by Nathan Coumbe

The right place?

I’ve had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind for years now – a feeling that I have settled in the wrong place for what it is that I want to do. After reading through part of Jeff Goins’ Real Artists Don’t Starve, I voiced those frustrations earlier today to my peer group (check them out here). Upon further reading, and some insight from my peers, I’ve had something of a revelation.

“If you want to be creative, go where your questions lead you.”

Louis L’Amour

Most of the questions and ideas that I want to follow can be started right where I am. It is not a question of physical location; it’s a question of people.

An issue that myself and other Creatives seem to experience often is that we isolate ourselves. It isn’t that there are no creative areas or places around; it’s the fact that we don’t go to these places. We don’t automatically surround ourselves with other creative and artistic problem-solvers. We simply try to do things on our own.

The “right place”, then, maybe isn’t a new location…

Perhaps it is just finding the right group of people.

So for all of us Creatives out there, let’s start going to the places where things are happening. If nothing is happening, then make something happen.

Go start something, somewhere, with someone.

Find someone who wants to start reading the Great Books with you. Go old-school and have a pen-pal correspondence relationship with this person so that your brilliant insights are captured for posterity.

Start a band, even if all you do is practice some different ideas together. You may never play a show or go on tour, but that’s not the point. Music is meant to be made with other people, and we need to be surrounded by other people.

Get a few friends together every week at a coffee shop or library, and discuss projects that you are working on, ideas you have had, things you have written, or art you have created.

My problem is not where I live – it is that I have isolated myself from the others who are already doing the work. I need to find the tribes of which I want to be a part and engage with them.

I suggest you do the same.

*Disclaimer: some of the links above are affiliate links which means I get a small payment if you purchase something through them. Just gotta say it.

by Nathan Coumbe

Be careful what you share

We each have at our fingertips an unlimited amount of information that continues to grow at an unparalleled pace. This means that with each passing day, it gets harder and harder to check the validity of what we are seeing and reading.

This is especially true in today’s immensely divided political landscape, with more and more messages, rhetoric, memes, and articles being published with the sole purpose of further dividing the nation. Someone creates something or bends the truth to suit their worldview, and then it is published to the world. Then another person shares it, and another; then perhaps another person adds something or tweaks it even further, and soon you have a post that is highly biased and quite possibly untrue.

Be careful what it is that you post on your social media accounts; before you do, do just a bit of research to try and find the truth of what you are sharing.

If it becomes too hard to figure out whether or not what you are posting is true, that might be a hint that you shouldn’t post it…

by Nathan Coumbe

It’s never too early…

It’s never too early to declare to the world who you are.

If you are writing and want to be a writer, go tell people you are a writer. Put it in your bio; put it in your social media description. The same goes if you play music and want to be a musician, or if you draw and want to be an artist.

“What we believe about ourselves has a way of coming true…”

Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don’t Starve

The narrative that we tell ourselves, if said often enough and with enough emphasis, is more likely to become true. In Jeff Goins’ book, he retells a conversation that he had with author Steven Pressfield. He asked Pressfield, “When does a writer get to call himself a writer?” Pressfield answered, “You are [a writer] when you say you are.”

Tell yourself what you want to be. Then go tell others.

Decide.

Then, if you later find that you no longer want to be what you say you are, decide to be something else.

After that, declare it to the world.

It’s never too early to tell the world who you are.

by Nathan Coumbe

Stop telling people to avoid the arts

How many of us have told someone that she should choose a real major, one that is applicable in today’s job market, rather than pursue something creative like art, music, or literature?

(RAISES HAND)

Why do we do this? It is well-meaning enough, I suppose: we don’t want them to struggle financially, we don’t want them to fail, we don’t want them to get hurt because it is so hard to live as an artist…

Let’s just stop, shall we?

What if the person to whom you gave this advice is actually quite talented as a writer? What if she has spent so much of her free time drawing, painting, and sculpting that she has become a fantastic artist? Do you really feel comfortable telling her that she should go get her MBA, work in middle management, collect her benefits, get the 401(k) match, and just worry about “all that artsy stuff” in her off hours, because she can’t make real money in the arts? Why is that good advice (especially when that last claim is bogus)?

Handle Money. Fail often.

Why don’t we teach her instead? Let’s make sure that we are teaching our children how to handle their finances, how to live on a budget, spend less than they make, save money, make money, and how to avoid debt at all cost (this is the real reason so many of us starve these days). We should most definitely teach her not to go $100,000 in student loan debt for her MFA in painting, but that does not mean we should tell her not to pursue her passion – those are not the same thing.

At the same time, we should also be teaching her to fail and fail often. Have her start trying to sell her art online. That doesn’t work? Should we tell her that she should quit and go get a real job? No! You don’t tell a child to stop trying to ride a bike because she fell off and scraped her knee; you tell her to get up and encourage her to try again.

Do the same thing with your creative child or friend. Encourage her start teaching other people what it is that she knows. She can make online videos of her work so that others can see it and her ideas will spread. Find whatever avenue works for her.

Encourage

There has never been a better time to be an artist than today – the market is wide open, the possibilities are limitless. You can be an artist in anything at which you are talented; it does not have to be a traditional “art”. Let’s focus on teaching our family and friends the right skills they need to survive and thrive – let’s teach creativity, leadership, personal finance, marketing and storytelling. Then let’s send them forth to pursue that which they most truly enjoy.

If we can teach them to handle money well, and to learn and grow from failure, they will all be fine.

We will all be just fine.

by Nathan Coumbe

You can do whatever you want…

It’s true – you really can do whatever you want to do.

You can buy whatever you want, using debt or with cash.

You can leave work early everyday and show up late if you just aren’t feelin’ it that day.

You can eat junk food throughout the day and live on take-out and fried foods. You’re an adult – eat ice cream for dinner if you want to do that.

You can do whatever you want to do…

You just can’t choose the natural consequences which will occur in reaction to your choices.

by Nathan Coumbe

Decisions

Sometimes you agonize over making a decision, only to have that decision taken out of your hands. There may be a sense of relief when it happens, but all too often, that relief turns to regret.

The questions start boiling up: Why did I not jump on the offer when I got the chance? What held me back? Why was I so afraid?

Are you guilty of “paralysis by analysis” when it comes to making life decisions? I most certainly am.

I have lost so many opportunities over the years simply because I waited too long to decide. I sought out advice, weighed the pros and cons, did research…the problem is I never took action when it was time to decide. I was too afraid of failure, of taking the wrong road, of looking back at the possibilities I may have missed because of what I chose.

So I didn’t choose, and that in itself was a choice. It was a choice to have someone else decide for me.

Sometimes the decision is taken out of your hands. You have to learn from the experience. The question is not, “What could I have done differently?”

The question becomes…

What are you going to do now?

by Nathan Coumbe

Why did they not follow a passion?

One of the most common subjects we talk about these days is following our passions. Some of us are passionate about music, art, or writing, while others enjoy business, finance, and marketing. Regardless of the specifics, many of the conversations among our peer groups revolve around ways in which we can pursue careers and success in these areas. It has gotten me thinking about our parents’ generation and those that came before.

Most of the media on television or the internet today lampoons the adults of the mid-20th century, who went to a white-collar office job or a blue-collar factory job every day, did the same boring thing day after day, left at 5pm, came home, and spent the rest of the evening watching television before falling asleep and doing it all over again the next day. It is obviously satirical in many cases, but it also doesn’t seem far from the truth.

Why did our parents and grandparents do that? Was that all that was available to them? Did they not have specific passions they wanted to pursue? Were they actually content with working simply to earn an income to buy a house with a two-car garage for their 2.5 children to live happily ever after in the suburbs? Did they not also spend time with their friends and family discussing art, music, or writing and how they might pursue these areas? Does that explain why so many of them are portrayed today as drinkers and layabouts at home?

I don’t have an answer to this question; it just seems to me that the idea of pursuing passion areas as a career is a relatively modern one. Perhaps it is born from the end of the industrial age where factory work (and yes, office work counts) has been replaced by information work. We are now required to be creative and unique in order to stand out and survive in a globalized economy.

I just want to know if the passion was there and got stamped out, or if passion just never entered their minds.

by Nathan Coumbe

What is a teacher?

What makes a great teacher?

The best teachers you’ve ever had were not the ones that gave you good grades or helped you get by in a class you hated. They weren’t the best because they were fun or cool to be around. They did not ensure you got the right answers on the test or graduated at the top of your class.

The best teachers you ever had pushed you to find your own answers. They forced you to ask better questions; they taught you how to learn.

The best teachers, then, are those that make sure that when formal schooling ends, your education continues.

by Nathan Coumbe

Overcome the resistance

Steven Pressfield talks about “the resistance” in his book The War of Art when discussing the mental blocks that Creatives encounter during their artistic pursuits. This is that fear in the back of your mind, the one telling you there is no use in trying what you are attempting to do as it might not work.

Every Creative goes through this; you are not alone.

My resistance is telling me now that my business endeavors might not work out; it’s trying to convince me that I am not skilled enough, not knowledgeable enough, or not important enough for people to use me as a resource in their creative endeavors.

Don’t listen to the resistance. All you can do is press forward.

Launch your ideas; reach out to potential clients and customers; let the public see your work.

Beat the resistance down, and when it comes back, do it again.

by Nathan Coumbe

New toys

There is nothing quite like coming home and opening new toys. Even when you’re almost 30.

My new practice and teaching kit arrived today, and I could not be more thrilled.