Pause

We live in some pretty remarkable times. Your smartphone is more powerful than any computer President Reagan had at his disposal. 

We can launch businesses while nestled in a corner booth at a coffee shop. 

And its easier than ever to start a campaign, community, or movement. 

But with greater opportunity also comes heightened risk and the need to pause before stimulus and response. 

Your Tweets, Posts, and comments are now there for posterity. A reactive moment, which reveals our less than best selves reminds us of our humanity but also of the need to take personal inventory before responding.

Take a moment, however hard, to pause before making a tough decision, reacting to the driver that cut you off in traffic, or posting your thoughts on a particular topic. 

Try coming back to the matter a few minutes, hours, or even a day after and see if you feel differently. 

In time, you develop the capacity to be led by reason rather than emotion. 

No Matter How Tempting, Don't Get Flustered

Ever have one of those days where you feel like all you're doing is putting out fires? You lock yourself out of your apartment, there's a hiccup with technology you depend on, or someone didn't honor a commitment?

You can bet money those days will occur throughout your life no matter how many contingency plans you've mentally mapped out. It's just a integral part of life.

The good news is we can control how we react. We can choose to keep our poise and not give into feeling flustered. We may not instantly have a clear sense of how to resolve a particular issue, but by tempering the role emotion plays we can at least set the foundation for digging ourselves out.

Perspective is rarely, if ever, gained while worked up. Keep your cool.

Fueled By Anger

We often don't account for how much "grey area" there is in life. In western culture in particular we tend to think things are unequivocally right or wrong - black or white.

The truth is, the nuances of life leave plenty of room for doubt and different interpretation. As one of my friends likes to say, "Two opposing views can be equally true."

I think anger gets a lot of negative airplay. It's an emotion most believe we ought to get rid of. But I disagree.

Anger can be a helpful emotion so long as it does not consume you and is channelled in a productive and positive way.

The American Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Arab Spring were all byproducts of some form of anger used effectively. 

And as an artist you can use it to fuel your drive, creativity, and determination to reject the status quo.

So be angry towards mediocrity, laziness, griping, not taking initiative, self-pity, and your industry's limited thinking. 

THEN

Use that has fuel to surround yourself with like-minded and positive people who support your vision. 

Use it to nudge you to not wait for the phone to ring and instead create your own films, monologues, plays, murals, songs, books, screenplays, and choreography.

Use it to push you to start something of value.

Fleeting Motivators

We're all driven by different motivators to create - to succeed in our chosen careers. For some, it's the desire to make their communities a better place to live. Others are driven by extrinsic factors like fame, money, or notoriety. Some are even galvanized by anger; a commitment to proving the naysayers wrong.

I'm not placing judgement on what drives you. But in my own observations, I've noticed that all are fleeting. They come and go because their foundations are built on emotion. And emotions by nature are capricious - ever-changing.

Seeing something you care about all the way through from beginning to end will be require reminding yourself of your, "Intrinsic Why," over and over - through thick and thin.

How does what you want line up with your values, core principles? In other words, what does what you want say about you?

Figure that out and it'll be hard to stop you.