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Howdy,
Happy Friday. I hope you're well rested, well hydrated, and ready for a great read.
Just kidding - the recipients of this email are mostly professional creatives like me. We hope we can fix our sleep "someday", we count coffee as hydration, and you're likely only reading this to procrastinate something critical.
We're in this together, folks.
- Anthony
If this is your first time reading, you're welcome or I'm sorry -- Sign up here if you'll put up with this in your inbox every Friday :)
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Stick these to your monitor. They're worth checking out.
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- Borderize - A Tool to Add Borders to PNG Images
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In the 9th grade, we went on a weekend trip to the next province over.
It wasn't very far, but it was still farther than my country-grown, grass-fed self had ever traveled.
It was overwhelming to see the scale that the rest of the world seemed to operate in compared to my tiny hometown.
But there was 1 stop on the trip that everybody was waiting for. The mall.
We have malls where I'm from, but nothing the size of this. So the bus was buzzing even more than the usual hum of anxiety, angst and amalgamated chatter that follows junior high students.
Important Note: This mall would be small compared to those in big, real cities. Just let me have this, okay.
I didn't have a ton of money to spend, but it felt like the options of where to spend it were infinite.
Having so many choices to make overwhelmed me and I ended up just sort of wandering aimlessly until time was up. I was too afraid to commit to anything in case I missed something even better in another store.
You Are Here.
This feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) I had in the mall is exactly the same feeling I had when started to build a creative career online.
With seemingly infinite options, my creative journey mirrored that anxious day at the mall.
Choosing where to spend my time and energy was impossible because I was so afraid that an even bigger opportunity was on another platform, in a different medium - or in the next storefront.
In the mall, there's something valuable worth spending money on at every store. The hard part is finding the thing that aligns with your goals, tastes, and fits within your budget.
When you're building a creative career, there's opportunity everywhere. The hard part is finding the thing that aligns with your goals, tastes, and fits within your schedule and energy levels.
Creative success isn't "somewhere". It's everywhere.
Aimless Wandering Is The Point
On the first trip to the mall, aimlessly wandering was actually the entire point.
I learned my way around.
I learned what options were available.
I learned what options were interesting to me.
Sure, I didn't walk away with very much that day. But I took with me the most important thing... The desire to come back, and the information to do it right.
A few years later, I got to go back on my own and I went prepared.
I knew what I wanted to buy.
I knew which stores to browse.
I even saved some extra money so I could aim higher.
Just like the first trip to the mall, a creative career should feel aimless at first.
I've been wandering for a while. Dabbling here and there while getting to know my way around. Now it's time to return and do it right.
I know what I want to create.
I know where I want to be active.
I'm even carving space into my schedule to have time and energy to aim higher.
If you feel lost in your creative journey right now, that might be the best thing for you. Lean into that and get to know your way around. Take the time to wander, dabble and tinker.
Taking the time to understand your own goals and priorities does not mean you're falling behind. Even if your industry, social circle, and Twitter feed tell you otherwise.
Your Next 6 Months
Here's your homework that you didn't ask for:
Treat your next 6 months as the 2nd visit to the mall.
You've learned what your priorities may be. Now is the time to forget about all other opportunities and spend your time and energy on a single creative priority.
If something pops and it's calling to you, take note of it for your next visit. Every 6 months you can re-evaluate and return with a different priority if you need to.
If every storefront calls you inside, you'll never leave the mall with what you set out for.
If every opportunity calls you aside, you'll never build the creative career you set out for.
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Enough InTake. Time to Create.
Use what you learned here, and go create something spectacular.
Find me on Twitter and share your thoughts on this week's issue - or even share your favorite creator tools!
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Bonus: Album I listened to while writing this was Fleetwood Mac's Rumours
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