I (Todd Henry) am hopeful that you’ve taken my encouragement throughout this book that the main reason to establish practices is to increase your capacity for insight and brilliance, not simply to cram more things into your life or to hack your creative process in some way. Again, there is no formula for effective creating and there are no shortcuts to experiencing brilliance when you need it. You will see results only when you are willing to let go of anxiety around short-term outcomes and pour yourself into activity that increases your capacity to experience future insights.
Over time, many of the practices in this book will become second nature. They will simply become intertwined with your lifestyle and creative process. But like anything else worthwhile, your first efforts will require a tremendous amount of forethought and follow-through. Once you’ve persisted in these choices, however, you will likely begin to see some welcome by-products in your life. Though it may take time to see these results, effective creating begins the moment you decide to reclaim the natural rhythms of your creative process and structure your life around them. This will require intentionality, choice, and discipline.
Intentionality means that you are approaching your life in a systematic way and not haphazardly. You know that you’re about and you’re working a system to make it happen. It means that you must constantly remind yourself of not only what you’re doing, but why you’re doing it (Checkpoints). You don’t want your practices to turn into unhealthy, counterproductive habits or for the system to turn upon itself because you’ve disengaged from the why behind the what. This is like poison to your creative process.
Choice means that by saying yes to a set of practice, you are inherently saying no to a lot of other things. You can do almost anything you want, but not everything you want. What you choose to include in your life has consequences and immediately limits your other choices. Therefore, you must be careful when making commitments so as to not unintentionally limit your opportunities for engagement. Maybe you choose to create something or do a little reading instead of watching a sitcom. But you know that every choice you make affects everything else in your life, and you must therefore make these choices carefully. Choosing to establish study time, or Unnecessary Creating, or to set time for get-togethers with people who stimulate your creativity necessarily means you’re saying no to other activities that may bring you more comfort in the moment. You are trading immediate gratification for future insights. It’s an investment, and hopefully you’re discovering that it’s one worth making.
Discipline involves establishing and hitting specific marks and doing what needs doing regardless of how you feel in the moment. It means that you make decisions when you have clarity and sufficient energy, then you follow through on them regardless of how you feel in the moment. It is human nature to default to the path of least resistance unless you make purposeful decisions to do what’s best rather than what’s most convenient. The time to decide to go on a diet is not when you’re craving chocolate and the desert tray is waved in front of your face; it’s when you’re in a place of contentment and are able to rationally decide that you’d like to lose a few pounds. Similarly, the time to choose to study, or to build into relationships, is not when we realize you’ve come upon some unexpected free time; it’s when you’re strategically planning your life.
As you engage with intentionality, choice, and discipline, the capacities that have been lying dormant due to misuse or neglect become unlocked. You may uncover passions that you’ve long forgotten or remember how it feels to be fully immersed in your work and know that you’re good at what you do. As these dormant parts of you come online, you will begin to see that your capacity to change the world is largely determined by your willingness to bring your unique abilities to the table every single day and to continually empty yourself of whatever’s inside.
DON’T BE A COVER BAND
Because we’ve understood the importance and effectiveness of bringing unique passions to the creative process, we’ve used the tagline “Cover bands don’t change the world” for as long as Accidental Creative has existed. A cover band is a band that plays other people’s music. The most extreme example is the tribute band, which directly copies another artist’s music and style in the attempt to pay homage to their art. More subtle examples are the radio hits du jour. Occasionally you’ll hear one of these bands rattle off something like “Now we’re going to play something we wrote,” and a collective protest arises from the clubgoers.
Why?
Because no one came to the band to hear the band’s original music. They are there to dance, have a good time, and hear music they know. The promise of going to hear a cover band is that you’ll be treated to familiar tunes in a dance-friendly format with little variation. This is the expectation. It’s the “brand promise,” if you will. When a cover band pulls an original tune from the repertoire, that promise is violated in a major way.
It’s incredibly difficult for a bank to make the transition from cover band to one that plays original music. In fact, it rarely happens successfully. The band is always caught in the netherworld between making a living/earning money and wanting to express themselves through their art. Even if they are able to successfully slip some original music into the mix, they will always have to stare down the annoyingly vocal requests for the latest Top 40 fare or “Free Bird.”
There are a lot of “cover bands” in the marketplace today. If their only goal is to make a lot of money, so be it. But the products and people who really change the game seem to be the ones who are able to stay true to a set of principles rather than being driven to quick returns. They develop a loyal audience rather than a fickle one that turns away the money they play an original.
It’s my desire to continue to strive to find my own voice and to try to weed out all the places where I’m being “cover-bandish.” This can be a very tricky because it often means turning down more work than I accept, but my hope is that the original value that I bring to the clients I chose to work with will create raving “fans” who want to continue to work with me and trust me when I develop new products or ideas.
How about you? Are you willing to bravely pursue your own voice, carve your own niche in the marketplace and avoid the temptation to go for quick success? In looking at the long-term arc of your life and creating, are you willing to pour yourself into practices that will help you uncover hidden potential and unlock passions that have been buried beneath layers of expectations and obligations?
There is no greater reward than that of knowing that you are free from the need to be defined by pay or prestige, and are instead motivated by the very process of doing your work each day. This is how we begin to see the seeds of greatness spring up in our life.
* Source: The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry