Podcast: Download (Duration: 15:04 — 20.9MB)
I often struggle with powerful emotions. In high school, a friend once called me Mr. Negative. To this day, many years later, I am mostly hopeful. But some days, I can still be negative. I think it’s called “realistic.” The truth is that I wouldn’t be in the daily pursuit of a creative career if I weren’t hopeful. I am deeply inspired by the work of other artists and I am daily working on my own art. In this episode of Getting Work To Work, I want to share a few thoughts about hope, wonder, and optimism and how you can incorporate them into your work in order to develop a deeper sense of purpose.
This episode is inspired by this quote from David Hieatt in Do Open: How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can): “A business needs to do the numbers, but it also needs a purpose. That gives you the passion. Humans need that. So use your business to go and make a positive change. Be the hope. Hope is a rare, quietly powerful thing. Remember, the cynic changes little or nothing. The optimist can and will. Spread wonder. Spread optimism. It’s the best stuff.”
What can we do to grow these three areas of hope, wonder, and optimism?
- Surround ourselves with amazing people doing amazing things
- Be approachable to others
- Have new experiences every day
- Travel
- You are what you consume
In an interview in The Design Entrepreneur by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico, artist Shepherd Fairey has this to say about the purpose of his art: “My agenda is simply to make art that is visually stimulating enough at a glance for people to care. … I hope my work combats complacency by demonstrating how easy it is to make, disseminate and sell stuff. I’m into empowering people.”
Show Links
- The Design Entrepreneur: Turning Graphic Design Into Goods That Sell by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico
- Do Open – How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can) by David Hieatt
- Support Getting Work To Work on ChrisMartinStudios.shop!
- Sign up for my weekly newsletter: The Curiosity Lab