an icebreaker, I frequently ask people - what would you do if you won the lottery? People give answers that reflect what they would do if there were no constraints or demands put on their time, location or finances This is where people describe their visionary work, OR the downtime things they would do to feel free, relaxed. My question is - ok so why not do it anyway? We assume we have constraints, and that money or some other windfall is an obstacle to getting started.   You can get started with 10 dollars and 10 minutes - probably even less I’ve noticed that when you approach the world with a service mindset, things like money and time tend to get sorted out at exactly the right moment You need to trust in the importance of your dreams, and how working on your dream goals attracts the right help and opportunity into your life - simply because your passion will be infectious

Despite your most disciplined attempts to show up every single day, inviting the muse, yet not leaving things to dumb luck, you sit down for your daily ritual, and nothing comes. This is made all the worse by a looming deadline, or being behind in production. So what do you do when you doing everything right, and nothing comes? Let it Happen.   Reduce the stress and stigma around having a block.  It’s natural Immerse yourself in unrestricted thought Talk with friends, fantasize, argue, debate, discuss Stay immersed in your topic - read, research Don’t resume writing until the ‘spark’ appears

So you’ve worked it all out - you have a master plan for launching your product….but what if you build it and nobody comes? This happens more than you think It’s important not to measure success against big league players that you’re trying to model.   This takes a while, and there’s no such thing as overnight success The best thing you can do is change your approach - experiment with new techniques.  The worst thing you can do is change your style, your vision, your unique offering. Find small successes along the way to validate and inspire you. You have to be comfortable with hustle.

Although we’d like to believe that we have what it takes, sometimes we worry that we’re going to be seen as ‘arrogant’, over-confident or full of ourselves.   This alone can keep us from starting.  What’s the difference between confidence and arrogance and how can you build the former without seeming like the latter? Limiting Beliefs - concepts of what we are capable of are limited by our fears, which talk to us in sentences that start with ‘you can’t’.   Believing in the information to the contrary Arrogance - belief in your abilities and entitlements in ignorance of external information to the contrary Confidence - belief in your abilities and entitlements even in light of external information to the contrary Both limiting beliefs and arrogance can only be destroyed one way - through experience and reflection.  The initial spark of belief that surrounds arrogance is important for overcoming limiting beliefs though.

There are two kinds of habits: good ones and bad ones. So often, we focus on the bad ones that we need to break, but how often do we take the time to focus on the good habits that we have integrated or need to integrate to continuously move us forward? You have to have a habit of having habits :-) Create a prioritized list of of habits you want to have (come on, you know what they are).  They could be mindset habits or actual practices Take on no more than 2 or 3 at a time - it could take a few months to habitualize them Make sure your habits roll up to achieving a larger goal, like increasing your audience or revenue.

The Public Demands more content, more frequently.  This seems foreign to many of us as we grew up with a new book, music or movie release from our favourite artists maybe once per year or less.  You need to change your mindset to reflect the new virtues and values in the marketplace.

People who achieve everything they set out to do in life are masters of protecting their time.  How do they do it? Time is the only thing you can’t reclaim once its been spent Protecting your time is your right and your duty.  You must actively and continuously monitor and protect it as you would any priceless resource The biggest challenge is changing your mindset about time.  You own your time, no matter where you work or who you have in your life.  Only you can dictate how it is spent. Commit to tweaking or leveraging resources to minimize time spent on non valuable things, or find things to cut out altogether.

Could we flip the script on our thinking about experimentation?   Rather than seeing experiments as risky, or as a synonym for failure, we should be embracing experimentation as the fastest way to learn about what works, and what doesn’t.

If you’re making time for creativity, but you find yourself unfocused and unable to stay with it…there are some things that can help. I’m going to keep hammering this one - you have to set aside time To avoid intimidation, set a short timer Set an intention.  What is the most important thing to finish in this time slice?  Make sure it is in support of the Most Valuable Thing - what will get your product ready to market?  What will get you an audition?   What will establish you as a professional?  What will increase your audience? Don’t worry about right-sizing the timer for the intention.  If 10 minutes is too much or too little, fix it later.  Adjust the timer or the scope of your intention. Keep your mind focused.  If you notice yourself taking on sub tasks or side tasks.  Stop.  Make a note of them and prioritize and do them LATER Stay vigilant.  Meditation can help you notice when you’re going off the rails.

We all know about the paralysis caused by waiting for the right moment in the right conditions. So why do we continue to do it, and how can we stop? It’s normal, from an evolutionary/survival perspective, to want safety and certainty The need for certainty and safety, however, prevents us taking risks and moving forward boldly - two essential behaviours for artists and entrepreneurs We associate lack of safety - in all its forms - with danger, and that fear paralyzes us; making it extremely difficult to break this pattern. Breaking the patter requires a mindset shift - realize how expensive these desires and fears are.  Then take small but meaningful steps to provide yourself with proof that nothing bad will happen if you move forward without absolute certainty and safety.

By now, we know that inspiration is as much about showing up every day, as part of a routine, and doing the work of writing - even if it is for the wastebasket.   But there are times when inspiration just hits.  Are there things you can do that create fertile ground for inspiration?  There are….and they exist in the everyday. You have to make time and clear space in your head.  You have to be ready to receive Then, you have to put yourself in situations and conditions where inspiring things are likely to be or to happen Get into nature, listen to conversations, imagine yourself in someone else’s life, especially the watershed moments.  Immerse yourself in novel experiences.  Invite new discussions and hear other people’s stories.

Today's episode is an impromptu musing on the state of coaching, for those of you who feel like you might benefit from it, or are yourselves in the coaching business. in many ways, its a bit like being a therapist.  People should find a good coach that is a balance of engaged and removed, that specializes in or can tailor an action plan to your particular learning style, and that they trust and like. Once you've found that, I love to see clients eat up the learning.  So often, I take for granted what I've learned, how far I've come personally, and how hard I've worked for the success I have.  I forget what it's like to be new; to have your eyes opened to a world of limitless potential. But sometimes, it just doesn't happen that way.  What continues to surprise me is how often people dive in, seem committed, seem ready to make a serious mark in the world...and then just fade away from the teaching.  It makes me think that perhaps coaching is a nonsense profession...but then I remember that we have always had elders, mentors, jedi masters...people who pass down the wisdom accumulated from a life of disciplined practice.  This is meaningful work for me, and its hard to accept that sometimes, people just aren't ready.  They are not yet willing to commit to the time and effort it takes to transform.  I'll never forget my public school teacher, Gerald Smialek, who taught us kids the phrase "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink". That continues to reveal layers of meaning to me, even to this day. Enjoy the episode.  I hope you're learning lots and enjoying the journey!

As i work with many leaders in development, there is one thing that trips up more people than any other factor - and with each passing year, I see more and more of it. I call it FABJ - Fear, Anger, Bitterness, and Jealousy - but these things are all byproducts of one thing.  Feeling not good enough.  We all suffer from these feelings, but if you are a leader....you have to learn how to handle or manage them.        

Most deeply creative people know that you simply have to show up ever day - inspiration will never just come and pay a visit.   So how do you show up every day?   You schedule. it. In this episode, I discuss my daily routine for capturing creative thoughts and then filtering them and refining them into finished product.  Lots of tips and tricks in this one - hope you find it valuable!

As someone with a creative offering, I’d like to wait until my product is perfect before I unleash it on the world.  Is that really so bad? There are two big problems with waiting. One is that it fosters fear, and uncertainty, and the other is that it lets other people slip in the gap and beat you to market No matter what happens, you have to focus on go. Leap. Innovation requires that you are constantly shipping product to the market.  Finished is better than perfect.

One of the challenges of being a modern artist is that there’s a lot to do in a day.   Your art might be your side hustle, so there’s a full time job, family, friends, and daily life all competing for attention with your core offering - your creativity.  How can you get ultra productive and disciplined, and what do you do if you’re stuck…..unmotivated and blocked? For ultimate productivity, you need to start building rituals now One of the rituals you can start using right away is “drop and give me 10” to stoke your creative furnace and break out of blocks

Your reason for doing everything matters more than anything.  How can you use Intention to improve your outcomes? Begin with intention - know your reason for doing things before you set out to do them.   This helps with motivation and prioritization. Use visualization to envision a successful performance or delivery every time you have something valuable on the line.

On this show we cover the fundamentals - be visionary, get focused, work hard, get gritty, always improve.   That’s general advice, and those fundamentals are lifelong lighthouses - you should seek to study and perfect your ability to live those values every day.   But how do you actually achieve stuff? You have to constantly set targets Some targets should challenge you, others should just keep you moving You can’t just set goals - if you do this part wrong, it can make things worse. You need to right-size your goals, and do it at multiple levels Your goals need to be VISIBLE, but you don’t need special tools to do that.

What’s the Difference between people who dream massive dreams, and those who are living those massive dreams? They simply believe that they are limitless Obstacles become problems to solve Limitations become competitive advantages Hard work seems like nothing.  Failures seem like victories

If you’ve been listening for a while, you know I’m big on service.  To review, service is the thing that validates your vision.  Without service, a vision can be nothing more than a wishlist….a catalog of benefits that only accrue to you.  Service ensures that you know exactly who your vision serves, how, and most importantly, why.  So how do I figure out what that is if I’m just an ordinary, everyday person?  That’s this week on the Fuse Chamber Podcast. There’s nothing extraordinary about service. If you don’t think you serve, try looking at your customers differently It’s important to figure out how you serve - there’s something about the selfless act that makes success more more easily available

I used to be one of those people who struggled with consistent creativity.  You’ve heard me repeat that the secret to having good ideas is to have lots of them….so I prefer to take the disciplined work approach to getting a reliable creativity flow. You can either work on ‘inspiration’ at scheduled times and groom the pile for the useful bits later. You can also wait for inspiration to show up - but this method rarely produces any meaningful volume or consistency of output Remember to surround yourself with inspiration before your writing ritual Also, have a convenient way to capture notes whether you’re in bed, in the car, or in a lineup The real secret is to stay disciplined.  Make a promise to do the work and actually delivery.  EVERY day.

If you’re busy, especially if you are working on a day job to sponsor your passion, and you have family and social commitments the blend in there too…it can seem almost impossible to find time to create awesome core content, let alone marketing content.   But I have really good news for you.  That’s this week on the Fuse Chamber podcast. Life is busy People expect content - frequently - AND the best way to get good ideas is to have lots of them, so it seems to hard to squeeze in time to make awesome quality content every day Yes people expect frequent content, but quality is not the focus Turn your daily chores, wait time, and the conversations in your head into content

I want to do more.  To be more.  I get the feeling that maybe I could, or just that I should try to live a life more in line with my passions and principles.  But I can literally feel myself getting in my own way.  It’s like watching a movie of myself - I see it happening, I know its not good, but I do it anyway.  What’s going on? Routines are the things we do automatically, without conscious thought Most routines are behaviours or thought patterns that we used to have to think about, but have tucked out of sight of the conscious mind and allow them to go on autopilot The human brain has tremendous capacity for this and allows us to perform a great many tasks without having to spend our valuable mental energy on them However, the downside is that some routines are bad for us - and the brain doesn’t really know the difference Unfortunately, we run these routines without questioning them so we don’t always know they exist and act against our self-interest The best way to identify negative routines is to run down a list of common ones and see if any sound familiar.  You might be running these. There’s nothing wrong with running routines - the brain needs to do that - but its important to figure out what beliefs caused you to install negative routines, change the belief so you can short-circuit and eliminate the pattern

An artist is committed, heart and soul, to the work.  So I have to quit my day job now right? You have to starve to create right? You have to be committed full time - 8+ hours per day, right? Times are changing.  There aren’t as many ‘full time salaries’ for artists anymore. You have to balance work that pays the bills with work that feeds the soul Nothing says you have to work for a big corporation doing a business-y job though.  You could easily start your own small business Your business could be related to your art, or not, but it must be some you LOVE doing (must be related to your vision and purpose) The bad news - if you’re just getting started, expect that you now have three jobs - your day job, your side job, and your art.   You have to keep the first one until the side job and art career take off enough to provide sustainable income.  That can take years The good news - doing things you’re passionate about helps fuel and refresh you.  If you choose correctly, you won’t burn out Don’t ever make a choice based on money or fame.  Do what you love, authentically.  Serve, and everything you need will come.

Does the Arts need Leaders?   What are the qualities of a leader, and what does it take to become one? There is a huge demand for leadership in the arts and culture work It may seem like its difficult to be a leader, but a leader is just someone who goes first Leadership doesn’t require permission All you need is that picture in your head - a vision, and a desire to serve Beyond that, the most important qualities to foster are Courage, Humility, Listening, Ability to Handle Haters and Rejection, Integrity, Originality and Grit

Innnovators and artists alike both want more of this.  Here’s how you get it. Discipline You have to set up time and work Many people are creative first thing in the morning.  Fine.   Set an alarm, get up early, set a 20 minute timer and go BUT - as soon as that's done, you take a 5 minute break and then set another 20 minute timer, and then another, and then another. The volume of output is what makes the great ideas come, not great ideas themselves. your full time job is creating stacks of ideas that might be gold, might be trash, or might be mined for gold When you are challenged to come up with a good idea, come up with 50.   The pressure of getting 1 idea perfect throttles most people and keeps them from from producing always have your tools handy - never have a reason to not be able to capture

What makes most dreams nothing more than a dream?  What derails most people in their efforts to live the life they dream about?  And how can you conquer it?  That’s this week on the Fuse Chamber podcast. Assuming you make it past the initial fear, and decide to start on something…most people get tripped up and quit pretty early When things go wrong, or don’t pan out, or don’t show progress quickly enough, we often throw up our hands and start making excuses. Not enough time, wasn’t cut out for it, the world is unfair, etc The truth is, every day is a fight.  An unfair, unnecessary fight. Fight can mean unusually hard work, but it can also mean setbacks, injuries (physical, mental and emotional of course), struggles, delays, surprises, bad luck The secret is to watch your response to these  events, and subvert your natural instincts - to push just a little further than you think you can stand

Being a team of one is extremely difficult.  I never recommend shortcuts but there is something to be said for efficiency, and maximizing your time and investment.  Here are five essential things that you need to do if you are producing your own marketing and content in support of your art and business. Learn how to take good photographs - compose shots and use editing tools Keep up with design trends (from the graphic design industry) and emulate the use of space, colour, type Learn how to capture and edit audio Make a habit out of creating and publishing video content - no need for expensive equipment Learn to mimic voice across all media - advertising, journalism, scholarly articles, social media

What is the importance of a brand, how is related to your vision, and how do you market it? A brand is your outward expression of your vision and purpose.  It is your promise to the world You need to figure out your vision and how you serve your customers or community Marketing without a brand is just randomly trawling for customers Once you’ve figured out your brand, however, use it consistently and use it across all platforms - digital and real-time

There's a specific reason why you have unfulfilled dreams. Why there is somewhere you want to be, and you're not there yet. Want to know what it is? Nothing has changed - crazy hard work trumps all But the hard work isn’t hard work if you are locked in to a service-based vision/purpose it’s possible you haven’t found the right vision yet, or that vision compels you for the wrong reason It’s possible you’re making excuses It’s possible you’re looking for shortcuts. You need to get real about all three of these.  The good news is, if I can just inspire you for a nanosecond, to create a spark, and get you to do differently

In this impromptu episode, we discuss why you have very little competition; and why that should inspire you to get your work out there - all it takes is just a little more work than the competition (which sadly isn't much).  Take a good look around at what 95% of your peer group is doing and you'll realize...there's a place for your voice.    

What does hustle mean? No distractions Head Down Fearless Can’t hear the haters Start Early, End Late Basically, ALL YOUR FREE TIME goes to this thing This determines your success more than any other factor If you don’t hustle, YOU KNOW If you don’t know, or don’t care, the world will not wait for you.  It will not reach out to help you.  It doesn’t really care if you’re not successful, or unhappy. There are two reasons why you don’t hustle. You don’t want this particular thing bad enough, or You are afraid If you don’t want this, fine.  Do something else. If you are afraid, you’ve probably noticed you’re making excuses So What do you do?  Anything that fires you up and keeps you in the game If you’ve found the thing you love, just GO.  Give yourself permission to spend all your free time on it. Surround yourself with inspiration - great books, speakers, examples Get a Buddy Make a To Do list and commit to the commitment

There’s one thing that we’re not teaching our young people any more - in school or beyond - and that’s how to persist when things get difficult.  If there’s a trophy for every participant, if there are no consequences to missing the mark, no negative feedback or criticism…how can you prepare a career in the most competitive segments of human endeavour?   What is the single most important quality for any person to possess if they want to get to the very top of their game?  Grit. When asked what people were more likely to make it through the special operations candidate process ‘grit’ was found to be the deciding factor yes it is important to find work that you love, work that you are passionate about, and it is even more important to know who you serve and why; but there still will be very rough patches. There will be parts of your work that you hate doing.  There will be rejection, criticism, bad press, tough breaks And then there will be personal setbacks that threaten to throw you off course.  Make you want to give up.  Give you excuses There will always be a fight.   The secret is to get good at fighting There’s a saying - don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better Distinguish between the parts that are in your control, and the parts that are not.  If you can’t afford an accountant right now, you are your own bookkeeper.  If you have a cold, you can’t sing for 2 weeks.  If you broke your thumb, you can’t paint.  You can control how you react to these situations.  What could you do instead?  How could you work around it?  What new skill could you learn from this adversity?  How could you use your time differently to attack all the things you keep saying you don’t have time for? Learn to love the fight.  If you get good at struggle, and it’s true that ‘the fight is the thing’, notice how you seem better equipped to handle ALL of life’s challenges! Break big things into smaller things.  The minute you hit adversity, set a stretch goal that inspires you.   Something that really gets you motivated.  Why is it important to do this?  And then break that goal into manageable tasks that you can handle each and every day.  You don’t have to know how to plan the whole way to your goal either.  Just start with tomorrow.  What’s the biggest thing you could accomplish in one day that would move you closer to your goal? Get disciplined.   Take massive pride in accomplishing those small goals each day.  It is exactly this skill that can get you anything you want in life. Never let the pressure off.   Don’t finish your tasks without making some new ones. Don’t forget to take a look at where you are at the end of each day No adversity in your life right now?  Find some.   Walk to work.  Volunteer for hard things.  Take a cold shower.  Go without screens or internet for 2 days.   Fast for 18-24 hours.  Add 10% to your workout.  Take 10% of your pay check and put it where you can’t get at it. And then next time, do a little more. You will have failures.  Part of fighting is losing.   There will be setbacks and disappointments even as you’re fighting adversity.  This is part of the fight. This is why its so important to make time - every day - to stop, see where you are, what you’ve learned, how you could do better, and what the landscape looks like now.  Does your initial plan still make sense?  If not, create a new plan for tomorrow.   The plan is ever changing.

If we expect there to be a future in the arts, we have to help guarantee it.  Nothing about art has to be free.   Like so many other ‘public’ professions that don’t have a pure profit focus, we have learned not to value it.  When do don’t value it, the quality starts to decline.  How can we as artists help ensure a thriving industry? We HAVE to treat it as a business.  Art IS a business.  Business is not the set of boring financial tasks we apologetically force artists to do. If you don’t like the sound of this, you HAVE TO BE OK with not getting paid well, or at all, for your art. I was reading an article about 10 ways to save crazy amounts of money, and several of them directly affect the arts.  Steal or stream music, steal or stream movies and borrow books from the library. Yes there are times when we must conserve funds, but there were no suggestions about getting your food from the food library, so the assumption is we’re talking about people with some disposable income We should flip our thinking.  Our governments tend to (or at least used to) treat the arts as a collective obligation to support.  Funding is shrinking by the year, so it becomes incumbent on us to take over that funding.   We need to commit a small percentage of our money to supporting people who create tremendous value in our lives and in fact make tremendous contributions to commerce, yet never receive a paycheck or benefits from a large corporation Everyone should plan to spend a portion of what they make supporting local artists. If you want your money to directly benefit artists - its a bit like giving directly to a neighbour or a friend in need.  No middleman.  No administrative fees. Live music, theatre, local press…etc

To be a true artist, you must reject the mindset and habit of sameness.  You can learn and borrow from those who have come before, but you must never duplicate.  But how do you come to your own voice? Nothing is more powerful than your own authentic voice People who changed the world drew new lines in the sand.   They did not absorb and rehash common thinking. They took common thinking and either turned it upside down or made changes to it. Stay inspired, read, reflect and document.   This could mean journaling but it also means creating - scripts, lyrics, poetry, music, drawing, painting, sculpture, dance, essays, speeches, prose, video - whatever you make instead of or in addition to a journal If you journal, make note of problems to be solved.  Things you learned, things you would like to change or improve about your world, your art form, yourself As always, write for the wastebasket.  (But keep everything) Failing early and often means you are ok that 95% of what you make doesn’t go anywhere Review what you write often and look for recurring, common themes.  Something will eventually jump out at you as being your philosophy, your reason for serving Never stop this practice.,  Continue to refine it, grow it, change it, adapt it

Inspiration Can Be Hard To Come By.  What’s the Secret The good news is….hard work is the answer.  The bad news is…its hard work. Generating rich and novel ideas is the by product of living a rich and novel life, internally and externally I’m big on mindset and habit pairs, meaning right thinking coupled with right action Your mindset must be observational, adventurous, curious - a seeker The world is at your fingertips now more than ever.  Use it. Adopt habits of inviting inspiration For every idea that follows, start first with a receptive mind.  Observe, resist the temptation to judge or doubt, be present and positive, and be curious.  Ask a lot of questions. Your smartphone has a notebook, camera, voice recorder and digital assistant built in.  Duh When observations arise, document them.  You’ll be shocked at how much slips from memory when you don’t write things down But don’t wait for inspiration.  Once a day, sit down and ask questions of the world.  What did you learn?  about yourself, about others, about the world Change up your routine.  From brushing your teeth with the opposite hand to changing your normal route…anything you do repeatedly can be changed up Consume art voraciously.  Not just the stuff you like, but everything.  Talk to others about what they like and why. Read biographies or Watch documentaries of great artists, thinkers, leaders, pioneers, humanitarians.  Let their example inspire you, and feel free to steal from their arsenal of mindsets and habits.  Just don’t copy the actual work. Meet as many people as you possibly can.  There is an app for that, but you can meet incredible people in line, in crowds Say yes to things you would normally say no to.  Road trips, events, new people, challenges, competitions and travel. Start small but never break a promise.  Never miss a day.  Better to show up and do a little than to not show up at all

I have all these great plans, but I don’t know where to start, and it all seems so overwhelming Focus on Go.  You have to move.  No one else will do that for you - it’s the one skill you have to master and get disciplined around all by yourself, or you will ultimately struggle with failure too often It’s pretty easy to condition the habit of getting things done.  And it’s pretty satisfying too. Take a big goal, break it into smaller milestones - mini objectives that mark progress on your journey Break those milestones into small, daily actions.  These wouldn’t and shouldn’t be big and audacious.  Just the little grind - the small things that move you closer to your milestones every day.

In the age of digital distribution, where everything is free - is it still possible to make a profit in the arts? New models require self-agency - you are own bookings manager, producer, director, publisher and promoter The bad news is - its a lot of hard work and a steep learning curve The great news is - all of the tools you need are out there, and most of it is free.

Choices are what got you everything you have and everything you are.  Choices will also get you everywhere you want to go and make you everything you want to be.  How to do you take control of you choices, and consistently make good ones. Too often we accept what is happening to us Many people view their current state as though life is something that happens TO them. YOU are in the driver’s seat.  You are responsible for all of your outcomes.  You may not choose your circumstances, or the actions of others, but how you respond to them, and what you accept, is entirely your choice. You need to see yourself as 100% accountable if you want to get somewhere different

This world seems so have so many opportunities and good fortune for everyone but me.  What do I need to do differently to have better luck and success? You have to stop seeing those things - resources and opportunities - as scarce.  They are infinite. The best way to unlearn scarcity is to act as though everything is abundant It takes a leap of faith, but its a good one.  Try it for a few weeks and you will see a huge difference in the quality and happiness of your life.

What is it that makes successful people successful?  Are there things I can model and repeat? There are six fundamental keys to being successful at anything They are the same across all cultures and forms of enterprise You may hear it 100 different ways, but they always boil down to the same things.

What do you do when you hit obstacles.  Really hard ones? Challenges of some kind are inevitable.  Occasionally, they will seem really bad. Avoiding these challenges is not the goal.  Accepting them head-on with dignity, grace and skill is a talent that is definitely worth having How you think about challenges determines how bad they really are.  Some perspective helps, but what’s really powerful is your ability to welcome challenge - to see it as an opportunity to address your gaps and level-up your game as an artist, entrepreneur, or leader.

Can I have Overnight Success? I personally don’t believe you should seek that.  Hurrying success means you want it for the wrong reasons This will take time.  But where that frustrates 90% of your peers, forcing them to compromise and quit..you will learn to enjoy the ride, enjoy the wait, taking small successes as they come, and studying the lessons you’ve learned so you can get better tomorrow….

Are there any tools for people who write that can help boost productivity and fire up the the creative engine? Have fun experimenting with tools. Tools should be accessible (ready when you need them).  They should be portable. Create your own workflow and creative schedule Combine creative work with other mindless tasks

True Originals Change the World.  What do they do differently? They remain true to their vision, and their unique voice. They don’t compete against everyone riding a popular wave.   They create their own trends. They are experimental and avoid the current flavours, yet are not trying to be different for its own sake.

Don't I have to ‘pay my dues’ before I can leap, before I can lead? Anyone with a Vision Can Lead You will need confidence, and confidence must be tempered with Humility A service based vision ensures you are seeking to make some impact in the world, and that is reason enough to lead.

What single thing could I change to combat self-doubt and anxiety in my art, business and life? Attachment to specific Outcomes Deferring Happiness to sometime in the future or past Seeing the world as scarce rather than abundant

How is your creative habit and leadership development doing this week?  What inspiration and support do you need? In order to excel, you need to look back periodically and identify progress and problem areas Make note of successes - things that move you toward your goal, enhanced confidence, creativity, positive feedback. You may also have encountered procrastination, fear, doubt, lack of confidence, There are habits and mindsets that will help you prepare for the upcoming week:

Why are Millennials so ‘messed up’?  How are we going to develop them into future leaders? There’s nothing really wrong with them.  They are a product of certain values.   They are still the future, and they are uniquely qualified to succeed as leaders as we shift away from centralized, big-box models of business and art. We have to care.  They need good information and good mentors We have to show them how to lock into their purpose, and then to foster the mindsets and habits that our institutions have failed to teach them

What Causes Procrastination, Performance Anxiety, and Lack of Confidence.   Fear.  It’s hideously destructive….How can you understand it so you can master and eliminate it? It’s not all ‘in your head’.  Fear is very real. Your fears serve a biological function that no longer makes sense.  But your mind doesn’t know that - so nothing ever changes. You have to get awareness around your fear, and there are simple techniques to help you do that. Like any other skill, at first you will have to push through it until you see some results, which will drive you to keep getting better

You struggle with creativity.  Sometimes nothing comes.  What do you do to get reliable inspiration, and how do you get great, fresh ideas? You can’t wait for it; idea generation is a habit The important thing to habitualize is sitting down and flexing the creative muscle daily Don’t look for, or wait for, great ideas The follow-on processes of mining and refining your idea stack is where the work comes together There are things you can do to make the creative process easier