Creative Mondays #029 – Need help? Just ask.
I was thinking today about creative work and how incredibly hard it can be at times. And, sometimes, you just need a little help getting things done. When it comes to accomplishing your creative dreams, sometimes it feels like you are alone with your struggle to create. Here’s the thing, you aren’t alone. There are people who will help you. All you have to do is ask. And sometimes it may lead to some amazing things.
Okay, strap in for another ‘real life’ story. Back when we were doing Dr. Floyd we always enjoyed the idea of bringing in other folks as the voices of the historical figures that the cast encountered as they travelled through time. At the start we asked friends of ours to fill those roles. We recorded with Ryan Smith (a next door neighbor who acted), Chris and Tim Waffle or Hot Waffles (who were friends of mine from the comedy music world) and Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (a friend I met through puppetry). We were super lucky to get these folks to join us.
As the show went on we started wondering if we could possibly get other stars to come in and do voices. And the only way we were going to be able to do that was to ask. The first person we asked was Frank Conniff of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame. To our surprise he said yes. He came in, recorded a voice for us and was amazing. We had so much fun working with Frank that we continued to ask him to return and do a voice and he was always so gracious and willing to come help. In fact, he even drove down to Comic-Con one year just to be part of our live show. We will always be grateful for Frank’s time and generosity.
Following Frank, we just kept asking. Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), Joel Hodgson (Mystery Science Theatre 3000), Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci), just to name a few, came in and did voices for us just because we worked up the nerve to ask. One of my favorite stories is the night I asked June Foray to come do a voice. You know, the LEGENDARY June Foray. You know, June Foray from Rocky & Bullwinkle and Granny on Sylvester & Tweety and many, many other shows. I was at an event that June Foray just happened to be at as well. In my mind there was no way she would ever say yes but I worked up the courage and I asked. She said yes. AND she recorded for us twice! All because I asked.
I firmly believe that The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd would never had become as popular as it did if it weren’t for our celebrity guest stars. And all we had to do was ask. We had plenty of folks say no to doing our show. Or saying yes, but then asking for more money that we could afford to pay. But, a lot of folks said yes. All because we were brave enough to ask.
And don’t think I’m talking about ‘celebrities’ helping you out here. I’m not, that was just the example. If there’s someone who could help you take your creative work to a new place or even finish it, just ask.
Now, I will say there’s a chance the people will say no, but a lot of people will help you. Or at least help you find out where to go to get the assistance you’re looking for.
Don’t be shy. Just ask.
—
When was a time you had to ask for someone’s help in order to get some creative work done? How’d it pan out? How did you go about asking? Let me know in the comments below! Have a great week!
Creative Mondays #028 – Distractions.
Distractions. They are everywhere and they are a major threat to you an your creative goals. If you want to have hope of creating your dreams, you need to learn how to tune them out, turn them off and just plain ignore them.
Distractions often sink my creative plans for the day. Even just sitting down to write this post has been filled with distractions. Just while coming up with that first paragraph alone I have prepared a CD to ship off to CDBaby as a restock and looked into Apple Computer’s Compressor software to see if it would solve a problem I’m working on in trying to get my video podcasts down to a smaller file size.
Yes, I did all that in between writing sentences for that opening paragraph. I have a problem in that I’ll sit down to do one thing and then as I’m doing that one thing a million other ideas pop into my head and suddenly I feel that I have to get those things done right now. This is a huge hurdle to us creative types. Projects take way longer than they should because of the tiny little things that get in the way.
And I’m not just talking about email, texts or even the sudden excursions down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. You know, where you look up one thing that pertains to your project and then thirty minutes later, you are on a page that has nothing to do with what you looked up in the first place. There is another time of distraction I call the I Can’t Until… distraction.
It goes like this, you sit down to write but your laptop isn’t charged, so you get up and go get the charger and plug it in. Once your laptop is open, you pop open your word processor of choice and see there is an update available to your software so you click to have it update. Once it’s updated you sit to start to write, but the scrap of paper you wrote your idea on is in the other room so you have to get up and go get it. It’s now been 15 minutes and you haven’t written anything. This is my story, for you it may be different, but this is what happens.
SO, what do we do? Well, the only thing we can do…DON’T GET DISTRACTED. It’s hard, but it’s the only way to get through it.
In the situation above where I spoke about trying to sit down and write, the easy solution would be to get out pen and paper and just start writing. Let the computer update, but get the butt in the chair and start writing. But then of course, you have to find the paper. And this pen is out of ink…..
Turn off your phone. Turn off wifi on your laptop. Close the door to the room you are in. Tell your family that you aren’t to be disturbed. Try your best to minimize the distractions. And before you start, make sure that you have everything you need to begin. Laptop charged, software updated. Pen and paper. Then get going.
Again, the only solution is to fight through it and get the work done. If you had an office job, you’d be in trouble if you were constantly getting distracted and not doing your work. Creative work is work and if you let your creative work falter because of distractions you’ll get in trouble too. Not by a boss, but by yourself because your creative goals won’t be met.
So don’t get distracted.
—
How do you deal with distractions? Let us know in the comments below (especially if you have a really good trick). Have a great week!
40.1
I thought I would do a brief check in on my weight loss goals for those who are interested. Back at the end of April, I kind of set up a goal for myself of losing 10 pounds by my birthday on May 20th.
Well, that didn’t happen. Oh, I tried…several times…to make it happen but if just wouldn’t stick. I’d celebrate eating great for one day, then the next morning go pig out on barbecue or some other gluttonous feast. Once or twice I strung together two days of really good eating and I always fell right back into the food trough and it all went out the window.
It wasn’t until June 11th that that all changed. There’s nothing special about that day other than that’s the day I really committed and, I’m proud to say four weeks later, it seems to have stuck.
In the weeks before June 11th, I’d make excuses for eating poorly. You see, when I lost all my weight on weight watchers before, I had chosen Wednesday as my ‘weigh in’ day. That’s the day you track your progress and all your points reset. I chose Wednesday because I tend to eat a little more on the weekend and so I wanted those days closer to the middle of the week, as sort of something to look forward to. So, before June 11th, I’d start eating well and then Tuesday would roll around and I’d think, “I’m gonna eat like crazy today and then start fresh on the program tomorrow.” Then I’d eat well on Wednesday, maybe part of Thursday, but then it was the weekend and the feedings began. Besides, there’s always next Wednesday. Right?
Well, for some reason, on June 11th, that all changed. I made the decision and stuck to it. I can’t say what it was, maybe I saw the way I looked in the mirror. Maybe it was the way my clothes were fitting. Maybe I wanted one solid thing I could control in my life. Things have been pretty chaotic (which doesn’t help the eating at all) so may, deep down, I thought that at least this would be one thing I could control. Whatever the reason, something happened on June 11th to made me really decide to commit to doing this and it has, knock on wood, stuck for the past 4 weeks.
On that day I also made a commitment to really follow the Weight Watchers program too. Before Toronto, when I lost 10 pounds, I was eating way under the amount of allotted points per day. So, yes, I did lose 10 pounds in 20 days, but I didn’t really do it the coreect way. For this go around, I decided to do it right. Follow the plan and stick to the rules. I did commit to adding more exercise to my routine, however. So instead of only doing afternoon runs, I now do 30 minutes of different exercises in the morning. That has helped a lot. The first week, I was straining through the 6 push-up and side planks I do as part of the routine. Now, 4 weeks later, I only struggle through the last one. And that one is getting easier.
The real reward though was stepping on the scale today and discovering that, even though I was only down 1.2 pounds for the week, I was down 11 punds since June 11th. I started at 193.4 pounds, todays I was 182.4 pounds. I’m well on my way. My goal is to lose another 24 to put me at 158 pounds. 158 is actually above where all those charts say a person my age, height, eye color, etc., should be, but that’s a comfortable weight and that’s what I want to get to.
If it takes another 8 weeks, so be it. I’m fine with that. This time, I’m doing my damnedest to make it work.
Oh, and last week, on Monday, I went and had barbecue, and I was still down 2 pounds on Wednesday. That’s how you make it work!
I shall keep you posted!
Creative Mondays #027 – Nervous? Just do it.
Recently I received a scheduling for a puppet audition through The Jim Henson Company. When I was first called about it, I was initially pretty confident I could go in there and nail it. Then, I received the script and all the information about the audition and I was even MORE confident I could go in their an nail it. The character was something I could hit out of the part really easily, the script was funny (something I usually find is quite rare in these situations) and it would just be a tremendously fun project to work on.
Then, just a few days before the audition, I found out something that rattled my confidence completely. Just completely dashed that sense of ‘I got this” completely. The good old Negative Brain took full control. In one instant, I went from confident to a complete mess. “I got this” became, “Not in a million years.” In fact, my negative brain, as if does, started telling me, “Just don’t even do it. That way you won’t be disappointed when you don’t get it.”
Now, my negative brain is not strong enough for me to make majorly stupid mistakes. I completely understand the consequences of not showing up to an audition that The Jim Henson Company has scheduled you for. So, there was no way I was going to NOT go to the audition.
I began thinking about being nervous about something big in your creative career and how it can completely play with your mind. In situations like that you have two choices. Don’t do it, as your negative brain would have you and play it safe. Or, as the old Nike ad says, “just do it.” And really, there is no choice. Just do it.
Nerves are nothing. They are just a holdover from that primitive brain we’ve talked about before on here. They are there to keep you safe. But when you think about things logically you’ll see that nerves can sometimes misguide you.
Being nervous while swimming in shark infested waters is probably a good idea. You could die.
Being nervous when going into an audition, or unveiling your recent painting, or stepping out on stage to play a new song, recite a new poem, read a new story, etc., those things re not likely to kill you. You’ll be just fine. Sure, you may blow the audition, receive criticism, get booed, but is it going to kill you? Probably not. And in the unlikely event that those things happen (how many people really get booed anymore?) they will all be incredible learning experiences of what to do or not do the next time you are in one of those situations.
So, when it came to this audition of mine, there really was only one choice, do it. I studied the script harder than anything I had recently. I worked on my puppetry even more to be spot on when I went in. Part of the audition would be riffing/improv so I thought of things I may say in different situations that may pop up. I made myself completely ready for this audition.
Was I still nervous? Yes.
Was I going to let that nervousness stop me? No way.
Will I get the part? Who knows? But I’m more likely to get it now that I didn’t chicken out and not go to the audition.
If you are nervous about something, just do it.
—
How do you deal with being nervous about big events in your creative life? Has the nervousness ever won out? Or did you battle is successfully?