Archives: Life

When it comes to living your life creatively, you – the artist, the filmmaker, the writer – are the single most important person in your world.

By setting out to impress other people, we are doomed to following the path of what we *think* people want to see, only ever re-creating things that have gone down well before or that we are pretty sure will be swallowed without too much sugar on the spoon  ((apologies to Mary Poppins fans)).

The only person we as artists need to satisfy, impress or please is ourselves. By creating honest work, true to our core sensibilities and interests, we create personal work that carries a stamp of authenticity that will carry it onto a higher plane.

That’s not to say what works for us will sell like wildfire, will be the next break-out success or even make an impact. But all of those things are far more likely to happen if we start with the most important person in mind.

*Special thanks to Lucas McNelly on Twitter for inspiring this post.

Even after my apologetic post last week, I was unable to return to the flow of posting daily.

Instead, I’ve been having something of a break to focus on developing other things, including a programme of motivational speeches and presentations to help re-engergise and re-focus businesses, upping my programme at the gym in preparation for the 3 Peaks Challenge and working towards the launch of my new website theindiefilmhub.com – a content curation site for independent filmmakers, now just 5 days away from launch.

Although I’ve previously suggested that breaking your routine in blogging – whether about your film, your business or your personal life – can be punished with a significant drop in your readership, sometimes it’s good to take a break for a while.

Taking a break doesn’t have to mean not doing anything at all1, it’s simply about re-focusing, allowing yourself to be immersed in a different project, a different goal or even a different world.

The old cliché goes that a change is as good as a rest. Remember, clichés are generally only clichés because they’re true.

1. although we all know the times when that’s precisely what we need! [↩]

My regular schedule of blog updates has been interrupted this week.  I’m ashamed to admit I’ve neglected the blog in deference to other things.

I was going to post a list of reasons why I’ve been a little lax since the weekend, but rapidly realised that work commitments, the beta-testing and site building of the new website and writing the eBook were nothing but excuses. I could and should have made time for the blog, just as I’m doing now.

There’s a lesson in this for all of us, especially in this time-pressured world many of us inhabit: excuses are exactly what they say on the tin – an explanation offered to justify or obtain forgiveness1 – and we don’t need forgiveness, we just need to do what we’ve said we will.

Whether it’s through workload, procrastination or fear of over-committing, we all make excuses for the things we can’t do. The answer is to stop making excuses, stop asking for forgiveness and just do them. You’ll soon find it’s far quicker and easier to get things done than it is to run around seeking forgiveness for not doing them.

As a happy by-product, you’ll also be far more organised, far more productive and be seen as far more reliable. No need for excuses.

What have you been making excuses about this week? When are you going to set things right on them?

1. according to TheFreeDictionary.com [↩]

This weekend, I will be thinking of all those mothers in the world without their children.

This weekend, I will be thinking of all those children in the world without their mothers.

This weekend, I will be thinking of all those who would love to be sharing the same moments with their mother as I will be with mine, but who are unable.

This weekend, remember that it’s good to be grateful and thankful for the family you have; there are far too many people who haven’t.

As part of my training for the 3 Peaks, I swim twice a week (in between the full-on gym workouts), thanks to the lovely people at Topnotch Healthclubs who’s sponsored my challenge.

Today while I was swimming I noticed a curious phenomenon that I’m going to name the “hottie effect”. There were three guys in the pool, including me. One of them was pretty much just sitting there, the other doing some slow, steady, not hugely dedicated breast-stroke lengths and me, somewhat beasting myself churning out my 500m.

In the middle of my 3rd 50m set, a girl came in.

I should immediately qualify this by saying that when I swim I obviously don’t wear my glasses, so I can’t actually see anything beyond the end of my nose in any kind of clear fashion.

This girl came in and, from what I could make out, she was young, slender and wearing a bikini.  Suddenly and remarkably the layabout starting cranking out some lengths, the breast-stroker suddenly upped his speed and improved his technique and I… well, I mostly carried on doing lengths while wondering how hot this girl must be to inspire the other guys to such great feats.

The point of all this isn’t swimming pool-based voyeurism, but to suggest that we all in some way or another adapt our behaviour in the presence a a pretty person1. In the gym especially, it makes be act “up” – trying to show ourselves to be fitter, stronger and faster.

What if we could apply that “hottie effect” to our creative lives? If we created in the shadow of the “hottie” – that single person we’re all desperate to please.

Impressing people – whether it’s an agent, a producer, a client or a partner – is an innate desire in all of us. We want people to love what we do. Creating that voice of approval and encouragement in what we do is a perfect way to motivate yourself and keep focused on creating the very best that you can, whatever it may be.

1. girl or boy, depending on your personal preference [↩]

Struggle with getting down to work some days? Most days? Every day?

If you’re trying to think creatively and get yourself into the right mood, but can’t seem to settle your brain to the task in hand, you need to create yourself an inspiration pathway.

IP’s (as I like to call them1 ) are a form of hypnotic process that allows you to reach the right state of flow to achieve your creative goals.

We all recognise the feeling: when you’re reading the blog of an inspirational online mentor (Tim Ferriss, for me); listening to that track that gives you goosebumps; sitting in that perfect spot that fills you with feelings of limitless ability and peacefulness. The trick is to find a way to tap into that feeling and apply it to your work routine.

By recreating that feeling of invincibility – of total creative power and freedom – you can access the flow state that will see you glide through the challenges that face you over the next couple of hours, or the ten pages, or that sales call to your dream client.

If you’re trigger is musical, so much the better – just hit ‘Play’ and take yourself there. For other triggers, find a way to access them each and every day when you sit at your desk to get cracking.  Bookmark a favourite post or posts, stimulate your sense and psych yourself into inspiring yourself to make the most of your day.

Inspire yourself and you’ll reach new heights you never imagined.

What lights your inspiration candle? How do you help yourself reach a state of flow when you sit down to work in the morning (or afternoon, or whenever you do your best work)?

1. since it takes too long to type inspiration pathway every time [↩]

In today’s world, it’s harder and harder to find anywhere that doesn’t have Wi-Fi access. Much to my surprise1, one of those places is the campus coffee shop of City University2, which has a connection so slow as to be pretty much useless.

Unfortunately for the new website I’m planning and prepping, it just wasn’t as viable a work option as I’d hoped. Instead, with no real ‘net access to speak of, I managed to write a rough draft of the first two thirds of my new eBook3.

I’ve been planning and meaning to write the book for the last couple of months, but something always gets in the way, whether it’s my own procrastination, a feeling of too little time or a simple perception of “writer’s block”.

Today, by getting away from my usual distractions and by having almost literally nothing else to do, I settled down, I focused and I ploughed through way more, way faster than I ever thought I would.

The next time you have something you really want to do but can’t seem to find the time, see what happens when you move yourself away from your usual workspace and take yourself to a place where you can’t be distracted by the usual things. Be it a park, a library or anywhere that doesn’t offer fast-as-lighting internet access, find the place that fits and see just how much you plough through.

I see many more days of internet-off writing ahead of me. Let me know what you think if you’ve tried it, or if you have your own tricks for getting super-productive.

1. and, it turns out, my luck [↩]
2. where I accompanied my fiancée to calm her nerves before her exam today [↩]
3. which I have also now announced to the world, giving myself accountability and therefore less ability to avoid it, but more on that in a future post [↩]

It’s a very badly hidden secret that I’m a loyal supporter and devotee of Seth Godin, the man I can most single-handedly credit with re-energising me in my low moments and helping me believe that anything is possible.

Never more so than with the latest free eBook from his Domino Project publishing company. Not only is it a great example of using something you give away for free (the ‘SXSW Pokes‘ eBook) to promote something you’re selling (the full-length ‘Poke the Box‘ book and eBook), it’s also full of stories that help you realise that anything really is possible.

The single most important element of SXSW Pokes is that it’s not just a few people telling stories that make you think, “Well, I could have done that if I’d thought of it first,” but instead contains 50 stories from people who make you think, “If they can do that with their lives, just think what I could do with mine.”

I cannot stress just how important I think this book is for anyone to read. Go get it.

If you are the only one getting in your own way of going after your dreams, stop and realize that you are the last person who should be doing that!

C. C. Chapman, SXSW Pokes

What’s your lifelong dream? As you step out to make it real, reach out to someone you’d like to know and emulate. That one phone call may change your life forever!

Sandy Harper, SXSW Pokes

The initiative I took for myself will always remind me that I’m teh one driving this train, and that I’m accountable to ther person in the mirror most of all.

Amber Naslund, SXSW Pokes

I’ve long been a loud advocate of the power of social media and digital marketing if used in the right way. The biggest issue that I try to drive home to all of my clients, however, is the simple truth that social media is – and must be seen as – an investment for your business.

It costs money in terms of resources, but it also costs far more in terms of time – the time it takes to develop a social media strategy, to build an audience of friends, fans and followers and to maintain that tribe of people in a way that makes them feel valued by both the brand and the people behind the brand.

Which is why I was so disheartened to see this article on Mashable.com this week on time-saving tips for Twitter.  While I agree that there are ways to increase your productivity by developing processes and systems to optimise you and your company’s time on social media sites, I was taken aback to read this (under Number 3):

Another way to fit tweeting into your schedule is to develop tweets in bulk and schedule them to go out later.

Leyl Master Black, mashable.com

This is possibly the single most misleading piece of advice that is bandied around about Twitter. Scheduling Tweets isn’t conversation, it’s broadcasting.  Social media is specifically that: social. It’s about interaction, conversation and community, not about broadcasting your “message”1 – that’s what traditional media and paid-for advertising is for.

If you only take one thing away from this blog over however many weeks, months and years it exists and you subscribe, let it be this: don’t schedule your Tweets. If you’re not prepared to invest the time to be part of the conversation with your tribe around your brand, then this form of online marketing isn’t for you.

Most importantly, remember that not being on Twitter, or Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Tumblr, or Blogger, or WordPress or any other social media, blogging or online marketing site doesn’t automatically make you “un-hip” or “out-of-the-loop”. If it’s not right for you, your audience or your budget, then not being on them makes you a far savvier marketer than anyone who’s simply using them as just another broadcasting platform.

I’m getting down off my soapbox now.

1. whatever that may be: sales, social good, charitable [↩]

Our lives are a rush of different stimuli, from our multiple social media accounts to emails to phone calls and text messages.  In order to boost your own productivity, take a break from it all for a set period of time each and every day.

Since I started training for the 3 Peaks, which currently involves 5 trips to the gym a week and a lot of pain, I’ve discovered the enormous benefits of being in an environment with none of the usual distractions.

My creativity has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few weeks as I give myself 45-60 minute periods every day of the week to be completely cut off from my communications, to enjoy some much needed thinking time and to focus my brain on the things that really matter in my life and work, rather than the things that too easily consume my attention when I’m in the thrall of social media maintenance and ever-flowing emails.

You may not be a gym-bunny, but if you can find the space in your day to force yourself to silence your phone, shut your laptop and spend even half-an-hour away from everything and alone in your head1, you’ll notice the benefits creeping into your headspace rapidly.

1. or with friends and loved ones [↩]