How to Stay Motivated to Accomplish Any Goal
When you start working on an ambitious goal like writing a book, starting a blog, or building a company, or even picking up a new hobby, to stay motivated to accomplish any goal can feel like a real struggle. For the entirety of my 20’s, I picked up a brief interest in something and quit, over…
The One Habit Successful Creators Share
A few months ago I met a girl at a party who told me about the novel she’d been working on for five years. Five years is a long time— what was taking so long? She dismissed the question with something along the lines of, “You can’t just sit down and write.” And almost instinctively, I replied, “That’s…
How to Make Creative Ideas Happen by Organizing your Life into Projects
Ultimately, every idea is associated with a project, whether personal (a birthday part you are planning) or professional (a new product launch), every project revolves around ideas that you want to push into action- Scott Belsky, Making Ideas Happemn Many creative people have too many ideas. As a result they work on a thousand different…
Resisting the Temptation to Quit in the Dip
At the beginning of 1986, my dad had two job offers. One was in Vancouver. The other was in Texas. Coming to the United States had been part of his plan for a long time. Our boxes were packed. But since we had no idea where we were going, they didn’t have any address labels.…
Why Outcome Goals are a Recipe for Failure
Do you set outcome goals and wonder whe you struggle? If you’ve set an outcome goal before, this scenario might sound familiar. You wake up on January 1st, determined to make this the best year of your life. You write down different types of outcome goals: Lose weight Make the money Find the love of…
Why Successful Artists Throughout History Started Their Careers By Creating For an Audience of One
In a world where we’ve quantified the value of people’s artistic endeavors with reviews, rankings, fan, and follower counts, modern-day artists have become excessively concerned with validation from strangers on the Internet, and metrics over mastery when it should really be the other way around. It seems counterintuitive that you could reach an audience of…
Two Questions Worth Asking About New Technology
With every new technology, there are two questions worth asking yourself. 1. What does this make possible that wasn’t before? The combination of the commercial web browser and the ability to process a credit card payment over the internet made it possible to create eBay, Amazon, and just about every other business where you’ve paid…
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Digital Life
A few days ago I sent an email to my readers asking why they had clicked on a podcast, but didn’t listen. After the following response from a reader, it was clear that we need to tidy up our digital lives. I’m so entirely sick of having to listen to everything! I open my email daily…
On What it Means to Live an Artful Life
A few days ago, I was talking to John P. Weiss on The Unmistakable Creative about what it means to live an artful life. The simplest definition of an artful life is one that’s filled with art. It’s filled with art you consume, art you create, and art that touches hearts. It isn’t about accumulating fans,…
How to Translate Creative Ideas into Results
When I asked some of my readers what their greatest challenge was, one theme came up multiple times. You have ideas. Lots of them. But they don’t translate into results or reality. Up until 2013, I was in the same place. I wanted to write a book, but couldn’t seem to do it, despite blogging regularly. But,…
