(R)eSource Digest: October 2015

It's Never Too Late: ‘Die Empty’ of Regret and Full of

Satisfaction for a Life Authentically Lived
The Accidental Creative

Many of us might have big ideas, big dreams, big aspirations that they would love to do
something with but for whatever reason we put off bringing them into the world.

This is frustrating, disappointing and a recipe for self-condemnation.

Todd Henry is dedicated to using practices and very deliberate ways of structuring the lives
of those he works with to help them bring their work to the world.

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Creativity demands us to have ideas everyday but we can easily get
burned out over time if we are doing this for a living; when our
primary function is to solve problems and create value with our
mind.

People who succeed in making their ideas,

dreams and aspirations happen have
something in common. They are:
1. Prolific (doing a lot of work)

2. Brilliant (doing good work)

3. Healthy (doing work in a sustainable way)

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But it's not enough simply to be prolific, brilliant, and healthy if
we don't get round to doing the most important work, the stuff
that gnaws at you and you feel put on the earth to do.

This is where the idea of dying empty comes from.

‘Alas for those that never sing, But die

with all their music in them’ - Oliver Wendell Holmes
What do you think is the most valuable land in the world?

The oil fields of the Middle East or the gold mines in South
Africa?

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It's the graveyard.
In the graveyard are buried all the unexecuted, brilliant ideas. All the un-
launched businesses and unwritten novels. All the ideas that people carried
around with them their entire life but never acted on because they thought
'tomorrow I'll do this' 'tomorrow I'll start working in it'.

There comes a day when there is no tomorrow.

This is a sad thought, but also full of hope. For those of us who can still
receive the message there is still a tremendous opportunity to be able to
make impact and build a body of work that we can be proud of.

It's never ever too late.

Whether you're 15, 65 or 95 you can start a new phase of your life and embrace
the years you have left of productive capacity, you can still produce huge value
to the world. This might be for family, building for grandchildren etc, but just
know that there is always something to do to contribute to this notion:

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Die Empty
When you reach the end of your life do you want to take your best work
to the grave with you? Or are you committed to doing everything you
can to get that important work out into the world.

We wont get to do EVERYTHING that we want to do, but if we're

intentional with systems and practices to help us regularly get the
important work out into the world then we're far more likely to make
progress on the things that truly matter.

If we manage this then we can die empty of regret and full of

satisfaction for a life well lived. This is Todd's objective.

What if it were yours as well!

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Focus
There is an ever-present pressure in life to do things faster, better,
cheaper. This flies in the face of true creativity, which I believe
has an intrinsic inefficiency to it.

It requires us to be almost deliberately reckless with our time from

an economic, factory-orientated view of productivity.

But this is not done by being flakey, uncommitted, and waiting

around for the muse to strike.

In fact it requires us to be prepared and focussed.

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Unhealthy Assumptions:
As humans we are biologically hardwired to seek certainty, stability and comfort.
Unhealthy assumptions are difficult to root out because we like to feel like we've
solidified our answers.

When we experience success we will replicate the circumstances and factors that
led up to that success. We go back to the same wells of inspiration.

Once we experience that success (and others) over the course of time we begin to
fossilise around these practices and assumptions.

The problem however is that the circumstances are perpetually changing. So the
more we concretely build around certain assumptions and practices we are
becoming decreasingly effective at solving new problems.

We have to be willing to step back and ask 'what is the best way for me to
approach this now?' This can seem like a very inefficient way of living and
working, yet at the same time it's also what yields the most long term value and
sustainability.

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Be careful not to let your assumptions about what is and
isn't possible limit where you look for potential ideas.
This happens in organisations and cultures all the time. We live with fossilised
assumptions and concentrate on protecting the ground we've already taken rather
than looking at taking ground.

Look at the way you are approaching the problems you are
trying to solve creatively.
Ask yourself what assumptions you are trying to live with in a subconscious
manner, just beneath the surface that are limiting how you are approaching or
engaging with the problem.

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The ‘Ping’
This is the perpetual pin-prick in your gut that is wanting you to check your email or Twitter
feed every 5 seconds.

What this does to us is it causes us to live within the state of 'continuous partial
attention' (Linda Stone).

This is where you're physically here but also somewhere else at the same time. As a result it
becomes very difficult to be truly present and deeply focussed on problems.

We parcel out our focus and attention in little packets at a time, but we need to learn to
tame the ping. To turn off technology from time to time. Build barriers to protect sanity
and your ability to focus.

Where in your life can you carve out the time to deeply
immerse yourself in the problems you want to solve without
being distracted by the ping?

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Long term value doesn't happen in the cracks and crevices of life, it is going to
happen when you dedicate time, energy, focus, and your finite assets into solving
those important problems.

You can try themes if your schedule allows - each day or times in the day can be
dedicated to certain focus areas. Give
yourself permission to be
unreachable at certain times.
Life's rhythm means that you have an ebb and a flow. We can't live in
perpetual harvest mode, which is what many of us try to do. We want to
live, always harvesting the fruits of our labour but this doesn't work.

We need to take time to plant seeds, cultivate them, and grow those crops which
then become available for harvesting. But because of the pressure to be efficient
and productive we feel like we have to live in this perpetual harvest mode.

Plant. Cultivate. Harvest.

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Define Your Battles
“To counter aimlessness, you must define your battles wisely, and build your
life around winning them.”

We often find ourselves engaging in battles that ultimately don’t matter to the bigger
picture. New parents are often given the advice to pick the battles that they’re going
to concentrate on winning with their kids and committing to them, perhaps
allowing certain other things slide.

These may be keystone battles which, if won will have a domino affect on some of
the other stuff that could do with changing.

Defining and picking your battles is an important thing to do and something which
requires thought and commitment.

The battle you need to fight is determined by:

a) your circumstances

b) your response to your circumstances

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Everyone must determine their own keystone battles. We're
all dealt different hands.
Perhaps you have health issues or you don't have the same opportunities as someone
else. Maybe you had fewer financial resources or a challenging social environment
growing up.

We all deal with different circumstances and then use that to disengage with our
ambitions. We discount ourselves and the possibilities. But maybe your battle (the body
of work you are building) is that you use that experience to motivate your dream to
build a stable environment for your own children. It's a huge thing to break a
generational cycle and perhaps this is what is going to drive you.

This might mean doing something you don't necessarily

enjoy doing in order to get a result that you love getting
(that your children have a stable environment that gives them a platform to then build
on). Hopefully this will then give them the opportunity to build a body of work that
THEY can be proud of.

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 "I must study politics and war that my sons
may have liberty to study mathematics and
philosophy. My sons ought to study
mathematics and philosophy, geography,
natural history, naval architecture, navigation,
commerce, and agriculture, in order to give
their children a right to study painting, poetry,
music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and
porcelain."

- John Adams
This kind of longterm view is really important. It shows that we are moving forwards with hope
and a view to make the world a better and more life-fuelled place. What battle do you
need to fight now to make the better future possible?
Sometimes this is seasonal - you need to do this thing that you don't want to do right now so that
the thing you want to do is possible in a year or 10 from now. Life isn't all about instant
gratification and short term pleasure. Happiness and satisfaction come from knowing that you are
doing what truly matters.

What is it that is gnawing at you?

What fills you with compassionate anger? ("Urgh someone needs to do something about that")
When you feel the pain of certain people you find a battle that you may deem worth fighting.

Todd became an 'arms dealer for the creative revolution' because he saw so many creative
professionals being taken advantage of, burning out, and losing their way that he knew he wanted/
needed to help.

What moves you? What fills you with a deep emotional response when you experience it?
Think about the type of movies that move you the most.

Which kind of characters or situations get under your skin?

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Know Yourself
We need to know ourselves in order to counter self-delusion and pursue
the contribution that we alone are capable of making.

We are so interconnected and it is so easy to allow your peripheral

vision to distract you, causing you to veer from side to side.

Our culture loves to tell us who we ought to be and gives us this sense of
what is valued over encouraging us to find the unique value we have to
offer as individuals. This means that there are many people who think,
'unless I'm in the spotlight as one of the celebrated few then I have no
value'. We elevate celebrity for celebrity's sake which no longer comes as a
product of accomplishment.

A lot of young people believe that if they want to be a

person of substance they must become a celebrity rather
than thinking 'what can I contribute to the world?'
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False narratives can easily derail us and turn us into people who
are less than what we're capable of. We have to ask:

When am I at my best, contributing the

most value and being positively received
by other people?
Step into this rather than allowing others to define your path for
you and veering off into an identity that isn't natural or authentic.

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We are obsessed with dominant leaders. With the #1. But what about those who
are better equipped to be the #2, or the counsellor, the truth-teller?

Richard Hytner, the Global Vice-Chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi - he came to

learn that he was a natural number two guy. He was far more suited to that than
when he was the CEO of a public traded company.

Culture was telling him that if you don't want to be the top guy then there is
something wrong with you. If you're not striving for that spotlight position then
there is something malformed about your sense of ambition and makes people
suspicious or mistrusting of you.

You have to ignore these kinds of cultural narratives and

understand where YOU are at YOUR best. For Richard Hytner
he and the organisation is at its best when he is in this role supporting the
person in the spotlight and driving the operational side of things.

And also when the chairman is not needing to watch his back with the fear that his number
two is just hovering like a vulture, ready and desperate for him to fail so he can swoop in and
take his role.
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Go to someone you know very well and who knows you very well
and ask:

'what am I doing right now that doesn't seem

like me? Is there anything in my life that you
see me doing where you think I'm reaching for
recognition rather than striving to acheive the
kind of value that I'm capable of
contributing?'
Ask this question consistently of the people around you. Do it
enough and you will find it pretty hard to get too far off course.

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Stimuli
It can be difficult to maintain and regulate a positive rhythm around our energy,
especially with all the demands and distractions competing for our attention. But there is
a fundamental truth that underpins the entirety of our lives;

What goes in must come out.

Over time we become the product of the stuff we’re surrounded by. This is why
cultures emerge and people act and speak in similar ways when they spend significant
amounts of time together.

There are certain topic areas that intersect your core sweet spot.
Todd absorbs a lot of business strategy literature (thinking, research, case studies etc)
because this is the world in which he works, he reads a lot about creativity and artists, as
well as spirituality/mysticism.

All of this mixes together and becomes the unique blend that is his voice
(creativity, business, and spirituality) and you can hear it all coming through
when you read Todd's books and listen to his podcast.

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Be intentional and have some kind of strategy around putting the
right materials into your life consistently.

Know WHAT and WHY you're consuming the materials you

want to absorb. Create your own sweet spot and remain interested
in what you're reading.

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Innovation and Voice
Cover Bands Don’t Change the World: everyone starts out as a cover band (The Beatles),
everyone starts out by imitating other people - it's how babies learn to walk and talk.

But it's not where you start that's important, it's where
you finish.
It's what you do with what you learn as a cover band and how you use that platform to grow into
yourself and develop your voice.

We must be in alignment with who WE are as unique individuals with our own voice - that’s a
much more valuable contribution to make to the world than rehashing what’s already been.

There are three key elements to the process of finding your

voice:
1. Discovery

2. Divergence

3. Crisis

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1. Discovery
You have an idea, discovering something you love and want to explore/implement. If you
want to get better and develop your voice then you will probably begin with this imitation
phase.

The Beatles started by playing Chuck Berry, Elvis, old blues standards etc. They played
these tirelessly while at the same time beginning to explore writing their own music,
learning from the structure, technique and approach that these masters who have gone
before them used.

At some point emulation hits a peak. We no longer get better and we just stay where we are.
We've developed fantastic skills while emulating but these are not used unless we enter the
next phase...

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2. Divergence
You begin to take what you've learned in the emulation phase and begin to apply it, taking
small strategic risks to define your own unique sound.

The problem in this phase is that you will begin to experience a lot of small failures. This is
a part of diverging. Experimenting, trying new things. Trial, error, failure, and the odd
success. This is why many people stay in emulation mode. They're afraid of failure and what
it will imply about them.

This is the place where people begin to make substantive and defining work.

But there will probably be a point somewhere along the line when you hit the next phase...

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3. Crisis
Everyone around you is telling you to carry on, that your work is great and you should keep
doing what you're doing. But deep down something is dissatisfied. You recognise that if you
keep doing what you're doing you wont get to where you want to be.

However, this is in conflict with the success you are typically experiencing at this point. It
seems like everything is fine when people are looking at you because they just have extrinsic
markers or signs that what you're doing is working great.

The key is to go back to Discovery Phase and learn some new skills, discovering things you
want to learn and begin implementing them by emulating others, and applying them into
what you've already built (your now strong existing skill set).

For example if you are a photographer who is making money, people are happy with your
work, but deep down you're experiencing dissatisfaction; the key to continuing on a curve
of growth is to go out and find a photographer who is doing something that inspires you
and to emulate it in unnecessary creating on the side. Set some time aside to develop new
skills and then over time you can begin applying these new skills into your work in new
ways (Divergence).

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Always be learning and seeking to grow in what you're already
doing. Otherwise you will fall down the backside of the curve - if
you're not growing then you're dying.

This is how we grow as creatives, as individuals, as cultures.

In order to avoid staying in cover band mode we need to take that

brave step and begin taking some risks.

Sail perpendicular to the shore line.

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Louder than Words
Exploring successful people and looking at the themes/factors that are
consistent in those who have the most effective, compelling and
resonant voices. Todd noticed three common threads:

1. Strong Sense of Rooted Identity - authenticity to what they're

doing because it's rooted in what they care about

2. Vision - a defined vision for where there work was going and how
they are serving people

3. Mastery - they know the platform they are using to get their voice
out into the world, developing skills and practices to help them
continue to get better in order to implement the vision in the long term

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Your voice isn't what you say, it's how you are
received.
The Accidental
Creative
Huge thanks to Todd Henry for chatting with me this month.

Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that
lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of three books (The Accidental
Creative, Die Empty, and Louder Than Words) which have been translated into
more than a dozen languages, and he speaks and consults across dozens of
industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work.

His book Die Empty was named by Amazon.com as one of the best books of
2013.

His latest book, Louder Than Words, is about how to develop an authentic
voice that resonates and creates impact. Bestselling author Tom Rath called it
“…one of the best guides to living a meaningful life I have ever read.”

Links to buy all 3 of Todd’s books are on the next page…