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Unknown Speaker
On the creative journey, it's easy to get lost. But don't worry, you'll lift off.
Andy J. Pizza
Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk. What's up, y'all? It's me, Andy J. Pizza coming at you with a new episode. Today on the show, I'm going to talk about when you feel lost on your creative journey. Okay. This is a feeling that when I first started this podcast, I didn't know if other people felt this way, but it's a topic we've explored on the show a handful of times. And it seems like from what I can tell on this side of the screen, that I'm not the only one. And this feeling of being lost is very disconcerting. It is panic inducing because you don't want to do anything. You don't want to move. Because when you're lost, if you're actually lost, like in the woods or somewhere, every step you take is filling you with anxiety because you don't know if you're getting further away from where you want to be or closer to where you want to be. That's the feeling of being lost. It makes you paralyzed in analysis, and it's a terrible place to be. Now, when I think about being creatively lost in my own creative path, it has a very particular feeling. And the only way I can really think about it is comparing it to the opposite feeling, which is the place that I love to be, which is just feeling like I am right on the freaking creative trail, man. I am, like, locked in to what I feel I should be doing. Like, that things are coming together. There's synchronicities, there's breakthroughs I'm making stuff I'm proud of. Like, it seems to be connecting with people, and I feel like I'm on the pulse of what I'm supposed to be all about. And that is an incredible feeling. And if you've ever felt it, then you know when you lose the pulse, when you get far off the trail, when all of a sudden you're like, dude, we're jamming. We're going, we're. And then all of a sudden, the flow starts to slow, and you don't feel like you've got it anymore. And it's a scary place. And you can scramble and you can backpedal and you can. There's all kinds of things that, you know, you can get into this survival mode. The fight, flight, freeze, fawn, beg the universe, like, please help me. I need to get back. But I have found that there's three things that really do help me when I find myself in that spot that I hate being in, which is feeling lost creatively. And I thought, this episode, we're going to go through those three and I'll give you some ideas on how to think about it. And at the end, I'm going to come back with a CTA called Phone a Friend and we're going to talk about something you can do. Absolutely. The second after you quit listening to this episode, I hope that you take that phone and pick it up and call somebody and I'll tell you how I would approach that. I'm a believer in the idea of dressing for the job you want, not the job you have. And I have applied this to my creative practice too, which means you, if you want professional results, you need to present online like a pro. And that means going beyond social media and having a professional website that reflects your style and looks legit. I rebuilt my site this year with Squarespace's Fluid engine and was so happy with how easily I could build my vision without coding that when they approached me to support the show, I jumped at the chance because I love and use this product. So go check it out. Squarespace.com Pep talk to test it out for yourself. And when you're ready to launch your site, use promo code. PEP talk all one word, all caps for 10% off your first purchase. Thanks goes out to Squarespace for supporting the show and supporting creators all over the world.
Unknown Speaker
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Andy J. Pizza
So the first one is, the first thing that helps me get unlost is admitting it. Now this. You know the worst thing you can do when you're lost is to just pretend like you're not. One of the things that inspires me the most as a creator is the way that Pixar goes about making their creative endeavors. One of the things that's just like, I don't even know if Pixar has ever had a movie that isn't certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Like, that is a serious track record. I could be wrong about there that they might have the odd One that is. But I don't know. I can't think of one off the top of my head that wasn't at least good. And then they have a ton of greats in there, too. And from the outside, it's easy to look at creators like Pixar and think they never miss, man. Like, they are flying from one hit to the next, the next. But if you are a bit of a fanboy and you take a look below the surface a bit, you're going to see that that's not flying from hit to hit. That's not flying at all. It is, as Buzz Lightyear would say himself, it's falling with style. And the reason it is is because they don't just bang out stellar screenplays one after the next. They actually fail over, over again. They have so many stories of writing a full movie, like storyboarding it, doing these screenings, and then going back to the drawing board being like, this is a stinker, man. In fact, Toy Story 2 was, I think, originally going to be made for TV movie, that kind of thing. And when it got really close to being done, they were like, we can't even put our name to this. We hate it. They started from scratch and they became, in my point of view, one of the first great sequels. Now, yes, we had Star wars the second movie, hailed as like one of the greatest ones in that whole franchise, but it's really rare. And then Pixar went on to do that a bunch of times, and it kind of changed how I felt about sequels, how the society maybe embraced sequels, maybe to the detriment of society now that we're sequel prequel three. Cool drowning. But either way, they did something that felt like it couldn't be done. And they didn't do it by flying hit after hit. They did it by failing with style, falling with style, admitting like, hey, oh, this isn't working. Back to square one. This isn't working. Back to square one. And so the first thing I think you have to do is admit it when you feel lost, don't just keep swimming. In the words of Dory from another Pixar film, don't keep swimming. Pause, admit it. Be like, okay, this doesn't feel right anymore. This doesn't feel good. That's the first thing that really, I think is really essential in getting unlost. The second thing that I think is an absolute must in staying unlost as much as possible in your creative journey is embracing the lost. Okay? It is part of the process. One of the worst things you can do when you're lost is to think, oh, no, I did something wrong. I'll never get back. Like, oh, I'm doing it wrong. Oh, why does this happen to me? There's something broken about the way that I'm engaging my creativity. Like, why, for me, a much more productive attitude and relationship with Lost is knowing that this is part of the journey. In fact, that being lost is essential to doing anything creative. The whole idea is that you are charting a path. You're not supposed to stay on the trail. And I think about how, you know, if you are just a casual consumer of creativity, that's like, you're going on a trail in the woods and you want to see those little painted marks on the trees that say you are on the trail. But if you're a trailblazer, those marks say that you are playing it too safe and they actually should make you feel uncomfortable. And so the whole idea that you. That doing creative work right would mean never getting lost is antithetical to the whole idea of what it means to be creative. It's to risk, it's to try things. Back in the day, a friend of a friend reached out. His name is Andy Mineo. He is a rapper who talks about faith and he's really funny and he's got a bunch of great songs. I didn't know him at the time, and a friend of a friend kind of connected us. He ended up being on the show years ago and we've kind of just stayed in touch. I think he's a really creative dude and has some great songs and also is just a funny guy. Guy who I love having chats with. But he has. At the start of one of his songs, he has this little EP called Lost. And at the start of one of his songs, I think it's the song Clarity, he says this. He's like, you have to realize that being lost is just part of the journey. Like, that is an essential part. And so if you can embrace it, you can actually. You don't. You don't have. If you don't embrace it, you're going to get into the fight or flight. And all of that survival energy, survival reaction is the opposite of your creative brain state. And not only that, I'm also really fascinated by this idea of good stress versus bad stress. I recommend you look this up. Bad stress being stress, good stress being eustress EU stress. And they're completely different. Your body metabolizes these things completely differently. We actually, you know, when they first started doing research around stress, they kind of felt like, all right, stress is bad. It's killing people, it's destroying people's hearts and brains, and it's leading to chronic illness. Like, we've got to get less stressed, man. Everyone just chill out, slow it down. And that's kind of good advice, I think, to our country in general. However, it's not as simple as that because the further they looked into it, they realized, like, actually, there's a type of stress that is really, really essential to, well, being, and it's this eustress. And then the kicker, the absolute mind boggler for me is that the difference between bad stress and good stress isn't like, what you're doing or the circumstance you're in necessarily, but a huge part of what can. What is that? What's the difference between these two things is not the what, but how you engage with it. If you resist the stress, if you resist the challenge, it will become bad stress in your body. But if you can reframe it and have a different mindset, if you can figure out a way to embrace the challenge that you are in, that stress can turn into eustress. That is the difference between good stress and bad stress. And so when you get lost, when you're starting to feel like, I've lost the plot, I've lost the trail, I don't know what I'm doing. I used to feel like I was, you know, right in the. In the sweet spot, making stuff that I was proud of, making stuff that connected. I was growing on this platform, I was making sales, whatever it was. The worst thing you could do is to stress about it in a way that is resisting the spot that you're in. And if instead you can see like, oh, being out in the wilderness is like the name of the game. Like, being. Being lost, getting lost, getting confused, letting yourself wonder, that is not. Yes, it's uncomfortable, but it doesn't mean that you aren't being creative. It doesn't mean that you've lost the creative thread. It actually is just part of the pendulum swing, the ebb and flow of being a creative. If you're not getting lost, you're. You're not doing it right. One thing we like to say on this show is this idea of our island. What do you expect? Is the thing I say to myself. And it comes from an episode we did a long time ago. And it's about how at the time, I was watching this History Channel show called Oak island, where they're looking for treasure in, I think, Nova Scotia. I don't know, it's been a minute since I've watched the show, and it's the Lagina brothers, and they. They're putting all their life's fortune into trying to find this missing treasure on. Off the coast, coast of Canada, on this island called Oak island, where supposedly the Templars or the Romans or the Vikings or the Spanish buried some treasure. Who knows? There's a lot. It's interesting. It's, it's. And it's also pretty funny. But one of the things that just absolutely blew my mind and it completely changed how I saw challenges, like feeling lost in the creative journey, was that when they would be digging or looking for treasure, if they ran into a massive problem, if they ran into what seemed like a booby trap, like something that was trying to stop them, they didn't get upset, they didn't shrink, they didn't pull away and resist. They saw it as a sign that they were on the right track. Because if there are booby traps, there's got to be treasure. You don't set up booby traps unless you're trying to keep someone out. And so it's helped me develop this idea of no booby traps, no treasure. And when I hit challenge, when I feel lost, I have trained my brain to be like, boom. Exactly. Means I'm trying new things. It means I'm exploring new territory. It means I'm not doing the easy route, the route that's paved. I'm trying something different. And it's led me to a place where I have got myself lost. And I. And I've trained myself to say what they say, which is when they hit a booby trapper, some kind of roadblock, they would say Oak Island. Like, what do you expect? Like, this thing is littered with booby traps. Like, that's the name of the game. Oak Island. What do you expect? And so I say to myself, art island, what do you expect? You expect it to be easy. You expect it to be a paint by numbers. Like, that's not what this thing is. And so I. When I find myself lost, I try to. I try to remember that that is the name of the game and embrace it. The third. The third thing is get moving. Get moving. This is huge. And I could explore this for a long time. We'll probably come back to it. But when you're lost as a kid, what do they tell you to do? You know, I got lost at Walgreens once when I was a kid, and it was so scary, man, I was probably, like 5 years old. Took A wrong turn, down the wrong aisle. I couldn't. You know, I was probably in that scenario where my dad and I are both looking for each other, but we're just missing each other, like, going throughout the whole store. And I was freaking out. And I remembered, what they tell you to do when you're a kid and you get lost? What do they tell you to do? They say stay put because it makes it easier for people to find you. Because when you're moving and they're moving, you're missing each other over and over again. And you might end up leaving the store thinking, oh, what if they're gone? You end up just making the radius of the search wider and wider and wider, and it makes it more and more impossible to find you. And so what do they say? They say, stay put and wait for someone to come find you. And that is great advice if you're a kid and your parent is looking for you at Walgreens. That is not good advice if you are a creator or a creative person, because no one is coming to find you. They don't even know you exist. And I don't even mean as a person. I mean, if you are on your path as a creator, if you are trying to unlock a type of creativity that only you can deliver, people don't know to look for it because it's never existed before. And not only that, I think we have this idea of this. I have this fantasy of the fairy art mother, this idea that someone's just going to come and discover my natural talent. That's Layton the diamond in the rough. Just like something I didn't even know I could do. And someone's going to just see it in me while I'm pumping gas or whatever. Like, I have always wanted that moment of Hagrid showing up and being like, you're a creative wizard. Like, I. It's just. I don't know what it is, and I don't think I'm alone in this. We want to be scouted for our talent. But the fact of the matter is, not only has that always been mostly a fantasy, because it's like winning the lottery that your past cross was somebody who could recognize some latent talent that you're not even developing or putting out there in the world. Not only was that always kind of a fantasy, it's even more of a fantasy now in the age of where publishers and record labels wait for you to prove that you've got something worthwhile before they give you a deal. You know, wait for you to Drum up and build connections with an audience before they even swoop in and support you. And so it's never been more of a fantasy, but it is. It's a very attractive, tempting way to play it. And. But the fact of the matter is, you can't stay put. No one's coming to find you. Now. Just a little side road to kind of illustrate this a little bit. Some story time. Story time. Okay. When I was in middle school, I lived in western New York. And I lived there for three years, and a series of things happened to where I ended up being one of the popular kids. And I had all these friends, and I had never been happier. I had these close friends who I just loved, and it just felt amazing. And so when we ended up moving back to Indiana, but into a totally different zone and school system far away from anyone that I knew, we moved back when I was a couple months already into high school. And so when I got there, the people that hadn't already made their friends and clicks in middle school had also quickly paired off at the beginning of high school just to find the strength in numbers. And I was coming in, like, October, and just nobody was looking for. No one was recruiting new friends. And I had to eat lunch by myself. And I did that for several days. Just, like, sat at this. In this island alone, just miserable, embarrassed. It was just brutal. And then one day, one of the popular girls who was kind of cut from a different cloth, I think she ended up in the Peace Corps, just a really, like, generous, sweet person came over and invited me to the popular table. And I don't know if her friends were down with this or not, but I was like, yes, I will, please. Like, this is it. Like, everything's coming back. I'm going to be popular again. And I'm embarrassed of the story, by the way. This is a vulnerable story. It's embarrassing to admit at any age that you wish you were popular, but there's a point. So I went and sat with the popular kids, and it was awkward and weird, but from that moment, I thought, okay, I've got to be one of these popular kids I've got, because I'm depressed and I'm struggling, and I've in this worked before. I need to do it again. And so I spent the next two years, freshman and sophomore year, really trying to become the kind of person that was popular. This was. This meant, you know, change in the music I listened to. I grew up listening to R B and rap, and all the popular kids listened to Dave Matthews And John Mayer and Oar and all this stuff. Jack Johnson. And I really hated it. But I listened to it because I thought that's what I gotta do. And I dressed differently, and I went and watched sports, which I hated to do. And I just completely changed who I was. And eventually I was kind of, you know, part of the popular group. I. I still think it was kind of like being the water boy or the towel boy for the basketball team. Like, I don't think I was on the team, but I was in the team. I was there. And the only problem was I was absolutely miserable. I hated being part of this crew. Not because they were bad people, because they just weren't my people. I wasn't anything like these people. And then I look back at the middle school years, and I realized, like, I wasn't happy because I was popular. I was happy because I had friends that I clicked with, that I liked. They were my people now. When I was in middle school, the way that I got into the popular group was a complete prank and fluke. In sixth grade when I moved there, one of the most popular girls friends asked me out for her, asked me if I wanted to be this her friend's boyfriend. And I said yes. I was like, cool. Yeah, you know, that. That's great. I don't think I even had a sense of, like, what that means at that age. And we did end up going out, which meant, like, I borrowed a pencil from her in math a couple times, and I think we spoke on the phone once. And it was awkward and terrible. But that was the extent of being boyfriend girlfriend at. In sixth grade. Come to find out, way after this happened. And I became a popular kid overnight because of this. Come to find out later that that was a prank that was kind of a mean girl prank that her. This friend asked me out for her, even though she didn't want to go out with me. And it was just to tease the new kid. But the girl that I dated, quote, unquote, dated, never wanted to go out with me, but was just too nice of a person to break my heart when I said yes. And so it was all a lie. It was all a sham, my popularity in middle school. But when I look back at those two occurrences, I'm glad that I not only said yes to the first girl that ended up in me being popular, but also to the second girl who invited me to the lunch table, even though it meant wasting a couple years of my life. I mean, who doesn't waste their freshman and sophomore year in Some way or another. But I'm glad that I said yes to that adventure, yes to the action, yes to the story, because guess what I learned. Something really valuable about being at the popular table is that it doesn't matter if these are not the people that you want to sit with, if these are not the people that you want to talk with. And you might think like, andy, I don't know if you know this, but high school was 20 years ago now for you. Like, did you really need to learn that lesson? Well, yeah, because I don't know if you know this, but illustration conferences, design conferences, clicks online like, there are still popular tables. No matter where you go in the temptation to fall into that hierarchy. Climbing is just such a poll. And I. Look, I'm the first to admit it, but I know that you feel it from time to time, and you probably learned one way or another that it's a waste of time if you don't actually want to be at that table. And so I'm glad that I learned it. And I learned it by saying yes. I learned it by taking action. I learned it by going through it. And this is, for me, what I realized. The worst thing I can do if I'm lost is to stay put and do nothing. The worst thing I can do is just sit and wait. The worst thing I could do is not do the wrong thing, but to do nothing. And there's this whole idea in psychoanalysis that I've ran into. It's called the Puerto Ric or the Puella Eternus. And it's this idea of the forever child and the. The Peter Pan syndrome, if you will, the kid that doesn't want to grow up, and the kid that stays at that lunch table alone because he's not sure if it's right to say yes, to go sit at the popular table. That kid that stays alone doing nothing in their own island, that is the Peter Pan. And it's tempting. It's more tempting than it might seem. And it's this idea that when you look out into the possibilities of your future and you get paralyzed in your analysis of all the possibilities, it can feel like a better plan than to collapse all those possibilities into one reality if that reality is wrong. But here's the thing. If you choose a path, if you take action, yes, for a period of time, you know, if you do a project, if you. If you commit to going to school, if you take a job, whatever it is, if you commit to one path for a period of time, yes, the possibilities for that freshman sophomore year, yes, the possibilities for that six months or year, whatever commitment length it is, yes, the possibilities are going to collapse from infinity into that one reality. But if you don't say yes, those infinite possibilities are going to collapse into no reality, into nothing. Because doing nothing is also a decision. And for me, I have found that when I'm lost, what I need to do is I need to come up with a hypothesis. I need to create a project, you know, big or small, the right length of how, how sure am I that this is the right way? You know, am I sure, sure enough to make one piece of work in this direction? Or am I sure enough to commit to a six week project where I make a piece every week? Or am I sure enough to where I'm going to do 50 in this direction? I'm going to do a whole gallery show, I'm going to do a whole podcast. Like whatever it is, you know, don't bite off more than you can chew. But I try to make a small bet, a small commitment in that direction and not learn by overthinking, but learn by taking action. Because even the wrong path is a more powerful set of data than doing nothing. And so that's, that's the third bit. Get moving, get doing, take action. That's where you're going to find the answers. Foreign.
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Andy J. Pizza
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Unknown Speaker
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Andy J. Pizza
This is your creative call to adventure. Every episode we try to leave you with one thing that you can actively go out there and do not just like, think, oh, that was cool. Good. Back to being lost in the creative wilderness. No, do something right now. After you stop listening to the show, here's what I want you to do. Phone a friend. Phone a friend. I don't care if it's your mom, your dad, your brother, your, your friend from high school, whoever it is, phone a friend. Maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your kid. Sometimes I talk to my 16 year old about stuff I'm working through. Just kind of give her a slice of, like, what I'm going through. You know, if it's a problem that feels not, not too heavy, if it's a creative problem, phone a friend. At the very least, phone yourself. Get on the voice memo app and just take a walk and just dump it out. But I highly recommend that you do this. And the thinking here is, you know, I'm this ADHD person who forgets to charge their phone, forgets to check where they're going, gets lost on tangents. I've been lost as an adult more than most people ever were lost as a child. Okay, I can get really easily lost. I've told stories of being lost on this podcast many times. You've heard them. If you're a longtime listener, I'm not going to tell them again. But what I will tell you is this. For a minute. After some of my big, like, really getting lost and kind of getting in trouble for it, like getting into dangerous situations from getting lost, I mean, laughing. Who gets lost in modern times? It still happens to me. Happened to me just a couple of years ago. But when I've got really lost, really, really lost, it is embarrassing and it's scary and it's excruciating. And if you're in a time in your creative journey where you're feeling lost, you're probably feeling all those feelings. Embarrassed, upset, worried, scared. Like, those are the feelings that are associated with that and that's completely normal. And when I have got into that spot in the past, some of the first few times, I thought, I'm going to be the type of person that never gets lost because this freaking sucks. And I've tried that in my creative journey too, to just be like, okay, getting lost sucks. How do you never get lost as a creative person? And like I've said, that's impossible. I learned the hard way. It's part of the journey, it's part of the process. Everyone gets lost. No matter how great you are, it's a terrible plan. Like, being lost is just Part of being adhd, it's just part of being a creative who wants to follow their curiosity like that is it's just impossible. You can't get good at not getting lost. But what you can get good at is getting found quickly, getting unlost quickly, not staying lost for too long. And so now if I start feeling like I think I'm lost, I'm going to do whatever I can. If my phone's dead, I'm going to go knock on someone's door and say, hey, can I borrow your phone? I'm going to call my wife. I'm going to call my dad. I'm going to call somebody to help figure out where I am or ask to use someone's phone, find a map, you know, whatever it is, I am going to take action. The second that I have realize that I'm off track, I am going to connect with somebody. I'm going to phone a friend, and I'm going to start taking action. So phone a friend, admit that you're lost. Admit, hey, you know, and maybe they're lost on something too, and you guys can help. You guys go get coffee or something. You know, honestly, I feel like back in the day, if I would give this. You know, I've been doing this podcast 10 years. If I would have given this advice seven years ago, I would have felt, like, totally great about it. But I can tell that there's a part of me that is feeling a bit like we're living in a time where over the past eight years, just for one thing after another, has felt like it's made it more and more isolated. It's hard to phone a friend. And I just want to recognize that that's the truth, that a lot of people I know have lost. A lot of. A lot of people have become more and more isolated and lonely. And I want to recognize that that makes it harder. But I also want to say even more reason to just make it happen. One of the things that Sophie and I have been doing is just make an effort to see people. It doesn't have to be perfect. There are going to be challenges. But everything we know about, you know, the longest study, I think it's a Harvard study that's ever been done on. I think it's the longest study they, like, studied generation after generation with these families. And the thing they found about happiness more than anything, that the key was relationships. And Arthur C. Brooks has a whole book about design the life you want, I think it's called. And again, same findings, like having Relationships matter, and that's not what this show is about. It's a little bit deeper than my pay grade as a creative talker, but I just want to recognize the reality that we're living in a time where it's not as easy to phone a friend as it used to be. It's more awkward than ever to say, hey, do you want to sit and let's go talk about our creative practices. It's tricky, but I just, I think that isn't an excuse not to do it. It's an excuse. It's a reason to take it that much more seriously. So I hope that you do. I hope you go hash it out with somebody and hope that you work through these things. Admit that you're lost. That's number one. Number two was embrace it. Realize this is part of it. No booby traps, no treasure. That's what the creative process and journey is all about. And three, take action. Do experiments, place little bets. And I've done the same thing in my mental health, too. Like, if I've had seasons where I told you earlier this year that I was in a burnout place, and it was. It was a dark moment for me, really, or some depression and, and anxiety that I hadn't really experienced before, and I had to do the same thing that I do in my creative practice, which is admit it, embrace it for what it is, and then place bets, keep trying things, keep taking action. Sitting around and doing nothing is not going to change it. And so, you know, I don't have all the answers for that. There were times where, you know, I did all that stuff and it didn't go away for a long time. And it, you know, I think once you've experienced that stuff in your life, you're gonna. You're gonna always have a relationship to it, whether you like it or not. But I can say that I'm glad that I worked through this process in that way and also in my creativity. I will say if you, if you really do struggle with real depression, anxiety, don't, don't just listen to this podcast. Phone a friend. Phone a professional. Find a way to make a plan and take some action. All right, massive thanks to all of you for listening. You don't know. My name is Andy J. Pizza. I'm a New York Times best selling picture book author, illustrator, and I've made this podcast for a long time because I know that building a thriving creative practice is a series of ups and downs. There are times where you're crushing it. There's times where you're losing it. And I just make this show to share everything that I'm learning as I have this lifelong pursuit of creating and maintaining a thriving and creative practice. And I hope that you got something from it. If you want to make it, not just a creative hobby or something that happens irregularly and doesn't really build or amount to anything. We do this show every week to help stimulate your creativity week in and week out, so that it doesn't just stay as a hobby but becomes a practice. I know for me, I realize that I have to make stuff, I have to make a couple things I like every week or I start feeling just sad about it. I have a friend, illustrator Will Bryant, he made this hat actually, and he has this piece of lettering that says I make stuff because if I don't, I get sad. That is just a fact for me. I don't know what it is. And it reminds me of what Beth Pickens says, who is a creative coach and therapist. And she says the difference between a non artist and artist, everybody's creative, but an artist has to make or their mental health suffers. That's me. And so that's one of the reasons I make this show, is not because it has all the answers, but because it comes up. We come up with ideas and we share things that have helped and worked and seem like they could work and things that we could bet on and try each and every week so that you don't lose your way completely, that you can string together weekend week out throughout your year reminding yourself that you want to create a practice, that you're trying this thing, that you're going to keep making small bets. And so you can go to andijpizza.substack.com and sign up to the newsletter. It means that despite any algorithm, despite any, you know, your app choices or whatever, you will get one of these episodes delivered to your inbox week in and week out. And sometimes we have little resources in there, little worksheets, little journal prompts, stuff like that. And yeah, we send one a week. Thank you to Sophie Miller, my wife, for being a editor and co producer of the show. Thanks to Connor Jones of Pending Beautiful for the audio and video edits and sound design. Thanks to Yoni Wolf and the band Y for our theme music and soundtrack. And thanks to all of you for listening till we speak again. Stay pepped up.
Mike Toffel
How are business leaders working to confront climate change? For that answer, listen to the award winning Climate Rising podcast produced by Harvard Business School and hosted by me, Mike toffel a professor at hbs. Each episode we share a behind the scenes view into how startups and the biggest businesses like Microsoft, Google and Seventh Generation are tackling the central issue of our era. Check out Climate Rising wherever you get your podcasts.
Creative Pep Talk Episode 495: "3 Steps To Get Un-Lost As A Creative"
Host: Andy J. Pizza
Release Date: March 5, 2025
Podcast Description: A Weekly Podcast Companion for Your Creative Journey
In Episode 495 of Creative Pep Talk, host Andy J. Pizza delves into the unsettling experience of feeling lost on the creative journey. Drawing from personal experiences and insights from industry giants like Pixar, Pizza offers a roadmap to regain direction and momentum. This episode is particularly resonant for creatives who find themselves paralyzed by uncertainty and longing for clarity in their artistic endeavors.
Andy opens the discussion by acknowledging the universal fear of feeling lost creatively. He likens this state to being physically lost in the woods—each step forward is fraught with anxiety about whether it's leading closer to or further from one's goals. This paralysis often stems from over-analysis, leaving creatives stuck in a state of inaction.
Andy J. Pizza [00:10]: "When you're lost, if you're actually lost, like in the woods or somewhere, every step you take is filling you with anxiety because you don't know if you're getting further away from where you want to be or closer to where you want to be."
Andy contrasts this distressing state with moments of creative flow—when everything aligns, breakthroughs occur, and one's work resonates with others. However, he emphasizes that losing this "pulse" is both natural and manageable.
The first crucial step Andy outlines is the admission of feeling lost. Ignoring or denying this feeling only exacerbates the paralysis.
Andy J. Pizza [05:11]: "The worst thing you can do when you're lost is to just pretend like you're not."
Andy draws inspiration from Pixar's iterative creative process. Contrary to popular belief, Pixar doesn't produce hits back-to-back effortlessly. Instead, they embrace failure, often discarding entire projects if they're not meeting their high standards.
Andy J. Pizza [06:45]: "They don't just bang out stellar screenplays one after the next. They actually fail over, over again... They hate it. They start from scratch and they become one of the first great sequels."
By acknowledging failure and admitting when things aren't working, creatives can reset and approach their work with renewed perspective.
The second step encourages creatives to accept that feeling lost is an integral part of the creative process. Rather than viewing it as a setback, it's an opportunity for exploration and growth.
Andy references rapper Andy Mineo's perspective on embracing being lost as part of the journey. He also introduces the concept of "eustress" (good stress) versus "distress" (bad stress), explaining that embracing challenges can transform anxiety into productive energy.
Andy J. Pizza [16:30]: "If you can reframe it and have a different mindset, if you can figure out a way to embrace the challenge that you are in, that stress can turn into eustress."
Using the example of Oak Island treasure hunters, Andy illustrates how encountering obstacles is a sign of being on the right track. This mindset shift—from viewing roadblocks as failures to seeing them as proof of pursuit—empowers creatives to persist despite uncertainties.
The final step focuses on taking action to overcome the stagnation that comes with feeling lost. Unlike the childhood advice to "stay put" when lost in a store, creatives must proactively seek solutions rather than wait for direction.
Andy shares a personal anecdote from his high school years, emphasizing that taking initiative—even if it leads to awkward or uncomfortable situations—is preferable to inaction.
Andy J. Pizza [23:50]: "The worst thing I can do if I'm lost is to stay put and do nothing."
He advocates for making small commitments or "bets" to experiment and discover new paths. Whether it's starting a new project, seeking feedback, or simply moving forward with a tentative idea, taking action generates valuable data that can inform future decisions.
Andy J. Pizza [29:15]: "Even the wrong path is a more powerful set of data than doing nothing."
As a practical takeaway, Andy introduces the "Phone a Friend" call to action. He encourages listeners to reach out to someone they trust to discuss their creative struggles. Sharing feelings of being lost can provide new insights, support, and motivation to move forward.
Andy J. Pizza [32:15]: "Phone a friend. I highly recommend that you do this."
In acknowledgment of modern challenges, Andy also touches on the increasing isolation many creatives face. He underscores the importance of building and maintaining relationships as a cornerstone of both happiness and creative success.
Andy J. Pizza [32:45]: "Having relationships matter... Everything we know about... the key was relationships."
Andy J. Pizza concludes the episode by reiterating the cyclical nature of creativity—oscillating between thriving and moments of doubt. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a creative practice not just as a hobby, but as a disciplined endeavor that sustains mental well-being and artistic growth.
Andy J. Pizza [42:10]: "If you are trying to unlock a type of creativity that only you can deliver, people don't know to look for it because it's never existed before."
Encouraging listeners to subscribe to his newsletter and engage with additional resources, Andy ensures that creators have continuous support in their creative journeys.
Stay inspired and keep pushing forward on your creative path!