“There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls.”
-Aeschylus-
…audio version of the article for any reader that prefers not reading…
…i do care about you, that is why i wrote this…but also the song above RULES…FEAR rules…
Are you afraid of what others will think about your work? Afraid that your work won’t be good enough? Good. Because you need to have FEAR to make your best work.
Let me explain.
Meet Dominik.1 Dominik is a creator. I talked to Dom today about creating. It is a conversation I am having a lot these days as we start to bring in new clients to UIU2. Dom is filled with an infinite amount of great ideas and great stories.
He used to throw house parties as a means to meet people. He is a German Canadian living atop the arctic circle in Norway. He is a dad, just got engaged, and met his wife by crashing a wedding party seven years ago. He does stand up, creates research projects, and builds teams and systems.
The dude is an inkwell of content and he wanted my advice on how he should proceed as a creator. This is what I told him.
FEAR. You need to have a healthy dose of FEAR.
You don’t need to be afraid, far from it. What you need is to create a system for yourself that is…
Fun
Easy
Accomplishable
Repeatable
Humans are creative, but when given opportunities to create we oftentimes don’t out of of fear. Fear of failing. Fear of not being good. Fear of being hurt. Fear of no one liking us. Fear is our internalized safety mechanism to keep us safe. Fear is a deterrent.
But fear can also be how we do. Fear can be how we create things. To escape our fear is to step into it, to go through it, to use our FEAR.
Do you think Jimi Hendrix wrote Are You Experienced because he was afraid? No $%#^ing way. The dude stabbed a hole in his forehead, put an acid tab on that bloody hole, threw a headband around it and then set his guitar on fire while playing it with the wrong hand in order to make some of the best music on the face of the earth because he wasn’t afraid (seriously just quit reading this and go listen to Band of Gypsies right now).
The work should be Fun.
The work should be Easy.
The work should be Accomplishable.
The work should be Repeatable.
If you have FUN while you are doing something, then the time is valuable. You will feel good. It is good to feel good. Make your creativity fun and every chance you get to have fun, you will go and do that.
If you are a writer, write in a way that is enjoyable. Talk to a phone, type on a typewriter, sprawl and scrawl with pens on paper. Whatever feels good, do that.
Finding pleasure in the work you do is a great way to ensure that work is continuous. I make writing FUN by doing it on hikes, when I am watching bad silent yeti movies, and by writing about things I enjoy and believe in (like the one day I became a squirrel).
I have FUN writing with and around other people. I host a weekly writer’s group so that I can get and give feedback on ideas (DM me to join, it is every Monday at 9AM PDT and it is totally FUN and totally FREE). I write in an online coffee house so I can feel like I am working with others (https://www.thesukha.co/app).
Hanging out with people is FUN. Writing in a community is FUN. Which brings me to the next point.
If the work you are doing is FUN, it might also come EASY which means you are not likely to stop doing it. Complicated problems are interesting, but no one needs to be trapped inside of a riddle of their own making.
Set goals for creativity that are EASY to you.
Write once a week, or once a month, either way you are still a writer. I write one sentence every single day (done!). Sing in the shower, and you can be a singer. Want to solve complicated problems? You can. Just figure out a way to make that problem simple, and then you can guarantee it will get solved. A complicated problem is EASY when you approach it one step at a time.
Your creativity should be ACCOMPLISHABLE.
FUN EASY tasks are ACCOMPLISHABLE. Maybe your dream is to build an intelligent skyscraper that can walk itself between cities. What a wild idea! If you try to build that today, from scratch, you are not going to. It’s not going to happen.
But if you decide to learn about skyscraper engineering, create conversations with moving building thinkers (…do these exist?…if not let’s make it so…), create concepts in intelligent design circles, and start building/writing/creating the components for making your idea, then we might eventually have walking talking sentient buildings.
My buddy Lee tells me, “Moving a mountain all at once is overwhelming/impossible. Moving it rock by rock is ACCOMPLISHABLE.”
If you can’t do it, then you won’t do it.
So create a system for yourself that you will never fail. And when you inevitably fail, forgive yourself. Failing is doing, and you are here to do things. Start by doing the things you can. A writer who writes 10 words a day is as much as a writer as me (who writes a non-negotiable-negative-nine-hundred-ninety-nine words every, single, day).
Whatever you set your goal to, make sure it is a goal you will never let yourself down with (make it fun and easy and accomplishable).
And then make your process REPEATABLE.
If you want to be a good talker you need to talk. A lot. A painter should paint as much as they can. Tomas Edison said “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” It might take 10,000 tries before you truly do anything. So set yourself up to do whatever you want to do 10,000 times. Or 100,000 times. Or 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 times (also known as a #$*#load of times).
Make it REPEATABLE. I like music so this seems an appropriate place to link to one of my favorite songs ever by a band called the Pink Fairies where they implore us to “do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it”.
That is what we need to do.
$%^# Nike. Don’t just do it.
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it.
Fun
Easy
Accomplishable
Repeatable
Steph Curry is the greatest three point shooter in NBA history. Not because he picked up a ball and shot it once, but because he picked it up and shot it every single day, thousands of times. He worked with FEAR. Basketball was FUN for him, practicing and learning the game was an EASY task, playing the sport was ACCOMPLISHABLE, and the practice to get better was REPEATABLE. He is a basketball sorcerer because he used FEAR.
If you create a system based on FEAR you will succeed.
You can’t fail having fun. Life is better when it is easy. Accomplishing anything is the epitome of creativity. And if you repeat that, then you are an artist.
You can be afraid. You can be very afraid. And you can be a creator. You just have to go ahead and share your FEAR. Create with it. Make your work FUN, EASY, ACCOMPLISHABLE and REPEATABLE and I guarantee we will get to see it. We can’t be our self if we can’t see our self. So do it. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it.
Have FEAR. Share it with us.
…do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it…
“Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another's fear.”
-Umberto Eco-
*a special thanks to Dominik for helping me find the acronym inside this idea. You should read his stuff here because without him I might have never found FEAR.
**Thanks as well to Coach Lee Smart3 for giving feedback, editing and improving this article. You can read more from that fearless dude right here.
***my name is CansaFis Foote and you just read my mind…
…editor’s note…
I also want to link to the best SNL performance of all time…the punk rock band FEAR destroying the stage on Halloween night 1981 and bringing honest to goodness rock and roll to “the house that Lorne built”…FEAR rocked so hard they were banned from the show4…i hope you rock even harder with whatever you choose to create with your FEAR…
FOOTENOTES
https://dominiksnotebook.substack.com
https://uiu.lol
https://www.leeasmart.com/
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/punk-band-fear-banned-snl-reason-video/
Absolutely loved this. Fun. Easy. Accomplishable. Repeatable. What a recipe for a great life, not just creatively and professionally but for everything. Also love the audio version... you have a radio voice (not to say you don't also have a tv face). Keep on creatin'
Hey man, I just came across this article and this was such a FEARful read. It was fun, easy, accomplishable, and repeatable - I mean every word. The audio version improved this essay by A TON, so if you enjoy doing it, I hope you keep doing it. Thanks for sharing this to the world. 🙌🏼