Embarking on a creative career, or any creative endeavor, is a fundamentally irrational act. 

Announcing to the world:

Listen up everybody, I’m going to take my precious time, which is the only asset that I will never be able to get back, and use that time to create something that nobody needs, wants or even likes

That’s pure crazy talk. 

And yet, creativity is still the only currency we have in this world. It’s still the only asset that is impossible for people to copy and steal and automate and outsource. It’s still the cheapest and best way of procuring added value from existing assets. And it’s still the primary means by which we can fully liberate ourselves. 

Thus, it’s the most important human resource we have. Now more than ever.

Because we live in democratized world where the information and the technological resources are free and fast and ubiquitous. Anybody can do anything for nothing. 

And so, if the work we do is not creative, society can easily replicate, and therefore, not pay us full value for over time. 

That’s our moral and existential imperative. Despite the profound irrationality of making something out of nothing, we must never allow the floodgates of imagination to close. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you preserve part of your conscious imagination for irrational thought?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Check out my new book: 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Going to happy hour with our friends might not land us a date with the man of our dreams. 

But what the experience will do is contribute to a posture and mindset and intention and proximity that will make us more receptive to the romantic opportunities we seek. 

That’s how momentum works. It’s an accumulation of moments that move the story forward. 

And so, even if we’re not in the mood, even if we don’t feel like leaving the house, and even if we have zero evidence that what we’re about to do will help us accomplish our goal, we owe it to ourselves to take action anyway. 

Doing so may not affect the outcome, but it still affects the experience. 

Each repetition develops a different nuance. It’s still an act that evokes aliveness. It’s still a way of giving confirmation to the universe that we’re moving confidently in the direction of our dreams and making progress in our journey to freedom. 

I’m reminded of a fascinating interview I heard between a physician and a cancer survivor. Recounting his diagnosis experience, the patient said that if he had kept a bad attitude about his disease, odds are, he wouldn’t have gotten better. 

Because he wouldn’t have done the necessary research on the resources that would make him better. 

He never would have found the solution that lead to the solution. 

Proving, that even if you can’t increase your success, you can still increase is your field of vision, and that allows you to notice the opportunities that lead to success. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

How are you incrementally improving until the cumulative actions add up to the revolutionary?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Check out my new book: 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

There’s nothing more galvanizing than
the internal pressure of turning our brain over to a magnificent obsession. 

There’s nothing more satisfying than the external progress of turning the idea
that fascinates us into something real in the world. 

But somewhere along the
journey from idea to execution, our ambition picks a fight with our patience. 

We just want it to be in the world now.
We unreasonably insist that we must eat everything on the plate. 

And so, we
start killing  ourselves trying to
resolve every open issue before the closing bell. Because the story we tell
ourselves is, look, if I can’t start, finish and ship this entire project, by tomorrow,
then I’m a failure. 

It’s classic all or nothing thinking. Like the petulant
child who loses the board game and suddenly decides that he doesn’t feel like
playing anymore. 

I’m taking my toys and going home. 

Veruca’s song epitomizes
our impatient mindset most eloquently:

I want the world, I want the whole
world, I want to lock it all up in my pocket, it’s my bar of chocolate, give it
to me now! 

But that’s not living in a world of reality. True acts of creativity
involve holding rich ideas over time, nurturing them and seeing those ideas to
fruition. Real work that we do in the service of our dreams requires patience,
endurance and staying power. 

Because projects that truly matter ask us to
travel with them to a deeper place, for real stretches of time, rather than
taking ten minutes to impulsively splatter paint across a canvas and proclaim
to the world, tada! 

Without that
sense of patience, your joy will always be a few miles down the road. 

And so,
if there’s an exciting new project that you’re energized by, but you’re
hesitant to start because you know it won’t be completed by the end of the
week, give yourself permission to start small. 

Carve out time every day or
every week to chip away at your idea, one chunk at a time. Keep your head down.
Don’t worry about where the project is headed. Just enjoy the process. Allow
the power of compound interest to take hold. 

And a few months or a few years
down the road, pick you head up and see how far you’ve come. Then you can
transition from an emergent creative strategy to a more deliberate one. 

Remember, it’s a long arc game.

Sometimes we have to take baby steps to allow
our more mature expressions to come into being.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Which of your ideas is asking you to travel with it to a deeper place?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

I have a friend whose independent advertising agency was recently acquired by one of the largest technology companies in the world. 

When asked what led to the merger, her response was:

Being independent was no longer an advantage for us. 

It’s fascinating moment. Not only for an organization, but for an individual. 

The willingness to announce that going it alone has finally reached of a point of diminishing returns, the courage to admit that your independent life isn’t working the way you want it to, that takes real humility. 

Hell, some people wait until their loved ones walk out the door to teach them that their life isn’t working.

When I was single, I had nothing to do, nowhere to be and all the time in the world to get there. I didn’t belong to anyone, and nobody belonged to me, and I couldn’t have been happier. 

Perfectly lonely, as the blues song goes. 

But deep down, I also knew that my golden goose was eventually going to stop laying eggs. That being independent was no longer an advantage for me. That the longing for somebody to share my life would eventually trump my precious little identity story as raging individualist. 

And that’s when I broke out of my chronic isolation, signed up for an online dating service, met five new women every single say, and refused to stop until I connected with somebody special. 

The point is, when the old story stops working like it used to, we owe it to ourselves to change the narrative. 

Otherwise we’ll fall deeper in love with the archetype inside our head and miss out on many new pockets of opportunity into which to grow. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you doing your absolute best to articulate what isn’t working for you? 

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

Newton’s third law is a brilliant piece of interpersonal advice. 

He discovered that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Which not only applies to objects in motion, but also humans in relationship. 

Because the space between two people is generative. Whatever one person brings into that space, it will multiply exponentially and affect the other. 

Stress is a common example. Once we’re in relationship with someone, be it a friend or a boss or a spouse, we must be sensitive to anxiety’s role in the quality of that relationship.  Acknowledging that our incessant agonizing over life’s intolerable burdens and anxieties is a battle that can have significant collateral damage. 

A few years ago, my business went through a frighteningly long dry spell. My calendar was barren, my pipeline was bone dry and I couldn’t close a sale to save my life. 

As a result, I felt deeply underwhelmed the sheer lack activity on my plate. My zest for life hit an all time low. And I couldn’t muster the momentum to catapult myself out of the slump. 

Until one day my wife said:

I noticed you haven’t made the bed in the past two weeks. What’s wrong? 

Apparently I was so mired in my own misery that I stopped executing basic household chores. And I love making the bed. But because I was being stoic and keeping my feelings buried and not saying anything and trying to stonewall the anxiety away, it didn’t occur to me that my attitude might be affecting the space between us. 

Even the slightest tremors can block the flow of love. If we don’t take responsibility for the energy we bring to our relationships, the laws of motion will throw both people off balance.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

When you walk into a room, how does it change?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!

Procrastination isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom of a deeper issue. 

One that nobody wants to talk about. 

Unhealthy and ineffective emotional regulation. 

And so, when we spontaneously decide to start vacuuming and dusting our entire office in the middle of a weekday afternoon, it’s not because a prospective client is coming over for a high powered meeting. 

It’s because we’re trying to run away from our feelings and avoid discomfort and repair our mood and sooth ourselves from the crippling fear of actually sitting down and doing the work. 

When we leave the office for twenty minutes to go stuff our faces with chicken wings, it’s not because we’ve worked up an appetite and deserve a well earned break from the daily grind.

It’s because using food to regular our scary emotions is easier, cheaper and faster than the misery of sitting with those uncomfortable feelings. 

And so, procrastination, has nothing to do with putting off tasks that need to be done, and everything to do with putting off emotions that need to be felt. 

Here are a few reframing scenarios to consider next time your procrastinatory urges kick in. 

Instead of rewarding yourself for avoiding negative feelings, consider doing the hard, painful work of confronting the draining emotional reality that you have been procrastinating. 

Instead of reaching for unhealthy attempts at mood repair that only sabotage your efforts, stop and ask yourself what this feeling might want from you. 

The point is, rewarding yourself for avoiding something takes far more work and far higher of a personal toll than the minimal effort it would take to do it. 

And so, stop wasting energies that might be more usefully employed elsewhere. 

Because procrastination isn’t task management, it’s feeling management. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

How are you learning to regulate your emotions in more productive ways?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!