Life Lesson

The End To Unproductive Weekends

Garth Beyer

3771040530_c7ca64c1cc_z

Every weekend there are people who have open schedules to work on their art, but never use the time to their advantage. (Heck, I am even guilty of it from time to time.)

The single greatest tip I can give to have a successful weekend, whether your schedule is packed or not, is to get dressed.

Even more specifically, put shoes on.

Don’t trust me? Try it just once. Next Sunday, when you have zero plans, wake up and instead of staying in your pj’s, get dressed, put your shoes on, and the rest will take care of itself. And at the end of the day, you will have made accomplishments.

Sure, we have had a weekend that we got work done barefoot, but I know there’s not one weekend that we were wearing shoes and no work was completed.

Life is weird, but the moments you discover to be weird, you can also leverage.

 

Stay Positive & In What Other Ways Do You Leverage Your Weekend?

Garth E. Beyer

What’s Your Story

Garth Beyer

It’s a common question with a difficult answer.

I have met those that tell their story in under a minute and I have met those that tell their story in 10 minutes.

The former is never enough. The former is a copout – “I grew up in Rockford, went to UW Madison, got cheated on, and travelled around America. Now, here I am working for the State.”

People will tell me something similar and they honestly believe that is their story.

The 10 minute stories are the passionate ones, the ones you learn about the person’s character rather than where they were or where they are at now. Their story consists of multiple short stories. Most importantly, their story encompasses you the moment they start sharing it.

The good stories are the ones that connect you with the person you’re telling it to.

 

Stay Positive & Work On Your Story*

Garth E. Beyer

*Really, if there is one thing you want to be able to conjure without moments notice, to completely tell, it’s your story. Forget the one minute elevator speech and forget about analyzing your major decisions that changed the course of your life. Your story that you share with people is invaluable. So valuable that I will be posting mine within the next few days, opening it up to criticism. I encourage you to share yours in the comments section. I will choose one person to debut in a new interview series I will be doing. The beauty about a story is that there is always more to tell.

You Have No Clue

Garth Beyer

No clue how many people are actually watching you.

You have no clue how many people – whom you know personally – visit your blog, or look at your product, or ask others about how you are doing, or talk to each other about how you haven’t done what you said you were going to do, or are waiting to see what you create.

Whoever said to act as if someone is always watching, well, they were blind.

Someone is always watching.

 

Stay Positive & Get Lucky

Garth E. Beyer

More On The 2nd Part Of Being Scared

Garth Beyer

There are two parts to everyone being scared.

The second is my favorite because it has the potential of making you feel better than you ever have before. At my work, I have evaluated applications from students that have put in more than 2,000 hours of community service over a span of four years. But when I think of the second part of fear, I can’t help but realize that more empowering results can be created by talking to someone for two minutes.

Online example

Despite Twitter’s popularity, it’s far from perfect. In fact, I gave their ads a try and was revolted. They gave me $50 to start running ads and I quit before it was spent.

They also required you to have a debit/credit card on file before they gave you the money. Once I quit my ads, I wanted to delete my debit card information. I could not find any place to do this. So, I emailed them.

Within a day I received an email saying that the feature I requested was not available and that they would work on it – in the mean time I would basically have to deal with it.

Since then, a few weeks have passed. The other day, I opened my email to find this:

Twitter

There is always room for improvement

Whether the person, company, or client you’re talking to follows through with your suggestion – or in Twitter’s case, takes your unfulfillable request and turns it into something real – it’s still your responsibility to make that suggestion.

Out of the millions of Twitter users, I have no clue how many will be happy that they can delete their card from their account. I have no clue how many employees it took, how much red tape it had to go through, or how successful their actions really were. What I do know is that they took a request, an idea, and made it happen. And for that – although I still can’t stand the ads, – I will stick by Twitter’s side.

Personal examples

An old friend of mine wanted to start a blog about teen dads. I gave him roughly five lines of hard encouragement. I told him exactly what he needed to do. He never did. I didn’t let fear get to him, he did.

Another friend of mine was applying to law school and asked if I would review his personal statement. I gave him a few suggestions but explained more about human personalities and how those reviewing the application are real people. He understood, realizing that there was fear that the person reviewing his application might misjudge him. Because of fear, he wrote a safe statement. Once I called him out on it, he made some changes and while he has yet to hear back, I’m sure he will get in.

I shared a speech I wrote with a respectable entrepreneur. She critiqued the staleness and boredom out of it. Because of her, my speech became more remarkable. I also gave the original draft to a friend who said it was good, providing a couple grammatical corrections. You can guess which one had more of an impact.

Criticism is tough work

So is encouragement, accountability, and inspiration – all of which are required to back up another’s dance with fear. I’ve always thought that doing your own work is easy, well, maybe not easy, but always easier than helping someone else do their own work.

I suppose that’s why I love giving people feedback. Maybe, just maybe, they will see how valuable it is to them, that they give feedback to someone else.

 

Stay Positive & Let Others Know What You Think And Feel

Garth E. Beyer

Two Types Of Art

Garth Beyer

The first is risk-free. It’s the type of art that you can destroy without second guessing yourself; the type of art you can return, get your money back, or just give away to someone else because you’re not attached. This type of art is noncommittal.

But it’s still art. In fact, it’s invaluable art.

This type of indefinite art is about expression as much as it is exploration. We can peck at it, flip it, and stick the end of our tongue to it to see what it tastes like. This art is about discovering through creating what we don’t understand. This art is to be played with.

The transition toward the second type of art is made through what all art shares: facing unresolved issues – the meaning of life, why this and not that, where do I belong.

Popular art – the second type of art – is when a creation contains answers.* The second type is about sharing findings, sharing answers, sharing your conclusions – egotistic or not. This is the most difficult type of art. To creat the first type, all you need to do is turn rumination into something tangible. For the second type of art, you have to commit, you have to accept all the criticism you will receive before you receive it. What ruins art creators is when they underestimate the amount of resistance they will have to face, internally and externally. The second type of art is simply art shared.

*[Right or wrong, they are answers. Popular art becomes such through connection, acceptance, and reality. It may not be the right answer for you, and it may be the wrong answer for her, but, essentially, it’s an answer for someone.]

 

Stay Positive & Create A Little Art. One Type Or Another

Garth E. Beyer

It’s Not Your Art

Garth Beyer

So what that you put hundreds of hours into creating what you did? Just because you went through all the pain of developing what you did, doesn’t make it yours. Even if you searched for every single piece of your creation and sold your sentimental belongings to afford what you made – it still doesn’t make it yours and it definitely doesn’t make it art.

Art is only art when it’s shared.

It’s the same with genius. Einstein wouldn’t have been a genius if he never shared everything he studied, ruminated, and experimented with. Or, a person can write a novel a year, but they will never be a writer unless they share it.

People might shout,

“This is not the time for metaphor! This is not the time for art! And this is certainly not the time for art about you!” But once you’ve shared your art and it’s resonated with a single person, it’s no longer about you — once you share it, it’s about everybody. And if your art is found by a single soul, shared with a friend who links it to a friend, and the response is whatever it is, you start to see how art becomes about everybody — just through the act of being shared.” – Amanda Palmer

I am stating that art becomes about everybody the same as it becomes everyones.

When I buy your art, I don’t see it the way you do. I don’t know how much money, time, sweat, blood, relationships, tears, mental exhaustion, late nights, and broken prototypes went into it.

When your art is in my hands – no, even when I see your art – it becomes mine too. It’s part of me. I put my emotions, my thoughts, my personality in and around it.

And let me tell you something. Art becomes so much more beautiful when it has amassed a variety of emotions, thoughts, and personalities.

 

Stay Positive & Sharing Always Makes It More Valuable

Garth E. Beyer

Keep Your Client (Squaders)

Garth Beyer

Back in the day, if you were sitting in a room with friends and you had to go to the bathroom, you would hold it. After all, if you got up, someone would take your spot!

Then an act of seat reservation was adopted. It was called “squaders.” Before getting up from your spot, whether it’s a log around the campfire or the one of few fancy chairs around the dinner table, you call “squaders!” and no one can take your spot while you are away.

Sitting with friends the other night, I got up and before walking forward, asked, “do we call squaders anymore?”

Of course we don’t. More people, specifically clients, are naturally mobile and resourceful. (If they are not, then maybe you don’t want them as a client.) We have to understand that the client can shop around, that they are okay not staying in their chair, that, sometimes, they go off and build their own chair.

Squaders is about attachment – and attachment is about vulnerability – and vulnerability is what the chair maker should feel, not the one sitting in it.

 

Stay Positive & Since We’re Talking About Chairs And Success

Garth E. Beyer