tuesday 10 – takeaway

Welcome to the Tuesday 10 – “takeaway” edition. Life has been a little hectic around here since our [5in5] fun, and I thought today would be a good day to go back and recap what I “took away” from our last project before I INTRODUCE our newest project! First, though the Tuesday 10. My hope is some of these takeaways might encourage you to jump in and be a part of our next online community project.

• I need deadlines. My nemesis is procrastination. I am learning to fight it by simply doing. And recently we DID. Felicity and I wrote a song each night for [5in5]. We were really only fighting the time deadline and we noticed that it helped to unify us. It pushed us past difficult moments and in turn we did something. We created things we had never created before!

• I need community. The same way the fight against time helped to unify our little husband-wife songwriting team – joining a group of people all taking on the same challenge helped us all become a part of something bigger. It gave my days purpose. It felt important. My thoughts were not just ‘what will we put together this evening?’, but I was constantly rooting for my friends to do well. I wanted to see what everyone else was going to do and the journey together was the best reward and the most

• I need to be inspired. I have been thinking and talking for more than a year about an idea for a song called “Cathedrals”. The premise was about a person living a beautiful life that would in turn cause those around them to look up and see the beauty and wonder of God. But I could not get this song to work until….I heard a song that had elements I never knew I had been waiting to hear. The moment I experienced this other song I could hear “Cathedrals” finished and had regained the desire to do so.

• I need to inspire. During the [5in5] week I received many emails from friends saying how inspired they had been watching from a distance. I had a young woman sit down in my office and tearfully tell me about the dark place she had been in but was now coming out of thanks to the songs we were all writing. Out of that place she was inspired to write her own beautiful song!

There were some who cried healing tears while listening to “Home”, young women wanting to fall in love after hearing “Love Seat”, and songwriters who loved the project so much they joined us mid-week.

• I need honest feedback. One of the best things my wife does for me is tell me the truth. She is completely honest with me. The same is true of my friend Darin. I’m not going to lie to you and say I am always good at receiving their feedback, but I am getting better and developing “thicker” skin in the process. It is good, and I need it. You need it too. Not everything we do is perfect. Most everything starts out sloppy and needs editing and refining. With my friends’ help I am able to take my art from alright to something I proud to release to the world. Find real friends who are strong enough to tell you the truth and trust them.
  

• I need to let go. Before we started, Felic and I made this simple rule: no creative idea was so important that we had to hold onto it. If we could not make the idea work or agree on the idea, we would set it aside. Plus we did not have the time to be so proud. We rarely revisited these ideas and only came back to them if they seemed they might legitimately be worth exploring.

• I need to live in consistent creativity. Once I start the creative process it seems that creativity is more readily available. I think it is an example of disciplining your art so that you when you need it is there for you to use.

• I need to dig deeper. Unfortunately, not every song just popped right out.  A couple song ideas took only moments, but most of the writing/composing took hours of time.  I always laugh at the amount of time that goes into a 3-5 minute song. Literally hours of time, but in the end the work is worth the reward.

• I need to believe. Most of us feel like we are mostly feigning creativity until someday someone will come along and expose us as fakes. Or we imagine that we will need to be creative.  But, we will try and creativity will not be there.  Our well of ideas will have run dry.  It is one of our fears. But it is completely untrue. We are creative and we have something to offer. So believe.

I will tell you about the inspiring, creative farmers I met in the dentist office in tomorrow’s post. For now, trust me when I say that you are creative.  You need to BELIEVE!

• I need to help curate others. Which is why I want to invite you to be a part of our newest community project – M O S A I C. It debuts tomorrow….