My back was giving out from hours of helicopter thrusting. Catherine was getting whiplash from twerking so hard. Eric was covered in pancake flour.
And this was only Day 1 of 7. We had 6 more days of this madness ahead of us.
What in the hell did we sign up for??
Well, 24 hours prior, the three of us were binging on Vines (those addictive, 6 second looping videos) when we had a great idea: why don’t we challenge ourselves to post our own Vines every day for 7 days?
Seemed easy enough. Vines were only 6 seconds long. It was only for a week. How hard could it be?
Well, for this recovering perfectionist, I was pretty scared. My last creative challenge almost killed me. And I was afraid of doing this with close friends. What if that controlling perfectionist within me reared it’s ugly head and turned this fun project into a stressful nightmare?
But my excitement outweighed my fears, so we did it. And it was an AMAZING experience. Seriously, one of the most memorable weeks of my 9 months in Kauai – and that’s saying a LOT!
We laughed ’til it hurt. We lost a lot of sleep. We pushed our boundaries. We created countless memories. We made a ton of Vines – a few we were even proud of!
And we learned a lot. About ourselves. About each other. And about creativity.
So without further ado, let me share some Vines and some lessons with you…
1) Creative challenges are extremely EFFECTIVE!
You wanna get good at Vine (or writing or finger painting or fill-in-the-blank-here)?
Challenge yourself to create and PUBLISH something every day for a week. Or a few weeks.
By completely immersing yourself in this world, you’ll grow at an alarming rate. You’ll be living, sleeping, breathing ideas, 24/7. You’ll ingrain the habit of creating every day.
You’ll push past your fear of getting your work (and yourself) out there. You’ll build a momentum that’ll have a life of its own long after the creative challenge is over.
It’s pretty damn incredible.
2) …but they’re also soul crushing.
When you let ONE thing take over your entire life, you’re gonna have to make some sacrifices.
Like sleep. Hobbies. Time with loved ones. And did I mention sleep?
The threat of a daily deadline can be motivating, but it can also be incredibly stressful and exhausting.
If you’re gonna do this, err on the side of caution and pick a doable timeframe. One week is a great start. It’s enough time to jumpstart your creative habit. Get the juices flowing.
Remember, you can always do another, longer challenge later!
3) Getting your work OUT THERE is more important than the work itself!
The most important creative muscle you’ll ever work is getting over your FEAR of putting yourself out there. Of expressing yourself. Of showing your work to the world.
No creative endeavor is complete until you release it into the wild.
If you only keep your work to yourself, you’ll never give it your all. You’ll never get any feedback. You’ll never let it mingle with the world.
And most importantly, you’ll never actually FINISH a project. Every project will forever be a “work in progress”.
And if you never finish, you can never move onto the next, better piece. And the next. And the next.
That’s how your work gets better. That’s the only way.
4) Creative teamwork is way more fun than grabbing drinks!
Once you become an “adult”, hanging with friends can feel a little one-dimensional. Grabbing drinks. Happy hours. Catch-up dinners.
Try this instead: create something together!
Stop “catching up” and start PLAYING. Like when we were kids. I guarantee you’ll get to know your friends in a whole different way.
And the bond you build when CREATING together is truly special.
We spent the whole 7 days laughing our asses off. Popcorning ideas back and forth. Getting past obstacles as a team. And encouraging each other to step up in ways we didn’t even know were possible.
We didn’t miss those happy hours one bit.
5) Let your subconscious do the work!
It’s better to feed your creative habit a little bit every day instead of BINGING every once in a while.
Not only is it less stressful, less intimidating, and more fun, but you give your subconscious a chance to do some work!
Let me explain: when you create every single day, you start to build a momentum. Your creativity moves to the forefront of your mind. It seeps out into the rest of your life.
Everything becomes inspiration for your creativity. You see everything through creativity colored lenses.
And when you get to this point, your subconscious starts to kick in. You’ll suddenly have the solution for that problem you couldn’t solve. Ideas will pop into your head out of nowhere. GOOD ideas. Ideas you couldn’t have forced if you tried.
And best of all, this will all happen while you’re sleeping. Or stuck in traffic. Or daydreaming at work.
Your subconscious will get shit done while you’re being USELESS. You’ll be doubling your creative output without lifting a finger! Talk about multi-tasking.
It’s the perfect solution for the lazy asshole in all of us.
6) Find that magic balance between PUSHING yourself and ENJOYING yourself.
When you’re creating, it’s all too easy to tip too far in one direction or the other.
To focus completely on quality but forget to have a good time. Or have fun goofing off but not actually push yourself to grow.
But if you can ride that balance between the two, something magic happens.
You enter a state of flow. Time melts away. You’re pushing your boundaries. But it’s thrilling, not overwhelming.
You get swept away in a wave of energy and you couldn’t stop it if you tried.
This state of flow is what we’re all searching for as creatives. Where we lose ourselves completely. There is no separation between us and our work. Creating is just happening, seemingly of its own volition!
Finding that balance between ENJOYMENT and EFFORT is where you’ll create your best work. And where you’ll fall in love with creating.
7) Focus on the JOY OF CREATION, not on IMPRESSING OTHERS.
When I sit down to create something, the first thought that usually pops up is, “What will others think?”
Ignore it.
Focusing on creating for OTHERS is absolutely toxic. It’ll shut you down.
Creativity will become a source of stress. A prison. Slowly but surely, it’ll extinguish that original excitement you had for creating. Trust me on this.
Instead, use the pure JOY of creation as your compass.
Let it guide you. Make it your top priority. And instead of closing doors, it’ll OPEN them.
You’ll want to create more. Naturally. Without any effort.
You’ll feel yourself drawn to creating instead of having to force yourself. It’ll naturally seep its way into the rest of your life.
The more you tap into this joy, the more you make it your focus, the more it’ll grow. The more fun you’ll have.
And the more you’ll want to create. Naturally. Without forcing yourself.
It’ll draw you in. And seep into the rest of your life.
For example, our Vine Challenge ended weeks ago. But because we focused on enjoying ourselves, we STILL do creative things together all the time. Spontaneously. For no reason.
Freestyle song sessions. Ridiculous photo shoots. Snapchat dance choreography, like this one:
Creating has become a natural part of how we interact. Why would we stop when it brings us so much joy?
So, focus on that joy.
It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Even well after you’re done whiplash twerking.
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
Wow. This is my first blog post in a loooong time (like over a year). I’ve missed this!
Ironically, blogging became one of those things that ended up stressing me out instead of bringing me joy. Just like what I did with filmmaking. So I decided to take a hiatus until I could come back to it for the right reasons.
And funny enough, the lessons in this post played a huge part in helping me fall back in love with writing.
I challenged myself to post something before the end of the month. I made “publishing” more important than writing the “perfect” post. I did a little bit everyday and let my subconscious play. And I rode that magic balance of flow.
But most importantly, I focused on the joy of writing above all else.
And because of that, this was the most fun I’ve had writing in YEARS. I seriously can’t wait to write more tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it instead of dreading it.
So, no promises, but you may be hearing more from me on a regular basis.
And just in time too.
Because I’m on my last week of an amazing, unforgettable, 9 month stint in Kauai. And I CANNOT wait to write more about it.
Stay tuned…
