Hey,
Createaholics.
A lot of people struggle with taking new ventures or moving in a new direction.
I'd like to take a metaphor of running on a track.
I think what people do is they focus a lot on what the finish line looks like.
And that is a way that is kind of dangerous because if you have a finish line in mind,
You probably aren't ever going to get out of the starting gates because you don't know how to get to the finish line.
So if you're deciding that,
Okay,
I'm going to switch jobs and become a lawyer.
Cool.
Great.
And then you make all these sacrifices to become a lawyer and you are halfway through and you say to yourself,
I don't want to be a lawyer.
But if you just took a couple of laps around that idea of being a lawyer,
Then maybe you would come to the conclusion of,
You know,
This isn't for me.
And I think we get in dangerous patterns of focusing too much on the finish line.
And if you think about this,
You get to choose the racetrack that you're on.
And one of the most awesome things as a human being is that if we don't like the racetrack,
We can change the racetrack,
Especially when it comes to a career or relationship.
And a lot of times we'll stay on the same racetrack because it feels comfortable.
We know the route,
We know it all,
But you can change racetracks.
I know for me,
As I'm building Create-A-Holics,
I have a tendency to see the finish line,
To see what it looks like.
But I really try every day to experiment and try things.
This podcast is a good example of that.
And to know that this has actually been pretty fun.
Like I'm really enjoying this podcast.
I'm really enjoying talking.
I'm really enjoying sharing what I've learned.
I'm really enjoying just learning and I'm enjoying doing the podcast and I'm enjoying sucking at it and I'm enjoying being good at it,
All the things.
But if I did a few episodes and I realized this isn't for me,
I have the ability to stop.
But until I took a couple of laps around the track,
I didn't know if it was for me.
So if you're in life kind of struggling right now with a decision,
Whether it's in a relationship,
Whether it's a job,
Whether it's a boundary you're going to set,
You can always kind of test waters.
And to me,
Testing waters doesn't mean being passive aggressive.
It's looking inside yourself and asking yourself,
If I try this direction,
At least for a couple of laps,
Or I have the hard conversation that I've been wanting to have,
Or I learn about the thing that seems interesting to me.
And instead of evaluating it at the finish line,
Evaluating it after two free laps and say,
OK,
I had the hard conversation.
I've talked to my boss and I've asked for a little bit of what I think I deserve.
I feel like moving in a new direction in my career.
So I started learning about it instead of just dropping the bomb.
It's important,
I think,
To move at least in the direction,
Because what happens is sometimes that direction isn't what you want.
And now all of a sudden,
The bomb doesn't go off.
But also what's really important is you gain momentum because you're taking steps forward.
And as you gain momentum,
What you can see is whether it's easy or not.
What's an example of that?
Well,
You'll know if you're moving in a direction,
If barriers start coming in.
And the Stoics talk about this,
Where if you're moving in a certain direction and you hit a wall,
You just go in a different direction.
You don't wallow in that wall.
You don't try to climb the wall.
You don't look at it and go,
Oh,
Poor me,
Poor me.
You take it and go,
Why is this direction being really difficult?
Why?
It should be a little easier than this.
And God,
The divine universe,
Whatever you want to call it,
It's going to open things up.
It's going to make things feel easier.
And to me,
I feel that so much with building this Create-A-Holics is it's so fun and I'm so loving it.
And I have so many wonderful things that I've been building that I utilize my own talents that I've built,
Like my musical skills and my writing skills and my recording skills and my speaking skills.
And I'm just getting better at all of it.
And it just all comes together into this package that feels easy.
And I pay attention to that because if it felt hard and it wasn't fun and it was a struggle,
I would ask questions of why am I choosing?
Now,
Sometimes we can't choose.
Sometimes we need to have a job and we need to do the best we can.
I get that.
And I'm grateful that I'm in a position to choose.
But I get to choose.
And I always take inventory.
Every year a store goes in,
Closes it for 24 or 48 hours and takes inventory of what's in the store.
And then they ask,
What do we sell?
What do we not sell?
What's off the shelves?
What's not going off the shelves?
And then they adjust.
And I think it's important that you always check in,
Whether it's with a partner,
Check in once,
Twice a week,
Once a week,
Once a month,
Whatever works for you.
Check in.
How are you doing?
How are we doing?
Or whether it's evaluating your job,
Every month go,
How do I feel about this?
Or most importantly,
If you're moving in a new direction,
Or you're starting a business,
Or you're moving into being an entrepreneur,
Or you're learning something,
Or you're going back to school,
You ask yourself,
Am I really enjoying this?
Is this serving me?
Have there been roadblocks?
Because to me,
One of the biggest signs of whether you should question something or not is how many roadblocks you run into.
Because there will be always roadblocks.
I completely get that.
But sometimes there'll be a heck of a lot more.
And you'll just have to look in the mirror and go,
This is not for me.
I hear you loud and clear.
Sometimes you look in the mirror and go,
Wow,
This all is just coming so beautifully,
And it's flowing to me.
Pursue that.
One of my good friends is a producer I've worked with a lot.
And he's got such a great philosophy on this.
And he's always done this in his own life.
And I've witnessed it beautifully is you always follow the energy that you feel is good and is right.
And I've always seen him do that,
Whether it's changing careers or changing cities.
And just always follow the energy that feels like it's supposed to happen.
And it's easy.
And it just feels like you're flowing like a river.
Don't try to push against something else.
Because all that effort to push against can go paddling down the river that you're supposed to be moving towards.
Sometimes that river ends in an ocean.
And now you have this big ocean.
You're like,
Well,
Which river am I going to take next?
That's cool.
But you've had the experience of moving and flowing.
And once you have that experience and that trust in the universe and the trust that what's going to come to you is going to come to you and the trust and the learning and the abilities,
Then you know that,
OK,
If I have to change directions,
I'll just have the faith and have the surrender over to whatever it is that's going to move me into those directions.
So I urge you to take inventory.
Ask yourself.
Close yourself down for 48 hours.
Get some of your employees in your brain and your body and get a pencil and go,
What is serving me now?
What is not serving me?
What can I maybe move towards that's different that might serve me better?
What do I want to enjoy more?
And I've done this in my own career and I'm really proud of it.
And what it is,
Is like I was on I was playing on tour and playing weddings and I really wanted to not be on the road and I really wanted to be home and make more creative stuff in my studio.
So I took the two years of touring and doing that.
I didn't just quit cold turkey.
I started learning in the studio.
I started learning how to record.
I started learning about microphones and I had people come in and started writing songs.
But it doesn't mean that I gave up this the weddings and the touring like that was very valuable because it was funding and it was allowing me to explore this new space.
And then after the touring stuff started fizzling out,
This other world of recording and engineering and started building and then that started building up.
And then I was like,
I'm really interested in writing advertising.
So as I was building and recording saxophone,
I was starting to learn how to write ads.
And it's I sucked at first,
But it funded and funneled into this new river.
So you can always take inventory,
But it doesn't mean you have to act right away.
So be careful not to do that.
And always make sure that you're moving and testing the direction before you make that leap.
But it's important.
It's very important to give things a chance.
And it's important to ask the questions again,
Be it a relationship or a job or a move.
I'm not going to run to the next place.
I have to sit with myself and go,
What is it that's making me want to go to this place?
What is it making me want to leave this person?
What is it making me want to get with this person?
What is it making me want to do this job or change careers?
Really sit in the moment of it,
Pay attention to it and ask yourself,
Is this serving me and is it flowing to me?
Am I on a river going downstream or am I on a river going upstream?
And slowly start to shift yourself to this place that's always going downstream.
So with that,
I urge you to take inventory and I just have so much faith that we can all have and do the things that we want to do.
We just have to ask ourselves,
What is it that we want?
What are we in love with?
So peace and love.
