How Bad Do You Want It?

Your Most Creative Work (MCW) is that which can be copied, but can’t be replicated. It’s your unique recipe that defines you, but it’s often shuffled back behind pointless to-dos, requests from family members to help order junk on Amazon, and everyday life that enjoys getting in its way.

Please take a few minutes to read this newsletter with intention and don’t rush to read another email or post until you’ve finished it. Read it two or three times if you have to. You can even print it out and sit in a chair to read it.

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I used to love the Chris Farley skit in which he’s a motivational coach named Matt Foley who tells these two teenagers that if they don’t get their act together, they’ll end up like him living in a “van, down by the river”. It might be one of the best SNL skits of all time.

I appreciate this one because it seems like in our creative lives, there is no Matt Foley yelling at us to do our Most Creative Work.

So today I’m going to channel Matt and ask you, how bad do you want it?

You might say, what is it?

It’s being able to get paid for your best stuff, the aged wine and cheese in your mind’s reserves. It’s being accepted by the upper echelon of your craft. Or it could be just the freedom to work on your stuff for more than 3 hours a week. It varies from person to person.

The common denominator is it’s the stuff that we all want but are afraid to admit for seeming like we’re selfish or greedy. It’s having our creative cake and eating it too. That’s what it is.

And you might say, oh Elliott I want it. And I will come back and ask if you’re sure about that? And the reason I question you on this is because our world is so god damned distracting.

The Battle

One morning I want it but then I go to the office and after one hour of being there I forgot what I want. One evening I might get a harmless text message that bothers me and off I go down a spiral. The little chip in your car, the juicy shows on streaming, the ads on Instagram for managing my attention with this company’s app or service (does it get any more meta than that?).

If you want it, you have to fight for it. In some religions, people pray at least three times a day: morning, noon and night. Your Most Creative Work is begging you to remember it three times a day at a minimum.

We might not be able to sit down and work uninterrupted for much of the week, but can you at least spend a few minutes, three times a day, and try to connect with it?

Visualize what your Most Creative Work is, try to picture where you want it to take you. On your commute, your lunch break, or in your morning pages or nighttime wind-down routine are a few points in the day you can check in with it.

It’s Under Our Nose

We often feel like our Most Creative Work is laughing at us and taunting us. We think it’s so elusive that we’d rather do the laundry and clean a toilet than work on it.

I used to think that was the case but I came to realize that our Most Creative Work is actually smiling at us. It’s smiling because it’s the easiest work we can do. It’s the easiest work we can do because it comes from our heart.

When we do this work, we don’t have to pretend we’re someone we’re not, we don’t have to please people like our parents, partners, bosses or gatekeepers. We just have to be present with ourselves, stepping into our authentic nature.

Deliver the Weird, Please

And how do you know you’re working on it? Sometimes I know it’s in my hands when I’m working on the weirdest stuff. Sometimes it’s a beautiful piece, but I like to use weirdness as a good rating. I get excited by making weird stuff, I bet you do too. Weird is good because it feels like someone else made it but you get to take credit for it.

Ok so get out there and make something weird for me!

Discussion: What do you think often stands in the way of people being able to do their Most Creative Work?

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My next workshop, Confident (Enough) on Camera takes place on Tuesday, July 11th at 7pm EST.

This course is great for artists and entrepreneurs who are older than 15 years old. I recently saw some tweens at my cousin’s bat mitzvah Snapping weird faces at each other while waiting in line for food.

They don’t need this course because they’re growing up on camera. However I want you to become as confident on camara as a tween. Ok that might not be possible, but at least we can try. If this interests you, check this workshop out so that you can share your weirdness with the people out there who need it.

Thanks so much for reading today. I am rooting for you like Chris Farley/Matt Foley.