The Cheetah Dash of Creativity
Every morning, I watch an episode of Wild Kratts with the boys before we start getting ready for the day. At first, I was a little annoyed by the show because Nathan was initially obsessed with it. And, you may know how it can be when a 6 year-old is obsessed with anything and in near constant earshot.
Today’s episode was another one featuring Nathan’s favorite animal: the cheetah. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the cheetah because of my boy’s near encyclopedic knowledge of the Harley-Davidson of the African Savannah. But I learned something today that I hadn’t heard ad nauseam in the past year:
A cheetah (as common sense would dictate) cannot run at top speed for long without becoming completely exhausted and unable to continue the hunt or, in the case of the episode, its escape. In fact, a cheetah can only run for about 1,600 feet at top speed before it can absolutely run no more.
I realized this afternoon that my bursts of creativity are exactly like that of a cheetah. Given the right conditions, I can get myself up to top speed very quickly and can go for a distance. But once that distance is hit, no matter if I’ve achieved the goal I wanted, I’m spent and can’t go any further.
This leaves me, just like the cheetah, in a vulnerable position. Unable to move or react quickly, an exhausted cheetah or Jeremy is an easy target for predators. In my case, that predator is self-doubt and, ultimately, depression.
June and July were a cheetah sprint for me. I very quickly got a custom CMS and front-end for misfitrad.io up and running. I very quickly assembled a roster of shows to participate on the network. I very quickly got the word out to the world that this thing I worked so hard to make is, in the words of the Kratt Brothers, living free and in the wild.
But there’s so much left to do. The real website needs to be coded up and pushed. The CMS needs improvements. The network needs more shows. The network needs an exponential increase in listeners.
I can’t do any of it.
I look at how the website and our shows are performing and I immediately feel that I ran so hard and fast for nothing. I didn’t expect misfitrad.io to be an overnight success. But I also didn’t expect for it to have this humble of a beginning, either. On average, first week listenership of The Shakes is down 500% from when we were on Mule Radio Syndicate.
All of this compounded makes me want to just roll over and let my predator have at the fleshy underbelly of my creative ego. But I just can’t do that.
Something just isn’t adding up. The Shakes is the same show today as it was two months ago. I refuse to believe that we solely lost that many listeners due to moving networks. There’s a reason why we’re struggling now, and I have to dig deeper to find out why that is. And it’s going to take slow, concerted effort and a cheetah dash of creativity just won’t work.
Building misfitrad.io is going to take slow, concerted effort. And it needs to take effort from other people than just me. I need to remember that I can’t do this alone.
I’m tired. I’m fighting my predator. But once I finally get it off me, I’ll pant and rest until I can get up, look across the savannah and make my next cheetah dash.
