Getting Work To Work

What do you love more than anything in the world? Do you share that love with everyone you know or worry that you'll be judged and not taken seriously? If you've been at your craft for longer than a day, you've bumped up against the wall of expectations. You want your audience, family, and even the world to perceive you in the best light possible, so you censor yourself. Then one day, you wake up hating that there is so much inside that you want to say but don't know how to, so you stay stuck in the debilitating loop of people-pleasing. In today's episode of Getting Work To Work, I want to encourage you to love what you love, share it with the world, and never stop being the delightful weirdo you are.

Today, I've got creative R&D on my mind. At first, I thought I'd be clever and change the R&D from "Research & Development" to "Routine & Discipline." I was going to talk about the importance of a daily routine and why discipline is both needed for maintaining performance and a byproduct of what you do. But as I gathered my thoughts, I realized research and development are equally important in our creative lives. In today's episode of Getting Work To Work, I'm talking about why we need to broaden our boundaries of research, slow down and spend more time experimenting and exploring sub-sections of our crafts, and align those efforts with our established creative processes.

We are storytellers—every one of us. From the day we enter the world to the day we die, we live in a world shaped infinitely by stories within and around us. We learn at a young age about good versus evil, heroes and monsters, beauty and beasts. When we are young, we are curious about everything and want to tell the world the stories that shape us. We go on quests, gain inspiration and experience, and realize there is so much we don't know or understand. Our stories evolve. We repeatedly try until we become tired of fighting, of telling a story that no longer serves ourselves and others. So we cede the power to be storytellers to machines and industries and become collectors of stories. But that doesn't need to be the end of the story.

How much pain and suffering would we avoid in our work and creative lives if we intentionally skipped to the end? If we took our present striving and extrapolated it into some point in the future and examined how we felt, how we lived, and what we became? We aren't pre-cogs in a science fiction film trying to prevent the future, but we are trying to find ways to be more proactive in creating a life worth living. That is why we should probably skip to the end more frequently, especially as we get older and see the end more clearly.

There often comes a moment in our careers when we need to wrestle with some tough questions. You know the type: existential, philosophical, realistic. Cue your eye-rolling, hit stop, these questions are downright frustrating. Not just because we do not like asking them, or even answering them, but because they lead us to a new future that requires decisive action, change, and breaking down the walls of our comfort zone. As I was writing in my morning pages, I kept writing down question after question, wanting to find the tough questions I have been avoiding. I'm going to share what I came up with and encourage you to use them to find your own tough questions too.

I love those moments when you give up on something, and in explaining why you gave up, you come up with the spark of an idea, allowing the creative process to begin. I had given up on a second monologue this week. I wanted to focus on preparing for the first film shoot of Getting Work To Work: The Series! and writing a newsletter about creative relationships. I started writing the first sentence explaining why there was only one monologue when the idea struck: How do you re-animate dead dreams? I am a collector of dead dreams and don't think I'm alone. Some have been gone a long time, and I don't see them returning from the dead (rockstar, anyone?). But what about the dreams that merely need a bolt of lightning to live again?

It's the middle of the night, and you're lying in bed when suddenly, bam! There it is, fresh in your find, in its finished form. There's nothing more exciting than the promise of a new creative idea. You imagine the response. People love it. Likes, subscribes, shares. Then something happens—at least for me—fear shows up. Sure, fear is in costume, but it's there, whispering lies and half-truths, saying anything to stop this creative project from seeing the light of day. In today's episode of Getting Work To Work, I'm sharing five lies fear has told me and the truths to counter them.

I have no idea how creativity works, but I'm glad it does. This morning, I got triggered by the onslaught of daily challenges on Instagram. The grumpy contrarian in me was ready to do a complete takedown rant on how challenges are a waste of time: "Creativity is not just exercise! It's nutrition! It's fitness! It's everything!" Drink your coffee and calm down. But as I explored these thoughts further, I started thinking about the different parts of my creative self and how they work together and against each other to get my work to work. Deep within the interaction of these different parts of ourselves lies the paradox at the core of creativity, the magic, the fun. Let's enter it, shall we?

How many of you hit the reset button of your life on January 1st, 2023? This year is probably the first time I decided against resolutions and wishing for a different life. Not because I'm giving up or social media said I needed to, but because I have work to do—on myself, for my clients, and to bring the creative vision deep within me to life. I have always loved hitting the reset button, it is how I learned to play the guitar, after all, but this year is different. Instead of resetting to serve some idealized version of myself, I'm rummaging around on the floor amongst the broken pieces of life to see what's there. In today's episode of Getting Work To Work, I'm going to share five interesting pieces of the puzzle that each form their own intriguing vision of the future.

How would you define your relationship with failure? Regardless of your answer, you're going to learn a thing or two from today's guest about failure and how to look at it in a new light so you can go from failure sucks to failure rules! Andrew Thorp King is an executive fintech banker, spy novelist, speaker, punk rocker, podcaster, ex-bodybuilder, cigar lover, serial entrepreneur, serial failure, and author of FAILURE RULES! The 5 Rules of Failure for Entrepreneurs, Creatives, and Authentics. In this conversation, he shares many stories that form the foundation of his five rules of failure. He also touches on a wide range of topics covering the world of punk rock, spirituality, building a portfolio of pursuits, and wielding chaos as an idea engine.