MegaFishbein is a collection of lessons, life-hacks, and lifestyle: A journey of a creative hell-bent on perfecting his process.
Pathologically curious and never satisfied with the "norms".
All tagged lifestyle
Wouldn’t it be great to know if your business idea was going to work before you dripped a single drop of sweat into it?
Wouldn’t it be neat if there was a way to test business ideas in their early stages in such a way that you knew with absolute certainty that all the hard work in front of you was gonna be worth it?
That would be really helpful, right?
Here’s the thing:
There kind of is!
"I'll sleep when I'm dead!"
For those of you who just read that and thought "Hell yea, get that money! HUSTLE FO' LIFE! GRIND OR DIE!"
Fuck off my blog. Leave now.
I'm sorry (deep breath). I do in fact hope you stay and read because it is you (you 12-hour-day, self-employed, workaholic you) who is precisely the individual that stands to benefit most from this post...
"Let the battle begin." I think to myself as I adjust my ass on the cushion.
"Breathe in for a count of 1, 2, 3...and exhale, 1, 2, 3..." The disembodied voice soothes at us. "Notice the muscles in your face. Notice your brow, your eyes, your jaw...and allow all tension to melt away...1, 2, 3..."
"Melt" I think. "Cheese" I think. "Chuck E. Cheese" I think. "Man, what a terrible job that would be, to have to sit in a sweaty rat suit all day while kids run around punching and kicking you in your sensitive rat-parts...".
"Darn it! Back to the goddamn breath...1, 2, 3"
My adversary has made his first move.
Most folks are possessed by one of two fears:
#1 - "I'm not doing enough, not dreaming big enough. I'm lazy and will never really achieve the thing in life that will truly fulfill."
#2 - "I'm too ambitious, I dream too big. I'm afraid that my eyes are always so focused on the future milestones I'm missing out on the joys of the present...and upon my death bed I'll realize in horror the life I could've lived.
I am unfortunately afflicted with both.
Mayhaps not so unfortunate...but before I spoil the ending, allow me to begin at the beginning.
Creative marketing and advertising is sometimes a catch 22. We artists scream for freedom, for pure and unconstrained parameters of creation, yet, we are notoriously lazy, disorganized, and distractible. We clamor that rigid guidelines and fixed turnaround times poison our creative processes...but somewhere deep inside we worry that if truly left to our own devices we’d never get anything done.
These ideas are false. My experience does not show that planning kills spontaneity. It does not indicate a correlation between a firm deadline and a sacrifice of creativity.
If you are like me, you cringe when someone uses the term "life-hack". And to make things worse, the folks who beat it to death are typically those douchey, over-amped, keynote-speaker types who claim that theirbundle of hacks "will hands down revolutionize the entirety of your existence as you now live it!".
I've come to learn a chunk about people like these. I've also come to learn a thing or two about perspective, specifically the kind of inspired and optimistic perspective that begets action. These motivational-speed-freaks are obviously doing something right, because they're as rich as a buttered tit, but are their hacks really the keys to their kingdom? Have they really stumbled upon a truth or framework for success that was previously completely unknown?
I was having a conversation with a dear friend recently about the age-old “being a sell-out” concept. During the course of this chit chat I “think” I may have stumbled onto something. This thing is not only a new personal philosophy, but also a point of worthwhile consideration for ANY and ALL creatives: how does one make art, not “sell-out”, and remain well-fed physically and emotionally?
Indulge me as I answer this question in as round-about a way as possible. First, allow me to illustrate an evolution that I see all the time with creatives:
I am now become Tinkerer. Each day a tweak, each day a discovery. There was no good method vs. bad method, only an experience and a lesson. I look back at August of 2014 and can see the shift.
That is not to say...
We are now at the first turning point. Our hero had set out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in search of the promised land, and come face to face with a most fearsome adversary: his self. I stood, feet planted and looming, blocking my own path.
Sorry, I’ll step back from fantasy land...
I’ve been working from home for quite some time now, and as much as I love it, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Suffice it to say, I had absolutely NO idea the implications for the rest of my life to have my office in the same room I relax in.
This has been my journey...
