Why Serve Forty Years of Hard Labor?

In medieval times, indentured servants worked the land of a king for a fixed number of years until their debt was paid in full.

The king owned the field, the crop and the harvest yield.

He got rich, he ate and drank as much as he liked, and the servants learned to live on the crumbs from his table.

Kings love servants and minions.

Does this sound familiar to you?

For many people work can be a place where they feel like indentured servants. It

can be a place where they feel obligated and stuck.

Many companies and leadership teams have this same ancient mentality.

They believe that their employees are lucky to work for them.

They believe that each worker is a replaceable cog.

They are looking for compliant workers and employees, who, under the weight of needing to meet their own financial obligations, settle in for forty years of hard labor.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Why approach your workday with this kind of obligation?

I was an Indentured Servant

I realized that my truest desire was for a partnership, not an obligation. I dreamed of being in a business arrangement where the company and I were equally investing in each other.

Believe it or not, it is possible. I found that part of the problem was that I was acting like a factory worker or an indentured servant. In fact, I was training other workers around me to relate to me as a replaceable cog.

Once I could name and describe this arrangement I could begin to navigate and craft a new arrangement. I stopped thinking and acting like an indentured servant and I started being a skilled craftsman instead.

*Expert from eBook: Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.

For your complete free copy download here.

Why Your Work Should be Art?

I have a fierce commitment to the belief that our Work is our Art.

What we do and most especially how we do it can either be stiff robotic toil or deeply human and poetic.

By pouring our heart, soul and passion into our Work it becomes Art.

Your not an Artist if…

Sadly, Work is simply toil for most people.  I believe there are two converging elements that make this reality occur.

Required ingredients (external factors):

#1 Take one part bad Work Environment with a double heaping of Bad Leadership.

That alone can make it tough to view your Work as your Art.

You instead are stuck watching the clock, trying to keep your head low and out of harms way.

Attitude is your contribution

There is an equal part ingredient that you add, Attitude (internal factor).

#2 Heaping portions of bad interpretations and blame

-They made me feel this way.

-They don’t inspire me.

-I am not excited about what I do.

“Art is not a gene or a specific talent.”

Seth Godin says it very well in his new book The Icarus Deception. Taken from the Amazon expert.

What are you afraid of?  The old rules: Play it safe. Stay in your comfort zone. Find an institution, a job, a set of rules to stick to. Keep your head down. Don’t fly too close to the sun.The new truth: It’s better to be sorry than safe. You need to fly higher than ever.

In his bravest and most challenging book yet, Seth Godin shows how we can thrive in an econ­omy that rewards art, not compliance. He explains why true innovators focus on trust, remarkabil­ity, leadership, and stories that spread. And he makes a passionate argument for why you should be treating your work as art.

Art is not a gene or a specific talent. It’s an attitude, available to anyone who has a vision that others don’t, and the guts to do something about it. Steve Jobs was an artist. So were Henry Ford and Martin Luther King Jr.

To work like an artist means investing in the things that scale: creativity, emotional labor, and grit. The path of the artist isn’t for the faint of heart—but Godin shows why it’s your only chance to stand up, stand out, and make a difference.

The time to seize new ground and work without a map is now. So what are you going to do?

Start making Art and stop making excuses.

References:

  • Kickstarter campaign where The Icarus Deception was funded.  Watch the video. 
  • Mike Field-Artist turned clothing line creator merging Sport, Life and Art together.  Podcast to follow.

What if No One Likes What You Create (Creative Process)?

The Creative Process is full of reasons to quit

When I sit down to work on new creative projects, I often hear this question before I even start. How much time do you spend thinking about why you shouldn’t start creating something new instead of just doing it?

How many statements of disqualification do you listen to everyday?

Do you ever hear questions in your head like these?

The truth is I hear this list a lot.

Sometimes I even yield to its taunting voice. I want to share with you the struggle that I face to make it make it to the finish line. I’m writing this post for myself as much as for you. I need the help in silencing my lizard brain that wants me to stop risking and play it safe.

The “What If’s” that try to stop me from doing great work

  • What if my next projects, my next presentation, my new curriculum, my new software app stinks?
  • What if no one uses it?
  • What if no one likes it?
  • What if no one leaves a comment on my next blog post?
  • What if I don’t finish the Marathon I am training for?
  • What if my manifesto doesn’t get read?
  • What if no one buys my new product idea?
  • What if your book manuscript doesn’t get published?
  • What if no one listens to my new podcast?

I waste time listening instead of doing

How much time do we spend churning through these questions instead of just doing the work?

I am going to wager a guess.

Some days, I spend almost 75% of my time
entertaining these whispers of doubt instead of
courageously doing the work regardless of outcomes.

How many incomplete projects or ideas do you have in your cue?

Steven Pressfield describes these enemies of the creative process in his book, The War of Art. He names the tension, calls out the culprits, exposes our fears and throws a lifeline to the reader to stop listening and start doing great work.

I have a series of projects that I have been loosing the war to what Steven calls “The Resistance”.  Watch his video here on how to overcome Resistance.

Take an Inventory

  1. Would you be willing to take an inventory of the number of projects, ideas, initiatives
    that you have started in the last six months, but not completed?
  2. Now take a similar inventory of the number of projects that you have completed?
  3. How many of the completed projects, ideas, products, inventions, books, stories, speeches, stood up against the above list of fears?

Do The Work Anyway

Once you answer the questions above with the answer I am going to do it anyway.

Then you are free to do the work you love regardless of people’s responses. Jeff Goins published a great ebook that speaks to this kind of thinking, Your Are a Writer, so start acting like one.

Instead of doubting, I want to act like the person I want to become.

  • You are a writer.
  • You are a designer.
  • You are an author.
  • You fill in the blank. “I am a…….”

What will you do today that yesterday you dismissed because you thought
no one will like what you create?

You might also enjoy the podcast interview with Jeff Goins.  Listen here.  

How Your Art Changes The World

Photo by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

Art is usually classified as a painting, a drawing, a sculpture, a photograph, a song, etc.

Some might say, “The kinds of things you could find in a museum, that’s art”.

And an expanded interpretation of Art should include the way in which we each alter and influence the world we live in.

The smallest of expression of our heart offered can shape the world to become the place we want to live.

It can be as small as that little note you write for your daughter and drop in her school lunch bag.

Or that email signature quote that you add to encourage others.

Maybe it is calling an employee’s spouse to brag about how amazing their husband is and thanking them for their family sacrifices.

Offer more of yourself.

Bring your art to the world you live in.

And we will be better for it.

Take More Time Explaining Your Art

Art- Photo by Benkay Creative Commons

Take your time assessing what you created.

Take your time explaining the beauty of your art, so we can absorb the magnitude of your creation.

Your photograph, your book, your painting, your company, the album you just finished, the car you restored, or the software release you just finished.

Don’t just move on to the next project.

Think about how long it took you (or short), how many obstacles you faced, and the crux decisions that you had to make.

That wasn’t easy right?

How many others would have thrown in the towel if faced with the same challenges?

You see most people either do not ever start or quit before they are finished.

Not you.

Beauty is very subjective.

Since you are a finisher, a winning horse, then you earned your victory lap around the track.  So take your time sizing up what you have accomplished and explaining the beauty.

As the artist you have the power to enlighten our eyes by offering a peak behind the curtain.

You will find that your creation or accomplishment is more beautiful to others once they hear the story.

Share the story, share the art, and take your time explaining them both.

Here are a couple of finishers that I have had the privilege of seeing behind the curtain with:

 @CaryPierce1 and @Thegoodrun just released a new album.
@VanceBrown just released his first book.
@Fuelpricing knocked out an epic software release.
Bluff Works just smashed their Kickstarter campaign goal.

What is your story?

What did you just ship?

Love to hear about it.