Donald Miller's Blog, page 126

Sunday Morning Music, Bob Schneider

I started listening to Bob Schneider about ten years ago. I saw him in concert with about 20k other people in Austin, then caught him later that year here in portland with about 20 people, and only a handful knew his music. He's certainly bigger than Austin, but I can't think of very many artists who are that big, and yet that regional. Regardless, he put out a new record last year and this song was on it. It's a good one. Most of them are. A bit of a love song for Valentines day. I hope you feel loved today. Enjoy Bob Schneider:

Sunday Morning Music, Bob Schneider is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

The Creator Gets Out of His Own Way

I've probably led you astray in the last month with all my talk about working. The act of creating is more than work. There is also the process of creating art, which is mysterious. Anybody who says that there is no mystery in creating art is no artist. This can be proven when you ask to see their art and they can't show you anything.

A creator must learn to work and must learn a work ethic. If she does not show up at her desk, at her canvass, at her block of marble every day, she will never succeed as an artist. And this is what I mean by work and work ethic.

But if she uses the same steel determination to then create her art, she will fail. the violinist Stephen Nachmanovitch says that to create you must disappear and I agree with him. What he means by this is the force must stop and the play must begin. When we play we disappear, we are not really aware of ourselves, we are not thinking too much about our existence or our problems.

If you have a bowl of water, filled to the brim, and walk it across the room, you're likely to do it without spilling the water. But if you take that bowl of water and walk it across the room while describing out loud to yourself your every thought, that is how you are walking it across the room, what your strategy is and how you are not spilling it, you will certainly spill the water. Try it now and you will see.

It's like this with your creation. Your work ethic will get you to your desk, but then you must stop thinking about how you are doing what you are doing, and you must simply play, you must disappear and play and create.

The Creator Gets Out of His Own Way is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

A Creator Resists The Urge to Create out of Anger

Hemingway could never write when he was drinking. Scratch that. Hemingway wrote a lot while he was drinking, but none of it was published because none of it was any good.

Anger is similar. When you are criticized, you are going to want to create in retaliation, but don't. As a creator, you are a person that feeds consumers, and you mustn't feed consumers anger. Yes, there are reasons to be angry, good reasons, but don't let anger evolve into the act of creating.

As a creator, you are a teacher, a role model, you are setting the moral compass of every person who interacts with your work. There are many parents who shirk their responsibility to parent, mostly because they fear the responsibility. It's the same with some creators. They create, but then do not take responsibility for what they are doing.

That said, whatever it is you are angry about, and hopefully it is an injustice, is addressed by your positive creativity, and it's perfectly find to acknowledge this dynamic. What you are doing, when you create something good rather than something bitter and reactionary, is displacing whatever it is that made you angry. The public only has a consciousness so big, and when you create something good, and it gets into the public consciousness, there's less room for whatever it is that made you angry. So go and create something good, and displace whatever it is that is pissing you off.

A Creator Resists The Urge to Create out of Anger is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

How a Creator Handles Critics

Many would-be creators remain consumers because they fear criticism. Perhaps they created something, thinking they'd be encouraged for their work, and they were, but then they read something or heard something critical and felt they were being treated unfairly and were scared back into consumer-mode, sitting on the sidelines.

All creators get criticized. There are many people who cannot create, but wanting glory, they will use creators and their criticisms of creators to get into the spotlight. I'm not talking about helpful criticism, teacher to student criticism, I'm talking about the modern fare of criticism floating around on the internet, the equivalent of a Jr. High slam book.

This is going to bother you at first, but you must move through it to a higher evolution of the creative life if you are going to become a great creator.

Here are some things to remember:

1. Only creators get criticized.

2. All creators get criticized.

3. The best way to answer your critics is to succeed. Keep working. Work harder.

When you find yourself having genuine, fond feelings for your critics, because without them you would not have been driven to succeed as much as you have, you have become a better creator.

How a Creator Handles Critics is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Can't Seem to Get to Your Project? Maybe the Other Work is Just Wanted Distraction.

Most mornings I'm up around 5 or so. I get breakfast, watch a little bit of the morning news, shower, get dressed, lay around checking e-mail on my phone, then turn the phone off, walk the dog and finally sit down at my desk to write. Instead of writing, though, I check twitter and my e-mail again, then write a blog or two, research whatever gadget somebody tweeted about, make some more coffee, read a little bit, all the while the very reason I got up early is slipping through my hands as I allow myself to be distracted. I don't know why our primary project is so hard to focus on while we are completely willing to work hard on other projects. But regardless, the only thing that will make that nagging feeling go away is a little self discipline. You are not going to want to work on that project, perhaps ever. But the project must be completed. What we need, here, is some self discipline. We must shut off our e-mail and web browser, open the document and commit to a couple hours of frustrating work. Normally, within half an hour or so, we have a bit of a breakthrough and are surprised to get quite a bit of work done. The sooner we stop fooling around with distractions, the sooner that project will be done.

Imagine how quickly you'd get the work done if you didn't waste those hours distracting yourself? It if takes me a year to write a book, which it normally does, then I bet it would take me four months with some focus. If I learned the craft of focussing and not making excuses, I could turn out two to three books a year. That's worth the effort, I'd say.

But then again, if I hadn't given in to distraction, I never would have written this blog. Signing off. Back to work.

Can't Seem to Get to Your Project? Maybe the Other Work is Just Wanted Distraction. is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Can't Seem to Get to Your Project? Maybe the Other Work is Just Wanted Distraction.

Most mornings I'm up around 5 or so. I get breakfast, watch a little bit of the morning news, shower, get dressed, lay around checking e-mail on my phone, then turn the phone off, walk the dog and finally sit down at my desk to write. Instead of writing, though, I check twitter and my e-mail again, then write a blog or two, research whatever gadget somebody tweeted about, make some more coffee, read a little bit, all the while the very reason I got up early is slipping through my hands as I allow myself to be distracted. I don't know why our primary project is so hard to focus on while we are completely willing to work hard on other projects. But regardless, the only thing that will make that nagging feeling go away is a little self discipline. You are not going to want to work on that project, perhaps ever. But the project must be completed. What we need, here, is some self discipline. We must shut off our e-mail and web browser, open the document and commit to a couple hours of frustrating work. Normally, within half an hour or so, we have a bit of a breakthrough and are surprised to get quite a bit of work done. The sooner we stop fooling around with distractions, the sooner that project will be done.

Imagine how quickly you'd get the work done if you didn't waste those hours distracting yourself? It if takes me a year to write a book, which it normally does, then I bet it would take me four months with some focus. If I learned the craft of focussing and not making excuses, I could turn out two to three books a year. That's worth the effort, I'd say.

But then again, if I hadn't given in to distraction, I never would have written this blog. Signing off. Back to work.

Can't Seem to Get to Your Project? Maybe the Other Work is Just Wanted Distraction. is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

A Creator Does Not Build on Emotion

The consumer is wholly moved by a creation, a song or a film or the grandeur of a building, and expects that a creation is built with the same emotion, but it isn't, a creation is built through practice and then more practice and then skill and craftsmanship and then planning and the execution of a plan through diligent work. All these years of labor intersect with the consumer in a shining, fleeting moment, but sustaining the moment in the act of creation itself is not possible.

For this reason, a creator distrusts emotion. Certainly a writer can turn a scene in a novel with a tear on his cheek, but the tear also causes him to question whether or not the page will be thrown out the following day for too much sentimentality, because a book is to the writer like the house is to the builder, it's right fitting boards and plumb windows, not a feeling of love for the boards or the windows.

Do not stir up emotion before you work. Kill it off. What you are trying to do with the emotion is feel what the consumer feels when they encounter your work before the work is even done, and this will steal your motivation to work. You are a carpenter showing up for the job with your lunch pale in hand. You are putting in the hours. This work will last a good bit of the day and you won't like it. Leave the emotion to the consumers who encounter your creation. You are a craftsman, not a sniffling pre-teen keeping a journal.

A Creator Does Not Build on Emotion is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Sunday Morning Music, Menomena

I've heard a rumor that the soundtrack to Blue Like Jazz may be filled with Portland bands. I know Steve is fond of Menomena. We shall see. Enjoy Portland's Menomena:

Sunday Morning Music, Menomena is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

A Creator Gets Rid of the Takers in their Life

My friend Ben, who is an accomplished photographer, told me a long time ago he got rid of the takers in his life. I've done the same, and I've had it for the better.

This is a harsh thing to talk about, because most of us think we are supposed to love and be accessible to everybody. But here's the truth, if you were accessible to everybody, all the time, you'd be spent. God did not design you to never say no. Instead, He designed you with limitations, and you have to manage those limitations well.

It's a sad fact to say there are people who are takers. They take your soul, bit by bit, they use you, they make you feel ashamed or guilty when you don't allow them to use you and so forth. If it's at all possible, and by that I mean if you aren't married to them or related and responsible in some way, these people need to go. By letting them go, I don't mean be mean to them or tell them they are jerks, but you can just kind of know they aren't going to be lifelong friends and make decisions accordingly. You can get them information they need and so forth, but just know it isn't going to be a give and take relationship.

In my life, I find that I'm not a very good friend to the takers, so they are better off without me anyway. They make me feel guilty, so I give to them out of compulsion, not out of love or friendship, and that doesn't really help them much anyway. Here is how you know if somebody is a taker:

1. You always feel kind of guilty around them, but on paper, you can't figure out how you've hurt them.

2. They have been in a long line of short relationships.

3. They hurt people and do bad things, but it's always somebody else's fault.

4. They don't make you feel good about yourself or your work.

Takers can change, for sure, but the only way they change is when the taking doesn't work anymore. And if you let them stay in your life and take from you, you aren't helping them change.

A Creator Gets Rid of the Takers in their Life is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

A Creator Knows Their Likes and Dislikes

As a creator, your experiences matter. What you create over the coming year or years will be born out of how you spend your time. And there are, no doubt, a great many pressures on your time.

We are fully into a new decade now, and I did a little experiment at the turn of the year that has helped me understand what to do with my time. I made a list of likes and dislikes of the previous year.

What I mean is, I listed the stuff I liked doing in 2010, and also the experiences I didn't like. I was surprised at how many experiences I liked and how few experiences I didn't, and I was also surprised at how simple the experiences that meant the most to me actually were.

Here's a snapshot of my list:

Experiences I liked:

1. Having a clean house.

2. Walking the dog by the river.

3. Having house guests.

4. The Storyline Conference.

5. Waking up and working on a book.

(The list went on like this for a while, maybe twenty or so items on the list.)

Experiences I didn't like:

1. Not going to sleep in my own bed (traveling for business)

2. Being away from home for too long…

(This list also included much more, but I will spare you the details)

Now, here is how I use the list: When it comes time to make a decision, it's much easier for me to say no to an experience that may seem great at first, but ultimately will not be something I enjoy. For instance, I may have the opportunity to go to the East Coast for an interview. Maybe it's not a big interview, but it's a free trip to the east coast. Previously, I would have said yes, but now that I've made the list, I realize that I'd much rather wake up in my own bed, walk my dog, and sit down to work on my book.

Because of my list, this year I will see more plays, attend more symphonies and less concerts, watch less television and yet order more lectures on CD and DVD. I'd not known to have made those changes unless I made the lists.

It's odd how many things we do that we think we enjoy but don't. And when we sit down to make a list of what we enjoyed over the last year, we are surprised at how simple the list really is. Not only this, but there are huge things on my "didn't like" list that I spent a great deal of time hoping in and waiting for that ultimately proved to be uninteresting. Those are mistakes I won't make twice, because I have clarified what I like and don't like.

Try it. Make a list of the experiences you liked last year and the experiences you didn't like. If you have any control over what you do over the coming year, make plans according to the experiences you actually enjoyed. There's no reason to waste time on stuff you think is going to be fulfilling but in the end is a waste.

As a creator, you don't have time to waste. Time is your greatest commodity, and spending it on experiences you think you should have instead of experiences that feed your soul is a waste of time. Cutting the experiential clutter out of your life will free room for you to do great work.

Of course there is clutter in your life that is there by necessity. But we're not talking about that. We are talking about those Christmas parties you went to that you didn't enjoy, and always saying yes to coffee, and that vacation in which you thought you HAD to go to disneyland. Put an end to it.

Tomorrow, I will talk about doing the same thing, not with experiences, but with people. Let the controversy begin!

A Creator Knows Their Likes and Dislikes is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog