Transcript
A (0:01)
Welcome to five Minute Magic from the Mindful Creative Podcast, a short bonus episode sharing tips and insights from the pages of the book of the same title. Every week I'll be sharing one or two ideas that can give you an actionable takeaway for your creative process, your work, your business, or just food for thought for the weekend ahead. These episodes share content from the audiobook and you can find the link to the full version in the show notes below. Below. In this episode we are opening the last chapter of the book and I don't know how I feel about it because I'm running out of the content, mainly due to the fact that I've interviewed far too many people for this season and I think that's a good problem to have. So the last chapter is called Grow and the reason why I named it Grow and ended up the same way with Creativity For Sale Book. Because if you have done all the work, you should be in a place that is a little more comfortable, gives you more resilience, you've got a better outlook on creativity in life. And I hope that no one would like to go back and say, you know what? I was killing myself with burnout. I was killing myself with worry. I was killing myself with false narrative and anxiety. Yeah, let's do that again. I hope that no one does that. The chapter Grow has as an illustration a picture of a one way sign. And that's to symbolize the fact that hopefully we just, you know, when we do the work on ourselves, when we do the work on our creative careers and our businesses, we keep heading forward. Because, you know, that's where the magic begins to happen. In today's episode, from the Job to Grow, we're going to talk about the fact that we are work in progress. Those words have always grounded it for me. When I was tearing my hair out with things that wouldn't go well, or thinking I should be somewhere else, just remind myself that today is another day when I can grow a little bit more.
B (2:02)
Chapter 9 Grow. You are your work in progress. Every section of this book points to the same end, your continual growth as a creative human being. Growth never stops if you don't want it to, but it can easily splutter and come to a standstill if you don't keep your cup topped up, that is, if you fall back into unhelpful, negative habits, there is no finished you. The work doesn't stop when the immediate pain goes away. Life, creative or otherwise, is a constant series of small efforts that all have their part to play in the overall picture. Once you've got your positive habits and routines up and running, it's vital that you keep them in place and continue to work at them. They will become more like second nature over time. But it's surprising how easy we can lapse back into negative habits, especially when something beyond our control throws us off course. For example, you might make the effort to exercise every day and then get injured and be unable to perform your usual routine. We can usually find some alternative way to get our exercise in, but we can just as easily become discouraged and quickly get used to not exercising again. It can require a conscious effort to get back on it. You need self discipline to keep yourself on track and motivated for growth to continue. We have to keep learning about ourselves and the world and the people around us. In order to learn, we have to remain open, receptive and humble. We have to make mistakes every now and again, and even embrace failure. Of course, when mistakes occur and failure happens, all the old negative thought patterns and habits will be waiting in a darkened corner of your mind like an unwanted surprise party. Occasionally you may slip back, but you will always remember to get back up. And you will always have a little more knowledge than you did before.