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Welcome creatives! These are discussions, thoughts, case studies, interviews, and lessons about how our creativity relates to life. The host, Mr Benja, is a former video game programmer / designer for Rockstar Games, Sony Santa Monica, The 3DO Company, and others, as well as a fine artist. -- Be sure to check out the website for more.
I am gonna tell you something
that most people won't tell you
you are not okay the way you are.
Sounds controversial, but if you
think about it, you can, you can look
at that a couple of different ways.
And I want you to do that today on Mr.
Benja's new podcast,
creativity threads life.
This is a little bit of a excursion.
I've gone on a little bit of a.
Not a tangent, but it's a lot of stuff
that I had to say that I wanted to say
that I wanted to put into podcast form.
And I didn't know how to do
that with my last podcast.
So I'm doing it with this one.
In fact, this is a little bit of
an exercise on me, not listening to
people when they say you're fine,
just the way you are, I kind of want
to get into this, but it's a lot
of couple of angles on this topic.
And I was just sitting down writing.
I was going through some notes.
Reading some things on Facebook and
some things on threads and Instagram.
And I realized that we're in the new year.
We're we're completely in 2024.
First week has gone by and this year there
wasn't as much excitement for new year.
I mentioned that a little
bit last week with, uh, does
anyone want to improve anymore?
And this is a continuation
of that discussion there.
It was more than just people
not wanting to improve.
There's a certain apathy,
a certain blah nature and.
And it doesn't feel good, man.
I know what you're, I
know what you're feeling.
I understand it.
Cause I feel it too, but there's
this vibe going around that I just
want to address and it's damaging.
So while I was sitting down doing this
writing that I'm doing, I'm writing some
things about resolutions and goals and the
new year and all that exciting business.
But, in order to completely flesh through
it and feel through it, I decided I wanted
to come on here today and talk about it.
Now, let's just get right into it.
The idea that you are
not okay the way you are.
A lot of people, when they sense a
person struggling, or when they sense
a person having a tough time with
things, a person's not completely
satisfied, A grandma statement comes
along or grandpa statement comes along.
And the grandpa statement is
basically, you know what, you're fine.
Just the way you are.
And the hope is that that person
will usually smile, be happy,
be content with where they are.
And they won't be so agitated about trying
to do whatever it is they're trying to do.
And that, that statement works in a
lot of situations, but unfortunately
it's really used in a lot of situations
to just make people shut up, to just
make people stop trying someone's
got the energy to do something.
And then someone comes around.
And alter that energy with the
statement, like, you're fine.
Just the way you are, or you're okay.
Just the way you are.
We love you.
Just how you are.
This is not how you grow.
Yes.
Be content with yourself.
I want to make sure that's very clear.
Be content with yourself, be happy with
yourself and what you've accomplished
and where you are currently.
But not what you are in
terms of what you could be.
So I've probably been maligned a few
times for being on the, you know, the
push, you know, keep pushing it kind
of kick and, Hey, things can really be
better and let's just keep moving forward.
I get it.
I get that not everything needs to be,
you know, maybe, maybe it's a little
bit of my toxic positivity coming
through that you can do what, what
you need to do, what you have to do.
But, this idea that stagnation
is good, that's the, that's
another part of the extreme.
You can be content with your, your
current situation, your current status,
all these other things, but you should
not be content with staying still.
Because that's what, that's, that's death.
Stagnation is death.
There is no moving forward, moving
backwards, and standing still.
If you're not moving forward, then,
by the nature of the universe, You're
falling behind because everything else
is progressing and moving forward.
And this doesn't have
to be a stressful thing.
This doesn't have to
be internally damaging.
This doesn't have to be a headache.
What I'm looking for and I found in
varying degrees, and I'm still looking
for is a mindset that's much stronger
and much more prepared to keep moving.
As things don't go my way,
it seems a lot of people have been
led to believe a lot of things
that aren't necessarily true
is false is misleading.
It's a lie.
It's the grandparent just trying
to get you to smile because
grandparents love smiling kids.
They don't want to see anything else.
They don't want to know about
going to the dentist and
cavities or anything like that.
They'll just feed you candy
because, hey, you're fine.
Just the way you are.
I don't care if you're fat.
I don't care if your teeth falling out.
You're fine.
Just the way you are.
That's what the
grandparents will tell you.
But you got to live a
little harder than that,
because you got to realize that if
they just want you to be quote unquote
be happy, they might just be content
with you falling by the wayside.
And I don't have the complete words and
language for this, so I do not mean to
come off as a jerk, an asshole, somebody
uncaring, heartless bastard with no
empathy, whatever you may call me.
But you have to know that
there is a path forward.
And as I said, I've been discussing
this whole thing in threads, in, in
Facebook, Instagram, because I get it.
I get it, man.
I really do.
I want to empathize with you right here.
People are tired.
There's a lot going on.
People are tired.
They're bored.
They're not seeing the
results that they wanted.
It's harder to get the
results that they wanted.
They're not motivated.
There's, there's a lot of, a lot of
feeling of, Hey, what's the point.
You know, everywhere they
look on the news, it's, it's
nothing that's very healthy.
You know, either all these people were
damaged or hurt in some way, or these
other people that you don't know are
living their best lives and you can't.
It's two extremes of nonsense.
They're just selling you these ideas
that are, that are not healthy for you.
And I get it.
You may not with the way things are going,
all this work that we're expected to do.
To hold on to these jobs.
You've got no time for yourself.
So where does that leave you?
It leaves you frustrated,
sick, angry, unmotivated.
And then instead of you hurting
yourself, someone comes along and
says you're okay, just the way you are
taken from my point of view.
That is a slap to the face.
I want to give you a story example to
illustrate this a little bit because
I think we can do better than just
being stagnant being quote unquote.
Okay.
Being in a situation where.
We're just not even surviving.
We're just hanging on
and we can do so much better as a people.
But I want to give you the story
that that happened in the video
game industry at one point.
I was working for, should I say who?
Yes, I was working for a
rockstar games at this point.
And we're working on a project.
And one of the great things about rockstar
games is you have a lot of different
experience from a lot of different
studios, not going to give you any way,
any trade secrets here, anything like
that, but I was working at rockstar games
and they use their experience very well.
Where you've got different groups
of people who know different things.
Not a trade secret here, any
company should be doing this.
Any company knows that they can do this.
It just takes the discipline and proper
skillset to do it in a very effective way.
But what they do is they, they make
sure good information gets around.
I mean, that sounds obvious, right?
You want to communicate things.
A lot of corporate people call it
best practices and things like that.
I was sitting down talking to one of the.
I was sitting down talking to one
of the more senior developers, and
this senior developer was in charge
of getting this certain aspect of
a project to a better standard.
So, at one point, everybody was kind
of content with where they were.
Everybody was happy with where they were.
But I still wanted to push forward.
I was like, you know what, this is okay.
But it's just, okay, it's not really
doing the greatest thing for me.
And I just thought to
myself, is this okay?
Or can I do more?
And I talked to the senior developer
and he told me, Oh, you've passed
the requirements, you're okay.
And I said, yes, yes, I know.
I know I passed the basic
requirements and everything that
every, that was asked for has been.
Has been achieved.
I want to, I want to know what you
think about how I can improve this
or how I can make it a little better
and this person, they kind of looked
around like they were surprised.
Oh, oh, you want to do a little more.
You want to start going past.
Plain vanilla.
You want a little bit of excitement
in your part of the project.
I'm like, heck to the yes.
So the senior developer very graciously
took a little moment of his time
and decided to school me on some
things that, Hey, you're doing this.
You might want to try doing that.
You're doing this.
I want to try doing that.
And instead of this thing you're doing
over here, try a variety of other things,
talk to this other person, see what you
can get out of that, see what they're
doing, that may give you some ideas.
Boom, boom, boom, and started pushing me
a little better, to be a little better.
Now, I took that information
and improved what I was working
on, and it made me feel better.
The fact that I had the power
to improve my situation.
Made me feel better.
And I think that's, that's lost
today where we think that we
can't just be, and we have to
reach some certain external goal.
And I wasn't so much worried
about the external goal.
Those are, those are
whatever I was worried about.
Could I get to where I wanted to be?
And could I push myself
to that next level?
I was legitimately having
fun doing this job.
And maybe that's another point we need to
get to having fun doing what you're doing.
It's, it's strange to me because
in my, in trying to make things a
little better in my environment.
I've heard people talk about, it's
so hard, and it's, we're wasting
time, we're not getting good results.
And, these are things that
you can't really control.
I mean, you can control them
to a certain extent, but you're
ultimately only controlling yourself.
You can't direct the flow of the weather.
You can put up some wind vanes, you can,
you know, plant some trees or whatever,
but you can't control the weather.
The weather's going to do what
the weather's going to do.
You can only control how you deal with
what you have, and the choices you make.
So, when I hear people say
You're okay the way you are.
I know they don't want me to be hurt.
I know they don't want me to damage
myself and Stress myself out even
before this my number one rule
is don't be stressed And you can
actually find joy in your own work.
I don't care if you work at McDonald's.
I don't care if you work at Best Buy.
I don't care if you clean toilets.
You can take pride in
yourself, not the job.
Don't worry about the job.
You chose that job.
It's your job.
Well, I didn't have anything else.
I don't care.
It's your choice to be there.
So.
I'm not just going to gloss over
and say, make the best of it.
Don't worry about what you don't have.
Take this job or whatever you're
doing and don't be okay with it.
Be okay with you.
So back to McDonald's, everybody
likes the McDonald's example.
It's a
shout out to everybody
working at McDonald's.
It's an entry level job.
You get in there, you don't know anything.
They tell you to press some buttons,
sweep some floors, do whatever you
need to do, talk a certain way to
people, and you go about your business.
It's not a terribly difficult job
in terms of what you're required
to do, the, the task at hand.
But it could be, it's very
draining, and it's very
difficult to keep your morale up.
A lot of people think, you
know, well, at least I got a
job, at least I'm making money.
Yes, but regardless of what you're
doing, if you're at that job,
what could you be thinking of?
There's a story by Grant Cardone.
Guru slash, um, real estate developer.
And he made the statement that he
went to McDonald's one time and he
got so upset by working there, came
home smelling like French fries.
There was no status to the job.
It was kind of grueling being on his feet.
He was running around and
nothing really seemed to matter.
And he was just disgusted
with the job at the same time.
There was another person working at
the job with him that was excited
because this person wanted to own
fast food franchises in the future
and was learning the McDonald's way.
He wanted to be a manager, a district
manager, own a few franchises or whatever.
This guy was all about it.
So this other guy was sitting
there learning how, how
they collect all the money.
He's sitting there learning, learning,
uh, the times of day that people come in.
He's learning how to
network and talk to people.
He's learning how to get people
in and out the door quickly.
He's learning the processes.
He's actually thinking about
improving, not for the job for himself.
And I think this is one of the keys.
You don't do this for anyone else.
You do it for yourself.
You grow because that's what you do.
That's what humanity and creativity
is all about, growing, creating
something where there was once nothing.
Not so worried about delayed gratification
or what your reward is going to be later.
Are you getting everything you
need from your life right now?
Is that silver lining thinking?
Maybe.
But it's better than dark
cloud thinking to me.
Is it toxic positivity?
That almost seems like an
oxymoron, toxic positivity.
But to address that directly, no, you
don't always need to feel positive.
You shouldn't.
You should, you should be very
open with looking at the negative,
understanding it, feeling it,
empathizing with your own negativity,
even like, why am I feeling this way?
A lot of people just feel bad
and never, never research.
Why, why did you feel this way?
Cause I hate this job.
Well, let's talk about the job.
Let's get into it.
Oh, I hate this place.
What do you hate about it?
Well, nobody here talks to me.
Nobody here.
Okay.
Have you gone over there and talked to
the people from the other department?
No, I never, yeah, they're, they're
a whole different group of people.
Go talk to them instead.
Acknowledge the negative.
Yes, acknowledge it because.
There is no idea of positive
without an idea of negative.
A forward direction has to have a
corresponding negative direction
for it to be a direction.
It has to have a vector
and an opposite vector.
So if something terrible happens, I
get it man, terrible things happen.
And it's hard to deal with some
of these problems out here.
But I don't want to start 2024
with the idea that I'm just
going to sit in the dirt and die.
I can't, I can't think like that.
I take every negative vibe that happens.
Sometimes I feel a little anxiety.
Sometimes I feel really frustrated.
Sometimes I just feel lost and confused.
And yes, I do get the feelings
that, Hey, maybe nothing matters.
You start having all these feelings.
It's okay to have those feelings.
Find other people who are
feeling that same situation.
Talk with them.
Maybe you can all start.
I mean, not going into a spiral
of despair with other people, but
maybe somebody has a spark of, Hey,
maybe we can go forward this way.
You might find some of that
in your Bible study groups.
I know Alcoholics
Anonymous is good for that.
Where you're finding other people to
commiserate with, and then move forward.
You're not finding people just to
sit in the dirt with and be dirty,
and just fade away into nothingness.
Find something to do.
Maybe you didn't reach your
New Year's goals last year.
Who cares?
What did you learn?
What did you find out?
You found out that you
don't like being sweaty.
Boom.
We learned something.
Maybe you go to a gym that's,
uh, that's in the dark.
Nobody can see anybody because
you're in the dark and you're
not worried about sweating.
Maybe you pay a little more money,
go to a private gym, only two
people that ever show up there the
entire week, and you're probably
not gonna run into the other person.
Maybe you tried to lose weight last
year and you gained weight instead.
Take that time to look back and think,
okay, wait a minute, what happened here?
And separate yourself
from your circumstance.
As connected as you want to be to
yourself, realize that the things
that are happening to you and your
situation is not necessarily you,
that's just the situation you're in.
Yes, the choices you've made have
led you there, but if you look at the
timeline of your life, is it all in
this moment where you're sad right now?
No, they're happy moments.
You can't be defined by one moment.
You're defined by your entire
life and how you play it out.
And this isn't just for people listening.
This is also for me because I have to go,
I have to go through these feelings too.
I do think through this and
I've talked to people about it.
And at some point we, after we both
acknowledged, yeah, this is a problem,
this is a problem, this is a problem, at
some point after you've acknowledged the
problem and 80 percent of the directions
you look at aren't going to really help
you out, but then there's that 20 percent
of, hey, wait a minute, what about this?
How about we try this?
Maybe we can live a little better
in this situation if we do this,
or maybe we can mitigate the issues
if we do this, maybe we can feel
a little better about each other.
If we set our mindset this way,
because sitting around with a lot of
people that are being negative and
they're very intent on staying negative,
that's where you get into that stagnation
problem that I referred to where everybody
just wants to sit around and die.
Got to start somewhere.
I mean, in this first week of 2024,
some people have thrown some, some
downing negativity, just not, not
just at me, but just out in general.
And yeah, man, acknowledge that stuff.
Understand it.
Empathize.
And then find a way to keep going.
Now, a friend of mine got upset one time.
We were having a discussion and they
said, Not everything has a silver lining.
Sometimes it's just raining.
And it's like, I get it man.
But the silver lining is
what you defined it as.
You have to define that silver lining.
All the religious texts
have some version of this.
All the wise teachings
have some version of this.
So what are you missing?
You really have to stop and question that.
You don't have all the answers.
That's why you're upset.
We'll never have all the answers.
But the search, the hunt, it
may go on for months, for weeks,
for years, but in my experience,
if you can strengthen your mind
to at least start moving in
some sort of positive direction,
you'll help yourself out immensely.
It's about forward movement.
And if you've looked up techniques
for dealing with depression,
there is movement there.
They ask you to get up, go outside,
get some sunlight and energizing.
Get up, walk around, do
something, work on a puzzle.
You know what?
Even binge watch a series
of some show on television.
At least the show, the binge
watching the series will pull you
through a progression where you got
to see what happened at the end.
Hopefully you're watching something
that uplifts you, moves you forward.
But if not, Hey, you still got
to watch something that helped.
Speaking of which, as I said, I
was feeling a little off and a
little down at the end of the year.
Some things didn't come through
the way I thought they would.
I got a little upset.
I ended up spending far too much
time making music playlists that
would get me back in the groove
I've been listening to a certain
playlist and you know what?
Maybe it was maybe it's time for a change
Maybe it's time for a little something
more refreshing not necessarily more
upbeat and happy But just a little
something more appropriate found one
song that I liked boom Listen to that
started listening to similar songs
started finding out other artists in
that genre Started moving forward started
learning some things started talking
to other people who might like that
artist And I use that energy to try
to pull me in a different direction.
So I know it's hard.
I really do.
I was talking with, uh, Andy
Lowe, the Chinese pirate, shout
out to him on Instagram and,
and threads, but I get it, man.
A lot of people are, are tired
of the productivity mindset.
Um, these 40 hour weeks taking away
from their lives, these 80 hour
weeks, taking away from their lives.
These depressed wages and
recession, the thoughts of war.
I get it.
All of this is very real, very, very
relieved.
And it makes it's, it's probably going to
come in a way you don't even expect it to.
If you want to get real,
let me, let me offer another
example, a more personal one.
I was at the funeral for my parents.
Um, my parents died in a short
span of time from each other.
And it was very, it was a
very, um, trying time for me,
but one thing happened
that, that I realized
in some mud and they
were like, ah, my shoes.
And I said something a little,
a little downer of me where it's
like, I was like, look, man,
their only shoes, such and such.
And I was thinking about my own
situation where this person may
have, you know, lost a little bit
of cleanliness in their shoes.
I just lost, you know,
another one of my parents.
And then they seemed to get
really like, they were kind of
sorry for, Oh yeah, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I just, and I had to stop for a second.
I was like, you know what?
I just, I'm just sending out
negativity that I didn't need to.
I was trying to bring them down too.
That was unnecessary.
Stepping in mud is, I get it.
It's a reaction.
Not that person's fault.
And that kind of led me
in a train of thought.
I got to look around and started realizing
all of the different people that had come
out to the funeral, like people that I
had never seen together before in my life.
There were new faces, old faces, a lot of
people I hadn't seen interacting either.
And I thought to myself, I
wasn't happy inside, right?
But I thought to myself, I will never
have a time like this where I get to
talk to these people together again.
There is.
Likely no other time where we'll all
be together and we can talk like this.
And there was likely no other time where
I'll be able to ask very difficult,
hard touching, emotional questions.
Huh?
So I started asking some questions and
I'd get a, you know, you asked a tough
question and someone breathes in, they're
like, well, uh, here's how it goes.
And they may, they'll explain something to
you that you may not have ever been able
to get out of them in any other situation.
Now, was that a silver
lining, quote unquote?
I wouldn't even call it that.
But it was a time where I could actually
do something good with what I had.
So yes, I do empathize.
I really do.
And maybe I come from a situation where
I have a certain amount of resilience.
And I don't know exactly how
to pass that resilience on.
Or even if it'll make
your lives any better.
I know it makes me feel better
to be able to resist a lot of
the Negative forces coming at me.
It's been practiced and I can't
necessarily expect everybody
listening to be able to practice
that same type of resilience,
but you can try something
because the way you are,
the way that you've been,
somebody might tell you you're
okay, just the way you are, and
they will encourage you to stagnate.
They will encourage you to just be still.
It will encourage you.
to hide your brightness.
It will encourage you to
push down your energy.
And that's usually because any
energy that you have may agitate them
instead of sitting inside.
You know what they'll probably say?
They'll probably say,
Hey, Hey, come inside.
You're like, no, I want to stand outside.
My energy tells me stand outside.
Boom.
Do that.
If your energy tells you, you need to.
You need to spend some money on
something that you don't need.
You might just need to go do that.
If you need to break something, maybe
take some dishes out of the cabinet
and just break them on the floor.
You've been waiting to
buy new dishes anyway, so.
Break a couple, see what that feels like.
Even in the negativity,
keep that energy flowing.
No need to hurt anybody.
No need to tear anything down.
No need to do permanent
damage to yourself.
But the idea is just to not create a pit
for yourself that you can't get out of.
The idea is to be creative
in your own human way.
Creative in a way that causes you to live.
Creative in a way that
gives you strength for more.
Creative in a way that hopefully,
hopefully, leads you to a place
where you can say, You know what?
This bad thing happened to me,
but it didn't break my spirit.
I don't have to listen to everyone
when they tell me, Just be still,
or you're fine the way you are, or,
you know, everything will be okay.
I get that this may sound like
mixed messages, but Because there's
nuance here about the popular way
people are thinking about things.
But hopefully you understand me.
Hopefully you realize that your number one
power as a human being is your creativity.
You create something.
As I said, even if you're at a McDonald's.
You can create a situation where let's
say you're, you're, you're working at
McDonald's, you're working the cash
register, people come in, let's say you
start practicing, memorizing people's or
trying to guess people's orders, trying
to memorize their names, what they wore.
So the next time they come in, it's
like, Hey, Charles, how you doing?
Like, whoa, this guy knows my name.
How is this possible?
It may not get you any higher in the job.
In fact, people may laugh at you for it.
But if that's what you want to do to
practice your networking, go for it.
If you want to practice your skills
of, of, uh, being very exact, maybe
you could start with how you clean up.
It's like, boom, boom, boom.
I always clean this up.
Whenever this family comes in, they
leave French fries on the seat.
I got to pick that up.
May sound stupid,
but you're creating something.
You're creating a better
environment around you.
And it has nothing to do with
being a servant for McDonald's.
You're in the drive thru.
Are you working on your voice control?
Are you working on guessing what
people want and getting them
through the drive thru faster?
These are sales tactics
you could use also.
I know there's a script,
but Hey, it's your job.
It's the one you got.
You can try out things if you want.
Maybe you've got to cook the food.
Can you work on being the fastest?
Now, this isn't to say you
should stay at McDonald's at all.
You should keep growing.
But while you're there, don't just
become a, you know, mold on a rock.
A
lot of people say, you know, hey, I
don't want that extra responsibility
if you're not giving me that extra pay.
What else are you doing with your time?
With that extra responsibility, you
might be able to learn something.
With that extra responsibility, you might
be able to Actually ask for a higher
pay with that extra responsibility.
You may be able to use
that to get a better job.
You go to another job and
say, Hey, I had this job.
And they're like, Oh, we're looking
for somebody with this experience.
Actually, I do have that experience
because I did this at the, at the other
job when the manager was out or when
the manager was busy and they're like,
Oh, wow, you do have that experience.
It's like, try me.
I'll show you.
I have that experience.
You're doing you for you, not for them.
So back to the subject.
When someone comes up and tells
you, you are okay the way you are.
Be careful with what
they're trying to tell you.
When someone says they're okay,
they just don't feel that you
need to push forward and they
don't want you to for some reason.
Maybe they don't think you can handle it.
I
was at the job once, at one
of my jobs, and someone said,
hey, it's fine the way it is.
And it's like, it may be fine for you,
but I'm not doing this for the job.
I'm doing this for me.
I want to see how fast I can
get this whole thing done.
And I stayed a little later
and worked as fast as I could.
Not for them, not for the job,
not for anybody's approval.
I did it for me to test myself.
Is that a problem?
Maybe,
but it feels better than
getting caught up in mediocrity.
Now, there are things I let go of.
I think you're, you're
a special individual.
If you're listening to this for the areas
where I want to push and I want to create
and I want to build and I want to nurture
and I want to grow things for those areas.
I put extra energy into for other areas.
You have to let them go.
Now this is, you know, everyone talks
about how, you know, it's always about
pushing, but with pushing your energy
in one direction, you have to have your
energy to let go in another direction.
Some other energy has to be
maybe reduced a little bit.
Maybe you don't get to surf the surf,
the web as much, maybe you don't
get to scroll on Tik TOK as much,
but maybe that's a good decision.
In fact, if you're sitting
around scrolling through
Tik TOK, when you could be.
Making yourself feel better.
Maybe you need to put
down the social media.
Maybe you need to put down the cookies.
Maybe you need to do things that, that
you believe, not anybody else, that you
actually believe, make you feel better.
I thought that writing
made me feel better.
So I started writing.
I started journaling every day.
I started scribbling down a lot of notes.
One of those notes has
become today's podcast.
You have to do what works for you.
We're not asking, I'm not asking you to
act like everything is sunshine and roses.
I'm not asking you to lie to yourself,
especially not lie to yourself.
I'm just saying, when times are hard,
just accept that the time is hard.
Be graceful with yourself.
Have gratitude on what you've already
accomplished, that you're alive.
Breathe in.
Make one little push.
I'm going to talk about this
later on the Hot Wheels podcast.
I got one, um, one I want to
talk about with the Hot Wheels.
They were part of my whole
New Year's resolution thing.
In a certain way, manner of speaking.
But I just did something
that made me feel good.
That didn't damage me, and that I
could actually justify helped me out.
Hold on to that pain, man.
And use it to understand that
there is positivity out there,
and that you can survive this.
We got a long year ahead of us.
Or maybe a fast year, depending
on who you're, who you are,
and who I'm talking to.
Got a long year ahead of us.
But you'll be fine.
Some like to say this too shall pass.
I don't always like to use that because
it implies that you're sitting down and
just coping and just putting your head
down while you get through a situation.
I'm saying embrace what's going on.
Decide what you want.
Don't react to what you want.
Sit down and try to decide
something for yourself.
Like, yes, this happens.
I'm going to work on not
being as upset by this.
Yes, the job situation is terrible.
What else can I do to
make it better for myself?
Yes, this person upsets me.
What can I try this week?
And if it doesn't work this week,
what can I try the next week?
But just don't get into a state of death.
Cause I'm hearing a lot
of apathetic death talk.
And, as much as I empathize,
I hope you can find a light.
Not out there somewhere,
but a light in you.
When you find that light
within you, try to shine it.
See what, what path that light shows you.
See what path that light
inside you illuminates.
See if there's any reflections
of, you know, any type of
reflections that you can go from,
but there's something that makes
you happy dig back in the past year,
what worked, even though you may have
failed, what did work a little bit?
When did you have a laugh?
Maybe it wasn't last year,
maybe two years before.
What made you happy?
What about that time you, you
went to work out at the gym
and everybody helps you out?
You're like, you know what?
If there are people at a random gym,
maybe there are people at a random auto
parts store that could help me out.
I don't know.
Maybe I can work there instead
because I like auto parts and maybe
I can work at the gym instead.
Or maybe you can talk to
your kids differently.
Maybe you can talk to
your neighbor differently.
Maybe you can try wearing
different clothes.
Something that Ignite you inside.
Something that lights you up.
Hold on to that and see
where you can go from there.
And let go of the other problems.
In the future, you can't control that.
It's coming.
You can control what you feel,
what you, what you choose, what
you do, but live in the now.
What's the point?
Bring it back into yourself, saying, I
have a point that I want to focus on.
When you start thinking that nobody
cares, Don't worry about them.
Think about what you care about.
If you care about somebody and want
to send them a note, send them a note.
If you don't, then don't.
If you're a little off of where
you want to be with some goal,
some measurement, some metric,
that's fine.
Keep moving towards it.
Don't get mad at yourself
if you go, if you get worse.
Just understand that that's what it is.
And if someone tries to tell you,
you're okay just the way you are,
be very careful with that.
Be very, very careful with that.
Be very careful.
Because you have the power
within you to keep moving,
to at least, at least alter
your, your perceptions on things.
Maybe you do need to
understand things differently.
Start reading some books, watching some
different TV shows, get a new perspective.
It's not gonna be easy, it's
not gonna be right off the bat.
But if you were okay
just the way you were,
wouldn't you already be happy?
And maybe it's not even about
happiness, don't get into that either.
Maybe it's about meaning, about
satisfaction of you with yourself.
This idea of happiness is also
something that's been sold to us.
What makes somebody else
happy may not make you happy.
And I don't know.
Maybe I didn't put in the best of words.
Maybe I didn't put in
the best of phrasing.
But it's something that's
been really concerning me.
When people say, you're
okay just the way you are.
Maybe they're okay with
me being at this spot.
Maybe they don't want to
see me rise above them.
Maybe they don't want to be
pressured with the idea that
somebody can improve their situation.
Maybe they don't have anything good to
say, so they don't know what to say.
So they just say, basically,
a nothing statement.
I like movement.
Rolling Stone catches no moss.
Ships that aren't put into use
die quickly because of disuse.
If you have energies
that you have, use them.
Find a way to be happy
with what you're doing.
Find a way to be happy with your energy
and your light, and go from there.
Don't let anybody tell you that being
less than you want to be is okay.
If you don't make it,
that's fine too, by the way.
If you, if you, if you are
failing, and if you're missing
your mark, that's That's fine.
If you need to stop, be somber,
sullen, reflective, sad,
whatever, that's fine too.
But don't let anybody take
any type of statement and say,
You just stay where you are.
Because a lot of times, depending on who
it's coming from, it could be a lie, it
could be an insult, it could be a way
to placate you so you don't upset them.
It could be a lot of things.
But very often, is that statement
It's not very often that that
statement is very progressive for you.
So I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
I think a lot too, too many of us have
gotten caught in these traps of, well,
everything is just going to be fine.
Just going to be okay.
Just sit back and let, let
the world run over you.
That's just something I can't
deal with and something I don't.
So, that's all I'm going
to do for this one.
I hope some of that made sense.
And I hope that you
gained something from it.
Check us out.
The podcast goes every night, most
nights of the week, so far in 2024.
Coming on here, discussing a little
bit about creativity and creating
the life and the vibe that you hope
to have, that you want to have.
Whatever, whatever's in your
life that you want to create.
We're all about getting out
that creation right now.
That creative energy is
what pushes you forward.
And hopefully it's what makes you happy.
If it's not, then you got other problems.
Work on your creativity.
Work on building something.
Because energy that moves
is energy that stays alive.
Do what you can.
If you want, get at me in the
comments at creativitythreadslife.
com or you can always hit me
up in On Instagram or threads.
That's going to be it for this one.
Uh, podcast should be hitting
the stream sometime soon.
Should be hitting Apple
podcasts and Spotify.
I was just setting that up.
So be sure to hit me up there.
, subscribe and let me know what you think.
Cause I really want
your feedback on these.
Talk to you later.
Peace.