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Crafting Your Creed

Back okay, so we just finished a lesson about purging your projects and making room in space that you can fulfill your creative mission and now we're gonna go on to our next lesson which is crafting your creed and I'm gonna share some examples of creeds that really resonate with me personally and that may inspire you to craft your own okay, I'm gonna start with, um I'm gonna start with my friend jonathan fields um he actually crafted this creed quite some time ago but I actually have this on my desk in my studio still today this was like a first attempt and then he went on to actually produce a show called the good life project but this was the initial crack at it um and I just love this I want to read this out loud and see what what resonates with you guys um it's really about it's really a statement of who jonathan is and what he values and it's also a statement of what I value so I resonate with this and I connect with this and so did a lot of other people based on his success thou ...

shall have strategy but open to serendipity I mean that is a great commandment for creatives thou shall magnify results with delight marketing thou shall train my mind in the alchemy of fear don't you love that one because we're all afraid your big fat liar if you say you're not afraid, we're all afraid, but you can use it as fuel thou shall find or purchase a sense of humor. Yes, please do all right so much for fun thou shall embrace the power of mentoring and now shall do epic shit. They're actually matters and now shall align my actions with thy heart very much purpose. I mean, that is a statement of, like, doesn't that punctuate purpose? Thou shall line that actions with thy heart fields will be joining us in less than sixteen. So really get surprise, surprise my friend jonathan is coming in from new york city to join us exactly. Um and thou shalt treat people with compassion who can't get down with that thou shall exalt love as the business ideal that might sound lofty, but when you start to craft your purpose, I'm gonna tell you right now, every time I work with an artist, they determine their purpose and they define their mission. It is always to exalt love. I know it sounds really touchy feely right now, but it is always about love is it is always and thou shall lead with service and soul was the definition of a good life, right? Does that resonate with you? Yeah, it's beautiful, so I'm gonna give you another example have a creed now you know jonathan worked on this for a while so if you don't crack this out in the next five, ten minutes when you do your exercise, don't sweat it these things take time. Be gentle with yourself. Be patient with yourself and all you need to dio you, khun borrow from some of the craft of some of the creeds I'm going to share if something really resonates with you and you say you know me too, then go ahead and borrow it. Don't rip it right off make it your own, you know, use your own language use your own graphics but, um, if other people inspire your ideal, remind you of your own ideal than you know, borrow it. It's that's fine that's cool! All right, let's, go on to another example. Um, this one's hard to read but it's great, this is scott densmore. Scott did. Summer will also be joining us. Um and he created live your legend um, by the way, johnson's, creed and artists who thrive, creed and live your legend korean you're going to see there's a lot of similar values, which is so there's no surprise they're going to be sharing the stage right and that we want to hang out and this is why it's important to claim your truth and to state your ideals because this is how you're gonna get a circle of supportive people around you is how you gonna attract your market also don't be afraid to state your true this's your power live with passion ha sound familiar right? Is that it's the course listen let's read these more closely trying new things seek adventure and learned by do doing I say like learned by failing to falling flat on your ass because that's what you're really gonna learn I know who you are and be authentic I'm not gonna read all of these just some that pop out um learned a model excellence that's great and there is no progress without action there is no failure on ly learning does this resonate with you? Okay so I'm gonna go on tio I'm gonna go on to the creed that I wrote for artists who thrive and share that with you and you see some similarities we take complete responsibility for our success and our happiness this goes back to my ongoing model which is no one is coming to save you no one is going to discover you you're responsible for that and we do it by investing in it which is the time you're all taken right now is investing in your own happiness and success this is an investment so we create value above and beyond our art rather than compete this is a big theme of what I teach don't sell art the bad business really is it is oversaturated it's incredibly competitive and don't do it don't do it surprise I'm saying that right don't do it it's about creating value above and beyond your art I want to talk about that we are free of fear it's more of a hopeful statement because as we were always we were always going to be haunted on some level by fear but an awareness of it can actually fuel our passion it can actually it can actually propel us forward if we harness that energy we're free of joey free of fear of judgment because we know who we are and what we stand for a lot of artists are really afraid of criticism really afraid of chris's and we have to put ourselves out there and be incredibly vulnerable and there are haters in the world there are really serious haters in the world, right? Felix? You met some of them. Felix gets felix encounter some haters in particular because of what he does and there are and you give them their right to be skeptical. Felix is a felix is a uh claire audience medium psychic medium for those of you don't know that isthe and he has to deal with a lot of criticism a lot of fear a lot of people are afraid of what you d'oh so if you are just think you're afraid of your afraid of criticism expert ask felix about that. Ah, we claim our creative freedom through business savvy, savvy. Our marketing is our art, we delight in the profits that are creative enterprise yields to support us, so relationship with money is key to be an artist who thriving, so we're that so that's part of the creed I created our relationships, equal revenue, our success is shared, you're not going to go in a go it alone, so I'm gonna work out so I keep inviting people to go, uh, find a friend, find two friends to r s v p for this course, or go to join dot artist who thrive dot com and, you know, get yourself into the mastermind group that I'm actually gonna be facilitating on facebook don't try to do this by yourself too hard and it's so much more fun when you're with other people and the last line I borrow from my friend dr e it's, not even mine, I just love it so much. Every artist as an entrepreneur and every entrepreneur is an artist, artists who thrive creed does that resonate all right? So everyone here did a homework assignment and I asked you to take a crack at this crafting your creed now I'm sure you know already with a you know edited version ready for publication or t shirts in the case of you know some of my it's okay it's about starting all about starting it's just start the process you're not going to finish this whole thing and one go just do this assignment completed to your best of your ability and keep yourself moving forward right that's my advice to you so all right I'll make this easy and when asked I'm gonna ask you to maybe uh pick one sentence that you think he would be part of your creed um doesn't have to be perfect and um let's just start crafting it let's just start working on it okay so cathy what would be something you would definitely state as part of your personal creed one thing bringing joy to others bring joy to others okay and so that's really important to you and that really does resonate with um what you d'oh it's really about bringing joy to others okay all right um felix if you had to pick one thing that's part of your creed so people really understood who you are and what you stand for what would you say given people my full attention and my full joy giving people the space for them to open allowing the space for them to so is that like being fully present and fully available that's to the person you're working with absolutely part of it another part is being very understanding and listening to what they're saying and listen to listening to what they're asking me a lot of questions, listening carefully, so listening carefully and all right, so you got a couple things going on so great. So are you writing these down and coming up with a creative okay, can you see how if you craft this creed and share it publicly and someone reads it in pretty short order, they understand who you are and what you stand for and concert to identify and connect with some of the values or not maybe doesn't resonate with them. That's fine too that's actually something you want to have happen to you don't we're not advertising to everybody not everybody is your customer that's okay, fine, but all right so that's beautiful. So giving people space and listening is part of your creed. Okay, jen, if you had to choose one thing that is definitely gonna be part of your creed. What would it be? I want to feel unconditional love and express it in everything I d'oh feel unconditional love and is expressed everything you want to dio. So let me let me just turn this around a little bit how could you frame that statement in a way that it's up service to others? Yeah but you didn't come back to you if you can't think of it at this moment I want to put you too much on the spot but I just want you to sit with that for a minute so that's you're so this is these are personal creed's but there also with we're looking through the lens of how this fits into our entire enterprise right and how we are of service to others so I just want you to sit with that for a minute and just see if you can reframe it okay joanie can you think of one thing that's going to be essential part of your creed I had written something down but then when I saw these um creates by other people I thought they expressed it better so what? So that's good yeah yeah so what I wrote was it's very cliche though I don't know I want to embrace each day as an opportunity to make something to create something and I forget who it was it might have been jonathan um wrote we've no back to jonathan's hold on a second how shout do epic shit that really matters I like that a lot better so um and the business the biggest risk is doing nothing so to do something this is a beautiful point andi if you've got perfection itis that comes up a lot right? We've talked about this this is one of the um, challenges that you've had is that this feeling of perfectionism which has driven some which has driven a lot of delay, right or hesitation um so so so that resonates with you just do it like pictures like this is a little double edge sword, right? Not everything is gonna be epic shit. You want to strive for it, but on the day in and day out, we're gonna make a lot of crap like I I intentionally by really cheap canvas boards when I'm doing a siri's and the reason I do that is because I know I'm gonna have to do at least ten to twelve studies in order to get to something that's very interesting so and I buy cheap ones so that I can feel free to toss them out. So when it I want to frame that and I want you to, like, kind of like this the process of editing to really explore your beliefs and to really explore what you're telling yourself and you know, is that really what I mean to say this is a creative, something that's crafted generally over time and experience and you're allowed to change it it's not like you publish it and like that's it you have to do he never change it jonathan's changed it a number of times she told me as so okay all right, all right, so um who haven't I picked on if I picked on everybody you haven't picked me yet? John it's your turn then to be picked on yeah, the first time I went through his exercise I kind of thought of it differently but seeing these changed my thinking um so I wrote down when you embrace life as an experiment change becomes fun instead of hard wow, so let's put this in contact. So your what's the name of your block where you do monthly experiments mostly experiments project okay then everyone remember that I gave it a name you could remember so that is really but think about that it's all an experiment, right? Everything is and I think that's a really freeing idea and a lot of what you're talking about has been about how things can be scary or we hadn't really talked about this exactly, but I think change is really hard for a lot of people or there's always something that's really hard it can be yeah, definitely and what everyone's watching because they want to make a change, right? So how do you so you're the way that you're framing and saying, look, I'm going to make a change if you can view it as an experiment and not as something you have to perfect yeah having an experiment instead of a specific goal like, I'm going into this course with some hopes, but I'm treating it as an experiment because I know I'm going to get something that isn't exactly what I think I'm going to get out of it right may not match the if you if you're too attached to a specific expectation or a specific outcome, this is actually great advice for this course and for a life in general, but for this course, I don't know what you're going to get out of it. I don't know what you guys are going to get out of it. I don't know what the audience is going to get out of it, I will promise if you do all of the exercises with an open mind and an open heart, something good is gonna happen and change is going to occur and will be fun, and I'll be fine. Yeah, all right, I love that. So say that again, when you embrace life is an experiment, change becomes fun instead of hard. Okay? All right, so I'm gonna go back to gen, alright and say so your original creed and I listen, I don't want to talk you out of it either I'm just challenging you, I'm pushing you because I've, you know, read some of your assignments. And I've talked to you so I haven't haven't intention behind what why I'm pushing you in a particular direction is such a torture your promise so say we'll say what your creed was and then tell me what came up a cz you thought about it and revisited it okay so I want to feel unconditional love and express it and everything I do you want to feel unconditional love and express it and everything you ugo yeah okay all right and so in listening and kind of going over this a few more times right and crowded figure out crafting it actually so um uh wait ahead of him in to go now okay that I can eyes when I hear I want to feel unconditional love I'm gonna just tell you what I'm just going to share with you what comes up for me like you know that's just not it does not the way it works okay what you mean wait what do you mean that's not the way it works unconditional love I don't think is available twenty four seven okay and I also think if if I want to feel it here's what comes up here's what I here's our mind mind goes if I want to feel unconditional love I have to give it yeah so yes I have to get it I have to start with me yes and so to make this instructive I'm thinking all right, I understand and I respect and appreciate your ideal but I would make the creed for myself I'll come I commit teo striving to express gun finish because I know I'm not going to do it all the time some of them cut me off in traffic right? I know that and I am not going to feel very loving and um loving is is not again this is my reaction or my framework and this is this is an exploration I'm not telling you what to do or not to dio this is a personal exercise but I also think loving is doing it's like me doing not me getting but need doing but what what do you think about is your creed so that's what? So I want to take that a little further in in that inn like a ham what I do that makes me feel that way like just start there at the basic like what does think you ii do that make me feel that way ok what do you do that makes you feel unconditional love because I want to do it I wouldn't do it every day what is it? Yeah what is it that you do so or want to dio well actually you know okay so for myself what something I do every single day that makes me feel that way is my meditation practice it does just it's breathing the certain thing I'm doing right now I actually even I do it wrong sometimes I'm like whoa I'm all over the place like I actually kind of comeback teo liking myself again and being like okay, so do not be a great day all right, so let me let me let me explain a little bit also why I'm critiquing this okay these messages are there were calling them personal creed's but their communications to the outside world okay, they're communications too your clients your patrons right? Your readers right? So I want to make sure that when you write this you want to start with your own personal creeping understand this is going to go out to the world may be going out the way you may or may not publish it so you're speaking to someone um and you want them to resonate with it and you want them tio um I know b ack act upon it or connect with it so again there's no right or wrong here this is a process of exploration. This is a process of editing. This is a process of understanding and it takes time it takes some time. So um I just realized that means we've been talking about like you put it out there and then you sit with it look at it is this makes sense and it may make perfect sense all right, so and as I'm talking about this I'm I'm hearing myself also say so there are things I do they help me feel centered and grounded okay, so what are the lorry? So what what if we made a just and unjust play with me here? What if we made, um a list of things that you do to make yourself feel centered and grounded yeah, what would you know it could could that itself be ah mohr instructive connecting creed I'm just you know, I think it could I could I think it could and I think it could yeah alright, so play with this this is a this is art this is a process and you know you're safe to explore in this process uh all right does anyone else wanna add one while you were sitting here? Did something pop into your head and you're thinking I want teo I want to add this to my creed will actually literally let me let me back up a second I'm going to ask each of you to answer this question and what is the one ideal that is important to you and son? And I'll tell you how if you don't if the answer doesn't pop into your head think about the thing that most offends you right? So someone lying most offends you then maybe your most, um important value is truth okay did you get that sometimes we look we can actually get we can illuminate things through contrast alright um for me it's freedom that's the most important thing I mean other things are important obviously but that's what pops into my head freedom very very important to me okay so you guys ready play along alright felix what's one thing one at which your highest ideal having compassion, compassion, passion for everybody who's in front of me or for people who I am talking with yeah yeah and you live that yeah and in that open this and being compassionate was where the information comes that's beyond me right? Right I mean you deal with people's biggest heartbreaks most sensitive issues darkest deepest secrets so if your highest ideal was not compassion you've been epic fail but that is the highest ideal that you strive for congestion and nine judge which is a form of compassion okay, beautiful okay you know and you could have a one word created you don't have to work too are like don't don't kill yourself you can have that could be it just compassion that's it and that guides all of your decisions all your business decisions all your personal decisions so if one word works for you if you're a minimalist and just pick one word it's your creed all right is that my sense? Alright one word yoni one word highest ideal your highest ideal I was it was a toss up so struggling between which one to pass pick one honesty honesty so back to that um is someone lying is that is that highly offensive to you dishonest? Your betrayal yes has that caused some of your deepest hurt and pain in your life? Yes. So no surprise yes, no surprise, no surprise. Okay, felix, when you felt the deepest pain in your life if you look at the pay most painful times in your life where were those painful moment shaped by a time when someone was exercising little or no compassion for the insensitivity in sensitivity sensitivity or just not I'm not being aware maybe so yes, right. Okay. All right, cathy. Highest ideal one word. What would you pick? Well, I'm not gonna pick compassion only because you're a lot of things. Whatever you please, I would say compassion, but I but one that keeps just sticking with me is more confidence because it's okay fight self doubt and self doubt in myself and other people and that's what I'd like to conquer, then that's your true who don't think they can like if I if I shared something too many people might think I can't do that or I I'm not good enough to do that or I don'tjust I'm not deserving of that, so I suppose confidence will be well let's step back and look what you d'oh well could you do you teach people how to make things and you give them clear instructions there the confidence to do it to take on a project that they not so sure they could dio rate so that's not a surprise to me that confidence is one of your highest ideals because if you look if you take ten steps back and look at what you do you really impart confidence in people that they can actually be creative and make stuff right and even a step further than that that they can have a lot the way it makes them feel great aside from the stuff right but in the process of making and accomplishing right? Yeah. Okay, jen one honesty and so if you look a painful times in your life did they come from the opposite? Yep people being dishonest betrayal lying. Yeah, right. So you highly value honesty it's very important to you and you're probably impressed by honesty is I'm gonna guess like your that somebody who's honest is probably someone you have a lot of respect for even if you don't agree yes, yes in fact, I have attracted to them or when I don't agree but I feel that they're being authentic and honest at least they're being riel yeah so you can deal with, um totally yeah, okay all right see we're already getting one word in our creeds we're making progress we're making progress all right how do you guys feel when you think about when you reflect upon those ideals and power empowering how else do you feel when you reflect upon those ideals let's say you're in a crappy day feel focused you feel focused I feel comfortable you feel comfortable okay, so if you think of your, uh the landscape of your to do list or your work if you kept this in mind it's easy to make decisions right if you kept this in mind and you led with this and the shaped your actions and the decisions you made I mean aren't you're already living a more purposeful life? Aren't you already feeling more confidence? Aren't you're already feeling more focus and we were not that we're only we're here we are we're not that far along on this lesson right? So you see how this stuff works just take action they made they might seem small like that but they're not yes so it's helpful when we're thinking about crafting our creed teo almost look att the opposite what offends us the most absolutely and that's why we talk about and we're going to be talking about someone most painful moments because they're going to illuminate what we hold near and dear to our heart you're going to stay you're going to learn a lot from that okay, so we're gonna, um so did you enjoy this lesson to get something out of it, crafting your cream? Lesson four. All right, our next lesson is we're going to be it's called. Look at yourself in the mirror, and we're going to be looking at ourselves. We're going to actually be taking an honest inventory of who we are. So thank you very much, and I look forward to seeing you at our next lesson.