PHLEARN Magazine

Let’s face it, staying motivated is hard. It seems there’s always someone better than you and that no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be the best.

I’d like to shed some light on a place I’m certain every single creative person has visited, but very few willingly admit to having been…the creative wasteland found in The Long Middle.

Throughout June, PHLEARN Magazine will explore the topics of Beginning & Believing: How to Get Started. We’re glad you’re starting with us.

Creation is an experience, not a manual to be followed step-by-step. As soon as I stopped trying to force my creativity to fit into predetermined boxes, it got easier and easier to pull my visions into the physical realm.

Deep down, I was disappointed. I was letting myself down. It was another project that I was putting in the “unfinished pile”. I knew I had to arrest this downward spiral before it degenerated into total failure.

Learning the ways of these old-school effects not only gave me newfound respect for the art and craft of the masters that went before me, but instilled a sense of practical creativity and problem solving that I’m not sure I would have gotten in the purely digital world.

Naturally, you’re not quite as good at starts as you are at beginnings. Starting is a bit harder. They require intention, community, courage, and a dose of naiveté.

If you had told me that I’d learn more about business and my creative potential from running a booth at a farmer’s market than from working with Victoria’s Secret in New York, I would’ve thought you were crazy.

As an artist and designer, April has altered the user experience of the fortune cookie, caused unsuspecting pedestrians to look twice at street signage, and coded a bot to tweet out food-inspired romance.

Certainly you’ve heard of analysis paralysis – that catatonic state your mind enters into when overthinking causes complete immobilization. Perhaps you’re visiting this post now in an attempt to flee the very action that you know you must take next.