No One's Watching
The amount that other people care about your movements and activities is blown up out of proportion by the mind’s fixation on uncertainty and change.
And we have no real way of stopping it just by telling our mind to do so.
Instead, we have to remember that people are most concerned about themselves. Their own problems and priorities.
One time I was shaving, getting ready for a wedding and I was taking the whole process so seriously. I wanted my face to be perfect. I felt like I was going to this wedding just to be inspected by everyone else.
At some point, you wake up and realize that they are going to the wedding to celebrate the bride and groom.
The Jobs To Be Done Framework in the innovation world is similar to everything above. It teaches entrepreneurs to think about the job that people are looking to get done rather than the product you are trying to shove down everyone’s throats.
People aren’t waking up every day thinking about how they can get more of your work or whatever you produce.
They are thinking about getting through the day and trying to tick items off the list. And they just want to stay out of trouble overall.
Sure, sometimes people say things to us that signal they are jealous or disapproving of our work. They might be really close to us, and as a result they see our creative pursuits as a liability more than an asset.
Even in these cases, they are still just fixated on themselves. It’s not your job to do other people’s jobs.
It’s not your job to fix other people’s lives.
It’s not your job to provide for people who aren’t capable of figuring out how the system works on their own.
This might sound harsh but the reality is in order to be creative, you have to put on your own life vest first.
The Most Creative mindset is about waking up to the reality that you have 50, 40, 30 years or left here on this blue and green rock that is floating in space.
Are you going to wait until all your accounts are in good standing before you pick up the pen and write your story, finish the next track or open the boutique that you’ve been dreaming about for 15 years?
No one’s really watching you as closely as you think they are.