What Have You Learned?

What do you know today that you didn't know 5 years ago?

Last month?

Yesterday?

If the answer is nothing you're not in service to yourself.

Thus,

not in service to others.

Then,

what's the point?

What I've Learned (so far) Trying to Make a Feature Film

Making a feature film is hard. Very hard. It rarely, if ever, dawned on me how good I had it as an actor. If I was fortunate enough to book a role, my job was to simply to show, hit my mark, and punch a clock.

Acting as a producer feels a little more like tugging a cruise ship with a dinghy. Resources are scarce, the waters choppy, and land rarely in sight.

Despite a challenging landscape, my team and I have forged a special bond; the kind of character and grit that's fostered only when adversity comes knocking. 

As we move forward with our shoot date here are some of the ways we've been able to gel as a team, and a few strategies we've agreed are important for our future success.  

Agreeing on the Mission

We discovered how important it is for everyone to be on the same page when it comes to WHY we're making a film in the first place. Our "why" will act as our north star when we feel unanchored or lose sight of the goal at hand.

The why needs to be personal, founded on intrinsic rewards, and bigger than just one person.

Focusing on ONLY the Essential

One of the tricky parts of making an ultra-low budget film is the lack of resources. Everyone on the production team is forced to wear many different hats. 

Still, we recognize the importance of knowing our exact duties, and subsequently gain a clearer sense of what we don't need to be doing. 

Having a clearly defined goal allows us to put all our energy and resources into making our ONE thing happen.

Getting Good at Saying, "No"

I've yet to meet a golden retriever I didn't like or a person that enjoys disappointing others. But the ability to say no (politely) is crucial in reaching any meaningful endeavor. Today, we have to go to war against distraction. Its arsenal is vast, its methods assorted. If it's not a text it's a ping, post, or poke.

As a result, we've implemented a policy that says if you're asked to complete a task not congruent to what you need to be doing, you can and should say, "no." The individual whose job it is will simply have to find a way to delegate the task or get it done on their own.

We need to get equally comfortably saying, "I don't know," as we do saying, "No." Each have become stigmatized when in actuality require tremendous courage.

In the end, people end up respecting the boundaries you set-up and start spreading the memo your time is valuable and your goals a priority. 

Radical Transparency and Honesty

We've all agreed holding each other to a high standard is crucial. We can be thoughtful but still preach honesty.

For example, it's been my job to get the LLC taken care of for our feature film for the past 3 weeks. For one reason or another this still hasn't happened. To put it plainly, I have failed to execute my responsibilities.

We are trying to cultivate an environment where any team member would feel both comfortable and within his or her rights to pose the question, "Why hasn't this been completed yet? What obstacles are standing in your way? And do you need support to make sure you reach your deadline?"

Personal accountability dwarfs all, but having a group of like-minded people willing to hold your feet to the far is indispensable. 

Setting Deadlines

Putting a date on a goal has a remarkable affect on production. When someone knows they have to get something done by a particular day they will move mountains to make it happen. Remember the science fair? Conversely, if there's no timeline, projects will collect dust and start to drift aimlessly.

Together, we plan on setting deadlines for each of our tasks and sharing them with the group on Trello so our objectives and time frame are transparent to all.

Keep Asking, "What's the ONE thing I should be working on to move this goal forward?"

Our head of social media has managed to gain over 2,000 followers on Twitter in just under a month. 

How?

Delilah's sole objective was to build our presence on social media. 

That's it. 

By concentrating on that and that alone, she has built an engaged audience who now feel emotionally invested in seeing our story told.  

Putting all our resources and energy into getting the ONE thing done also strips away distraction, and ensures we make significant progress in the arena that counts rather than meager gains in the ones that don't.

No Hierarchy 

Each person's role is important, every voice matters, and spirited debate is always welcome. None of us claim to have all the answers and have found the joy of stumbling through this odyssey together.

What's important is that everyone feels comfortable speaking up when a problem arises and that their work is equally challenging as it is engaging.

Finally, we make sure our idealism is fiercely protected but also grounded. Executing a dream without a concrete plan isn't bold, it's dangerous. 

As we get closer to making our film a reality we're sure to make many mistakes and likely won't see eye-to-eye on every matter, but we've created a culture that will not only sustain those setbacks, but reshape them into lessons we can leverage. 

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Plus, I’d love to share my free Creativity Day Planner — a simple two -page template on building good daily habits.

Quiet is Good

This morning I left my apartment at about 5:30 am. There's a rare clarity that comes with leaving so early. It's almost as if you're in on some little secret about how the world really works. 

The nuances and subtleties of everyday living that are so easy to overlook while hailing a cab or scanning a touchscreen are practically in 3D. 

Life, however briefly, makes perfect sense.

I felt tempted to throw on my iPod and start blasting some inspirational tunes to wake me from my stupor but instead took a long stroll to work and did nothing but sit with my thoughts. 

I let them lead the way regardless of how nonsensical, non sequitur, or nonsignificant. 

For a moment I didn't give into the noise. I passed up the chance to prioritize the nonessential. And I chose to listen rather than busy myself.

As author Greg McKeown puts it:

"What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?"

Quiet is good. 

                                                                   -----

If you enjoyed this article, sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter with my favorite book, film, and travel recommendations in addition to my latest articles on productivity and inspiration.

Plus, I’d love to share my free Creativity Day Planner — a simple two -page template on building good daily habits.

  

The Trouble with Great Books

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” ― Groucho Marx

We read to remind ourselves we're not alone. When we come across the right passage while flipping through the pages of a book there's a moment, however fleeting, that someone somewhere understands us better than we know ourselves. 

When we highlight, doggy-ear, or write about a feeling we were convinced no one else ever felt we're given a reprieve from our isolation.

But books can also inhibit us from sharing the insights we know to be true. We fear the likes of Seneca, Montaigne, and Jung have a monopoly on wisdom and as a result hesitate to share our own. 

The key is recognize these people, wise as they may have been, were also just PEOPLE. We musn't allow books, however great, to set boundaries on our curiosity or ability to think for ourselves. 

As Socrates said, "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing." 

Such a proclamation should offer both solace and at the same time be an invitation to share OUR deepest selves.  

The true artistry of conversation as the late Irish poet John O'Donohue observed is when you overhear yourself say something you didn't know you knew.

But we must first give ourselves the opportunity to do so by loving books, while not allowing them to place borders on our minds.

You Have Plenty of Time

Dani and I had exchanged, what seemed like an infinite number of emails, texts, and missed calls before finally pinning down a date to meet for coffee. 

“SO MUCH to talk about and I think it’s meant to be that we talk soon,” she told me. 

Dani and I met just a year earlier, while volunteering at an elementary school in East Los Angeles. Right away, I could sense a restlessness about her; the beautiful angst that often accompanies youth, possibility, and not quite knowing what to do with it all.

As we casually sipped our coffees at a busy Culver City coffee shop, I saw a bit of my former self, sans tattoo and the shiny Vespa helmet sitting beside her. I recalled once feeling so young, but that I was quickly running out of time to make my mark on the world. 

I wanted to start the journey, the Appian Way to my unrealized dreams, but like her, I didn’t know where to begin. 

Listening to Dani that afternoon, everything seemed hurried as her words tried valiantly to keep pace with her thoughts. 

She showed me notes from a scratch pad Kerouac himself might have toted, full of scribbled thoughts, arrows and charts in tow. Her confusing notebook resembled a fake map devised to mislead an invading army.

But Dani was a very special girl whose passions varied from becoming a filmmaker to a human rights activist. I could tell she’d sought my help that afternoon for a little guidance on what to do and how to get the ball rolling

“If you think of all the things you want to get done at once, you’ll quickly get overwhelmed,” I said.  “You’re young and have plenty of time. First, pick one thing and do it as best you can. As you continue to try different things, your path will slowly reveal itself to you. And then, it gets simpler. Work really hard, be kind, and doors will start to open.”

Having Ideas is Not Unique

It's estimated that we have between 35 - 50 thoughts a minute. Needless to say, thoughts are not unique, not even good ones.

We probably all have a relative, friend, or colleague who's been pitching his or her idea for the next great screenplay, book, or film to us for years. You may have even silently concluded, I'd see that movie, or buy that book.

What IS unique is the ability to execute on those ideas. It's the quality that separates those who succeed and make meaningful creative contributions from those who simply go on talking about it wondering what might have been.

As, German philosopher Friedrich Engels once noted, "An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." 

Rest

"Renew thyself completely each day: do it again, and again, and forever again." Powerful words.

Every artist will feel burnout at what time or another. In those moments of stepping away from our craft, our thoughts, and ourselves we replenish not only our creative capacities but the soul that fuels them.

Remember to value the importance of rest.