“Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.” -Gloria Steinem
“Be the change you that you wish to see in the world.” -Mahatma Ghandi
“Waste no more time arguing what a good [person] should be. Be one.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Not…”If only someone would just do something!”
It’s…”I’m doing this! Who’s coming with me?“
If you don’t have a passion project right now, that’s perfectly okay. You haven’t found it yet, or it’s not the right time.
But if you know someone who’s attempting theirs, do whatever you can to help them out. Support their efforts as best you can.
They could use it. You’re doing a good thing. And who knows?…It might provide the inspiration you were searching for.
Go Help Them Make Their Art
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.” -Dale Carnegie
“May I say that I have not thoroughly enjoyed serving with humans? I find their illogic and foolish emotions a constant irritant.” -Spock
The next time you read a script and a character’s behavior causes you to think, “I would never do that.” Or, “That wouldn’t happen.” Or “It doesn’t logically make sense for that character to act that way.”…
…Just remember humans are waaaaay more emotional than logical.
“The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring every minute of every day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.” -Henry Moore, sculptor
“And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.” –Hans Gruber paraphrasing Plutarch in Die Hard
Go for process over achievement and accolades. All day long. Any day of the week
“If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.” -Chinese Proverb
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being ’round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please help me -The Beatles, “Help”
At the core of long term happiness is helping others. Absolutely. One hundred percent true and there are numerous studies that validate like this one for example.
But just make sure you’re not hiding. That you’re not running from your bliss.
What do I mean?
If you have something inside you, something you are truly passionate about, you must answer the call and make it happen. Otherwise, you’ll be miserable and in no position to help anyone else.
Moreover–depending on the size and scope of the project–when you manifest something from the heart and strive for excellence and generosity with it, you can help tons more people.
Help…but don’t hide.
“You must set your hands to tasks which you can finish or at least hope to finish, and avoid those which get bigger as you proceed and do not cease where you had intended.” -Seneca, On The Shortness Of Life
“If the first thing you do in the morning is to eat the frog, then you can continue your day with the satisfaction of knowing that this is probably the worst thing that will happen to you all day”. -Mark Twain
Of all the tasks on your to-do list, what can you complete today, tomorrow, this week? Start with those. Finish them off. You’ll be glad you did.
And for those other longer tasks/projects, ensure that you’ve given yourself a deadline for completion. (Remember your trusty ally, the work plan.) Otherwise, they wont get done. Or worse, they’ll grow into new, ongoing projects that never end. And your level of anxiety will grow commensurate with them.
P.S. – Speaking of changing your mind, listen to this podcast episode.
You can be gifted, but not talented.
Huh?
Hear me out…
Gifted means you have a natural proclivity for something. It’s something you’re born with. You’re tall, strong, good at math, you can jump high, run fast, play an instrument perfectly for the first time, draw, paint, sing like a lark, etc…You didn’t do anything to get it. It’s a gift from the gods. Congratulations.
Talented is what you make of yourself. In many cases, it’s developing your gifts, yes. But sometimes, it’s not. There are plenty of examples of people who weren’t naturally gifted for something. But they loved the thing anyway. So much so that they busted their ass to master it. There are also plenty of examples of people who were really gifted at something, but for one reason or another, didn’t develop those gifts.
Either way, don’t worry if you’re gifted.
Go for being talented. Play the long game. Start by developing your taste.
I might be wrong, I might be wrong
I could have sworn I saw a light coming on
I used to think, I used to think
There was no future left at all
I used to think
Open up, begin again -Radiohead, “I Might Be Wrong”
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” -Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
When’s the last time you changed your mind about something you deeply cared about? Something in which you absolutely thought you were right, but then when presented with new evidence, new learning, new insight, you realized…you were wrong.
Let’s go a step further.
When’s the last time you changed your heart? The ancient Greek word (also found in Christian theology) Metanoia describes “a transformative change of heart; especially a spiritual conversion.” Setting aside any religious context, when’s the last time you had a metanoia?
One of the many wonderful things about art is its power to affect change. To open us up. To engender empathy for the entire human condition.
Mind Change leads to Heart Change which leads to Transformative Change.
Talent is taste. Knowing what specifically you love, why you love it and what about it is exceptional to you.
Your taste will lead you. It will force you to develop skills that match your taste and your ambition. It will not allow you to settle until you manifest that dream in your head. That’s how you become “talented.” The below excerpt from an interview with Ira Glass of “This American Life” says it all..
Nobody tells people who are beginners. I really wish someone had told this to me. Is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it. we get into it because we have good taste. you know what I mean? like you want to make TV, because you love TV. there is stuff you just like, love. ok so you got really good taste. you get into this thing … that i don’t even know how to describe it, but there is a gap. for the first couple of years you are making stuff, what you are making isn’t so good… ok, its not that great. it’s really not that great. its trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but not quite that good. but your taste, the thing get you into the game, your taste is still killer. your taste is good enough that you can tell what you are making is a kind of disappointment to you, you know what i mean? you can tell it is still sort of crappy. a lot of people never get past that phase. a lot of people at that point, they quit. the thing i would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know, who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste, they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. they knew it felt short. [some of us can admit that to ourselves, some of us less able to admit that to ourselves] we knew like, it didn’t have that special thing that we wanted it to have. […] everybody goes through that. for you to go through it, if you are going through right now, just getting out of that phase, if you are just starting out and entering into that phase, you gotta know it is totally normal and the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. do a huge volume of work. put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re gonna finish one story. you know what i mean? whatever it’s gonna be. you create the deadline. it is best if you have somebody who is waiting work from you, expecting work from you. even if not somebody who pays you, but that you are in a situation where you have to turn out the work. because it is only by actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap and the work you are making will be as good as your ambitions.
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