Take Time to Celebrate (GWTW689)
It’s a big week here at Getting Work To Work. The 7th anniversary of the podcast is this Friday featuring an interview with one of my heroes. I’m releasing the second episode of the documentary series about a farmer. And, as always, I’m thinking about what’s next. There’s always something to plan, produce, schedule, and promote. Perhaps that’s why I was lying awake last night, avoiding the next wave of production, by obsessing over things already finished. I was replaying moments from the interview earlier in the day. Hoping people will like the video. Wondering what this monologue will be about. My mind was racing. Sound familiar to you? I don’t think I’m alone because a thought occurred to me this morning, echoing my conversation with Mike Brennan: Why am I not taking time to celebrate? Why is celebrating anything so hard, especially when you know that the clock never stops?
Tapping Into History (GWTW687)
A day doesn’t go by where I’m not considering the future of work. How will ideation and creation work? Will it be writing prompts, letting a computer spit out a rough draft, and then editing the results? What about distribution and economics? How will people find our work, and what will they be willing to pay for it? These are all great questions to think about and consider in the fast-paced world of the 21st century. But an unexamined question entered my mind: What role does history play in our work moving forward? Will we allow it to shape our experience or shun it to our detriment?
Continuum of Creation (GWTW686)
When you think about your creative expression, do you dream of ideas or the end product? I’ve always marveled at film directors who claim to see the finished product in their minds or even songwriters who hear the song playing in their imagination. For many, that is what successful creativity looks like, tapping into something already there and bringing it into existence. For others, like me, I might get tiny glimpses of an idea, but I generally have to start smashing ideas together to find out what they’ll be. I’ve had the opportunity to be on a couple of podcasts recently, talking about my creative origin stories. And as I reflected on those experiences, I realized that I approach creativity the way I do today because of how I taught myself to play the guitar.
Protection From Other People’s Words (GWTW685)
When thinking about protecting yourself from other people’s words, the first thing that might enter your mind is criticism or feedback. Criticism is being externally thrust upon you by critics—either professional or merely haters—and feedback is being requested from others and received by you. At least, that’s how I differentiate between the two. It can be challenging to open yourself up to criticism and feedback, it is a necessary skill, but that’s not what I mean by protection from the words of others. I mean those moments when people treat you as a commodity, a demographic, or a willing audience member to spread their ideas. In these moments, words can do the most damage when an element of control is in play, so I will share a few ways to protect yourself and your creative spirit.
Why Work? (GWTW684)
This past Saturday, I attended a podcast conference in Portland, Oregon. It was a chance to step away from the computer and be around people, talking about podcasts. It was exciting and exhausting, with a ton of takeaways. Inevitably, every conversation led to the same question: “What’s your podcast about?” A simple question with many answers, but I still struggled to answer succinctly. I wanted a one-sentence explainer, but there are so many stories explaining what Getting Work To Work is all about. I shared the origin story with one person and another, the show’s evolution. At the same time, another conversation centered around a single word to describe the episodes where I don’t have guests. After the conference, I kept thinking about these conversations and thought, “Why work?” So, that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
More Important Than Tech (GWTW682)
My mind is wrestling with how to stay creative and productive as I grow older. Naturally, I think about technology and ensuring I use the latest and greatest cameras and equipment. But as I look at my actual process versus what is idealistic and even fantastical, I realize I’m a few years behind. That’s because there are more important values and ideals in my life and, ultimately, my business. Before you indict me as an anti-technological heretic, I will make my case for what could possibly be more important than the latest and great technology.
What Are You Going To Do About AI? (GWTW680)
Have you ever had one of those conversations that reveal how stuck you are and show you what you need to move forward? The question was simple: “What are you going to do about AI?” My response was swift, “I don’t know. I’m just not curious about it.” This is where friends in life are helpful to call you on your stuff, “Aren’t you the curiosity guy? Now’s not the time to bury your head in the sand.” Truth comes in many forms. Sometimes we hear it at the moment, but more often, we find the truth in replaying the memory. At least, that’s how it works for me. The reality is that the answer to this question of AI is a lot more complicated and complex. In today’s episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m diving into the many answers to this simple question.
Strengths in a New Light (GWTW678)
Over the past ten years, I’ve read and heard a lot about the value of knowing your strengths. From understanding how they show up in your life and work to ensuring that you are operating from a position of power if you want to be at your best, it’s better to build upon a foundation of strength, not weakness. But recently, I read a quote from Bono’s book, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story that got me thinking differently about strengths. Could it be possible that what was once a strength would become a weakness? What if, at some point in our lives, weaknesses become strengths? That is the premise that I’ll be exploring in today’s episode of Getting Work To Work.
What’s a Curiosity Tank? (GWTW676)
My favorite types of questions are what I call launching questions. They are not only open-ended, as the best questions tend to be, but also so ripe with potential, meaning, and direction that I could generate an entire hour of conversation from a single question. Before recording an upcoming interview with Peleg Top, a mentor, and an artist, he asked me about one of my favorite launching questions: What’s filling your curiosity tank? He wanted to know more about the foundation of the question and what I was hoping to learn from it. As I examined my intentions, I was able to recognize my assumptions and understand more about what I want to ignite in others. Not to mention, Peleg’s answer in the interview found its way into today’s monologue.
A Different Story To Tell (GWTW675)
I’ve talked a lot about my journey on the podcast, especially where I find myself today: in the middle. I’m not anywhere near the beginning, nowhere near the end. Some days I can see to the very end. On other days, I can’t see anything at all. In these dark days, creativity provides an escape, a respite from the vicious storyteller in my mind as long as I let creativity do its job. It’s easy to get stuck, make excuses, and lie down to let the day pass to the next. Hoping things will change without action, petitioning the silence within for a change. But the best course of action is to move, even the slightest bit, to gain a new perspective and find a different story to tell.
