Getting Work To Work

Over the past ten years, I've read and heard a lot about the value of knowing your strengths. From understanding how they show up in your life and work to ensuring that you are operating from a position of power if you want to be at your best, it's better to build upon a foundation of strength, not weakness. But recently, I read a quote from Bono's book, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story that got me thinking differently about strengths. Could it be possible that what was once a strength would become a weakness? What if, at some point in our lives, weaknesses become strengths? That is the premise that I'll be exploring in today's episode of Getting Work To Work.

What keeps you from showing up on social media? The amount of work it takes? The fear of people not liking you? Kris Bryant is a social media and brand strategist who shares her passion for being yourself and connecting with your audience. In this conversation, Kris shares her entrepreneurial journey and how she learned to show up for herself online. We also talk about marketing lessons and tools, tailoring your message for a specific audience while being yourself, the value of audience research, and how people go from followers to buyers. Kris also gives a few tips on reaping the positive rewards of social media while keeping your distance, especially useful for people like myself who struggle with the negative aspects of social media.

My favorite types of questions are what I call launching questions. They are not only open-ended, as the best questions tend to be, but also so ripe with potential, meaning, and direction that I could generate an entire hour of conversation from a single question. Before recording an upcoming interview with Peleg Top, a mentor, and an artist, he asked me about one of my favorite launching questions: What's filling your curiosity tank? He wanted to know more about the foundation of the question and what I was hoping to learn from it. As I examined my intentions, I was able to recognize my assumptions and understand more about what I want to ignite in others. Not to mention, Peleg's answer in the interview found its way into today's monologue.

I've talked a lot about my journey on the podcast, especially where I find myself today: in the middle. I'm not anywhere near the beginning, nowhere near the end. Some days I can see to the very end. On other days, I can't see anything at all. In these dark days, creativity provides an escape, a respite from the vicious storyteller in my mind as long as I let creativity do its job. It's easy to get stuck, make excuses, and lie down to let the day pass to the next. Hoping things will change without action, petitioning the silence within for a change. But the best course of action is to move, even the slightest bit, to gain a new perspective and find a different story to tell.

As children, no one teaches us to dream. We see the stars and put on our helmets, for we are already flying amongst the galaxy. We hear the songs and sing along, for the melodies and words are already in our imagination. We see the animals and run alongside them, for we are one. No one needs to tell us why or how; we just do. Then we become self-aware. The dreams will make us outcasts, so we conform. Thus, beginning the journey of our lives from knowing who we are to becoming who we are. Fortunately, there are people along the way to teach us to dream. If we only pay attention.

In the last monologue, I shared how much I need to unplug. This morning, Austin Kleon wrote about a "Slow Learning" project conducted by two European organizations. Curiosity piqued, I downloaded the collaborative book that includes a Bill of Rights, reflections from 19 authors and artists about what slow learning means to them, and experiments for incorporating slow learning into your life. In today's episode of Getting Work To Work, I'm exploring this idea of slow learning by sharing a few quotes from the project and how I'm incorporating slower learning in my life and work.

"Have you been spending too much time on social media?" I hated that I was asked that question for two reasons. First, the answer was yes, so I didn't want to admit it. And second, I wasn't ready to make different decisions on the other side of that question. But the question was actually more profound and complex than just social media. It was everything: news, social media, email. It seemed that no matter what I did, I was triggering my cynicism and hopelessness. The robots were coming for my creativity. I was both good enough and not good enough. Pity, despair, it was all there. And I hated every minute of it. It's time for me to unplug, and in this episode of Getting Work To Work, I'm sharing five ways to escape from the "always on" culture.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about retirement? For me, it's whether I can retire or not. I'm not sure why I've been thinking about it more, but the proverbial clock sure is ticking loudly. But after a call last week with Tom Morin, I'm starting to think about retirement differently. Why? Because I can and I must. There's more to it than money, and if I start planning now, I'll be ready for the shift of priorities that will be sure to come in my 50s, 60s, and 70s. Wherever you are in your creative journey, I hope this episode inspires you to blaze a new trail for the future of your life and work.

If there is one word that seems to trigger me daily, it's relevance. Not only must I be relevant as a creator, but my work must also be. I didn't really know why until I wrote this episode. But if you want a quick hint, I think it's because, as a technologically-driven culture, we treat relevance like a constant variable that never changes when, in fact, it never stops changing. This confusion causes us to reset and reinvent ourselves every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. Instead of stopping and reevaluating our behavior, we say, "That's just the way things are if you want to stay top of mind." No wonder we get exhausted. If only we could do something differently.

I love doing great work, but more than that, I love having a creative process that grows as I do. But lately, I've been doing some soul-searching and reflecting on the other side of burnout. What was the cause? Was it the constant need for perceived perfection? Was it the never-ending comparison to other professionals? I think it was the lack of experimentation. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I'm exploring three areas of creativity: the lab, process, and recipe. And why returning to the lab is just as important as having an excellent product.