Weekly Digest: April 17, 2021

Weekly Digest: April 17, 2021

by | Apr 17, 2021 | News

David Andrew Wiebe, April 2021When you persevere through apathy and disinterest, aren’t you just attracting more of the same? Don’t you just draw in more opportunities to persevere through apathy and disinterest?

I’m not saying that you won’t see incremental progress in your project. Of course, it’s possible to grow one step at a time.

The question is whether something that was grown out of a foundation of apathy and disinterest is ever going to be anything more than a homing beacon for the same.

We often virtue signal perseverance, but I wonder whether we should hold up pivoting in its place.

Taking a page from my own book, “sticking with it” for the sake of it is a terrible idea. Being loyal to someone or something that doesn’t deserve it is only going to do harm and disservice to yourself while building someone else’s dream. You have nothing to gain or profit from, beyond the self-contained lesson.

As I’ve begun culling my to-do list of tasks that only seem to take up time, I’m noticing what it feels like to disengage from the mostly pointless. There’s a part of me that wants to hold on, which is human. But there’s another part of me that wakes up every morning thinking, “what the hell am I doing that for?”

If I want to create a life revolving around growth, fulfillment, and sustainability, it’s vital to sit with that tension.

I will continue to entertain this tension and rethink how I spend my time and energy, because I grow tired of suspense and purgatory. I grow tired of tiredness and spending all my free time on what doesn’t work or only barely works, as it continues to eat away at my time, energy, and will. The roller-coaster ride keeps climbing and plummeting, climbing, and plummeting. Where are the hockey stick growth charts?

What I’m saying is:

Maybe it would be better to pursue resonance. Where we find resonance, we find growth, fulfillment, and profitability.

Plenty of things are worth doing, regardless of the zeitgeist. But if you want to build a sustainable creative career, resonance is critical.

And there are often early signs of resonance. Sometimes it doesn’t last, and it will be necessary to pivot. All the more reason to embrace periodic adjustment.

Until you’ve found your calling, set up structures for fast iteration and for short-term stay, not structures of permanent residence.

With that, here’s what I created for you this week.

David Andrew Wiebe

I publish daily to inspire creatives and creators just like you.

Here are the posts that went live this week:

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Music Entrepreneur HQ

At Music Entrepreneur HQ, I give modern music makers the tools and mental models they need to create the life they love through music, something I’ve been up to since 2009.

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Random Things I Dig

I’ve been spending time learning content marketing from Amp My Content.

Featured Product

You were born to make music. It’s a calling.

But some days you feel like giving it all up.

You see people who are more talented and more prolific. And they have a larger social media following than you.

To add insult to injury, gigs have been cancelled. Is it even possible to make an income from your passion?

Why try? The odds seem stacked against you.

You don’t need to quit. You don’t need to give up. You don’t even need to change your approach.

What you need is a mindset makeover.

Read The Renegade Musician and reclaim your uniqueness, creativity, and calling.

You were born to do this.

The Renegade Musician

Final Thoughts

Thank you for your creativity and generosity. I’m rooting for you.

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How to Filter Out Distractions

How to Filter Out Distractions

by | Apr 12, 2021 | Entrepreneurship

Ambitious creatives and creators must learn to filter out distractions. It’s a survival skill.

Whenever you say “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to something else. And vice versa.

The more yesses you give, the more commitments you will have to fulfill on.

And the more times you say “no,” the more you will leave space for what matters to you.

Sooner or later, as you continue to grow, opportunities are going to start showing up at your doorstep, wanted or not.

If you don’t learn how to control the flow of opportunity, and if you don’t have filters for sorting them out, you’re going to be swamped.

In a broader sense, Derek Sivers’ Hell Yeah or No filter works perfectly. Basically, it’s about only saying “yes” to things that excite you and bring you joy and saying “no” to all else.

Marie Kondo’s Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a similar philosophy as applied to decluttering and organizing your home, but it’s just as applicable to opportunity.

But on a more granular level, it can be challenging to separate the wheat from the chaff.

So, here’s an example of how I control the flow of opportunity, especially as applied to email:

  • I welcome emails. That said, I set the expectation upfront that I may not answer for a week or two (which is generally the case).
  • If the sender doesn’t mention my name, I delete the message.
  • If the sender hasn’t demonstrated a clear understanding of who I am or what I do, I delete the message.
  • If the sender hasn’t identified the mutual benefit of the communication, I delete the message.
  • If the email is about guest posting or buying links and it’s coming from an SEO agency, I delete the message.
  • I actively unsubscribe from newsletters I never read.

Some of this may seem kind of harsh. But if I didn’t have these filters, guaranteed I would get swallowed up in tasks that neither excite me nor bring me joy.

It’s your time. You’ve got to guard it with your life because it is your life.

Create filters. Document them. Follow them. And put more stringent rules in place as necessary.

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