Last night I did a review of some music I had been working on lately. I noticed that when each song is scrutinized on its own, I feel like throwing them out. Yet when I listen to them as a whole, they fit together beautifully. I stopped nitpicking when I could see the big picture that I am staring at what is basically a finished album.
You might be dealing with a mini-crisis this month. It could be financial, a relationship, or something at work. Don’t let these things define your life. Each challenge that you work through brings about some sort of growth.
Last week I was embarrassed about something that left me feeling exposed and kind of gross. I practically forgot about it by now until I saw it in my journal.
When things don’t go to your liking, try to zoom out and appreciate that your life is an album in the works. It’s not a bunch of one-off songs that are bothering you. It’s something way more than that.
Three Ideas from My Notebooks
Learn to see the beauty in the messiness of everything. It can be frustrating that things don’t work out the way you want them to, so maybe it would be better to stop asking for them to work out in a certain way and just accept the messiness for what it is? And this pairs well with the idea of not bothering to try to change people to fit your worldview. Work with people for who they are and what they want to become.
If you’re having trouble getting out of bed in the morning, try the app Alarmy which lets you scan a barcode on the other side of your home in order to turn the alarm off. The trick is to find the next action after that or else you can still go back to bed after you do what the app calls a “mission”.
Important work is inconvenient. It can have the same weight as cleaning out a dusty old shed on a nice day. But oftentimes times we’d rather field incoming requests that are really not that important because it’s convenient when people hand tasks over to you that are well defined. So instead, you should hand yourself well defined tasks and start to clean out that shed. Ask how you can make the biggest impact possible on your short visit to this planet1.
Product Recommendation: Physical Clock
It’s handy to have a clock by your bedside. You can see what time it is in the middle of the night without having to find your phone.
If you get one though, make sure it is dimmable so that it’s not lighting up the room and causing a disturbance in your sleep.
This is the one I use. You can find a much nicer one for yourself, but this one works.
Ok thanks for reading this week’s edition. I hope you have a great week ahead and don’t let things get to you. When things are tough just eat a bagel.
I will start sharing some of these tracks that I’ve been working on with paid subscribers of the newsletter soon.
Cheers,
Elliott
For daily prompts and pep talks to help inspire action, visit The Most Creative Instagram