There’s some great line about the most powerful thing in the world being a cumulative interest rate. I can’t remember where that’s from. But there’s something incredibly potent in accumulated baby steps. Think about it: dieting or exercising is not about having one day where you eat nothing, or run all the miles in the world; it’s about doing small things day by day, building up changes. Same with learning: first you learn the alphabet and a few words, then you learn sentence structure, then how to write a paragraph. You don’t just sit down and write a novel. When I started my new self-hired job, I set two challenges for myself, among many others: - Come up with 5 ways to make Money as a creator. - Come up with 5 ways to do something positive for the world Neither is an easy nut to crack. I kept seeing those on my action list and not knowing how to approach them. I don’t remember where I got the idea but at a certain point I decided I just need to think about it and think about it every day. So that’s what I did: I spent 15 minutes every day thinking about ways I could make money; and I spent 15 minutes every day thinking of how I could change the world for the better. And wouldn’t you know, after a few weeks of that I had about 60 ideas for each? Not all of them were keepers, of course. But now I’ve got options. And there are two things that I really love about that cumulative effect: - The first is that I kept finding ideas that could satisfy both goals. Who knew? - The second is that by spending a little time every day thinking about these topics, I kept the questions fresh in my brain. So that when I go on my daily walk, I’ll see things that will trigger an answer to the question; I’d see something that’s needed in my neighborhood, and that would lead to a way to change the world for the better. Thinking of these things a little every day has made them part of the everyday fabric of my life. In other words, by setting aside 15 minutes a day, I’ve ended up thinking about them a whole lot more than 15 minutes. And just like accumulated interest, eventually that time and energy is bound to add up to something big.
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I left my job a month ago because I wanted to make more art. I’ve been doing really well, writing and painting like crazy (you can check it all out here on my website).
But if I want to make this a long term thing, I’ve got to find a way to make some income from all these creations. Reminds me of an article I read a few years back, where John Waters described how he does what he does: “Stories. I make ‘em up in the morning, and I sell ‘em in the afternoon!” That’s key. Just making up the stories won’t do you any good. And just focusing on selling them won’t either – otherwise you run out of stuff to sell! So how do you do that? How do you “sell ‘em in the afternoon.” Well I have no idea. But you can bet I’m going to spend my afternoons thinking about that question, and trying out some potential answers. Otherwise what was the point of the morning? What’s the point of telling stories to an empty room? My name is John and I do a lot of things:
- I wright plays (and sometimes direct them) - I paint and take photos - I write and record music - I bake like your mother's god. - I cook - I grow vegetables. - I craft and make puppets - I'm handy around the house (I once built a bed. A BED!) Frankly I'm a dog-gammed Reconnaissance Man. I'm a creator in Boston, trying my derndest to make a living with my art, because frankly I've never enjoyed doing anything else. This blog is going to talk about all those things I do, how and why I do them, what excites me and scares me, and what I'm doing next to make it work. I hope you'll check in. I hope you'll talk back to me. Maybe we can help or inspire each other. So question of the day: What inspired you today? Be well. JRex |