How To Be More Creative 150 150 admin

How To Be More Creative

If you find yourself bumping your head against a wall trying to create – I feel ya.

I tried to make a blog before, but would always struggle finding topics to write about OR if I did hone in on a topic it might be hard to write about it. If I somehow overcame those hurdles, I would find myself being repetitive as far as topics and/or content.

Embrace the New

This blog is way easier for me, and things changed when I actually started to embrace the new. I would encourage you to do the same even if you’re not having problems with creativity.

Having a dynamic lifestyle where I’m having flow (either online or offline) just get my creative juices flowin. Being exposed to different cultures and people and ideas and music just helps with creativity.

Creativity is taking what’s already out there and making something new with it, right? When someone writes a book, they’re not using new words right? and if they are using new words possibly from their own made up language …they’re not using new letters right? If you drill down deep enough, eventually you’ll get to something that was already there.

Embrace a new challenge. Travel to a new city. Connect with people you haven’t met before. Spend money on something you wouldn’t normally spend money on. Build a new skill. Just documenting doing these new things and sharing them can create value for other people and help you build connections between things and people and enhance your creativity.

Are You Happy With Your Purchases? 150 150 admin

Are You Happy With Your Purchases?

There was a point in time I was making car payments to a car I definitely couldn’t afford which ultimately led to a voluntary car repossession. Needless to say, I did not like where my money (or family’s money) was going.

I am so happy now about how I’m spending money. There is still much room for improvement (I’d like to decrease the junk food by a lot), but I can see it’s getting much better. And there’s no requests for money I owe!

Here are some recent happy purchases I’ve made (when I see I’ve spent money on them, it makes me ?)

The audio books above are a part of Audible’s Daily Deal Rewind Sale that ends tomorrow, so check it out!

What recent purchases bring you joy? If you can’t point to purchases that bring you joy, what purchases could you make to change that? What purchases that don’t bring you joy could you decrease or eliminate all together?

Thoughts after 1000+ Food Deliveries 150 150 admin

Thoughts after 1000+ Food Deliveries

Door Dash and Favor are both P2P food delivery services. Between Favor (559 deliveries) and Door Dash (553 deliveries) I have done 1092 food deliveries. Here are some insights I’ve noticed after having done them both for a considerable amount of time:

  • There are so many dog owners. Jesus.
  • I have a difference in rating and my Favor rating is .2 points higher than my Door Dash on the same scale. I get no feedback on why my ratings are the way they are on either app, but if I had to guess I believe it’s because on Favor I would always let people know what’s going on if there was a delay with their food. I never do this with Door Dash. And there are always delays with both services dealing with the restaurant / merchant and traffic.
  • Delivering at night vs delivering during the day has it’s pros and cons. Delivering during the day means everything is visible – this includes apartment building numbers, restaurants, most house numbers etc. Things are waaaay harder to see at night – especially in horribly lit places. But during the night the roads are way clearer. There’s less decisions to make because there are less cars. Much of this is only applicable if you live in a big city like Houston, Texas. During the day it’s hard to find completely clear streets like the night time.
  • It is a lot of work for a little money. It’s just low value work, and I know it’s because most people have the ability to do it. My current Dash Time for the past week is 13 hours and I earned $176.14 and did 23 deliveries. That number doesn’t take in about $35 spent on gas and the depreciation of the car due to the miles I put on. It was pretty laughable today. I thought to myself “This is some of the slowest money out there…that’s it?”. It really made me want to swing the pendulum towards creative work and getting more people involved to be able to scale.
  • A Toyota Camry has much better gas mileage than my newer Dodge Charger. I always knew this logically, but now I feel it in my pocket. $20 in a Toyota Camry lasts a long damn time.
Thoughts after 19 days of blogging 150 150 admin

Thoughts after 19 days of blogging

Through these 19 days I’ve had the opportunity to re-engage with writing every day. There’s one big insight I’ve noticed.

If there are days where I’ve had very little contact with people, it’s hard for me to think of something to write about. The flow just isn’t there…so I’ll put it off until the last minute – at least that’s what I’ve noticed so far.

Today is one of those days. I’ve pretty much done food deliveries all day today and I’ve put off writing today up until now (11:35PM).

There have maybe been about 2 or 3 days like this during this 19 days of blogging, but they stand out because they’re so out-of-the-norm. Normally, writing is very easy and it flows effortlessly, so on the days where it’s not flowing I’m asking myself what’s different – and I have to conclude it’s the interaction with others either online or offline.

And it has to be genuine interaction for it to help with creativity and flow here. I’ve actually talked to quite a few people today…but it’s been mostly “hi” and “byes” during deliveries.

It’s pretty wild to me how I can relate to this 365-day challenge completely differently at different times. Most of the time I think thoughts similar to “hey this 365-day challenge is going to be a breeze” because there’s so much flow in the writing. And then there are a few days like today where it just feels like I’m walking through quicksand, and it feels like such a force vs a flow.

This is the biggest insight I’ve gotten after blogging for 19 days. I wonder what insights are to come?

A trick to reduce decision fatigue 150 150 admin

A trick to reduce decision fatigue

I first heard about decision fatigue from someone telling me our former president Barack Obama always wears the same suits. Then I thought about it…and yes…I do always see him in the same colored suits.

On this Fast Company article he states:

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” [Obama] said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”

I actually understood what he was saying in regards to the eating. When I was in a 12-step program our meal plan was pretty simple and while it had replaceable parts, it stayed pretty much the same. I would eat 2 salads and a set breakfast at certain times. Even with the food prep and grocery shopping, the decision to have the same meals over and over tremendously cut down the amount of time I thought about food and had to make decisions about it.

Since I was eating at regular intervals I wouldn’t have to think about food until I got hungry…then when I felt hungry the food was already prepared, so all I had to do was eat it.

I can remember the days of skipping breakfast. I would be thinking about food constantly until lunch because I was hungry! All the decisions to make in my mind.

On the flip side, at different jobs I saw people spending 20 minutes organizing what they were going to have for lunch or dwelling over what they should get in the vending machine. They’d go over it and over it again and coordinate with friends on who’s paying what and who’s going to pick it up and when it will be delivered and who’s going to tip.

I saw the same thing growing up when my family wanted to cook a meal. Every day the question came in…what are we going to eat? and all the drama that ensued. It became exhausting after a while. When I joined the 12-step program and had a set meal plan and actually got to see this behavior from the outside looking in when I would come home to visit or while I was at work. I could then conclude it was downright crazy to think about food that much.

A downside of dark, cold, and distant cool characters 150 150 admin

A downside of dark, cold, and distant cool characters

Many times we see certain characters (or real people) portrayed in media somewhere and we want to take on parts of their persona…or there’s a part of that character we really relate to.

I wrote here about the characters I thought were badass, and I realize they are all cold, dark characters with the exception of a few. I think they are very isolated characters too, and that’s what drew me to them. I grew up very isolated, and I can remember many days of being consumed with anger and rage and depression…not really knowing how to get out of those feelings – just like many of these characters.

One thing I didn’t factor in is that a consequence of being more like these cold, dark characters is that you don’t value intimacy.

Society might label you a “loner” or slap on another label, but those are society’s labels and you don’t have to accept those. The term “ladies man” could mean you attract a lot of women, but you’re cold towards them and you keep them distant.

Accept the full picture of the characters and people you admire. Don’t put the good parts you like on a pedastal, and ignore the downsides or the sacrifices that need to be made in order to fully embrace the parts you like about that character.

Skill Building 150 150 admin

Skill Building

I asked my mom why she put me in piano lessons as a kid, and she said it was her dream to learn piano. I guess this meant she handed this dream off to me 🙂

She put me in a lot of different activities as a young kid – basketball, piano, swimming. I was in the choir and band playing and learning the saxophone.

The cringe at the start

I learned a lot through all these activities, and I saw a pattern through learning them. It was always cringe in the beginning, but after going through the process with so many activities, I learned to accept the cringe. The repetition of it through all these different activities my mother put me in desensitized me to it. I got used to it, and loved having the skills that came out of them. Learning piano over years and years taught me that if you can get past “the dip” – the period of time where things kind of suck and you don’t feel like you’re going anywhere – then you can come out on the other side with a great reference experience.

I still do this to this day. I welcome the cringe. This is who I am. I can’t imagine a life where I’m not jumping into new things. Here are some of the skills I’ve built up.

  • Piano
  • Typing
  • Basketball
  • Saxophone
  • Off-season football training
  • In-person sales
  • Amazon Publishing
  • Outsourcing
  • Social Skills
  • Blogging / Writing
  • Online Video
  • Building email lists
  • Video Conferencing

Here’s an updated mind map I created on skill building.

Skill Building Mind Map
Voluntary Car Repossession 150 150 admin

Voluntary Car Repossession

About an hour ago, they towed my 2015 Dodge Charger from my driveway to some lot somewhere.

This car has been great to drive, but a pain paying for it and dealing with Chrysler Capital. I feel so much lighter today.

My payments were about $675 due to bad credit when I bought it. It was a decision made of desperation. I had been taking the bus before that in Dallas for a long time, and was just absolutely tired of the time it took to get from one place to another. Texas isn’t a great place to not have a car, and the test drive of this new car got me hooked.

In American Football, usually on a running play, the quarterback hands the ball to the running back to run. This is what I felt like I was doing with my paycheck. I was the quarterback and the bank that owned the car was the running back. If you need more of a visual, watch the video below and/or skip to 1:58 in the video to see this happen real time. The guy in the back is the running back, my paycheck is the football, and I am the quarterback in the front.

I just remember thinking that…every time we made that payment…either me or family who helped me out got screwed.

I literally look back and wonder how they even sold me this car. Looking at the numbers, I definitely couldn’t afford this car, which is why I put on a cosigner.

I’m taking responsibility for this bad decision and owning it, and the domino effect it caused.

Lessons learned? Avoid making decisions from desperation if possible. Look for more options. Don’t fall for the sleazy and dishonest sales tactics to get you to buy. Live within your means, but dive deep into the options of increasing your means.

Also, a big lesson I learned was to think bigger. When we signed the papers, I can remember wondering, “how can I keep up with these payments?” and trying to find a way to do that. And for the time I had the car, that’s all we did – keep up with the payments until we couldn’t keep up anymore. Now, I would think and focus on – how can I negotiate a low price and pay the car off in total at the time of purchase.

I also take responsibility for the people that sold it to me, thinking they got over on me. When they sold it, they were so happy. I could see this feeling of “gotcha!” on their face…like they were fishing and had caught one. While in the short term they profited off this individual transaction, it’s not going to look good for them in the long run. They further contribute to the bad rep car salesmen get. I can’t see myself ever looking at Chrysler Capital again in a positive light (more negative word-of-mouth). I’m reminded of the constant robot-like real humans that called me just to ask for a payment over and over and over again.

This was a source of shame, but writing about it has actually helped me. Hopefully it helps someone else!