Stop Consuming. Start Creating.

Growing up I had a lot of entertainment at my fingertips. I'm sure you have more now than we did back then. Games, movies, tv shows and music.

To say I love music is an understatement. It's like saying I like to breathe.

However I think a lot of people are in this middle ground. There's something you're interested in, something you've wanted to get to. The problem is that everyone is trapped at the end of the night with some sort of entertainment. Life is happening to you. You're not engaging in life.

Even if you're being noble trying to learn about a topic, learning isn't actually doing. It helps, but it doesn't move the needle forward.

My past self would try to be productive, but I had the order of my day backwards (games before work). The draw for entertainment was so appealing that I wouldn't even touch my stuff. Or I had no clue what to work on. Or I'd have an idea of what I wanted to do so I'd watch a bunch of videos before even starting.

Any meaningful pursuit will require some sort of output. If you have too many inputs, especially from meaningless entertainment, it will slow you down. Your brain will want that more over whatever it is you really want to do.

There's something within you that wants more. The best way to get into the flow state (where you forget life is happening and you merge into the task itself) is to be in a state of work aka creating something.

Harsh answer: Remove the inputs. Allow space for more outputs.

Step 1: Remove Junk Input. Free Your Brain.

I was going to talk about dopamine detoxing, but I think we all know that endless entertainment doesn't go anywhere good.

Remove that or at least cut back if you're on step 0.

Step 2: Lost? Treat Yourself Like a Kid

What did you do growing up? Your had school, but you had a bunch of stuff outside of school that you tried out. This either came in the form of your parents signing you up for things or you exploring and seeing what you gravitated towards. No one finds an interest by sitting around and thinking about different things. You try a little bit of everything and see what you like.

Completely lost? Do a YouTube search and see if other people are making something from the interests that you already have. Be a researcher.

If you have a tiny bit of an idea of what you think you'd like, try it for a couple months. If you don't like it, now you know. If you do like it, then that's your thing.

If you have hobby that you've been covering up for years, bring it back out, no matter how small. Your inner child is yearning for it.

As a brief history about myself, I tried to learn guitar in middle school, couldn't figure it out and gave up. My hands couldn't put the chords together in time. I used to put the guitar flat on my legs like a slide guitar just so I could see my hands. Then when I got to college, a friend of mine (thanks Sam) saw that I could play a little bit. We would then jam out forever with the tiny bit I knew and he kept throwing more at me. Then I just figured it out as I went along.

Moral of the story: I didn't have interest in it until I put energy into it.

Step 3: "Learn" Less. Act More.

A lot of people get to this point, but find themselves in the final trap: tutorial purgatory. This means you have the idea of what you want to do but you "need to learn as much as possible before you start."

This is an endless game.

Game analogy: In Warcraft (and I assume other RTS games or "real time strategy") there's this thing called the "fog of war." This means you can see your characters but can't see the rest of the map until start moving.

You don't know what you need to learn until you start something.

The best way to learn? A project. I used to watch videos on recording and audio editing. Know what I'd do when I actually sat down at my computer to work on it? I'd have to look up those resources again. You're better off thinking of what you want to create then looking up videos as you go along.

Not only is this type of learning "just in time," but it helps your brain learn faster. You learn best when you have to overcome a struggle. Your brain is just primed to "survive" that event the next time.

You've Done This Before

There are two things you do pretty well. You didn't have to look up a tutorial. You didn't ask people online how to do it. Maybe you saw someone do it and tried it out. And magically, you figured it out. Sadly you don't remember how you even did it in the first place.

It's walking and talking.

How do babies walk? As a nerdy side note, they do a lot of things to strengthen themselves to be able to do so (tummy time, head control, crawling). But they just tried, and tried, and tried, and thankfully a lot of people can walk now.

At a more advanced level, I had a friend that just tried to do a handstand every day. No tutorials, no coaches, no books, no nothing. He could eventually hold it no problem. Then after he had it down he started to learn how to walk on his hands. I think he could do 20 yards.

Not bad for just figuring it out on his own.

The Creative's Solution: Projects (Just like School)

Being creative means you create things. You already have enough knowledge in your head. If not, you'll figure it out. Here's how to go about things.

• Step 1: Cut back on entertainment.

  • Why? Your brain is a dopamine seeking machine. Give it too many easy wins and it won't want to work hard. You're about to create stuff, which involves work. Work is not easy, but it is fulfilling. However, it'll be hard to get off the ground if you're in the dopamine trap.

  • Remove it for weekdays or save it for after work. Figure out what works best for you.

• Step 2: Outline a goal that requires a project

  • "I want to be a YouTube musician!" Cool. From that, what does a musician do? They release songs.

  • Your first song, or piece of art, or anything is your first project/goal.

• Step 3: Start, then learn

  • You have your project ready to go, what do you do? Figure out the first mini milestone. Stuck with it? Learn what you have to do to overcome this. Repeat this process over and over as needed until you're done.

• Step 4: Build consistency

  • No matter what, work on output for at least 30 minutes per day. Is 30 too much? Do 10. Building consistency will train your brain that what you're doing is important.

Trust Yourself and Just Release It!

"But what if it's not good?"

Let me comfort you.

The fact that you're a human being that enjoys certain things means that you know enough about what sounds good or looks good to start.

People are going to compare themselves to the best end product out there. If your stuff is good enough, it's good enough. Release it and move on to the next one. It will get better with time.

I say all this for my past self. If you're browsing the internet and watching other people do what your heart yearns for, just start. You'll figure it out as you go along.

Trust me.

Thanks for watching! You can get my music here.

Feel free to respond and let me know how you liked this one.