The week’s posts on a single page (most recent at the top):
I Like It
I saw something while working in Glasgow last year that made me smile:
Everybody (All Over the World)
When creating something – a book, for example – and somebody asks you, “Who’s it for?” it might be tempting to answer by declaring, “Everybody!”, with boundless enthusiasm.
The truth is, nothing’s for ‘everybody’. What you’re creating, what that company sells is probably not for mums in Merseyside, as well as people in tribute bands trying to make it, or dog owners in Barking and Leeds.
It’s far more effective to think of who your ideal reader or customer is and make your thing for them.
Hello Happiness
As you might have noticed, I like to promote creativity for a few reasons, and now “groundbreaking research” commissioned by BBC Arts suggests that “even the briefest time spent on a creative pastime such as painting, pottery or playing the piano, has an impact on our wellbeing and emotions”.
The research shows there are three main ways we use creativity as coping mechanisms to control our emotions:
1. a distraction tool – using creativity to avoid stress
2. a contemplation tool – using creativity to give us the mind space to reassess problems in our lives and make plans
3. a means of self-development to face challenges by building up self-esteem and confidence
And of course you might be able to use creativity to make a living: being able to pay the bills also helps to avoid stress, I’ve found.
I Can See For Miles
There’s a lot to be said for working on your business as well as in your business.
That can involve a few things, including:
- Setting goals and planning how to achieve them
- Working out a strategy to accomplish a particular task or complete a project
- Establishing simple, repeatable systems where possible
- Delegating, outsourcing and automating work where possible
- Deciding when to give up on an idea or rework a project (also known as pivoting)
- Assessing things (assets, clients, prospects, goals, cash in the bank, administrative processes and so on) with a ‘10,000-feet’ perspective rather than from the ground, to give you a better view of how the land lies
More tools are available for these tasks than ever before so we might as well use them.
All Day and All of the Night
One of the biggest differences I’ve found between working as an employee and working as a self-employed freelancer concerns the time required to earn a living: there’s likely to be a thin, blurred line between time spent at work and time spent away from work when you’re a freelancer.
Even if I’m not responding to emails, editing copy or researching prospects, I’m usually doing or thinking about something every day of the week, wherever I am.
That’s why it helps, when you’re a freelancer, to do something you enjoy.
Pennies From Heaven
If freelancing isn’t for you and you’d rather find a good job, there could be a problem.
When it comes to job hunting, most people do the same things as everyone else…
…which don’t help you stand out from the crowd or show potential bosses that you’re positively different.
Because most people don’t know how to make the most of the internet to help them find a great job, you can take advantage.
There’s a new way to find opportunities that most (if not all) of your competitors will not use. Read about it here.
Express Yourself
In Mr Lizard, my book for young teens, I wrote about creative expression as a means to alleviate personal tension.
Kids need encouragement to practise creative expression and then, eventually, they might be able to make a living by continuing to do it.
Here’s an excerpt from the book:
Some people deal with emotional pain by fighting, drinking, gambling or taking drugs. They use them to block out what they’re feeling inside, whether they know that that is what they are doing or not.
Other people use their pain much more positively. They’re productive with it. They paint pictures, write, cook or bake because of it, or express themselves on a football pitch or with a guitar or a pair of drum sticks. Or they design graphics and get hired by a really famous company to create a logo and come up with something imaginative and relevant.
>>>Playlist<<<
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