Creativity

In The Box Podcast

Episode 43: Leaving Your Job For Your Passion, Work Satisfaction, Creativity And More (Podcast)

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast we talked about what sets us back in our creative minds, if continuing education classes are worth the money, one tip for leaving your job and starting your passion, when to feel satisfied with your work and how to deal with someone who is falsely positive. Enjoy and subscribe.

Episode 43: Leaving Your Job For Your Passion, Work Satisfaction, Creativity And More

False Positive – One tip on how to deal with someone who is positive in a false manner?

Satisfied – Is there a right time to be satisfied with your work?

Work to passion shift – What is one tip you would give someone wanting to stop working and transition just to their passion?

Creativity – What do you think is the biggest destroyer of creativity and how do you combat it?

Bonus – Are continuing (non credit) education classes worth it or are you better off spending time in the library?

 

Stay Positive & When Are You Satisfied?

Feng Shui

Garth Beyer

Feng Shui seems to be a dead term, but ever more powerful and noticed concept.

Last night my SO said it was dumb that she slept better when the closet doors and dresser drawers were closed. I reminded her there are thousands of ways that are impacting her sleep without her being conscious of it (and props for noticing these two simple and controllable parts).

Did you know the direction your feet point when sleeping matters too? Also, having your work computer in the room you sleep in takes a toll on the quality of your zzz’s.

What about the room you hold your creative meetings in. Surely you don’t have examples of disappointments hanging on the board from last week. That’s poor feng shui.

There’s a co-working space here in Madison that is absolutely electric, inspiring, and a perfect charging station for entrepreneurs. As far as I know, they’re not circulating any drugs through the vents. It’s all because of the way it’s set up: open, art on the walls, plenty of windows.

Ever wonder why some retail stores smell so wonderful? There’s consumer science behind it. People are more likely to purchase items when they are in a place that smells familiar and pleasant.

As for me, I rarely write anywhere besides my work place dojo, the book store or at my desk, my personal dojo where I control the smell, the sights, the seating comfort. I’ve learned to associate these spaces with a particular outcome of a great blog post, a wonderful beer column, a new idea clipped on my Evernote.

Small ways your rooms are set up can collectively have a big impact. More importantly, can collectively produce outcomes you want… again and again.

 

Stay Positive & Harmonize Yourself

Autonomy Is Overrated

Garth Beyer

The recent book you read was likely written by two or more people, even if there’s only one author name on it.

The viral YouTube video you shared last week took at least two people to make.

The witty design of a website that wowed you required more than a couple of people to build.

We don’t need more independence or more alone time. The epiphanies you go off on your own to have no longer compare to the ones you can have when you go off with a few friends, stay late with a handful of coworkers or talk with strangers.

You’re better of working to be less self-sufficient than more, and see what happens. We’ve spoiled autonomy by comparing ourselves to one another. “You think you’re better than me?!”

With groups, partnerships, and communities we have a better opportunity to make something remarkable, to have epiphanies that really matter, and create something incomparable.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Fear Dependence (It’s Now Your Best Option)

Bottled Up

Garth Beyer

You can’t be moved by a presentation a week after as passionately as you could be moved the evening of. Inspiration can’t be bottled and saved up for later. Motivation is also addictive for this reason.

We love the feeling of creative potential, of assertive ambition, of being fueled with passion, but the moment the creative spark ignites, so does the lizard brain tricking us to wait until a better moment, to use our knowledge on our next project, not the one we’re currently working on.

Since we don’t recognize it’s the lizard brain speaking up, we feel bad a week later when we’re reminded about the seminar we went to and how we haven’t put to action anything we learned from it. I recall myself saying how ready and stoked I was to write my next novel after a 2-day writing conference. I never did. So what’s the best solution?

Go to another conference, watch another Ted talk, listen to another podcast episode because the energy makes us happy again, which leads to an addictive mentality, a downhill spiral of bottled up and wasted inspiration.

What has helped me prevent wasting creative energy is to remind myself I don’t need to create something huge or wait for something big to release the passion. Immediately after attending a second writing conference, I wrote an incomplete story. I spent about 20 minutes writing while I ate lunch.

Two things happened.

One, I learned inspiration is quickly spent. The creative juice waned after 15 minutes of writing, but when I first put pen to paper, I thought I was pumped up enough to write for hours.

Two, I was proud of myself later in the day and even a week later when I thought back to the conference and how I used the inspiration. Even though it was a short incomplete story about an irish boxer who had a fascination with things colored orange, I had conquered my lizard brain.

Don’t bottle up your inspiration. Don’t hang on to motivation. Put it to use, make something, write something, do something differently, and remember, it doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be.

 

Stay Positive & You’ll Often Come Out Even More Inspired (by yourself!)

The Way You Move

Garth Beyer

An achievement is easy.

It is the constant creativity, stamina, determination, and innovation to keep moving forward that sets you apart from others.

Ever notice people who ride in the car with you care more about how you drive in the moment than what your driving record is?

We move forward by doing the uncomfortable, by asking “what’s next?” and by doing all we do in the moment just a bit differently than everyone else.

It’s the attitude we have right now that matters, not yesterday’s attitude.

 

Stay Positive & Stay Driven

Ebb And Flow Of Information For Creativity’s Sake

Ebb And Flow Of Information For Creativity’s Sake

Garth Beyer

I used to visit 20 websites, watch five or so videos and listen to at least two podcast episodes a day. I would say, on average, I spent about 2.5 to 3 hours taking in information for creativity’s sake. Heck, I needed more blog post ideas. Or so I thought.

For the start of 2015, I took all my online information sources, put them in a single Evernote, and haven’t really touched them since. To my surprise, it hasn’t been my downfall.

I still show up and blog every day. I still have thought-provoking conversations with friends and colleagues. I still have a steady flow of creative ideas that I document or ship. I still manage to hear and learn about the latest trends.

I’ve ignored the signals in my brain pressuring me to read more, digest more, learn more, absorb more. Instead, I realized by doing more, I’m learning just as much, but also have creative work to show for it.

Information only gets you so far. Sometimes it doesn’t get you anywhere.

 

Stay Positive & Doing Might Give You All The Info You Need

Lazy Brains

Lazy Brains

Garth Beyer

Breakthroughs don’t come from simply staring at an object and thinking harder about it.

A sculptor doesn’t stare at a ball of clay and then magically turn it into something remarkable. No. She collects and combines images throughout her day that, pieced together nicely, can be communicated effectively through clay.

It is the images she collects and combines that make the masterpiece, not the clay itself, and the images in her arsenal come from the variety of her experiences.

We have naturally lazy brains. Some might spin the word “efficient” around, but I believe they’re lazy. Our brains take shortcuts, our peripheral vision isn’t what we are really seeing, it’s what our brain is guessing we would see.

Gregory Berns wrote in his fantastic book Iconoclast, “Experience modifies the connections between neurons such that they become more efficient at processing information.”

That is, the more experience we have the better the processing. Moreover, the more new experiences we have, the more likely we acquire a path of uncharted processing, which leads to creative remarkability.

Therefore the path of an artist is quite simply laid out… have more new experiences and you’re bound to create better art.

 

Stay Positive & New Is Always Better