057 - Are You Wasting Your Time?
You’re working hard but there’s little positive feedback and even smaller financial reward. So is it worth it?
Welcome to the Editor’s Journal; A daily thought on writing, the creative process, art, work, the world and how it all goes together. Every morning I rise early, I sit here in the quiet of my kitchen and I write whatever’s prominent. There’s no clever headlines and no script, just open and honest thoughts. I hope you enjoy the read. If you like this article please offer some love by hitting the 👏 cheers!
It’s daytime, almost 4pm and there’s no one else here, it’s just me at my desk.
Then the conversation starts. Does it ever really stop I wonder.
I can’t say exactly what triggers it, or maybe I can but I don’t like to admit it. But one thing I do know is I’m alone, there’s nobody else around.
“What are you doing here?”, it asks.
“You know this stuff isn’t really for you. You’re not qualified and besides you’re not getting anywhere. Why do you persist? Give up this stupid idea, you’re not good enough“
It sounds like me, it’s my voice but I’m not speaking.
The voices are the sound of people I know. Sometimes the voice is a collective one, I can’t identify anyone in particular. Then sometimes it’s one person.
I know at my level of reality these voices are not real but I superimpose them on the faces of people I know and therefore I give them reality.
They are friends, family, business contacts and so on. They form a moving, changing collective reality in my mind.
Round and round the one-way conversation goes, dragging me down into self doubt, self criticism and frustration.
The Draw Of The Machine
You can be in no doubt that everyone you meet hears these voices. Message, range and amplitude may vary but everyone hears them.
They are our constant companion, they are the draw of the machine.
Every time we receive a good idea with potential to take us out of our comfort zone, it tries to suck us back to the safety of the herd.
It’s the power of momentum and it all starts (arguably) in the brain.
The brain is a very efficient element of our organism consuming more energy than any other organ in the human body and it’s built to use that energy wisely.
It holds neurological pathways that become established over time making common tasks easy.
Consciously changing those pathways is difficult, although for survival of the organism the brain can make changes and adapt where necessary.
That’s why when we’re in a do-or-die situation that we often find solutions that weren’t present before.
Behaviours to which we are currently conditioned will seek to maintain and that often works to our advantage, like when we are creating and working our craft.
But oftentimes the momentum of thought and behaviour keeps us in places that we’d rather not be.
Starting Something New
When we start pursuing something new we don’t know if we’re wasting our time, we just have to ignore the negative self talk and go for it.
In fact, whether we’re wasting our time or not is largely determined by us.
We have a choice in all that, and the extent to which we choose to speak positively to ourselves will determine our success.
How centered and committed to the task can you be?
I’m asking myself this more and more, especially now that I’m back working for myself, building something new.
I love technology, I always have.
Be it designing or installing, commissioning or programming systems, it didn’t matter to me. As long as I had my hands in gadgets and software I was happy out.
It doesn’t matter what it is, I can figure it out and master it pretty quickly.
This time around is no different.
I’ve chosen to work online, to write and to create content around ideas that I want to share. I blend that with technology and I throw it out there.
Sometimes it’s shite, sometimes it’s great. I proceed regardless because I love what I do. That means I’m not wasting my time at all.
I teach and perform it for others too, that’s how I manage to pay the bills and keep the lights on. In time if I manage to create something bigger then I’ll take that.
As part of the content creation process I’m making the move back into podcasting.
I like audio as a medium to express my creative urges and it is a medium that’s growing big time so I’d like to be a part of that again.
Lots of shows are created every day with many of them not getting past 3 months. To me that presents an opportunity to make something that stands out from the crowd.
Podcast Launch
The podcast will launch in about 2 weeks time and will cover many of the subjects I write about here on the blog.
I’ll be talking creativity, art, work, business and marketing and will direct content at artists and creative people seeking to build a business around their work.
The show is for artists, writers, musicians, songwriters, digital creatives, craftspeople, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Anyone who considers themselves remotely creative and wants to turn that passion into a business will get value from this material.
Honestly though, if you’re any way interested in making the best of yourself in the time you have on this earth, like I am, then you’ll get value from this podcast.
It’s coming soon, so keep your earballs to the floor for more!
I Need Your Questions: I intend to build the content around your needs so if you have a question related to starting or running a creative business that you’d like covered please tell me here and I’ll include in the show
Articles From This Week
This week I was working on my YouTube Channel, creating video tutorials, channel art, channel and video descriptions for SEO and so on.
One of the videos I created is already showing up on page 1 of Google video and YouTube searches for the keyword I chose so I’m pretty pleased about that.
I also launched Seolar on Medium, the site where all new marketing content will go. So if you’re working for yourself and need to build an audience that’s where you can find the free content.
Eventually premium content on that site will be behind a paywall which is how I plan to monetise.
Anyway, here’s what went down this week in articles;
How To Import Contacts To Mailchimp (Ethically)
How To Avoid Spam Filters When Sending Emails From MailChimp
The Larb: New Podcast Launching Soon
Marketing: A Dirty Word For Creatives
All the best for now, see you next week
Larry
Originally published at larrygmaguire.com on August 27, 2017.
