When you need the thing, it helps if you’ve done it before.
Creativity
Compromising
Speaking clearly
Patience
Confrontation
Giving a compliment
Receiving a compliment
Apologizing
Grace
There will come a time when you really need it. So it’s best to start now.
»» Don’t wait until you really need it to try it for the first time. Although if that’s where you find yourself, dive in.
Artists can talk. Artists love interviews. Artists love talking about their songs, being asked about their melodies and lyrics and creativity.
Because artists know that as long as they keep talking they can hide within the words.
Because artists know that the music itself is fully exposing. No more hiding. The music is the thing. The centerpiece of it all.
Most artists can talk their way into their music coming off the way they want it to come off…but then what do the songs have to say about it?
Where there is coordinated effort there is magnetic pull.
The big concert.
The football game.
The new restaurant.
We have a sense for the degree of coordinated effort that was put into something in order to make it happen. We’re drawn to places and events where people had to work together. If it took that much team work it must be good.
In order to achieve your vision you probably need some magnetic pull…which means you might have to get more people involved…which means you might have to compromise some of your vision. But it’s more fun to work on something that has magnetic pull.
When someone comes to you with their project or problem it’s worth remembering that this isn’t the first time they’ve thought of it. They’re most likely not coming to you on a complete whim.
They’ve been thinking about for a while. Wondering whether to bring it up. Wondering how to bring it up. Developing expectations about what the response will be.
Bringing something up, taking initiative, going first. It’s scary. So if you’re on the receiving end of this type of conversation, take the time to first consider the tension that the other person pressed through to even get the words out.
And yes, you might not be in for the project or able to help with the problem…but you can always care within the conversation.
All the paths are going to be hard.
Opting out of your current set of problems might give a day or two of release but if you want to do meaningful work and have meaningful relationships it’s going to be hard and there are going to be problems.
It’s foolish to make the decision based on which path is going to be easiest…because there’s no way to know and both are going to be hard.
The better questions are…
Which path will I be proud of walking…regardless of ultimate outcome?
What do I want to build?
What do I want my life to look and feel like?
And how might this path take me there?
The perfect path isn’t perfect at all. If all goes well, the perfect path entails exchanging one set of problems for another as you (and your work) grow and evolve with the people around you heading in the same direction.