Speaker 1: Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the podcast, new listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in
Speaker 1: the world, it is so great to have you here.
Speaker 1: Back for another episode as we break down the psychology
Speaker 1: of our twenties. Today, let's cut straight to the chase.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about creative passion projects, creative side hustles,
Speaker 1: creative hobbies, the things that we are called to deeply
Speaker 1: create and express and make, and basically, how to find
Speaker 1: a balance between making time for creation in our busy
Speaker 1: world and also needing to work, needing to pay our bills.
Speaker 1: How do we find the balance between practicality and passion.
Speaker 1: How can we hold both of these things at once
Speaker 1: without feeling like our creative endeavors are always the first
Speaker 1: thing to basically be sacrificed. I get so many questions
Speaker 1: about this, specifically from obviously people in their twenties who
Speaker 1: are facing this dilemma of do I pursue the thing
Speaker 1: that I'm really passionate about, some creative act, some entrepreneurial idea,
Speaker 1: or do I stick with what is expected of me,
Speaker 1: what is very traditional, what is very stable? And specifically,
Speaker 1: the questions I often get are around how we can
Speaker 1: turn our passions into our jobs, when to take the
Speaker 1: risk and pursue whatever it is you want to pursue art, music, writing,
Speaker 1: podcasting full time. But also so many dms asking me
Speaker 1: for time management strategies, how to deal with creative blocks,
Speaker 1: how to know when financially you are ready to pursue
Speaker 1: your creative passion full time. So I really thought that
Speaker 1: it deserved its own episode because I can speak really
Speaker 1: deeply to this from experience. If you are new to
Speaker 1: the show and you don't know the origin story of
Speaker 1: the psychology of your twenties. This podcast started all the
Speaker 1: way back in twenty twenty one, so almost four years ago,
Speaker 1: and when I first started it, I wasn't working. I
Speaker 1: was fun employed. Basically, I was convinced I was going
Speaker 1: to take a gap year, and then I ended up
Speaker 1: working in a corporate job for around a year and
Speaker 1: a half almost two years, whilst I was doing the
Speaker 1: podcast full time as well. So I was working a
Speaker 1: full time job and I was putting out this show,
Speaker 1: and I was I don't know, I don't like to
Speaker 1: say building the platform. The show was just growing as
Speaker 1: I poured more love into it. Basically, and at some
Speaker 1: point I had to basically make the decision do I
Speaker 1: leave this steadiness and the stability, especially the financial stability
Speaker 1: of my full time job for the podcast, or do
Speaker 1: I kind of just you know, continue to make this
Speaker 1: my side hustle. And I really found that every single
Speaker 1: day I was so excited to get home and just
Speaker 1: work on the podcast, and I really didn't care about
Speaker 1: work anymore, and it was just impossible to hold both
Speaker 1: of those things at once. So I decided to quit
Speaker 1: my job and to pursue what you know is a
Speaker 1: creative passion for me, like podcasting is actually a real
Speaker 1: creative force, and there's so much creativity and inspiration involved
Speaker 1: in coming up with ideas. I find the research to
Speaker 1: be quite a fun process. So I want to really
Speaker 1: talk about what I learned from that experience and how
Speaker 1: you can maybe take my story and elements of it
Speaker 1: and apply it to your own journey with your creative
Speaker 1: project or passion. And maybe the goal for you is
Speaker 1: to make that passion into a full time career. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's not, I think regardless, this episode will have a
Speaker 1: lot for you. I also want to discuss some of
Speaker 1: the many barriers, hurdles, boundaries that we kind of clash
Speaker 1: against in this space. When we are someone who is
Speaker 1: creative and passionate about something and doing something quite artistics
Speaker 1: stick with our free time, you know, there's going to
Speaker 1: be a lot of loud forces and voices telling you
Speaker 1: that you can't do it, or you know, voices from
Speaker 1: within doubting yourself, imposter syndrome, artistic blocks, also things like
Speaker 1: money and time. There is a real limit sometimes onto
Speaker 1: where our creative passion can take us because of these
Speaker 1: boundaries and barriers. So I really want to use this
Speaker 1: episode to basically teach you how you can use psychology
Speaker 1: to take yourself from a place of perfectionism and fear
Speaker 1: really to a place of creation and abundance and consistency.
Speaker 1: I'm very, very excited for this episode. Some of the
Speaker 1: research and the studies surrounding this is just fascinating. There
Speaker 1: is this whole area of psychological research that is focused
Speaker 1: on creativity and how we as humans practice it so
Speaker 1: on how we make a living out of it, and
Speaker 1: what that does to the relationship. So there is a
Speaker 1: lot to look forward to. Without further ado, let's get
Speaker 1: into it. So you want to put your creative passion
Speaker 1: basically at the center of your life. That's probably why
Speaker 1: you are listening to this podcast. And let me just
Speaker 1: firstly say that is amazing. That is amazing. I am
Speaker 1: fully supportive of this decision. I don't even know you,
Speaker 1: and I still think it's a great idea. But before
Speaker 1: we talk about how to make this possible, let's talk
Speaker 1: about some of the difficulties that you might encounter or
Speaker 1: that you probably already have, because I think they bear mentioning,
Speaker 1: and let's just get them out of the way. Let's
Speaker 1: get the fear part out of the way. So the
Speaker 1: first big worrying thing that I think we encounter is naysayers.
Speaker 1: Naysayers people who are pessimistic about your journey, pessimistic about
Speaker 1: your chances of success. There is always always going to
Speaker 1: be someone who does not believe in you, who says
Speaker 1: that you should be more careful, you should be more realistic.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a partner. They'll call
Speaker 1: your ambitions cute, or they obviously don't think you're capable.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's someone online, of someone who calls themselves a friend.
Speaker 1: I know that sometimes these people, if we give them
Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt, are genuinely worried about you,
Speaker 1: but don't let their doubts become your own. I think
Speaker 1: that for every person who does believe in you, there's
Speaker 1: always going to be that one person who has to
Speaker 1: voice every concern they have, or worse yet, who actively
Speaker 1: really does try to bring you down truly, you know,
Speaker 1: gives you all their judgment and makes it your burden.
Speaker 1: And I really want to tell you right now, pay
Speaker 1: those judgments no mind at all, because often if this
Speaker 1: is someone who does not know you or care about you,
Speaker 1: it is a massive projection and reflection of what they
Speaker 1: are feeling internally about their own capabilities and their own dreams.
Speaker 1: You know, the people who I have encountered who have
Speaker 1: the most and the worst things to say, and who
Speaker 1: did have the worst things to say about my own
Speaker 1: journey to quit my full time job to the podcast
Speaker 1: full time, most of them actually had grand ambitions of
Speaker 1: their own that they had abandoned. And you know, those
Speaker 1: are the people who expressed the most doubt about my
Speaker 1: goals because I think somewhere deep down they kind of
Speaker 1: wanted me to quit. They wanted me to join them
Speaker 1: in this boat. This boat filled with people who, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, and many of them were good reasons, but
Speaker 1: they had given up on their artistic creative dreams. So
Speaker 1: this idea that naysayers are projecting their own insecurities around
Speaker 1: their inability to follow their passions. There is proof of this,
Speaker 1: and the proof for this comes from a study from
Speaker 1: the University of Alaska which examined two hundred and ten
Speaker 1: individuals and found that those who self reported higher levels
Speaker 1: of insecurity, they were more likely to openly criticize the
Speaker 1: work of others. And not only were they more likely
Speaker 1: to criticize, their criticisms were harsher than other people's and
Speaker 1: often this is the very important part. Often the people
Speaker 1: they were most critical of were those whose work they
Speaker 1: thought was better than their own. So this is describing
Speaker 1: something called ego defense in psychology. Sometimes often we criticize
Speaker 1: others as a way of protecting our ego from feeling devalued.
Speaker 1: You know, so, even if my work sucks, if I
Speaker 1: can convince myself and convince someone else that their work
Speaker 1: also sucks and sucks more, well, then I won't feel
Speaker 1: so bad. Do not listen to them, My saying is
Speaker 1: always prove them wrong with a smile on your face,
Speaker 1: And that is kind of the sweetest revenge. I think
Speaker 1: everyone says you can't until you do, and then suddenly
Speaker 1: they will say that they were your best friend. You know,
Speaker 1: they suddenly have always believed in you. But you have
Speaker 1: to know that you believed in yourself the whole time,
Speaker 1: and you were doing it because you loved it, because
Speaker 1: you felt like you could rise above all of this judgment,
Speaker 1: all of these doubts and just do it yourself. So
Speaker 1: naysay is that's a big one. Another big barrier to
Speaker 1: pursuing our creative passion, whether it's full time or part
Speaker 1: time or in our spare time, is lacking inspirational motivation.
Speaker 1: This is otherwise known as writer's block, creative block, artistic block.
Speaker 1: I think we've all come across this in some capacity.
Speaker 1: You know, you really want to make something, you finally
Speaker 1: have the time to do it. You've devoted time to
Speaker 1: your craft. You're sitting down in front of the blank
Speaker 1: page and nothing is coming to you. So to understand
Speaker 1: why this happens and why so often we can sit
Speaker 1: there and say, you know, I just want a big idea,
Speaker 1: I want to make something huge. I want to have
Speaker 1: this big thing come to my mind. We have to
Speaker 1: understand how the brain really plays a role in creativity.
Speaker 1: So at the forefront of our creativity is the prefrontal cortex.
Speaker 1: You hear about this a lot. It's basically the biggest cortex.
Speaker 1: It's right at the front, and it's responsible for decision making,
Speaker 1: abstract thinking, and that is really what generates new ideas.
Speaker 1: That and this other area of the brain called the
Speaker 1: default mode network. This is what is used during introspection
Speaker 1: and daydreaming, and these areas collaborate with our executive network
Speaker 1: to basically take an idea that we've had that's very
Speaker 1: abstract and not quite tangible and make it into something. However,
Speaker 1: when we are stressed, when our cognitive resources are drained
Speaker 1: by work, by our busy lives, by financial stress, by
Speaker 1: pushing ourselves too hard for too long, those areas of
Speaker 1: the brain are overwhelmed. And stress is the biggest factor
Speaker 1: in this because it can really constrains what is meant
Speaker 1: to be a free exploration of ideas, and it sti
Speaker 1: feels creative risk taking, but stress also just basically shuts
Speaker 1: down the creative parts of our brain because you know,
Speaker 1: we do have limited cognitive resources and if there is
Speaker 1: some bigger pressing thing in our life that is causing
Speaker 1: emotional distress or chaos or overwhelming us. Our brains going
Speaker 1: to say, let's focus on that first and we can
Speaker 1: get to the creativity later. You know. I like to
Speaker 1: think of this as like a business going through financial strife.
Speaker 1: The first departments that are cut anytime you see a
Speaker 1: business failing are going to be the creative departments. It's
Speaker 1: going to be the areas that hire artists and freethinkers
Speaker 1: and marketers and all those things. In your brain is
Speaker 1: operating on that same, like weirdly economic principle, but also
Speaker 1: maybe the brain like these systems came first chicken and
Speaker 1: egg problem. Basically, your brain is saying creativity is a
Speaker 1: luxury we can't afford right now. So here's what you
Speaker 1: need to prioritize in those moments. And it's not creation.
Speaker 1: It's not pushing yourself harder. It's getting back to basics
Speaker 1: taking care of yourself. And that might mean not creating
Speaker 1: for a while, but putting all that time and energy
Speaker 1: that you would spend worrying about not creating and not
Speaker 1: doing enough into getting outdoors, into cooking yourself nutritious food,
Speaker 1: getting eight hours of sleep, moving your body in ways
Speaker 1: that you like, hydrating, and more importantly, addressing those bigger
Speaker 1: stresses that are demanding your attention. And then once you
Speaker 1: have those basic needs, then you can add novelty. Novelty
Speaker 1: is the secret source of inspiration and creativity in everything
Speaker 1: that comes out of that. You need new novel fresh
Speaker 1: experiences to bring about fresh ideas. Is simple, very very simple.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of the time we feel
Speaker 1: like we're never going to be inspired again, or we
Speaker 1: put ourselves in environments mental and physical that don't allow
Speaker 1: for inspiration because they're too restrictive. So if you're finding
Speaker 1: that you're having a creative, artistic idea block, go out
Speaker 1: and explore and be inspired and then come back. It's
Speaker 1: like anytime I go on holiday, I always and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'll go on holiday and I'll say to myself, all right,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna work, like no work. Two weeks off
Speaker 1: and suddenly I have like every single amazing idea that
Speaker 1: I've ever had that is really, you know, your brain
Speaker 1: finally being able to relax and making space for that.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of going on with these barriers, but I
Speaker 1: want to talk about this last one because it's probably
Speaker 1: the biggest, and it's money and time. If we only
Speaker 1: had a million dollars, if we only had forty eight
Speaker 1: hours in every day, we would have so much more
Speaker 1: time to put towards our creative entrepreneurial endeavors. You know,
Speaker 1: I think every single creative person I know struggles with
Speaker 1: this balancing act between necessity and passion. You know, you
Speaker 1: want to spend all of your time focused on whatever
Speaker 1: you're working on, but you have to work, you have
Speaker 1: to make money. It's a real privilege really to be
Speaker 1: able to, you know, devote yourself full time to your
Speaker 1: creative passion. It's a luxury that not many of us have.
Speaker 1: But I want to say that doesn't mean that you're
Speaker 1: not serious and committed to what you're doing. There are
Speaker 1: so many people who find ways to fit their creative
Speaker 1: passions around the necessities of their life. You know, some
Speaker 1: ways that I've seen people do this. This is how
Speaker 1: I did it. I worked part time, but it was
Speaker 1: nine days a fortnight, so instead of ten days a fortnight,
Speaker 1: I just took a day off every two weeks. So
Speaker 1: they really couldn't afford to do anything more than that.
Speaker 1: And I would spend that extra day, and I'd turn
Speaker 1: it into a long weekend and I would have time
Speaker 1: would be devoted to creation. You know, if you can
Speaker 1: do three four days a week and have even more
Speaker 1: time for it, that's even better devoting one day of
Speaker 1: the weekend to your creative job or creative passion. I
Speaker 1: actually have a friend and I really love that she
Speaker 1: does this. She read an article. I remember her telling
Speaker 1: me about this. She read this article a little while
Speaker 1: back about mini retirements. So instead of waiting till your
Speaker 1: sixty five sixty five to retire, there's this whole group
Speaker 1: of people who do in frequent retirement chapters of their life.
Speaker 1: So they'll work really hard for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and then they will retire for six months and go
Speaker 1: and travel or do something creative or put that time
Speaker 1: into their business or whatever it is that they're doing.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like an alternative to just waiting
Speaker 1: till you know you're perhaps less able and a bit
Speaker 1: older to do all the things that you wanted throughout
Speaker 1: your life. She works really really hard for six months,
Speaker 1: and when I say really hard, she works three jobs
Speaker 1: at once, and then she takes two to three months
Speaker 1: off to paint and to go to artistic or creative retreats.
Speaker 1: So there are ways to do this, and you are
Speaker 1: I really want to stress you are no less creative
Speaker 1: because you have to put your ideas aside every now
Speaker 1: and again. You are no less capable of realizing your
Speaker 1: creative passion because you have to work a job. You know,
Speaker 1: because you have to work a job, you're not passionate
Speaker 1: about to make money to do what you're really passionate
Speaker 1: about in your free time. Like sometimes I feel like
Speaker 1: we think we're cheating or we're failing at being a
Speaker 1: creative person. I don't think that creativity and that spirit
Speaker 1: ever goes away. I think it's something that we hold
Speaker 1: deep in us, even as necessity really calls. So, if
Speaker 1: you're in that position or you're afflicted by some of
Speaker 1: those aforementioned barriers, let's really get into these five tips
Speaker 1: I have for you today for pursuing your creative passion.
Speaker 1: Let's start with possibly the most important one in my mind,
Speaker 1: which is don't focus on perfection. Focused on just making
Speaker 1: something in any form, even if someone else is doing
Speaker 1: it better. I was talking to someone recently, we were
Speaker 1: sitting next to each other at this dinner about this
Speaker 1: business that they really want to launch. And I'm not
Speaker 1: going to give up her business idea because it's very,
Speaker 1: very smart. But she kept hitting this roadblock. She was
Speaker 1: telling me, there was this mental roadblock that kept coming
Speaker 1: up for her, which was that she wasn't ready to
Speaker 1: fully announce this brilliant thing she'd been working on for
Speaker 1: years unless it was entirely perfect. Because if it wasn't perfect,
Speaker 1: she was going to fail. So she kept taking a
Speaker 1: few more months, a few more months, a few more
Speaker 1: months to really work on it. The timing had to
Speaker 1: be right, her product had to have zero faults. And
Speaker 1: maybe you can guess where this story is going. But
Speaker 1: by the time she was ready to launch, someone else
Speaker 1: had already done it, and they had, in her mind,
Speaker 1: done it better, and she really fell into what I
Speaker 1: call the perfectionism fallacy. And this is a cognitive bias
Speaker 1: or a mistaken belief that something is either perfect or
Speaker 1: it is worthless, and anything that is not perfect is
Speaker 1: entirely unacceptable, does not deserve to be seen, does not
Speaker 1: deserve to be acknowledged. This belief really afflicts those of
Speaker 1: us who have a real, deep sense of failure, who
Speaker 1: really adopt a lot of all or nothing thinking who
Speaker 1: have a lot of excessive negative self talk. It also
Speaker 1: affects those of us who have often tied our worth
Speaker 1: to tangible achievements. So I'm thinking, you know, our classic overachievers,
Speaker 1: gifted children, straight A students. Creative endeavors are often really
Speaker 1: difficult for people like us because there is no rules
Speaker 1: for what is good and bad. There's no grading scheme,
Speaker 1: there's no way to hell if you're doing well. And
Speaker 1: even if someone says, you know, wow, I really like
Speaker 1: your art, I really like your music, I'm really inspired
Speaker 1: by you. I think you're amazing, we still have this
Speaker 1: tendency to not believe them because we can really see
Speaker 1: all of our faults, you know, we can see every
Speaker 1: tiny mistake that they have missed. You know, that's what
Speaker 1: the spotlight effect is in psychology. It feels like there
Speaker 1: is this big mental beam shining down on every thing
Speaker 1: that is not perfect, and can't everyone else see it?
Speaker 1: You know, everyone else is going to see that. Of course,
Speaker 1: there's also a bit of an element of comparison and
Speaker 1: maybe if we can admit it to ourselves, a bit
Speaker 1: of envy here as well, a belief that there's someone
Speaker 1: else out there doing it better, So why should we
Speaker 1: even try? I want to tell you this. Humans have
Speaker 1: basically evolved to compare and judge ourselves against others. There
Speaker 1: have been so many studies showing us that by our
Speaker 1: third birthday, children start comparing themselves physically to others, and
Speaker 1: around the age of seven or eight, they start comparing
Speaker 1: themselves based on characteristics like athleticism, intelligence, humor, and they
Speaker 1: also start to become competitive. Now this occurs regardless of culture, country, ethnicity, religion.
Speaker 1: There is some element of comparison that is hardwired into
Speaker 1: us psychologically and socially, and it is a huge, massive
Speaker 1: killer of creative pursuit and passion because if you think
Speaker 1: that someone is already doing it better and that you
Speaker 1: can't do it unless it's perfect, why even try. So
Speaker 1: I want you to take that mindset and shift it
Speaker 1: because perfectionism is basically procrastination in disguise. So what I
Speaker 1: want you to do is set yourself a challenge, a
Speaker 1: challenge of consistency over perfection. So this is your challenge
Speaker 1: for the next month. Are you ready? Every day, I
Speaker 1: want you to make something, even if it is the
Speaker 1: worst thing you have ever made, even if it is
Speaker 1: a doodle, even if it is an Instagram post you
Speaker 1: made on canber even if it is one line of
Speaker 1: a lyric, one line of a book. Commit to this
Speaker 1: one thing that every single day you are going to create,
Speaker 1: even when you think you don't have time, even when
Speaker 1: you can't be bothered. That is your challenge. This is
Speaker 1: the advice I always give people who message me and
Speaker 1: a're like I want to start a podcast. They always say,
Speaker 1: what's your biggest tip? And what I say to them
Speaker 1: is choose one day a week that you want to post,
Speaker 1: and post something every single week, even if it is
Speaker 1: a three minute voice member on your phone, because this challenge,
Speaker 1: this activity gets you past the mental roadblock of needing
Speaker 1: to be particular and perfect and needing to ensure that
Speaker 1: everything is polished before you show it to anyone or
Speaker 1: before you say it's done. You know, there was an
Speaker 1: amazing paper that I stumbled across in researching this episode,
Speaker 1: published in twenty fifteen, and it's called Your Best Life
Speaker 1: Perfectionism is the Bane of Happiness. And actually it's not
Speaker 1: a psychology paper. It came from an orthopedic surgeon talking
Speaker 1: about perfectionism in the medical community, and he also dived
Speaker 1: into this dove into this discussion around how creativity, joy
Speaker 1: inspiration are all so much more abundant when we don't
Speaker 1: let our perfection, you know, caution or regulate us. When
Speaker 1: we give ourself mental permission to make mistakes, even if
Speaker 1: it's just for thirty days, suddenly you give yourself the
Speaker 1: gift of an internal environment that is free of judgment
Speaker 1: and that is full of acceptance. So basically what you
Speaker 1: say is okay, you know, we can go back to
Speaker 1: being a perfectionist and hating ourselves and shaming ourselves for
Speaker 1: things not being perfect in thirty days. But for this period,
Speaker 1: this just challenged period, I'm just going to be focused
Speaker 1: on making that is my goal. And it really forces
Speaker 1: you to overcome what is often a mental challenge to creativity.
Speaker 1: It also prioritizes regular incremental progress, which I think we
Speaker 1: all know is a much bigger contributor to success than
Speaker 1: waiting for the moments where you can just make huge,
Speaker 1: big actions all at once. The person I actually think
Speaker 1: of when I think of this consistency challenge is a
Speaker 1: creator called Casey Nistat. And if you know who this is,
Speaker 1: drop a comment in like the Spotify box right now
Speaker 1: and say, I know who this is because he is
Speaker 1: amazing and you might be familiar with him, but if
Speaker 1: you aren't, please check him out. Back in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, I remember watching his videos and at the
Speaker 1: time he committed to posting a YouTube video every single
Speaker 1: day for a year, and he went on to do
Speaker 1: this for I think three to four years. Honestly, it's incredible.
Speaker 1: Just actually he started off as a really good filmmaker,
Speaker 1: but over time you can also see how his craft
Speaker 1: improves and he starts to have more ideas and not
Speaker 1: to judge those ideas because he cannot wait to perfect them.
Speaker 1: He cannot wait for a better idea to come along.
Speaker 1: Because part of this challenge was that he only had
Speaker 1: twenty four hours to execute it to action this idea,
Speaker 1: So that really put him and from a observer's point
Speaker 1: of view, it put him in this place of real
Speaker 1: creative joy and abundance and inspiration and also motivation because
Speaker 1: it was like, Okay, I have this challenge that I've
Speaker 1: set that kind of makes it fun but also puts
Speaker 1: the pressure on, and now I have freedom to just
Speaker 1: make something because it doesn't need to be perfect. So
Speaker 1: I would really really ask you to do that. My
Speaker 1: second tip is also if you are still struggling, it's
Speaker 1: to create a ritual around whatever creative thing you do,
Speaker 1: something that can help put you in the right mood
Speaker 1: and make you feel inspired. So this could be lighting
Speaker 1: a specific incense to prime your brain. I did this
Speaker 1: when I was writing my book. I would like this
Speaker 1: specific incense and I would basically say I have to
Speaker 1: write for as long as the incense is burning. And
Speaker 1: often by the time it was done, I wouldn't even
Speaker 1: notice because I was so in the zone. You can
Speaker 1: also create or have a specific place in your house
Speaker 1: that you can make cozy that is your creative space,
Speaker 1: or have a specific cafe or a desk in your
Speaker 1: library that you go to create a studio, a class,
Speaker 1: some environment, some ritual that is associated with the behavior
Speaker 1: that you want to perform, which is to be creative.
Speaker 1: So this is actually called context based learning or motivation
Speaker 1: in psychology, and research has actually discovered this and the
Speaker 1: benefit that it had by looking at students, specifically high
Speaker 1: school students who would study in the same spot every day,
Speaker 1: and how those who did this really helped their brain
Speaker 1: to actually lock into study mode so they could get
Speaker 1: started on whatever they were doing faster, and they could
Speaker 1: maintain that focused state for longer because of the context
Speaker 1: that they were in. It was priming them to study. Basically,
Speaker 1: that was their study spot. Their brain was focused on
Speaker 1: that when they were in that space, and you can
Speaker 1: use those same principles to lock into the creative process.
Speaker 1: Some other ritual ideas is having a specific outfit like
Speaker 1: painters have a smock or have like overalls, have a
Speaker 1: specific creative playlist, Go for a run before you want to,
Speaker 1: you know, make music or write or paint or do
Speaker 1: ceramics or whatever it is. Go for a dance to
Speaker 1: get into the right headspace. You know, I've used all
Speaker 1: of these techniques and they really do work. Okay, so
Speaker 1: I have been rambling for a long time. We're going
Speaker 1: to take a quick break, but when we return, I
Speaker 1: have three more valuable tips for you, maybe even a
Speaker 1: sneaky fourth one actually to do with finances. To do
Speaker 1: with money, and what I wished someone had told me
Speaker 1: about managing my money as a creator and as someone
Speaker 1: who is pursuing their creative passion before I quit my
Speaker 1: full time job. So stay with us. One thing I
Speaker 1: wish someone had told me when I went full time
Speaker 1: with the podcast, was actually how lonely it was going
Speaker 1: to be. About three months in, I really had this realization.
Speaker 1: You know, I think we tend to romanticize, you know,
Speaker 1: making our creative project or our creative passion, our full
Speaker 1: time job, and how much freedom we're going to have.
Speaker 1: We romanticize it, and we forget that. You know, there
Speaker 1: are days where you will not talk to anyone. There
Speaker 1: were moments when I would not talk to anyone but
Speaker 1: myself obviously until six pm when my roommates would get home,
Speaker 1: and I would literally be almost sitting at the door,
Speaker 1: like panting like a dog, waiting for them to come
Speaker 1: in and like play with me, because I was so
Speaker 1: starved for connection. So I definitely think that when I
Speaker 1: was working a full time corporate job, I took for
Speaker 1: granted the community that was really innate in that space
Speaker 1: and which was essentially formed by being trauma bonded or
Speaker 1: in the trenches together. I remember that same time, around
Speaker 1: three months in, I met up with some friends of
Speaker 1: mine who are also podcasters, and we met up for
Speaker 1: lunch and I looked at them and I was like,
Speaker 1: are you guys really really lonely? And both of them
Speaker 1: were like, yes, I am so lonely. We are so lonely.
Speaker 1: So tip number three for pursuing your creative passion, whether
Speaker 1: it's full time, part time, casually, it can get lonely.
Speaker 1: So create community to keep you inspired and motivated and seen.
Speaker 1: I guess, So, why is this community so important? I
Speaker 1: think community is just at the foundation, at the court,
Speaker 1: at the center of our purpose and our needs as humans.
Speaker 1: And whilst you may have community in terms of family
Speaker 1: and friends, you can also really benefit from a specific
Speaker 1: community who are operating towards the same goal, all all
Speaker 1: the greater ambition as you are, but also who you
Speaker 1: can share your problems and your rants with. You know, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm getting so stuck at this point. I'm getting rejected.
Speaker 1: I'm struggling with hate online, I'm struggling with this specific technique.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you want someone who gets it the way that
Speaker 1: you've experienced it. There is an amazing article by the
Speaker 1: Harvard Business Review that talks about how community can be
Speaker 1: a quote survival tool and a way to get through
Speaker 1: challenging things together. And often a lot of the research
Speaker 1: on this does look at the workplace. So many studies
Speaker 1: are done in this space. Because it's where people have
Speaker 1: shared interest to shared industry, shared you know, skill level.
Speaker 1: But we see time and time again that when you
Speaker 1: have people you care about and who care about you
Speaker 1: in a workplace, staff turnover reduces, burnout reduces, people are happier,
Speaker 1: there is greater employee retention. And we can take that
Speaker 1: example within the workplace and we can apply it to
Speaker 1: a creative community. When you make friends and you have
Speaker 1: so called colleagues, you will be better for it. That advice, obviously,
Speaker 1: it means nothing if I don't give you practical tips.
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you how I would do this if
Speaker 1: I had to do it again. I would join workshops.
Speaker 1: I would go on a retreat, like a small even
Speaker 1: if it's a weekend retreat, with other people in the
Speaker 1: space that I want to work in. I would email
Speaker 1: people who I admire saying I love their work and
Speaker 1: ask to collaborate. That's kind of really giving that meme,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, why don't you just call Taylor up?
Speaker 1: But I mean more like people in your city, people
Speaker 1: in your community who you think are doing cool things
Speaker 1: like network the shit out of it and Instagram. Instagram
Speaker 1: is like a creative's best friend for building community, and
Speaker 1: I truly mean that. Follow the people that you love,
Speaker 1: send them a DM saying, oh my, you know, I
Speaker 1: really admire your work. If you want to get coffee
Speaker 1: or anything, I'm down. Go to those community events that
Speaker 1: are centered on your craft. You know, a market, go
Speaker 1: to a play, those kinds of things. And you know, nowadays,
Speaker 1: I have a small office space that I pay like
Speaker 1: fifty dollars a week for with four of my friends,
Speaker 1: and all of them are also podcasters, authors, designers, writers,
Speaker 1: and it is so nurturing. I've noticed a massive shift
Speaker 1: in my mental health, in my emotional wellbeing from basically
Speaker 1: addressing the creative loneliness and the loneliness that is innate
Speaker 1: in creative life. Sometimes I think this is the fourth
Speaker 1: tip that we're up to now, maybe the fifth, but
Speaker 1: this one's very very important. Please don't push yourself to
Speaker 1: a place of burnout or unenjoyment in pursuit of success.
Speaker 1: You know, when you start feeling like what you're doing
Speaker 1: is a burden, take a step back. You and creativity
Speaker 1: have a relationship. And I got that quote from a
Speaker 1: book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Big Magic. How many times
Speaker 1: have I spoken about that book on this podcast. I
Speaker 1: cannot tell you, but it's so true. You have a
Speaker 1: relationship with your creativity and it needs to be nurtured
Speaker 1: like a romantic relationship. You know those times when you
Speaker 1: and your partner are just constantly getting into arguments, or
Speaker 1: with a parent you know you, or you're or with
Speaker 1: a sibling or a friend or a roommate. You're just
Speaker 1: so obviously irritated at each other and you're so obviously frustrated.
Speaker 1: You don't try and fix that by spending more time together.
Speaker 1: You take a step back, you go for a walk,
Speaker 1: you spend the afternoon apart, and you have to do
Speaker 1: the same with whatever it is you're pursuing or creating.
Speaker 1: You need to respect the fact that sometimes you need
Speaker 1: space and stop pushing you. A creative burnout it happens
Speaker 1: in stages, you know. Stage one is what we call
Speaker 1: the honeymoon stage, where you're kind of enjoying almost that
Speaker 1: feeling if pushing yourself until you get to stage two,
Speaker 1: stage three, chronic stress, or stage five, which is habitual burnout.
Speaker 1: You are unable to escape a burnout cycle, so make
Speaker 1: sure you look out for those early signs, especially if
Speaker 1: you are self employed. Feeling resentful towards what you're doing,
Speaker 1: not getting joy from it anymore, just wanting to be done.
Speaker 1: You don't care about the progress, the process, or the outcome,
Speaker 1: like no part of it is happy or enjoyable to you. Stress, headaches,
Speaker 1: neglecting your own needs. When those things go unmanaged, like
Speaker 1: it can really destroy your care for something all together,
Speaker 1: and you never want to do it again. I always
Speaker 1: use this case study, this example of basketball players and
Speaker 1: people in the US. Basketball players in the US who
Speaker 1: get paid to play basketball at college, who are on
Speaker 1: scholarships basically so often like those basketball teams are made
Speaker 1: up of people who are on scholarships and then people
Speaker 1: who just play for fun. But they're really, really good.
Speaker 1: And you want to know, the biggest way to guarantee
Speaker 1: that someone will never play basketball or any sport again
Speaker 1: after they leave university or after they leave high school,
Speaker 1: it is to force them to play and to make
Speaker 1: them feel like they are obligated to play, to not
Speaker 1: give them space between them and the sport. And the
Speaker 1: same thing goes for your creative endeavor. I would also
Speaker 1: say try different mediums to keep it fun. Like we said,
Speaker 1: creativity thrives on rest and novelty as well. So if
Speaker 1: you're a jewelry maker, try ceramics for a bit. If
Speaker 1: you do illustrations, try doing some coloring in. I recently
Speaker 1: bought these adult coloring in books. They're really really simple,
Speaker 1: and like, I just cannot explain how much joy this
Speaker 1: brings me in how when I'm doing it, I get
Speaker 1: into this real flow state in my mind comes up
Speaker 1: with so many other ideas. If you play trumpet, we
Speaker 1: try writing the lyrics to a song. Keep those creative
Speaker 1: neural pathways active and alive and not entirely consumed and
Speaker 1: restricted by the need to produce and be successful in
Speaker 1: your chosen area. And to basically just like keep trying
Speaker 1: to drag along an exhausted horse. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: a metaphor, but I think you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Make sure that you keep it light and fun at times,
Speaker 1: even when things are getting stressful. Let's finally talk about
Speaker 1: the beg M. Let's talk about money. We cannot talk
Speaker 1: about pursuing our creative passion without talking about how that
Speaker 1: is going to influence our relationship to our finances. Now,
Speaker 1: if you want to know specifically the psychology about this
Speaker 1: and what your money language might be, and the psychology
Speaker 1: behind your relationship with money. We have a full episode
Speaker 1: on that. It's titled how Money Impacts Our Mental Health.
Speaker 1: I think it's episode two hundred and twenty. So if
Speaker 1: you're looking for the psychology, go and listen to that
Speaker 1: episode after this. But I specifically want to talk like
Speaker 1: practical advice that I have practical advice for managing your
Speaker 1: money in your twenties as someone who also wants to
Speaker 1: pursue their passion project. This is the biggest tip I have.
Speaker 1: Save more money than you think you will need. Do
Speaker 1: not immediately quit your job. Go part time before you
Speaker 1: quit your job. There's a big one, The biggest piece
Speaker 1: of advice. If things are taking off for you, if
Speaker 1: you're really really excited, just wait a couple of months
Speaker 1: and just go part time and just see how you
Speaker 1: adjust to it and save as much money as you
Speaker 1: can before you quit the stable job. Something that I
Speaker 1: truly believe in. It's a huge core part of my
Speaker 1: belief system about how to approach our twenties is that
Speaker 1: you can still take risks without them necessarily being spontaneous.
Speaker 1: Like you can take a calculated ri You can think
Speaker 1: through the risk that you want to make, be that
Speaker 1: quitting your job doing your creative passion full time, just
Speaker 1: make sure that you have thought it through put money
Speaker 1: aside continually through that period. My rule of thumb I had,
Speaker 1: and this is not necessarily what you should do, but
Speaker 1: I had four months of income saved up before I quit,
Speaker 1: because I was like, if this totally goes to shit
Speaker 1: and I lose my interest in this, I just suddenly
Speaker 1: don't want this to be my job and I can't
Speaker 1: make money off of it, at least I have a
Speaker 1: four month buffer to kind of figure things out. That
Speaker 1: was really actually very important for me because I ended up,
Speaker 1: you know, not really making is like not really getting
Speaker 1: paid for different contracts for a while. So it was
Speaker 1: good to have that money that I could rest back on.
Speaker 1: And as someone who is self employed, this is more
Speaker 1: as a tip for people who are already doing their
Speaker 1: creative passion full time. Put money into your retirement savings.
Speaker 1: Something that I think we struggle with in our twenties
Speaker 1: is thinking long term. We only tend to do it
Speaker 1: when we're really stressed. You know, we worry about the future,
Speaker 1: and we worry where we're going to be and who
Speaker 1: we're going to be with and are we going to
Speaker 1: be successful. We don't necessarily think about what it's going
Speaker 1: to be like to be sixty five and no longer
Speaker 1: really be able to work a job and how we're
Speaker 1: going to deal with that. I'm so fortunate that I
Speaker 1: live in Australia where we have something called super which
Speaker 1: is like mandatory retirement saving from your employer. But when
Speaker 1: you're self employed, that's your job. So make sure that
Speaker 1: you continue to do that. And as you're getting established
Speaker 1: as an artist, as a musician, as a writer, as
Speaker 1: any of those you know, any of those careers and
Speaker 1: areas insert your own, really ask your family and friends
Speaker 1: to support your work as well. Now that can mean financially,
Speaker 1: that can mean hey, can you buy my poetry book,
Speaker 1: Can you come to my reading? Can you come to
Speaker 1: my stand up show? Can you pay for a ticket?
Speaker 1: But also emotionally and in their social networks. So I
Speaker 1: got a really amazing question from someone the other day
Speaker 1: on Instagram which was, you know, how do I start
Speaker 1: out as an artist who wants to sell their art online?
Speaker 1: And I said to them, please ask your family and
Speaker 1: your friends to share it wide and share it loudly.
Speaker 1: Ask your friends to just post a story of something
Speaker 1: that you've made for them, or with a link to
Speaker 1: your Instagram page or to your Etsy or to your shopify,
Speaker 1: share your song, share whatever it is. I think that
Speaker 1: word of mouth in the creative community and in the
Speaker 1: creative space is so powerful and also psychologically, like, who
Speaker 1: do we trust the most? It's the people who we know.
Speaker 1: So by asking your friends to share on Instagram, to
Speaker 1: share on Facebook, to share on LinkedIn, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you know, people who follow them, who know them will
Speaker 1: be like, Oh, I trust their opinion, and you know
Speaker 1: I care about what they care about. So maybe I'll
Speaker 1: like this thing. Maybe I'll want to buy something from
Speaker 1: this person. Maybe I'll want to listen to this podcast,
Speaker 1: listen to this music. That is just like a final
Speaker 1: tip that I really wanted to share, But I also
Speaker 1: just want to finish this episode by saying I think
Speaker 1: that this is the time you should be doing it.
Speaker 1: In your twenties. You have so much freedom and space
Speaker 1: to make mistakes and the most time you will ever
Speaker 1: have to fix those mistakes. If things really go south,
Speaker 1: if your creative passion really fails, well, you are never
Speaker 1: going to have more time than you have now to
Speaker 1: make up for it. I also think that you don't
Speaker 1: want to be in a situation in thirty years where
Speaker 1: it's harder to pursue your creative entrepreneurial passion and realize
Speaker 1: that you wish you'd done it sooner. The biggest regard
Speaker 1: threat that we experience is what we call in action regret.
Speaker 1: It's regret over not doing something. So the best way
Speaker 1: to avoid that kind of regret is to surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: do the thing, do the scary thing, do the hard thing,
Speaker 1: do the thing that the naysayas say you can't do.
Speaker 1: Do it small and then medium, and then big, but
Speaker 1: just do it. So I hope this episode has been,
Speaker 1: if nothing else, inspiring, Hopefully you've actually gotten some practical
Speaker 1: tips from this episode as well, something that you can
Speaker 1: put into action. I really want to hear about this
Speaker 1: challenge that I'm setting for you guys, your thirty day
Speaker 1: challenge to make something every single day. If you actually
Speaker 1: end up doing it, please damn me on Instagram. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you huge cuteos and make sure that you
Speaker 1: are following along with the podcast. If you're a new listener,
Speaker 1: if you're an old listener, we would love to hear
Speaker 1: from you, but also we would love to have you
Speaker 1: rate the podcast five stars, leave a nice review if
Speaker 1: you feel cool to do so. It really does help
Speaker 1: the show grow and reach new people. It helped make
Speaker 1: my creative dreams a reality as well. Speaking of that,
Speaker 1: I also want to invite you to send in any
Speaker 1: episode suggestions that you might have. My DMS on Instagram
Speaker 1: at that Psychology Podcast always open to hear from you
Speaker 1: guys if you have any comments on this episode or
Speaker 1: any further episodes that you want to want me to
Speaker 1: do on this topic or this idea. So I would
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. But until next time, good
Speaker 1: luck with your creative passion, stay safe, stay kind, be
Speaker 1: gentle with yourselves, and we will talk very very soon