Category: Blog

Do the methods matter more than the outcomes?

Refined over time, standard operating procedures produce reliable outcomes.
Humans find security in predictability.
Safety leads to comfort.
Is comfort an accelerant or an obstacle?

Show up.
Communicate expectations.
Do the work.

Make better systems.
Effects will appear.
Outcomes are documented.
Invest in the process.
The process is the point.

Hard days may require boulders to move.
Other days may only ask us to carry a rock in our pocket as we journey.
Special days call on us to show up and help another with their pebble.

What decisions do you need to make to show up day after day in perpetuity?

Is there another route?

Resistance is unavoidable. It is even necessary. We distract ourselves from the work when we look for reassurance. The practice, a process of showing up aware that friction waits. Show up to make change through solving interesting problems. Be creative, generous and compassionate.

If I am fortunate enough to introduce you to Seth Godin, then you have made my day. Please, go find Seth’s work.

Find Seth Godin’s The Practice: shipping creative work. The hardcover, ebook, or audio. I enjoy having all three mediums.

Visit Seth’s blog. Copy the text: Seth’s blog, search on a web browser. Seth’s blog will be the first result.

Listen to Seth’s podcast, Akimbo.

As Seth would say, go make a ruckus.

I was warned once in a writing class, “Do not be a dabbler.”

Simple sounding advice.

We need friction to create movement

Friction, a force to overcome, prevents us from starting–hesitation, contemplation, stagnation. Do we possess the fortitude to traverse obstacles?

When we concede to our circumstance, we excuse our agency. ‘I would, if I could only…’ allows us to remain inert. We transition from exploration to explanations.

Friction, a warning, conspires to stop us when we are in motion. Have we obtain skills and experience to identify signs of a stressed system, before it break? 

Increased pressure on the process, with no attention or maintenance prescribed, grinds work to a halt. Our systems burn out. 

Friction is resistance.
Overcome the gravity of the barrier and find traction.
Practice and cultivate intention.

When the winter comes

and the snow has not started,

is it cold outside?

I’m working on the website, after an unfortunate action on my part, resulted in the first attempt of MakeCreatBuild.com to be lost. Oh well. I hadn’t  maintained the site in a while and now starting over, I hope to post more projects as often as possible.

The fuel that keeps me going from 10pm-2am, tonight, is plain saltine crackers and lime flavored sparkling water. This is me bragging. A few months ago it would have been peanut M&Ms and Diet Coke or beer. But, I’m trying to stay away from the former and seriously limit the latter.

Time for bed.
-Keith