At The End Of The Day

Garth Beyer

Your imagination is not kaput. Your creative tank is not drained. Your intellect is not exhausted. Your talent has not waned. Your skill has not faltered.

At the end of the day, what is stopping you from continuing to create what you create, from doing more of what you do, is willpower.

We only have so much willpower each day. If you find yourself with little to no willpower at the end of the day and you spent it on your art. Well, high-five to you. Not many people exhaust their willpower on a daily basis, let alone on what’s truly important to them.

 

Stay Positive & Tomorrow Is A New Day (with your willpower restored)

Garth E. Beyer

Chaos

Garth Beyer

Swim in it, strive in it, bathe in it. Chaos is the playground of success.

From years of observing and analysing what the successful people in the world do (whatever the definition of success might be), I’ve realized that you can run around like a chicken with its head cut off… and still get creative work done.

Heck, some might argue that’s the best condition to act in.

 

Stay Positive & Cluck, Cluck

Garth E. Beyer

If You Can’t Change The Paint…

Garth Beyer

then change the surface.

I was sitting in a café that had some brilliant art hung up on the walls. With closer inspection, I found that its acrylic paint on sandpaper. Yes, on sandpaper.

Why, you ask?

Simple. The painting artist has a limited number of paints she can use. However, the number of items that paint can be used on is endless.

You don’t need to discover a new tool or paint to use, you just need to change the surface.

 

Stay Positive & Use What You Have On Something Different

Garth E. Beyer

Doing More Than You’ve Done

Garth Beyer

Of course that’s not possible, but feeling like you’ve done more than you have is.

Shoes tell a lot about a person. I always say that you never have to step in anyone’s shoes to know what their life is like, you’ve just got to look at the bottom of them.

Tried and true… until recently.

I’m wearing my second pair of Steve Madden shoes and I feel bad. I feel like I’ve done more than I actually have. You look at the bottom of my shoes and all traction is worn flat. Oh, and the soles are cracked, creating a hole for my heel to nearly touch the pavement with each step. (They actually did with my last pair!)

Alas, I’ve done very little of anything exciting while wearing these shoes. A few dress-up events here, a few nice dinners there and that’s it. No parkour, no carnivals, or community interactive events. In other words, I’ve done little while wearing these shoes. They seem to reflect the opposite.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe most people will only think the shoe is poorly made, and it is, but one thing is guaranteed: everything you use makes you feel something.

People love products that make them feel good, make them feel motivated, better-than-average, and like they accomplished something. Whether you think about how you feel when you use something or not, if you’re creating something for someone else to use, you don’t have a choice but to consider it.

 

Stay Positive & How Does That Make You Feel?

Garth E. Beyer

A Tribal Puzzle

Garth Beyer

We are all programmed to find, build, and invest in tribes. It’s just one natural order of being human. Seth Godin proves it in his book Tribes and Lee Richard states the obvious of it in his introduction to Jack Reacher’s Rules.

What puzzles me, though, is that we work best in smaller tribes, yet strive to make large tribes. In businesses, the rule is 150, Dunbar’s number. It’s the maximum number of people who can work socially and effectively in a group. Yet, most businesses do their best to fit as many employees in one large building as possible.

There are three major startup curators in Madison, WI. (100state, Sector67, and gener8tor.) All are working to come together under one roof. To that, I ask, why?

When all data reflects the smaller the better, why strive for more, more, more?

The way I see it is this, if you release a product, make sure it targets a small audience. Focus all your attention on the 20 percent that you can profit from and forget the other 80 percent that will take all your time and energy. And if by some chance, your product begins to appeal to the other 80 percent as strongly as the first 20 percent, then open it up. But until that day, quit striving for it.

I guarantee more creative projects will come out of the three startup curators while separated than when under the same roof.

 

Stay Positive & Less Is More, More, More

Garth E. Beyer

A Spin On UW-Madison Liberal Arts Pursuit

Garth Beyer

Everyone studying liberal arts knows the value and importance of lifelong learning and global perspectives. Through my time at Madison, I have noticed that students have lost a certain sense that is important to the Wisconsin experience, and it will surprise you.

I noticed a lacking sense of community with other students. We’re all aware of clubs, organizations, internships, and work study, but very little of starting something new that has a direct connection to developing the Madison community.

I was barely through my first semester at Madison when I noticed this and decided to assign myself the challenge of building this part of the Wisconsin experience.

Before I can tell you of my efforts, we have to define “community.” A community is not a tight circle of like-minded people, rather multiple circles of like-minded people with a goal to give back.

Much of what students attach themselves to is built as a resource that they can take from. What’s the common reason behind joining a certain club? “It looks good on the résumé.”

What’s the common reason behind building a community? “To create something outside of the classroom that others in the area can embrace, not use as a stepping stone to what they really want.”

What I have learned inside the classroom is that there are hundreds of liberal arts students with phenomenal ideas. I’ve learned that students want to work on projects, want to create something meaningful for others to use, and – surprisingly – want to work in groups.

I saw an opening to do something about it. At this point, I have to credit the liberal arts program that I am in with putting the fire in my belly and the opportunity to lead in my hands.

The summer of 2013, I put together a team of students to be part of a think tank – to share the wildest ideas they could come up with and see if we could fulfill them. Currently, fall of 2013, I have put together a team to talk about fear, failing, and how to follow through with our creative impulses. I plan to take what I’ve learned from these experiences and voice them at Wisconsin’s Festival of Ideas.

 

Stay Positive & Hope To See You There

– Garth E. Beyer

The Swap

Garth Beyer

For some, finding/making time to work on their art is impractical. The hassle of time management, task management, and people management is too complicated and, in itself, time-consuming. Nearly counterintuitive.

That is why I often suggest that they swap something they do regularly to work on their muse. The reading sessions at night can be put on a halt for a week. Karaoke night, family scrabble, lunch dates; they can all be post-pined for a week or two.

Finding time to work on your art is difficult. Swapping it with one of your weekly (or, hopefully, daily) habits is much easier to do.

Before you know it, you’ll be able to do both.

 

Stay Positive & Time Will Find You

Garth E. Beyer