I am acting on something very important to me that I am sending off into the ether in a brain dump here today.
I realized that somewhere over the years I lost the flare and inspiration for creativity, learning, and being open and honest with myself and achieving my goals.
I used to play guitar and have written a bunch of songs, but always afraid to sing them for others (that’s true but also a metaphor to many things). I realized that my mind used to be so much more free and open. More importantly, I now recognize that it still is and that I’ve held my creative spirit inside for too long, and for all the wrong reasons.
I’ve decided to sing. I’ve decided to write. I’ve decided to create, everyday. Somewhere inside was an inner child of repressed expression. I always wanted to be an author, a musician, an entrepreneur, and more! I’ve uncaged that awesome kid.
I could read a book about writing, or I could just write. I could take a tutorial on the latest programming language framework, or choose to spend my time building something new on my own. Doing the latter, I’ll be creating while learning, learning while doing. I’ll encounter problems and needs that I wouldn’t have from reading yet another article or book.
I’ll benefit more to learn and know how to solve my own specific issues, leading to an overall more rewarding learning experience. I may even end up with something interesting or of value that I can point at. I can say “Look, I did that. I made that.”, even if only to myself.
So, this morning, admittedly after a late night of working on one of my latest software endeavors, I’m letting my thoughts out. I’m writing. I’m making mistakes, and I’ll edit them later. I’ll learn by editing them. I’ll even publish my mistakes. Many of which, I won’t entirely realize or be aware that they are mistakes until I share them with others.
If I write a bad song, like the worst song in history, I will never know I wrote the worst song ever made unless I shed my skin and put my work out there for others. Then when they’re like, “nah man, dude that really is the worst song ever!”, what’s important is that I wrote the song. I got it done. I created and produced something. I wasn’t scared to give it a shot, get feedback, and improve iteratively.
What’s important is to not be scared to put yourself or ego on the line. Let’s say I did manage to produce the most god awful musical arrangement of notes, chords, melodies, and instruments that mankind has ever heard. I had the time to do so because I wasn’t reading a book or following a step by step tutorial on music theory or songwriting. Which, of course would help in the case of such a song being that bad.
One can only hinder their own creativity, productivity, and the learning process—specifically, the ability to produce, get things done, and learn from mistakes and issues within their work— by constantly wondering what others may think, how the pros do it ‘the right way,’ and by dwelling on always having the perfect plan or strategy.
Let’s say I have an idea for a new SaaS product (everyone has one, right?). I’m like, “ya know I think I’m on to something here”. If you’re not 100% ready to invest all of your time and energy into researching your target market, forming a “real” business plan over weeks or months, then maybe just spend a weekend fleshing out a prototype. Build the damn thing. Well, that is if that’s in your skill set. Then you’ll have a very powerful, insightful, evidence-based tool at your disposal.
I’m grinning and winking at you business intelligence folks. You’ll have something tangible to help guide “for real market research”. You’ll have at least a part of a product that before was only ideas, paper, spreadsheets, or whiteboard. In the case of software product development, there’s a term for never built or released projects. It’s called ghostware, and for good reasons.
This isn’t about entrepreneurship or tech startup business strategies, though. I just lead to that as an example. I didn’t think about or plan on sitting down and writing this morning at 5am. I just decided I am going to write.
I didn’t stare at a blank screen wondering what a good topic, title, or audience would be. Knowing your audience is actually writing 101 and super important, I know. I didn’t do these things because I’d still be thinking of a title, a subject matter, an audience.
I would have first written a list of possible titles, subject matter, etc. I would have looked at trends, audience engagement, and ended up on Google. Well, and shit it’s a good thing that I’m not using a normal word document program because I would still be deciding what layout to use and whether sans or sans-serif made my audience feel one way or another. Instead, I made something. I got my thoughts out, many of which I wouldn’t have at all.
Now, I can take what I’ve produced, iterate on it, improve, publish it, and move the hell on. To whomever reads this, it may be obvious that I didn’t take much time to edit, format, or make it perfect. It’s not and won’t be perfect. There’s nothing wrong with that.
What counts, is that I have something to work with, to keep, to share, to learn from. Ultimately that is what this rant is all about. It’s about having something you made or did that may have some value or bring something to other people’s lives, whatever that may be.
Spark conversation about something you care about. Invoke a feeling, a connection with others about what interests you, what you enjoy doing, or are doing. Whether business related, a creative project, or something as simple as making and keeping plans with friends or family, don’t overthink or over plan.
Plan some, but once you actually just dive in, you’ll have plenty more to plan for because you’ll have results. Replace the items in your plan. Replace the goals on your list. Replace them with results.