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.
This is Mr.
Benja with Creativity Threads Life.
Again, today is, what is the day?
I don't even know anymore.
It is the 9th of January in 2024.
We're kicking this thing off
and I gotta ask you a question.
Do you need a rigid plan to
get your goals accomplished?
I say that you don't.
I think that planning your goals
is actually quite overrated.
Not that it's completely
worthless at all overrated.
Now I did a lot of thinking
about the new year back in 2023.
I was thinking a lot about 2024,
where we'd be going, what we would
be doing, what would I be ending
up with and what I'd be trying.
But as far as a, like a strict
hard coded plan goes, that
hasn't really worked out for me.
What usually works out for me is something
a little more freeform, a little more
freestyle, a little more creative.
And I started wondering about
the creative use of the plan.
And, you know, I suppose there's going to
be some back and forth on this either way.
Um, But I really do
question the idea of a plan.
Now, why would you ever need a plan?
What does a plan do?
What does a plan for?
So if you don't know how to get somewhere
and you're trying to get somewhere,
and this is the whole idea with goals,
trajectories, objectives, aspirations,
ambitions, you generally come up with
what they call a plan, which is a
detailed set of steps for you to go from
where you are, to where you want to be.
An algorithm, if you will, that will
take you step by step along the way.
Actually, not an algorithm.
No, a plan is a little
more detailed than that.
A plan is going to be that thing that
tells you go this far, turn right, go up
the hill, give the man three pennies, say
the secret phrase, go through the door,
and you know, you have this plan laid out.
You hear that a lot in workout plans.
You hear that a lot in financial plans.
You hear that a lot in
technical plans, building plans.
There are these things in the world where
you say, you know what, here's what we're
going to do, here's what we're going to
build, here's the results that we want,
all we have to write down is how to do
it, and then we go do that thing, and then
magical rainbows show up, unicorns arrive
at your door, and they give you candy.
So, if you've never seen the musical,
the, the magical, musical candy giving
unicorns showing up because you, Did your
plan appropriately, then you're not alone.
You may be a creative with a lot of ideas
and planning just seems to throw you off.
That is not unusual.
That is not unnatural.
That is not crazy.
It's literally a thing that happens.
So why do we have all this, this idea
about starting a plan, getting a plan
together, making something happen.
And we've been.
But this is part of the reason why
people have been so frustrated with new
year's resolutions and new year's goals.
They may start a plan on the second
week of January and by the third week of
January or February, their plans are out
the window and they've already given up.
The gyms have their money, the
planner companies have their money.
My God, I used to buy the, I used
to buy the 35 planners with the.
You know, 15 and 20 bonus add ons.
I'd spend a hundred dollars on just
getting the planning stuff together.
Now I use a composition book that I got
55 cents at Target and it's way better.
I'll tell you how to do that later
in another episode, maybe, but this
idea of planning is a serious one and
you don't need everything that they
tell you that you need in this world
where things are moving so quickly,
things are changing so rapidly.
You need something a
little better than just.
And I'm going to give you
an idea called a trajectory.
Now trajectories have worked for me.
What is the difference between a
goal, a plan, a resolution trajectory?
We'll, we'll get into all those little
details, maybe some other point, but
for now, let's say you have a goal.
A goal is a defined end point,
a metric that you reach five, 50
pounds by the end of September,
three, 300, 000 by the summer,
you'll have moved into your new house.
With your new car, by the
time you start your job,
you'll have completed four levels of
this video game you're working on.
So you can take it to.
The game developers conference, whatever
goal it is, it's a defined metric that
differentiates where you are currently and
where you are trying to be in the future.
Now, the problem with these goals is
that they're very rigid and people
expect you to follow them to the T and
they say, well, if you didn't follow
it just right, then you did it wrong.
And of course it's not going to work.
So you've got your plan to, you
know, release your four games
by the time GDC rolls around.
You've got your plan to lose 50 pounds
by March, you know, whatever it is,
you set your goal and then someone
gives you a plan that basically
says, well, you've got six, 90 days.
Every day, that means
you should lose a pound.
And if you're going to lose a pound every
day, let's break out the calculator.
Here's your current calorie intake.
We need to get you on a workout
plan, have you running at least four
miles a day, et cetera, et cetera.
And you get on these plans and
it's not to say that they're bad.
It's just, they're, they're a
little too rigid for most people,
especially creative types, because.
Here's the thing about creative types.
Usually when you're planning a goal, you
plan an exact place that you want to be.
Like your GPS.
You just punch in where you are.
Well, it already knows where you are.
You just punch in where you
want to be, and it will give
you a predetermined route.
The roads are already there.
You already have the maps laid out.
And it pretty much can guarantee
that, yeah, everybody else
has been driving on this road.
They want to get to this place.
Here's how we will tell
you to get to this place.
The problem with being a creative and
following rigid style plans is that
you don't know where you're going.
I mean, you have some general idea,
but you don't know where you're going.
What's happening, Aaron Summers?
You really don't know what to
expect as a creative, because
you're literally creating
something where there was nothing.
You're creating order where there
was chaos, or you're bringing chaos
to a situation that was too ordered.
Either way.
Point is, and I'll use an
example to illustrate this.
The point is, when you're creating
something new, you're trailblazing.
You're You're moving minds
into the next dimension.
You're not just running a program.
You're not just running a process.
And I think far more people
live in the creative mindset
and in creative situations than
they would like to believe.
And you combine that with the
fact that these companies are
trying to sell you a certain plan.
If a plan, I tell you, if a plan works
for 10 percent of a population in
any meaningful, significant number,
then they'll, they'll sell it to
you as if it works for everybody.
They will sell it to you as
if it works for everybody.
So it's like, hey, run 10 miles a
day, you know, you'll lose weight.
Probably.
Is that, is that reasonable
for everybody to do?
No, not really, but it doesn't matter.
They'll stick you on the plan anyway.
And then that's when you get into
the whole coaching thing where
a coach comes in and works with
you on your very specific needs.
And listen, maybe you didn't
need a gym membership at all.
Maybe you just need to tear up
your Starbucks card and stop
going to McDonald's every Tuesday.
Maybe that was it.
Maybe that's what you need to lose weight.
But the gym guy or the
perfect professional trainer.
They're not going to tell
you that because, Hey, I
don't need to go to the gym.
Why do I need you?
I just need to stop eating X, Y, and Z.
Let me go talk to somebody else who
can get me to stop eating X, Y, and Z.
And that's just one example.
So I've been on this creative kick for
a while and every so often I find a plan
that works like a rigid plan that works.
I'm like, Oh wow, this
actually fits and it works.
What's so magical about this?
Nothing really.
It's just the fact that.
, it happened to work for you.
Over time, I've begun to understand
I have a lot of various energies.
I have, you know, I move a certain
way, I think a certain way.
I talk a certain way.
I know certain people.
I have a certain spirituality about me.
I use certain programs.
I like certain physical
tools, pens, paper.
I use, certain programs I use, you
know, sometimes I use Apple, sometimes
I use Mac, et cetera, et cetera.
And you get all these variations.
And I found that if you can be creative
with yourself and creative with the
way that you think about the world,
you can get to a creative goal much
better without a rigid plan, but with
something I like to call a trajectory.
Now, before I explain what a trajectory
is, I want to give you an example.
Like I mentioned before.
I was in, uh, I won't name the company.
I was working at a company and they
said, Hey, listen, we got a lot of
money riding on this next project.
It's going to be very important.
It's going to be super
beneficial if it works out.
The only thing is we're not
sure how it's going to work out.
So we need you to come up with
a bulletproof plan, get us all
the resources, list out all the
problems that you see coming.
List out all of the people
you're going to need.
I want everything.
All right.
We need, we need to list out the software,
the people, the timeframe, the schedule.
We broke out Microsoft project.
We had Gantt charts on the wall.
We had diagrams of who
would do what we had.
Programmers and engineers coming
in, letting us know what's possible.
What's not possible.
We had artists come in saying, well,
this is going to take this long.
If we want to get this fidelity of
image, we had designers come in and,
you know, everybody was working together
to try to figure this thing out.
How are we going to get this project
done in the way that it should be
with as few setbacks as possible
with as few hiccups as possible.
So we, we, we banged it out, man.
I mean, we were there at least.
We were there almost three weeks
straight doing nothing but planning.
I mean, just typing, making charts,
discussing, getting out on whiteboards,
diagramming, as I said, with flow
charts and things, it was crazy.
And when I'm not talking about
one or two people, I mean, like
15, 20 people, this is all we did
for, you know, three, four weeks.
We just kind of disappeared.
Nobody saw us.
Then when it came time we printed out
all of this information, you know, we
were blowing out the color printer color
laser printer We had running out of
toner We were we filled up one of our
large conference rooms with all these
diagrams and charts and prospectus
You know Warnings and just laid it all
out We had it all plastered up on the
walls and the whiteboards we and then
we laid out the main timeline On the
conference room table, we laid this
all out and the big dogs come in and
the money guys, it's like three of
them and they're going over the plan.
We're, we're explaining everything.
We talked through the morning.
And we think that we're gonna, we're
gonna break and go to lunch sometime
before we even Finish the little donuts
and snacks that were there for breakfast
sometime before that happens early on in
the morning Well before lunch the big dog
manager guy that was um Working, uh, as
operations, I suppose you could call it.
He just starts rubbing the side of his
head and looking at all these charts.
And I'm like, okay, what's this guy up to?
What's he thinking?
And we just continue on explaining.
And then even before we could stop
to say, do you have any questions?
This big dog stands up and
is like, all right, grabs.
Are, are lovingly taped together
and printed out timeline that span
this entire conference room table.
He pulls it together, balls it up, and
just shoves it off the side of the table.
And he was like, I'm glad you've all
thought very hard about this, but
when are we gonna see some action?
I didn't know what to say!
I was flabbergasted!
And I don't even use that word.
I was just like, oh really?
At first there was like anger, like
hey, we've spent a lot of time on that.
And then there was confusion.
I'm like, wait a minute.
What have we done?
Did we do the wrong thing?
What's going on?
There was like a little
bit of fear going on.
And then there was a little bit of shame.
Like, Oh man, I messed up.
We did the wrong thing.
And then there was like gratitude.
Cause it was like, Oh, thank God.
Cause that was going to
be tough to deal with.
I went through all the emotions.
I went through all the thoughts, all
the feelings, and this guy actually set
me on a better path for the creative
life, for the creative mindset.
He was like, I'm glad you've
thought about all this, but when
are we going to get some action?
Show me what you can make now.
Show me what you can do.
Who do I need to talk to to get
the first version of this going?
What are the people going
to be doing while you're
working on this first version?
Can we hedge our bets
against this and that?
What can we do right now?
Let's get going.
Let's get started.
F that plan.
As I said, I was shocked.
I didn't know what to think.
I usually don't need, you know, I
usually don't use the term processing
my emotions and all that, but we
very quickly wrapped that meeting up.
I thought for sure it was going to
be an all day lunch, you know, then
spend the rest of the day figuring
it out and working out some kinks
and, you know, getting questions
answered and things like that.
Nah.
It was, it was early in the morning.
We had, as I said, we hadn't
even finished our little Danish's
and coffee from the morning.
We were like, what the heck?
So he quick, this big dog quickly ended
the meeting and was like, all right.
And he let us know what we did.
Wasn't bad.
He just didn't care.
He's like, yeah, no, no, it's fine.
I get it.
That's, that's what you're
in general supposed to do in
these corporate kind of things.
But now that we got that out of the
way, let's get some action going on.
So he leaves the meeting room and
he's like, hey, call over such
and such engineer, ask him what
we can get by the end of the week.
And I'm like, oh, this dude's
on a whole nother kick.
Well, that the engineer guy was like,
well, hey, uh, we got this and this.
I don't care.
I don't want you to know what you have.
I'm going to be here
at the end of the week.
Show me something.
Then in the meantime, I'm going
to go start talking to the artist.
I want to see how this looks.
Everybody needs to kind of
understand, get a vision.
I need to talk to the artist.
It's like designers.
I'm going to talk to
you in a couple of days.
So I'm going to need all your ideas
about what we can do with these
images, the artists have together.
And he gets all the producers, like,
producers, I need you to take down
notes on everything we're talking
about because we're going now,
we're going, go, go, go, create.
That was a life changing moment for me.
I had never seen such bold,
creative force in action.
I was at a loss for words.
And yes, to your point, it's a hell
yeah moment and became total excitement.
Because really.
We didn't know what we were getting into.
We hadn't done a project like this before.
We were just guessing.
Has anybody ever told you to drive
somewhere that you've never driven before?
I can a new city and they're like, Oh
yeah, just turn left here and do this.
And you're like, wait a minute, turn left.
There's there's, there's three
left turn lanes and Oh gosh,
one of them is a U turn only.
And wait a minute, I have to, you
know, I have to get off the exit ramp
and then do this, it's a turn, turn
right at the McDonald's, but then there
are like four McDonald's in the area.
You're like, Holy crap.
What?
No one told me this.
If that's ever happened to you,
this is, you know, what real
life is like for creatives when,
when the path is kind of unknown.
You're not going on this rigid,
ordered, stepwise process.
You have an idea, but as the great Mike
Tyson once said, everybody has a plan
until they get punched in the mouth.
And for creatives You're always in the
ring fighting against reality and the
reality that could be that's in your head.
So yeah, we got to work, we got to
business and what it, what it gave me was,
was this idea, that whole situation and
that whole drama gave me this idea of.
What I call a trajectory, and honestly,
this idea makes a lot of people
nervous because even if it doesn't
work, people like the idea of plans.
They like the idea of predictability
and knowing what's going to happen.
They like the idea of a safe,
confined set of results, a
safe, ordered series of steps.
And if something goes wrong, Oh,
well, I knew that might happen.
So we prepared for it.
But that's not how the creative
life goes a lot of times.
It's not.
So this idea of a trajectory.
A trajectory is a general direction.
A
vector.
It's movement towards a goal.
And you're not sure exactly how
you're going to reach that goal.
Let me know what you mean,
Aaron, in the comments.
It's not how you grow.
I want to make sure I get your comment.
So, with a trajectory, let's say you're,
you're standing on the side of a road.
I've mentioned this
before, I'll say it again.
If you've got a trajectory, I mean,
if you're on the side of the road,
just standing around, and way off in
the distance you see a mountain, or
a mountain range, and you're like,
I want to go to those mountains.
You don't know exactly how
you're going to get there.
You don't know exactly what
route you're going to take.
And most people, most people will
call their friends or they say,
well, I'm not going to go that way
because I don't know how to get there.
It's like, well, you see
it way off in the distance.
So, you know, you know,
something's out there.
You got to go, you got to
explore, you got to trailblaze.
And the way the world is now, they've got
so many people trying to sell you their
plans and their ideas and their processes.
That they don't leave the door open for
exploration, like the professional trainer
working at the gym, a true professional
trainer would say, you know what, you
really don't need to work out for the
goals that you're trying to achieve.
You just need to stop doing X, Y, and Z.
And you may have, uh, some sort of
physical disorder because you're far
heavier than I think you should be.
Who, what professional trainer is
not going to take your money and
sign you up for some gym program?
I mean you should be in the, I mean
physical fitness is not a bad thing,
but think about it What real estate
agent's not gonna say hey, you know
what maybe you should just buy this or
actually You should rent for two more
years and not, not buy this house for me.
Who's gonna say that?
What app developer is going to say,
actually don't download my app.
It's going to take a lot of resources
and it honestly takes a lot of your time.
You don't need my app.
Who's going to say that?
They always speak from their version
of positive and their version of
positive is to sell you on that idea
of their plan and their process.
Myself included.
Everyone does this.
But what you have to do
is be your own creative.
Okay, I got you, Aaron.
Like, staying comfortable
isn't how you grow.
Exactly.
So, back to the side of the road example.
You're on the side of the road.
You know somewhere you want to get to.
I had this situation recently when my
car charger, uh, wasn't working right.
There was something with the connection
I needed to clean out the little
Something fell in the car charging
port and it wasn't connecting properly.
So I couldn't charge my
phone the way I wanted to.
So I couldn't run GPS and play my
podcast or whatever on the road.
I was like, you know what?
I kind of know where that is.
Let me just go.
Because I have a trajectory.
I'm heading north.
I figure there are going to be some roads
in the way, some, some highways I might
need to jump on or jump off But I can kind
of see where I need to go in the distance.
If you can see your mountain
in the distance One thing that
will help out a lot of you is
getting up And starting to move.
Get in,
thought you were on the right
highway, and you're drifting away
from where you thought you should be.
It's like, okay, well let
me stop, get directions.
And they're like, no, what you're
gonna need to do is go back, go
backwards, get on this highway, at the
interchange, and then go this other way.
And you're like, oh, okay.
And then maybe once you get
there, there's a detour.
Say, Oh, I couldn't get the way I couldn't
get there the way I thought I would.
Now what am I going to do?
I don't know.
Maybe you run out of gas.
You don't have enough money for gas.
Maybe you need to get on a bus.
They know exactly how to get there.
But if you're not thinking about
using the bus at all, that might
not be an option for you because
you haven't thought of that option.
And once you get to the mountain
or start to get closer to it, maybe
you realize that, Oh, wait a minute.
This isn't one mountain.
There's there's like Eight
different mountains here.
Which one am I supposed to go up?
Which one do I want to see the top of?
Or maybe you don't want to see
the top of the mountains anymore.
Once you get close, maybe you want to
see what's on the other side of them.
Things change in the creative realms.
And when you're in the middle
of something, the creative, the
creative mood, mood is going
to take you different places.
Your expression is a valuable one
as a creative and as an artist,
as a designer developer and people
who stick to very, very rigid plans
aren't usually the best creators.
This even goes for tech companies,
regardless of what you say about Elon
Musk, he's been able to break free
creatively and kind of do what he wants.
He open sourced all of the, the
details about his electric vehicles
and people are still catching up.
Why?
Because they plan too much, or
they plan a little too rigidly.
They're not creative
enough with themselves.
And if you've been in, if you've been
around enough large companies, you
know how much of a problem this can be.
Heck, you don't even need a large company.
Get 50 people together calling
themselves a company, and you're already
moving at incredibly slow speeds.
Incredibly non creative speeds.
So do I dislike plans?
Get yourself some guidelines.
Get your,
take a lot of stress off of you.
Now I'm saying this around the
new year because I know a lot of
people start on their resolutions.
They start on their plans.
They've got their 45
daytime or planning system.
They've talked to the people over at the
online training plus webinar and
community that they've joined.
That's going to get them
to where they want to be.
And there's no doubt about it.
These things are helpful, but
what may be even more helpful is.
Unlocking the creative power within
your mind to just kind of do what
you feel is right at the time.
So everybody likes the weight loss
example at the, at the start of the year.
I'm going to lose 50 pounds
by March or I'm a failure.
Let's say that's your thing.
You got to step back.
Why do you want to lose 50
pounds in the first place?
See a rigid, a plan and
a goal and a rigid plan.
They have you going for these numbers
as opposed to the more creative.
Essence of why you want to do something.
Why do you want to lose 50 pounds?
Do you have heart problems and you
want to be alive for your kids?
That's valid.
I knew an older gentleman who started
getting healthy because Graduations
were very important to him and he
wasn't sure if he was going to be
around to see his grandkids graduation
That was a very real thing for him.
So at every step along the way it was
like, hey, man, how's the health coming?
He's like, oh, this is great.
I'm not just gonna go to the graduation.
I'm gonna be the host of the after
party and we're gonna do all this
stuff together and we're gonna be
walking around and I was like, really?
He's like, yeah, yeah.
We're going to have it at a park.
We're going to have the celebration
and all these things that he would have
shied away from if he was less healthy.
So what I'm doing in here, I'm getting
to the why I'm breaking out of the
goal, which is usually just some random
number that people pull out of there.
You know, they pull out of
nowhere and just decide to.
Stick to because it sounds good.
I'm gonna get X number of followers.
I'm gonna lose X number of pounds
I'm gonna have X amount of money.
Let's break that down a little bit.
Why do you want that as a creative?
What are you trying to create?
What scenario what future self is going
to satisfy you and your future self?
usually isn't satisfied with a
number in essence a situation a
way of being a new state of being
so Let's say another reason
for losing 50 pounds.
Let's say there's a
marathon you need to run.
And you know that you
can't run that marathon.
And be cool with all your
friends at the current weight.
That may be a good enough reason.
Maybe there's a running club at
your at your church or whatever.
And everybody's like, you know what,
we're going to start running and
you want to be a part of this club
and being better with the church.
You know what?
Maybe you have a maybe that 50
pounds turns into something.
More realistic, not more realistic,
more grounded in your future self,
your, your true needs and desires.
50 pounds can mean a lot.
Maybe you felt your knee hurting one
day and you're like, Oh, holy crap.
My father and my grandfather and
my uncle all had knee problems.
And they're all fat as hell.
This is going to, that's going to be me.
Maybe that's a fear.
You know, you can, maybe you can break
the chain of, you know, your generational
genetics or just your generational habits.
You've got all these
familial habits going on.
Maybe you need to break some of them.
It's like, Oh man, I'm going to
be big fat, have knee problems
and sit around watching, you
know, watching HBO max all day.
I need to lose 50 pounds.
That's much better than I'm losing
50 pounds because it's a number.
Does any of this make sense?
Because as a creative, I swear to you,
so many non creatives are telling us
how to plan, how to go about things,
and I don't think it's working as
well as it could be for all of us.
50 pounds.
What's another way you can flip 50 pounds?
Um, you want to look good.
It's like, hey, you know, March, once
March comes around, You know, then the
kids and everything else, I'll be busy.
I want to roll into the summer
with the new beach body.
I want to join that new swim class,
but I've been afraid because, you
know, honestly my gut looks terrible.
I need to get that down.
It's like, Hey man, that's fine.
That's a good, you start building
more of a why around that.
Something,
but back to the rigid plan.
The rigid plan is just numbers.
Usually do this, do this,
try to get these numbers.
And hopefully these metrics
will start to get you somewhere.
And they're very useful in a lot of cases.
Don't get me wrong.
They're very useful, but they
are generally not attached
to the creative spirit.
If you have more of a creative
spirit, you may want to consider or
if you want to tap into that creative
spirit, you may want to consider.
Why you don't hit those numbers.
So if you're supposed to post, let's say
you want to post, uh, on social media.
No, let's skip, let's
stay with the gym example.
Let's say, you know, you want
to lose this many pounds.
You want to run however many miles a day.
You want to go to the gym so many times.
You have to start thinking, okay,
why don't I hit this metric?
Why am I not hitting this number?
And it's like, well,
it's not that exciting.
Going to the gym, it's getting
up, putting on clothes.
It's this whole thing I don't
want to do at this point.
A lot of people just throw
their plans away and say, well,
the plan didn't work for me.
Screw it.
Another, another year of
resolution that I didn't stick to.
I hate this life.
And you're just mad at yourself.
Instead, the creative mind knows that
you're not working for rigid goals.
You're working for a trajectory
and says, Okay, I didn't hit
this, but I learned this.
I learned that there's an obstacle
with actually getting up and getting
dressed and going to the gym.
What if I had a home gym?
Let me try that.
And you may start out simple.
Spend, uh, 50, 100 on
some cheap equipment.
Or something even smaller.
I started with the, you know,
I spent $20 on a, not $20.
I spent like $8 on a jump rope and then
some more on some kettlebells, and it
came out to like 20 something dollars.
I got it on a, on a
sale at one, one point.
But what I was trying to do was
make physical fitness more of a
regular thing, not just something
I did when I went to the gym.
If I ever started feeling tired or
sluggish, I would grab my jump rope,
run to the backyard, jump, jump, jump,
jump, and keep going about my business.
It was great.
I still have that jump rope and
still use it for that purpose.
What I'm saying is, over
time, the plan will change.
Maybe you can't get to the gym
at a reasonable hour, and by the
time you get there, it's crowded.
Maybe the gym is too far away.
At these moments, you need to
start figuring out new ways to
navigate to your, to your mountain.
It's like, is physical
fitness the only way?
Is diet the only way?
Is changing my attitude the only way?
Is nutrition the only way?
Maybe it's not that I'm eating so
much, it's what I'm eating, and
what kinds of foods I'm eating.
There are many different ways to attack
these problems, which, and we can get
into them all in other, other podcasts
and other discussions, but the rigid plan,
or you can change it, see
where you can get updated.
You may need to be like that big dog in
the, in the management, that project,
that project pusher who's going to just
rip up all the plans and say, all right,
that's all fine, well and good, but we
need to get moving because ultimately.
The most important thing, I
believe, is your creative energy.
And is it continuing to
fight and move forward?
Is your creative energy tearing
down walls, figuring out
ways to make things happen?
Is it relentless?
Every morning when you wake
up, does your creative energy
go, Nah, I gotta do something.
I got to create something.
I got to work towards creating that
future self that I'm looking for.
If your creative energy jumps up and says,
I need to, I need to go to my charts.
I need to check my check boxes.
I need to put an X on the calendar.
All well and good, all fine, but
that's a secondary measure of
what you should be feeling inside.
Your creative energy should be
burning trying to do something.
And so yes, I do think planning, strict
planning of your goals is overrated.
And I do think you can do a lot better
with yourself just by cultivating
and nurturing your creative energy.
Obviously, creatives have issues and
what I mean by issues is that if you
leave them alone, they can just start
to spin off into, into the bushes.
They can start randomly going off
into the weeds and they get lost.
I get it.
Trust me, I get it.
But you find those one
or two trajectory points.
Where it's like, all I know I have to
get to that mountain and you'll start
finding a way something gets in your way.
You're like, yeah, I know you're
in my way, but I'm going to get
to that mountain car breaks down.
Hey, I'm a hop on a bus and get to that
mountain bus doesn't go any further.
Well, Hey, you know, start, get out your
hiking shoes and cut across the median.
Start walking through the forest.
Somebody sees you walking hitchhike.
I don't know.
You call, call for an Uber,
an off road Uber, maybe.
Somebody shows up in a Hummer,
you start climbing over, over
rocks and going up the icy tundra.
I don't know.
Find a way to make it work.
Usually, usually your goals aren't
that so far out there that you
really need to take extreme measures.
But you're going to seem
extreme to other people.
They're going to be like, Oh
my God, why is he doing that?
Oh my gosh, why are they, why are
they staying till 2 in the morning?
It's like, hey, listen, maybe
I just need to stay till 2 in
the morning and You go home.
Maybe I need to stay till two in
the morning and then I'll take off.
I'll take off Friday.
Maybe, maybe I'll do that.
Or maybe I asked that my desk be,
maybe I asked that my desk be moved
so I can get this type of work done.
Maybe I've asked to move my desk
next to the bathroom because I sit
down and drink six gallons of water
a day, almost getting water poisoning
because I'm drinking so much water.
I need to be right next to the bathroom.
Maybe that's the little thing.
You have to get creative
with your solution.
The way you execute on that plan.
Because reality will come
and punch you in the mouth.
And show you just how insane it is
to try to build something creative
with an extremely rigid plan.
If you get a plan going, or if
you see a plan really working.
Like all these computer companies,
all these video game companies.
You know, I mentioned Tesla earlier, but
it's not, it's really not just about,
uh, Elon Musk and how he operates.
And as I said, if you like
him or not, doesn't matter.
Being able to move creatively
brings high returns.
And to be clear, you don't
have to be a jackass.
You don't have to be a jerk
to anybody, but you do have to
be willing to be on your own.
You may be a little intense
to some people because you've
just got that burn going on.
Someone shows you a diet plan and
you're like, yeah, I love this diet
plan, but I'm going to need you to add.
I'm going to need you to
add red licorice to it.
It's like, what?
Yeah.
I'm going to need you to add red
licorice to this plant because
whenever I get to my working, I
got to work, I need red licorice.
I need you to factor in red licorice.
They're like, uh, that doesn't
really work with the plan.
I don't care.
Get out my face.
You rigid planner.
We're going to need to make an exception.
It's like, okay, well maybe we can.
Yeah, I know.
Maybe we can cause I need my red licorice.
That was actually a thing for me a
couple of years ago where when I was
working at a, in a certain zone, I would
need my red licorice just to kind of,
I don't know, it was a habitual thing.
It was kind of a ritual.
So yeah, figure out what you need to do.
Get that, get that goal that causes
your inner big dog manager to come out.
As I said, most things won't knock
you off of your game completely.
The thing that knocks you off of your
game completely is deciding that this
bump in the road is enough to stop you.
Deciding that this little quirk
in the plan is enough to stop you.
Deciding that, hey, I wasted money
on this, so therefore it's all wrong.
No.
You ever go in a restaurant, buy a
big, buy a bunch of food, and then
realize that you don't like the food?
What are you gonna do?
Be mad?
You can be.
Or you can expend the energy to say, hey,
let's drop this, let's go to McDonald's,
let's go to, uh, Actually, I would
never suggest you go to McDonald's.
Go to wherever you wanna go, In
N Out Burger, Go to, go cook your
own, buy some meat, go home and
grill something, I don't know.
Do whatever you want.
Too many people have this idea
that if the plan doesn't work
out perfectly, they're finished.
They get very upset because they're
trying to go for a future and they're
afraid that the future isn't going
to be the way they expect it to.
And if you're a creative, it's never
going to be the way you expect it.
That's a beautiful thing.
You should be excited that
it's not the way you expect it.
If something goes wrong, embrace it.
Let everybody know.
and smile and keep going.
Car breaks down?
That's a chance to drive an Uber.
Somebody quits the project and
now, now you're missing somebody?
Cool!
That gives somebody else
a chance to step up.
And it probably saves you a little money
because if they were that much of a
superstar you're probably paying them.
Lots of things can happen and
lots of things will happen.
This idea of a rigid plan
is not good for creatives.
And I think you get what I'm
saying and I'm gonna end with that.
So listen, this podcast is something
I've been thinking about for a while,
trying to figure out the ins and outs
of it is creativity threads life.
And I want to talk about how creativity
threads through all parts of life.
Please subscribe on, on
your, on your channels.
If you're into YouTube, Facebook or
whatever, it's there, but this is a.
Audio podcast.
I didn't want to do video.
I may come in with video sometime
later, but I intentionally want to
do this with audio because it gets
out to the people in a different way.
If you've got your podcast player,
Apple podcast, whatever Google is
offering up as their podcast now
or Spotify, we are there as well.
I'm going to be recording most
every night of, of the weekdays.
Uh, whenever I feel like it, I
don't have a, Really hardcore
set schedule like that right now.
So sometime in the afternoon or
the evening, I will post these.
I'll go up live and then I'll post
it a little later that same day.
Hopefully at some point I get on an early
morning schedule, but right now with
my early morning, I'm working on my.
My primary thing, which is
me being creative on my own.
And in the afternoon slash
evenings, I jump on and do the
podcast and talk about creativity.
So these are thoughts that I
have running through the day and
it's kind of my creative outlet.
So if you're wondering where it's
going to go, how it's going to be,
this is the format and it's developing
and will change as it goes along.
I have a general trajectory
I'm on, but things will change.
So if you know somebody who you'd like
me to talk to, we can probably do that.
Have an interview session or a
little sit down chat and discussion.
It'll be all good and we will do it.
But for today, this is
creativity threads life.
You can see me at creativity threads life.
com where I have all of these listed and
you can see me personally at mrbenja.
com for all the recommendations and
announcements and all that jazz.
Once again, thank you very much.
This is, and let me check the
comments one time before I leave.
Boom.
We're still good.
Thanks, Aaron.
Thanks Carmen for coming through.
Thanks sound dialect.
Thanks programmer black.
Hey, I haven't seen programmer
black in a while, but all right,
that's going to do it for this one.
And as I said, let me know in
the comments or let me know DM or
whatever, what you're thinking about.
These will be archived on
creativity threads, life.
com.
Thank you very much.
Have a good one, everybody.