Think Like an Artist
We’re wrong if we think we’re the only ones struggling with resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences resistance.— Steven Pressfield
At Birchway, most of our time is spent as “idea guys” trying to think up creative ways to generate traffic for our clients, and ourselves.
Always having to come up with clever ideas can be a chore.
Why?
There’s not always a tangible way to measure them.
It often takes months for something we thought of to see the light of day.
It’s easy to slip into a pattern of redundancy and the mundane when you lose sight of your ultimate focus.
Think about it. The routine. The rat race.
Wake up, drink coffee, run to the office, hit the gym, see a movie with your spouse, go to bed. Rinse, and repeat.
When we started Birchway, we started with a clear goal, and our responsibility is live by it every single day.
Stories Drive us. It’s in our DNA. Our goal is simple: Tell stories in the most innovative, and creative ways ever imagined. We craft digital blueprints that will guide your company now and into the future. Whether it’s social media or creative content production, Birchway is with you from day one.
So what can you do, to stay energized, thriving, and creative? Here are 3 tips to never run out of your creative juice:
1. Remember your body is a machine, and so is your brain
Typically when you lack sleep, you’re more tired and less productive. Why don’t we treat our brains with that same philosophy?
When you burn out creatively, how do you normally refuel? Statistically, the average person doesn’t, they simply quit.
“You put out, only what you put in, it’s that simple.”
TED, (Technology, Education and Design) is one of the leading pioneers in creating formats for people to learn, engage, and practice the art of learning together. Learning has been a lost art form, and organizations like TED are revitalizing the way we come together and recharge.
TED is a tool that our entire team utilizes on a daily basis, and it keeps us thriving creatively. We remind ourselves that we need to recharge mentally as much as we do physcially.
2. Put what you learn into practice, as often as you can
Today, there are hundreds of apps like evernote, trello and harvest that aid us with productivity. We’re busier than ever as a culture with organizing data, yet we retain less of it than ever before. We give ourselves little to no time to actually put into practice what we are learning.
Your potential customer will be 10 times more likely to buy from your brand if they believe you are half as invested in your product as you want them to be.
Getting to this place as a company requires massive dedication not just to your product, but to the art of practicing what you learn.
That’s why at Birchway our team is encouraged to spend time daily taking in new information, and putting it into practice. Most of our great ideas come from something someone on the team shared that they had learned and adopted.
The War of Art is a book by Steven Pressfield, that offers up his musings on life in the creative world. He went on to become of the most respected military writers, being taught at almost every branch of the military and writing multiple award winning screenplays. But before he got there, he spent years learning what it meant to be a creative 24 hours a day instead of only when it’s convenient or successful. This book is something we read as a team once a year, and it’s always a refreshening eye opener for us.
“You don’t become a trusted advisor over night, you become one through days, months, and years of dedicated hard work.”
3. Think like an Artist
Artists have no schedule, and are never off the clock. They don’t quit their profession when happy hour starts. An artist is concerned only with his/her work, creating and striving for the best.
If you turn off your brain when you clock out of work, you’re missing the ultimate key to success. Keep going. Keep learning. Keep doing.
At Birchway, we try and practice these three tips as often as we can, because they keep us sharp, creative, and moving forward which is how we started this company, and how we want it to stay.
Doing great things is not just for the Elon Musk’s, and Steve Job’s of the world.
People are looking for reasons to believe. Use these tips to inspire your team into creating exactly what the world needs; more creativity and more inspiration.
