Do Something

Earlier this week I had a sushi lunch with a coworker where we talked about the creative process. Lots of good food and conversation but one part stood out. We were talking about how you go from having an idea to actually doing it. This coworker shared that often he'll have a great idea but then pretty quickly a voice in his head will explain why he could never pull it off. That's pretty common I think. But then he told me that lately he's realizing that this negative knee-jerk reaction to ideas/dreams/goals/etc. might be related to his early days. He grew up in a "That's great... but" family.

"Mom/Dad, I learned this new riff today, it's awesome. I think I wanna be a musician someday."

"Honey, that's great... but being a professional musician takes years and years of practice."

"Right. That's why I'm in lessons."

"Which is great... but it's more than just practice. Listen, all I'm saying is that it's always smart to have a plan B."

So now, as a "grown up," my coworker battles this negative knee-jerk mentality. He says that even though he doesn't want to he always finds the negative aspects of ideas/dreams/goals/etc.

I grew up in a "That's great" family. When I told my dad that I wanted to win the Heisman Trophy he said, "That's great. We should go play catch." My parents' knee-jerk reaction was to convince me that anything was possible. So when I say silly things like we're going to make enough money doing films that we're going to pay off the Healing Center.... I'm only half kidding. My inner demons are the opposite of my coworker's. The trick is in figuring out how to manage them. Believing you can do something/anything is great if and only if you act on those beliefs. Action is the key. And it works the other way. If your inner demons are constantly feeding you excuses and reasons you can't do something the only way to beat them down is thru action. You gotta do something.