The Dirty 30

This was a once in a lifetime type of awesome, standard American road-trip that I’ve always dreamed about taking, but never felt I was able to. Too many responsibilities, not having my life put-together enough, never having the time or money or the right people to go with… …until I met Pete. Since he’s been a part of my life I’ve come to understand that there is really nothing holding you back from the things you want to do, except maybe yourself.
So this trip was a chance to honor that chance to live in the moment, and also a chance to appreciate the things a normal relationship might take for granted… Car rides. Planning meals. Who gets the shower first. Birthdays together. (Spoiler alert: Pete is 30 now).

I wanted to give a detailed account of everything we did right when we got back, but there is SO MUCH… and honestly I don’t think it can be condensed into one post. So I’m gonna have to break it up and hopefully I’ll get it all up soon (..finally……eventually).

I picked Pete up from the airport Friday, August 24th, and the next morning we started out bright an early. Car packed ready to go, and Pete knew nothing except the bare details. We’re going on a road trip, and hitting some campgrounds.

I went through months of planning this trip in secret, so Pete wouldn’t know our next destination until we got there. It was the most elaborate and exhausting birthday present I’ve ever put together, and it was so worth it, however I would like to never keep secrets from him again haha. Turns out I never realized how much I look to him for advice for just the little things.

To kick off the trip a handful of friends agreed to beat us to our first location near Valentine, NE to camp and go tubing down the river. I prepared some rubber snakes to be lurking in our tent (which I “forgot” to give Pete a double heart attack, when it was really sent ahead with friends), and a scavenger hunt challenge for the river (which included “something brown” to smash in your face… upon which I produced chocolate cupcakes I’d smuggled onto the river!)

And of course I also brought prizes with me for anyone who got a bingo…

To kill time so our friends could get to the location before us, I took him to Halsey National Forest (trivia: 100% hand planted and the largest forest in Nebraska), for a brunch picnic and instructions to change into his swimming trunks.

“Surprise!”

So we arrive, Pete is promptly assaulted with water balloons and buckets of water, and shenanigans ensued the rest of the day on the Niobrara River (which took us past Smith falls, the tallest waterfall in Nebraska!).

 

That concludes Day 1 friends! Stay tuned for Day 2, when we left for South Dakota…

Volunteer Spec-Work Done Pro-Bono

Okay, so spec work is taking a job where the client sees the finished product before paying for it. I always thought it was finishing a job for free… but that’s pro bono, where the job is taken without charge (and technically is done for the “public good”).

So spec work is just letting the client see all the progress or finished project… before they pay you… meaning maybe they’ll decide not to pay you, and you’ve already done all the work.

What do you call a project where there may or may not be a client? Maybe the client doesn’t know you’ve been inspired by them, and decided to work on a project independently. Like if you started designing awesome menus for a restaurant that doesn’t have any, or doesn’t have nice ones, and you presented them?

“Surprise! I made menus for you if you want them! …obviously you don’t have to pay me because you never hired me in the first place…”

Or what if you started a project for a client that doesn’t exist? Like creating everything a pastry should would need for it’s business (signage, business cards, a totally mocked up website, etc)?

The point? Just for fun. Just creating for the sake of it. But there has to be a name for that type of thing, doesn’t there?

Let me know your thoughts! I’m very curious about this one.

Creativity, Burnout, and Focus (Part 1)

What is creativity? How do you find it, and how do you get it back if you lose it?

I like to think of creativity as the concept of solving problems in a new, unique way. That’s the moment when you need to be creative right? When there is a problem to solve? Maybe it’s what to draw or paint next, a clever logo idea for a client, getting your boss on board for a new project, or even what to cook for dinner with an unfortunate combination of groceries, how to plan an event, or get a cat off of the roof.

“Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.” – Sir Ken Robinson (please look up any of his talks on YouTube)

The value of creativity can be measured by how well the answer we come up with solves the problem (is a client reaching their marketing goals, is everybody happy with the product, is the demographic being reached, etc.), but what happens if you aren’t feeling creative? No inspiration comes? The problem seems unsolvable, and you find yourself in a rut you just can’t get out of.

Creative Block has been a burdensome obstacle for me, and when it happens I feel so hopeless that sometimes I’m tempted to just throw in the towel and forget this entire career path. It feels like I was never meant to follow dreams centered around artwork and design, or that I’m just not a creative enough person to be successful at it. The thing is though, it seems like every creative person I know has experienced feeling burnt out. They not only struggled through it, but actually overcame it with the type accomplished success I dream about. How? Why do we fall into ruts and feel stuck in slumps, and how do we prevent or heal from it?

“Get out of your head. If you’re in your head, you’re behind enemy lines, that is not God talking. If we put a speaker on it and broadcasted everything you say to yourself, we would institutionalize you. You would not hang out with people who talked to you the way you talk to yourself, so get out of your head.” – Mel Robbins

Humans are creatures of habit. The brain likes to make things easier for itself, so adopting patterns is how we are programed to survive most efficiently. However, established, repetitive patterns of thinking are the enemy of creativity. We have two modes: autopilot and emergency break. Autopilot is easy, it’s worked well enough so far, and it’s the routine. It feels safe, and anything outside of that comfort zone? The emergency break gets pulled instinctively. Our brains are designed to protect us from doing the uncomfortable, difficult, and scary. The mind is hardwired to safeguard us from literal death.

However, just being alive isn’t always living. When you feel stuck or dissatisfied in life, it’s a signal that one of your most basic needs isn’t being met. If you’re not getting enough nutrients in your diet, your body won’t feel quite right. If you’re not getting good quality time in with your loved ones, your relationships might suffer. If you aren’t fulfilling a need to explore creatively, you’re gonna feel stuck in a rut. You’re going to need to do things that feel uncertain to get you what you want out of life (or your career, marriage, whatever your goal is).

You know who is always the most creative person in the room? The child. Kids aren’t afraid of being wrong. As adults, we’ve spent our whole lives being trained not to be wrong. We do everything we can to prevent failure, but really “success” is just failing over and over again, and that time spent failing was also spent progressing. To be creative, we must lose our fear of being wrong and be brave enough to fail fabulously.

I wish I could site where these thoughts started brewing from, but they’ve bubbled up from literally hundreds of hours worth of watching TEDx Talks on YouTube.

Where It Starts

Welcome to this strange arbitrary space for me to collect my thoughts! This is my personal blog to explore… Explore adventure, happiness, the human condition, and mainly creativity.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value, but ideas are valueless unless you do something with them. If an idea is worth something to anyone in the world, or even just you, it’s worth exploring… and that’s how we grow.

Any views or opinions are my own, and not necessarily endorsed by colleagues or friends.