The Art of More
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[My Facebook status update yesterday]
It's funny how we can know so much about what to do and not do to be productive, and yet let ourselves get distracted to avoid actually doing them. The path to making things happen is so much easier said than done.
Between the Seattle Interactive Conference (recap and thoughts coming soon) and today's Creative Mornings Seattle talk, I've realized more than ever before that I need to keep myself around other creatives as much as possible. Working for yourself means you're by yourself a lot, and when I'm in the zone working, I need space and solitude to get things done. That's fine in moderation I guess, but I definitely let that become the norm and don't give myself enough time to just do.
Chase's talk today centered around "The Art of More" - of giving and sharing more of your work; of putting more of yourself out there. The abundance of will(ing): to share, to fail. It was the kickstart I needed to look at my blog anew again. Blogging is like working out; once you fall off the wagon, the battle is not just in getting back on that wagon, but getting a groove going again. The writing I do here is my creative outlet, and it gets put on the back burner way too much. I chose the freelance life so I could blog more. Chase's perspective was a great reminder to me that I need to get back at it.
He also talked about bravery in imperfection. I loved this point, because I let myself think that careful, edited blogging is better than blogging about things that give me life, no matter how often that might be. "I don't blog unless I have something meaningful to say." That became a crutch instead of a helpful perspective for me. Create something and just put it out there. Just write, Jess, and put it out there.
This morning's talk was so moving to me (obviously) and drove me home to absorb more at Chase Jarvis Live and Creative Live. Special thanks to my friend Imei, who interviewed Chase after the event and shared these clips with me:
Tonight I watched his Live episode with Mark Ecko, another current fascination of mine.
If you're interested in watching Chase's talk, it should be up on the Creative Mornings Seattle Vimeo channel soon. If you're in the city, you should definitely check out one of their events sometime for some serious inspiration! Follow them on Facebook.
