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Aug. 11, 2024
Back to Basics: Building Blocks of Creativity
Making Fun A Habit Series
30 days to add fun to your creative practice. I will be going through Mike Brennan's Make Fun A Habit workbook and help you make fun a habit. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike on my other podcast Find A Podcast About and talking about his podcast Creative Chats. This workbook leads you through steps to rekindle the fun in your life and get you in a space where you are your most creative. This is a 30-day book and I will be tackling each day as if it were a week and providing you insights on how you can use his ideas in your creative practice. Each chapter is broken up with a short story, questions to ponder, action items, and tips.
In this episode of the Create Art Podcast, host Timothy Kimo Brien discusses the importance of making creativity enjoyable and habitual, inspired by Michael Brennan's book 'Making Fun a Habit.' Timothy shares insights from over 30 years of experience in arts and education to help listeners tame their inner critic and create more frequently. He explores creativity's basics and building blocks by asking key questions, setting creative routines, overcoming obstacles, and engaging in community activities and challenges.
Assignment
Questions
- What do you enjoy creating? Why?
- What would it look like to have a regular routine of creating?
- What are your objections and obstacles? How can you solve these?
Action Items
- Start a daily creativity journal
- Take a class or a workshop
- Join a creative community
- Set a creativity challenge for yourself
- Experiment with different mediums
- Don't be afraid to share your work
Tips
- Find something that you enjoy creating
- Set aside some time each day to create
- Don't be afraid to experiment
- Don't worry about being perfect
- Share your creations with others
- Track and measure what you create
Reach Out To The Podcast
To reach out to me, email timothy@createartpodcast.com I would love to hear about your journey and what you are working on. If you would like to be on the show or have me discuss a topic that is giving you trouble write in and let's start that conversation.
- Email: timothy@createartpodcast.com
- YouTube Channel: Create Art Podcast YT Channel
- IG: @createartpodcast
- Twitter: @createartpod
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Transcript
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Create art podcast, commentary, building blocks.
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Hello friend.
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This is Timothy Kim O'Brien, your head instigator for create art podcast, where
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I use my over 30 years of experience in the arts and educational world
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to help you tame your inner critic and create more than you consume.
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So this year, what I've decided to do is these episodes.
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About making fun a habit.
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And that's from the making fun a habit series and book by Michael
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Brennan, who I actually interviewed on find a podcast about, and if you
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want to find that interview, just go to find a podcast about dot X, Y, Z.
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He runs a podcast called creative chats, and it's a great podcast to listen to.
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If you need that little extra boost of creativity in your life, but the
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making fun, I have it series is a book that he wrote and it's 30 days
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to add fun to your creative practice.
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So what I decided to do is to take each day in that workbook
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and make an episode out of it.
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Now, when you get that book and I have the link in my show notes.
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What you get in there is you have insights on how to, you know, use
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his ideas for your creative practice.
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And each chapter is broken up with a short story, some questions to
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ponder, action items, and tips.
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This episode, we're going to be talking about building blocks.
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Now I know for me, I like to always go back to basics.
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And when I saw building blocks, I immediately thought, Hey, what are
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my basic things for creativity?
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What does that mean to me?
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And so that's what this episode is going to be all about is getting back to those
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basics and figuring out, you know, what, why creating is fun and why do I do it?
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So the first question that Mike asks us is why do you enjoy what
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do you enjoy creating and why?
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So it really depends on what part of my life we're talking about.
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In my beginning artistic journey, it was poetry.
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And I loved writing poetry and performing poetry in front of an audience.
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And that's where I was really at, but.
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I also really liked theater in high school.
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I did a lot of theater shows and did that through college and, and whatnot.
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And you know, for the most part I was backstage and I got a
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few chances to step on stage.
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I was the, usually I was the big dumb guy that would step on stage
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and was at the butt of the jokes.
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But you know, like a trucker or a burnout, a surfer hippie dude.
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But.
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I think for me, I enjoy taking nothing, taking nothing and making it into
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something that is going to be forever.
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Now for the past, oh, I don't know, since 2006, I've been enjoying podcasting.
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And through podcasting, I can, you know, share my story, share my
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experiences my trials and tribulations, and I can encourage you to create
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the art that you want to create.
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And if you're not creating art, you don't give you that little you know, like I
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always say in the beginning that head, I'm the head instigator here podcast.
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So I want to make sure that you're creating, because it
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provides a lot of joy in my life.
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When I create something out of nothing, nothing.
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So that's what I enjoy creating.
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And that's pretty much why I enjoy creating.
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The next question is what would it look like to have a
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regular routine of creating?
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Now for me, I don't really have a regular routine.
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I just kind of I have a full time job.
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I do this podcasting thing.
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I'm a dad, I'm a husband.
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I'm, I wear a lot of different hats.
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So a regular routine is something that's kind of tough for me.
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And I even joined up with Mike's making fun.
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I have the creative chats.
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Facebook group that I pay a little bit to each month and get ideas and,
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you know, share community with other folks, but and, and that's, I guess,
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could be considered a regular routine.
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I try to comment there, I try to comment on different sites
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that I'm on, like pod match.
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For podcasters you know, try to give encouragement that way, but I don't
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have a regular routine where I'll sit down for an hour and just go ahead
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and create usually Sunday mornings.
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I do episodes usually record episodes on those days.
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So I guess that could be considered a regular routine.
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You know, once a week I'll sit down here in my man cave and knock out a couple
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of episodes and and just enjoy life.
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But I, I usually like to do it by the seat of my pants.
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It's not a great way of doing it.
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I'll tell you that right now.
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But what I would like is to be able to, to each day, just kind
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of go from this time to this time.
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You know, nobody disturbed me.
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I'm just going to go ahead and create something and and then
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be on with the rest of my day.
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So for me, that would look like a regular routine for me.
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I don't know what it is for you, but if that's something that, you know, you're
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looking into, you can start it up at any time you want, you know, and if you need
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a accountability partner, let me know.
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I'd be happy to be your accountability partner for that.
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All right.
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The last question is what are your objections and obstacles
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and how can you solve these?
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So I don't really have any objections to creating, but the obstacles is, you
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know, the everyday minutiae of things that happen in my life, whether it be
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work meetings or doing something for work or playing with my kids or being
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a good husband you know, cleaning up the yard, all that kind of good stuff.
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So that's my obstacles and one of the things that I'm learning to do for
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myself is be a little bit kinder to myself and that it, that would be, you
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know, to carve out that time and just go, Hey, listen, I'm going to do this
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and maybe it's when work is a little bit slow, then I can go ahead and create
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kind of like what I'm doing today.
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But whatever that looks like for you, Hey, by all means, feel
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free to email me and let me know.
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You can email me at Timothy at create art podcast.
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com.
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And I can share that with everybody else and we can help each other out.
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So that's how you can solve the, that's how I'm going to try to solve this.
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So I want to know what you're doing to make that happen for yourself.
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So the next thing up is action items.
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And the first action item is start a daily creativity journal.
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Well, for me, I got to start creating daily in order for me to do the journal,
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but I think that's a great idea.
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You know, it, it'll be.
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And accountability partner for myself.
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So maybe, you know, just grabbing a journal, I Lord knows I have enough
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journals around this house, or I can do a digital journal on the on
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the cell phone, the cell phone I'm so old, but yeah, you could there's
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many apps out there where you can do.
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You don't even have to write anything down or type anything down.
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You just speak into your phone and I'll take the notes and you can do it that way.
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So starting that creative journal might be just the thing to help you, especially
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if you don't have anybody around you that is really into the arts, but you're
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into the arts, that might be a great thing for you to go ahead and try.
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The next thing is take a class or a workshop.
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Now I just came back from a conference for podcasting down in North Carolina.
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And I'm going to go up to another one.
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Well, I did the empowered podcast conference in Charlotte, North
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Carolina, back in June, and I'm going to another conference in DC in August.
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And that'll be a podcast movement.
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And by the time this episode airs, I'm I'll be about maybe
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a week or two away from that.
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So that's something that I like to do.
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I like, I do like to take classes and wherever you're at, if there's a
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good, vibrant art scene, there's going to be classes there for you to take.
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So you don't have to go it on your own.
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And it's a great way to learn.
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To connect with the people in your community that, you know, they
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may have more experience than you.
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So give that a shot for yourself.
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The next thing is number three of the action items is join a creative community.
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While you can do that by taking that class or a workshop, there is a plenty
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of online communities with Facebook, Twitter, or X tick tock, even Instagram.
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There's a lot of communities that are out there.
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Probably there's not have been as many communities.
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In the past as there is today, so we're in a great position today to make that
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community to make those connections with the community, even if it's a meetup
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group, definitely check that out for yourself because I know for me, one
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reason I got serious about podcasting is I attended a meetup back in 2016 and
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I've been doing podcasting seriously since that time and how did I do that?
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I joined a meetup group.
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So if there's a meetup group in your area in any kind of artistic discipline, give
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it a shot for yourself, make it happen.
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And you never know, you might make a new friend.
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I know I did with Kyle Bondo.
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All right.
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The next thing up is number four set a creativity challenge for yourself.
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Now you, if you've heard this podcast before, which, you know, many of you
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have, I do two challenges every year at the national poetry writing month
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and national novel writing months.
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Poetry writing month.
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They give you 30 prompts in 30 days and you write 30 poems, a
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national novel writing month, write a 50, 000 word novel in 30 days.
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So that's something that I do.
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So I'm checking off some boxes here, which is, makes me feel good.
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But those are free things that you can do.
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It doesn't cost anything.
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And there are other challenges for sketching making music.
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24 hour theater shows or movies.
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There's things for sketching inktober is out there as well.
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So whatever it is, there's a challenge for it.
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Let me know what challenge that you're planning on doing.
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All right.
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The next thing up is experimenting with different mediums.
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I, you've heard me in the past that I paint, I paint with acrylics and oils, but
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I had Tia sunshine on many episodes ago.
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And she's a watercolor person.
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So, and I've always had bad times with watercolor.
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So I challenged myself.
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I went and got some watercolor pencils.
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And that's, that's as close as I've gotten to watercolors for right now, but I also
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got a few books that just came in the mail back in July on doodling and sketching.
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So I'm going to try that for myself as well.
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And we'll put some stuff up on the site here just to kind of
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show you what I've been doing.
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And I think it's really great to do that kind of stuff and to
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get out of your comfort zone.
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And the last thing that he has for action items is don't
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be afraid to share your work.
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You know, you can email me and share your work with me.
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If that, if you feel comfortable and so inclined to do so, I
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would love to take a look at it.
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And the thing of it is, is that nobody's going to break
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your arm for sharing your work.
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We're so afraid of other people's judgment, I guess
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that it stops our creativity.
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And You know, one of my big things is taming that inner critic, but also
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because, you know, unless that, if that critic is stopping you, then you got to
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stop the inner critic, but if that critic isn't stopping you, that's a good thing.
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Conversely, a lot of times we're scared about what other people think.
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Go out there, put it out there, see what happens.
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I think you're going to be really surprised.
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I mean, I do it with this show and the contacts that I've made through
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doing this podcast have been.
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Phenomenal.
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I've had past guests come back at me and say, Hey, I got this going on.
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I got that going on.
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And I'm always excited to hear about everything that they're doing.
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So share your work because if you don't share your work, nobody's going to see
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it and nobody's going to know about it.
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And we're all going to miss out for that.
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All right.
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We're going to jump into the tips that Mike gives us.
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First thing is find something that you enjoy creating.
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Well, for me, my first love is poetry.
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I really like writing poetry and you know, this year has been kind of a slim
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year for me and I'm looking at doing a collection of the past five years
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of national poetry writing months.
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And I was just thinking the other night and I was like, well, if I'm
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going to do that and I want to do a collection of the novels I did
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too but they're all unfinished, so.
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You know, that a writing is something I really enjoy creating.
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So that's something that I definitely want to get back into and pursue even more.
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So that's what I enjoy creating.
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What is it that you enjoy creating?
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And that's where you should start.
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All right.
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The next tip number two is set aside set aside some time each day to create.
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Yes, Mike, I will do that.
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I will set aside time to create and I'll put it on the calendar.
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Make it an appointment, you know, make it a meeting that you're going to take
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this hour or this 15 minutes or this 30 minutes, put it on your calendar and
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do that meeting for yourself because at the end of every episode I say make
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art for somebody you love yourself.
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That's part of it.
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You know, I was just having a conversation with my therapist and yes, I do see a
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therapist and nothing wrong with that.
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But, you know, I told him, I said, I always feel guilty about taking time
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for myself and doing things for myself.
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And he said, you don't need to feel guilty about that.
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You should do something for you that, you know, gives you energy
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that gives you a strength and insight and is healthy for you.
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So this is a challenge to me.
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This is a challenge to you.
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So I decided sometime each day to create.
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And I'm going to make that promise to you right now.
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I will set time to create.
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Let me know what you're doing.
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Are you going to set 15 minutes, half hour, an hour,
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three hours, whatever it is.
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There is no minimum.
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There's no maximum.
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Just set aside that time to create.
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All right.
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Number.
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3 is don't be afraid to experiment.
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I love to experiment.
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Some of the best things that I've ever created has been an experiment.
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Case in point, I did string painting a long time ago.
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I saw a video on it and I was like, Oh, yeah, that looks kind of fun.
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And I did a whole series of string paintings.
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I've got about four of them.
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that I'm looking at right here in my man cave.
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And just recently my nephew walked up to me and he was like,
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man, those are really cool.
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And for me, I wasn't really thinking about him, but he's not the only person
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that has said that when I had an actual physical office I had those paintings up
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there and people would walk in and go, wow, where did you get that from him?
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So I told him that I made it with some string and some
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paint and they really loved it.
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And I probably could have sold it to them, but I chose not to.
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And but you never know what's going to happen.
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Sometimes our quote unquote mistakes are what people want to see.
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Give it a shot for yourself.
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Number four is don't worry about being perfect.
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And I eat it.
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One of my podcast friends Chris Chris misnows has a book called starting ugly.
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Definitely you should check out that book and it's all about, you know, podcasting
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of course, but the thing of it is, is it's all about just getting out there.
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And then do iterations, you know, keep on going back to it and
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improving it here, improving it there.
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Just go out there and start something.
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It does not have to be a Rembrandt or Michelangelo or anything like that.
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It doesn't have to be a John Coltrane.
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Just go out there and try some stuff and then just keep on getting better
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and better and better with it.
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You don't need to be perfect the first time out.
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Okay.
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Number five is share your creations with others.
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Okay.
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Whether you do that on a red bubble sites where you're putting your artwork out
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there for people to download podcasting like I'm doing here with you today putting
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it on your social media, put it out there for others to take a look at it.
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It's an act of bravery and I know it's a big act of bravery,
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but I think you can do it.
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I think you want to do it.
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Otherwise, why would you listen to this podcast and have me, you know, bug
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you every, every couple of weeks about creating something, share that creation
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with others, you can share it with me.
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If you don't want to share it with anyone else, share it with me.
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You can get me at Timothy at createartpodcast.
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com.
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Now the last tip tip number six is track and measure what you create.
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And that's a good way to develop a portfolio for yourself, a resume,
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artist's resume for yourself.
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I am bad at this, so that is something that I need to work on and I will work on.
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But you know, when I was helping people with their resumes, I would
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always say, Hey, have a work diary, you know, for different tasks that you
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do, because I would build a resume for them based on what they were doing.
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And a lot of them didn't, you know, hadn't done that in the past.
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And I said, well, we're Starting today, anything that you do for your job, you're
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going to write down what you did as long as it, you know, isn't, you know,
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betraying you know, secrets for the government or anything like that, but
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track it down and then take a look at it from time to time and, you know, be amazed
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at everything that you have done because you probably done more than you realize.
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And even if it's just, you know, a painting a month or a painting a year
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or a novel a year, Most people don't do that, so you're already beating out
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most people, so track it, measure it.
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You know, you start off with something and you don't do great at it, but
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you take a class and you get better and you perfect it over time.
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Don't throw away the ugly stuff.
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Keep the ugly stuff and watch your progression and that will
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motivate you to keep on creating.
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And podcast is all about.
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Okay.
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Well, we've reached the end of this episode.
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First and foremost, I want to thank you for taking a listen to it.
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It's been a pleasure for me to go ahead and share this with you.
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It helps me with my creativity.
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It gives me ideas and I hope it gives you ideas as well.
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Now, if you'd like to go ahead and share this podcast, I'm not going to
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bite your fingers off for doing that.
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Feel free to share it with a friend.
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And if you want to reach out to me with any comments, if you'd like to be a
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guest on the show or anything like that.
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Email timothy@koreanartpodcast.com and I'd love to hear about your journey
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and what you're working on now.
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I do wanna let you know that I run another podcast.
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It's called Find a Podcast about.
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You can find that at find a podcast about.xyz, and that's where I help you
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find your next binge wor binge worthy podcast and outsmart the algorithm.
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Find it at Find a Podcast about.xyz.
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And I'll see you over there.
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All right.
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It's that time in the episode where I go ahead and let you
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continue on with your day.
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I'm going to continue on with mine.
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Cause obviously I need to start up a creative journal and set aside
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some time to do some creativity, which, you know, I'll put this
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episode in that journal for this day.
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What are you going to do?
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Are you going to you know, you could even put listening to
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this podcast in your journal.
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I'm just saying, do that for yourself.
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Let's go ahead and tackle that day.
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Tame that inner critic and create more than you consume.
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Go out there and make some art for somebody you love yourself.
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I'll talk to you next time.
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