You Are Always Telling Yourself a Story About Money
You are always telling yourself a story about money. The day before yesterday, I walked into Starbucks for my afternoon coffee, paid for mine, gave the Barista an extra 15 dollars and asked him to pay for how many other orders that would cover. One of those customers subscribed to The Unmistakable Creative Podcast, and…
Nothing you Accomplish Will Permanently Alter Your Self Worth
We chase our self-worth through all forms of external validation, vanity metrics, career accomplishments, life milestones, etc., etc. But there’s not a single external accomplishment that will permanently alter the perception you have of yourself. We spend our lives trying to bridge this eternal gap between who we are and who we want to be.You…
The Eternal Gap Between Who We Are and Who We Want to Be
There is an eternal gap between who we are and who we want to be. So we read books, listen to podcasts, take courses, attend seminars, and hire coaches to bridge that gap. Of course, what nobody tells you is that you’ll never bridge the gap. Four years ago I wrote a letter to my…
Imagination has No Budget
Earlier this week, I was speaking to a group of caterers, event planners and restaurant owners. Budgets don’t necessarily constrain food as a medium of expression. The preparation, presentation, etc. are all ripe with possibilities for getting creative. The only limit is your imagination.A few weeks ago I signed up with a fantastic graphic design…
How I Use Notion to Organize Ideas and Manage Creative Projects
If you’re a creative person, you probably have hundreds of ideas and projects you’d like to work on. But many of them never see the light of day. If you learn to organize your ideas the right way, you’ll be much more likely to bring them to life. The tool you use is not nearly…
Why The Metrics on Social Media Platforms are Destroying Our Creativity
The metrics on social media platforms are gradually destroying our creativity. Aspiring creators are prioritizing clicks over craft and metrics over meaning. Some startup founders get caught up in press instead of profit. As I said in An Audience of One, “The very tools that have made unparalleled amounts of creativity possible are paradoxically inhibiting…
What You Put Into Something is What You’ll Get Out of It
For the last seven weeks, we’ve been teaching the Fearless Writer’s Workshop to roughly 30 students. While I’ve imparted my knowledge from 10 years of writing, they’ve been the ones to do the work. They’ve gotten a lot out of it because they’ve put a lot into it. Showing UpSeth Godin says that showing up…
What We Can Measure Isn’t Always an Accurate Predictor of Success
Tom Brady was the 199th pick in the 6th round the year he was drafted to the NFL. The other quarterbacks in the draft had won national championships in college and been superstars. Of those quarterbacks that were drafted before him, one was cut from the NFL after his first game, and the others didn’t…
How to Never Miss a Day of Creative Work
Have you ever started a new habit with the best of intentions and missed one day, only to abandon the habit entirely? Changing your behavior and adopting new habits isn’t about superhuman will-power or monk-like discipline. It’s about designing systems. By designing the right systems, you’ll never miss a day of creative work. Honor your commitments:…
Everything You’re Searching for is Already Within You
Everything you’re searching for is within you. But, As a culture, we constantly look outside of ourselves for answers. We read self help books, listen to podcasts, go to church, hire coaches, and attend seminars. We look for so many things outside of ourselves: validation, satisfaction, permission, love. We base our happiness on factors we…
