 So welcome all. Please let me accept my invitation to be here today. I won't be taking answers from the stage after, so if you want to chat I invite you to, well I'll contact info there and I'll be about it. I'll give you some info later on how you can find me to continue the conversation. So what I offer you today is that before you leave here, I'll give you new perspectives and tools at your disposal that you can use to finish current projects and give you confidence that future projects will likewise be completed. And I don't want you to take anything I say as a doctor or set of rules, even more as a tool set that you can make use of, modify, dispose of as you see fit. A near universal truth of living your creative life is we collect. This was a photo from the beginning of COVID I did of trying to get my unfinished projects organized. And you know personally I've labored for years under the shame that that brings of just you know constantly starting things that yeah end up on shelves like so. And every time I would start a new project friends and family would roll their eyes and you know I knew they were talking about me about that new yet soon to be unfinished project that I was starting. But then one day something changed. I started finishing projects and just as important I got better at not taking on projects that were sure to stall. I mean you're here today so I'm guessing unfinished projects are a thing in your life. So take a moment and feel that for yourself. Like close your eyes if you like. Imagine in a near future you as having a reputation of someone who finishes projects. Yeah, right? And when you do take on a project you do so with the confidence that you'll complete it. All that weight from all those unfinished projects lifted from your shoulders. So how does that feel? So stick with me here. We'll go through some some thoughts I have on this. So I believe that creative energy is meant to flow freely from us as a way of contributing to the collective our community the world. At a deeper level I believe that through creative expression we find connection and connections precious. Some even say connection is everything. So I coach high performing creatives and working with them I see the same patterns time and time again that I see in all people including myself. I repeatedly observe that humans are awful at finishing what they start and there's a common cycle to the creative process. So I find the hero's journey model by American writer Joseph Campbell to be a useful way to visualize this process. And here's a simplified sketch of the hero's journey. So at the top we have a call to adventure. So this would be the project that lands in our lap whether it's inspiration or a client coming to you or your boss giving you a project. However that comes to you there's this this call to to take a journey. And you know a whole bunch of stuff happens along the way as you're working towards the end. But then in the middle we get this abyss this death and this is the part in projects where everything kind of comes to a grinding halt and you know it's hard to push through. So and then from there you know there's if we can push through that make it through there there's a transformation and we can return we are able to finish our project thereby delivering it to society and from that you get the benefits of I'm sure this you know unlimited benefits but for me it's a matter of that that connection that gift we're giving back. So about ten years ago I realized that I have a talent or gift if you will of assisting people struggling in this area up in the the return you know from that abyss upwards. I discovered this about myself through work I was doing producing Maker Faire events. I produced them around the world which was initially about offering people the excuse to share their creations you know come in show and tell others about the cool things they're doing in and here's some space to do it. So humans would attend the event and talk to makers about their creations and through these interactions some magic happens for both the maker and the attendee and both leave changed you know I'm not sure that process was always conscious to them but it was something I saw all the time was that there was definitely an energy exchange and and you know people would get something out of sharing their work and then so in observing this I realized that oftentimes the real value I was delivering was not that connective interaction so much rather I was facilitating the push many needed to get their project show ready that that being you know finished enough that they could deliver it and show it and share it off with the world and that's where the magic connections happen I feel and they wouldn't have taken place had the maker not shared their creativity so my personal work has changed along with the evolving world you know struggled to to see in a world where big festivals like this or events like Maker Faire don't really happen as often anymore and well the Maker Faire is another story all together yeah like how how would I help creatives with that return journey and I realized that I could just work with people one on one so that's kind of where my world has gone these days is we're kind of working one-on-one with creatives committed to making that return journey so artists or other creatives who yeah they're they're driven and they have high stakes projects often so obsessively they don't have a choice so tell you a little story it's an old story it's of Odysseus King of Ithaca he's returning from returning home along with his men at arms sailing in 12 ships they've just finished a 10-year campaign in the Troy war Trojan war as it's called after being driven off course by storms they lose themselves I in the land of the Lotus Eaters for some time later they encounter a Cyclops who eats his fill of them they escape the Cyclops there's additional sailing storms again a giant eats more of them destroys 11 of their ships leaving just Odysseus's vessel Odysseus is seduced by a witch goddess his crew is turned to swine they can escape back on their return journey they deal with sirens monster whirlpools there's mutiny more storms and a shipwreck his final ship finally upon friendly ground Odysseus secures safe passage home and the journey from Troy so this journey from Troy took an additional 10 years so 10 years after the war or 10 years at war and then another equal measure of return home so does this remind you of any of the projects you've worked on so I share this poorly abridged narrative with you because I enjoy the metaphor offered if the Odyssey is read as a metaphor for your own journey then you'll certainly find some points of reflection in it as I have and I also bring it up because it makes some of them talking about have more meaning so here you are sitting here today you've tried things in the past to finish projects and you keep ending up shipwrecked on a new island what was the last tool you used to keep yourself on track to use project management tools time management tools life management tools I want you to consider a different approach now you can still use your current tool set information still needs to be organized and accessible it's just I don't actually think that's what's holding you back I suspect that what does hold you back is more a matter of your perspective and shifting that perspective in subtle ways might just do more for you than all the world's spreadsheets and Gantt charts so the first perspective shift I want to discuss is really basic perhaps you've already integrated this into your life the internal versus external energy desire and time generated internally now now there's also the external resources such as money and people and I'm sure many of you question my inclusion of time under internal and we'll address that that shortly on the slide the arrow represents perception of time which I like to think of as entropy which is why I have it increasing as entropy increases we often experience internally a loss of energy focus fatigued mind and body and on the external side we get well that which is not within our control to that point when I think of entropy this Nick cave quote always comes to mind all the things all things move towards the end of this you can be sure maybe it's too dark I don't know anyway on the subject of the external if we put the fate of our project completely in the hands of the external and this includes software funding collaborators then we have to get our sovereignty over the project's life and thereby increase the chance that success will not come or at least minimize our role in it but this doesn't mean we have to do it ourselves that used to be my approach and I can tell you micromanaging is exhausting some of you know this feeling well but how do we take ownership and still gain the benefits of external resources so we can instead shift our role in a project by taking on a heroic mindset if you were the hero in your story then it goes to reason that you need to take heroic action just as Odysseus does in his adventures although your spear may break in your ship may sink in your crew may be in by monsters remember those are all externals just it's about taking ownership of the outcomes you have control over and you'll just as likely find that with ownership comes additional control and again this is just a mind mindset shift I don't you don't use control here in the sense of holding power over another person rather control of variables or different words increased ability to affect outcome one other point of clarification and with ownership I also don't mean that you actually need to change anything in your environment and just yeah simply shift your perspective all right so as a hero the project and subsequent success are yours to deliver you can lead teams armies or even henchmen to assist you in completing your project but at the end of the day it's your project right even if you're working on just a small part of a larger project no matter how small the to it's that that makes the totality of your project so that's that's kind of the start of that shift yeah if you employ people or software to help you just do so knowing that they can't be expected to finish it they're there to unburden where possible but they're the heroes in their own stories and that's on them to find their heroic heroic energy and finish their objectives but if they should falter you still have your part to complete without taking ownership of the outcome you don't have the ability to change things so by holding a heroic mindset you may also find it easier to not be swayed by the opinion of others their analysis of you is just them trying to find understanding that's all let them write their own story the way they want it's not beneficial for you to try to alter theirs or allow their story to alter yours because there's a good chance that you're not the hero in someone else's telling of things so put simply think about the project and your role in it as metaphor you're the hero and does knowing you're the hero change your engagement only you get to decide that so now let's discuss one of the more common stated problems within a project chronoception more commonly known as perception of time or simply time and I have a few thoughts on this it seems to me like as humans we spend a great deal of time talking about time and worrying about time we try to measure time but experientially know it's flexible measuring times like measuring a room with a with an elastic band that you can do it but is the result useful I was raised with the understanding that time is an external force acting upon me and most people I know were raised with the same perspective so what if I say that time is perceived or time is an illusion or time is an awareness of entropy perhaps how does that sit with you so I'm gonna so yeah I want you to think like what if you could look at time differently and by doing so get more done I'm gonna offer you a way to do this and logical part of your brain will reject it possibly violently so it's okay to doubt me but if you'd like to reshape your relationship with time then I invite you to try this for yourself if time is perceived then where does the perception of time come from I'd say internally you look at a clock to externally position yourself the actual perception and experience of time is internal time as you know it comes from within you if you can allow yourself to believe that statement true then what implications follow if you can allow yourself to believe again that time comes from within you then you are the creator of time as you see it spaces where activities actually happen not time remember time is just a shitty ruler and is more a retrospective measurement but space is the here and now that the present and it's possible to hold space where everything you need to get done gets done I'm gonna try to show you how it's it in a not one-on-one scenario will I'll see if I can articulate this well enough I find this works best for tack task-based activities with diminishing results the more you need to interact with others such as texting email social media meetings etc etc but that could just be me you might be able to master this and use it in all parts of your life so it's my belief that space is mine to hold but interacting with others alters my perception as my world synchronizes between shared realities so I gain the most control for my space when I don't accidentally synchronize again you gain control over your time and I thinking of it as time but rather is space and that measure of space is up to you here's a step I set how I do this don't worry if this doesn't immediately click for you my I welcome you to reach out to me after and you can also find me you know in the RGB tent likely for the remainder of the day and tomorrow morning okay so you make a list of all the things you want to get done actually put more on the list than you think you're going to get done find a place to work where you'll not be interrupted pretty basic you know advice there I know now send alarm ahead of your next required synchronization so again we're kind of thinking it as when our worlds collide with someone else so for example you're meeting a colleague for coffee in three hours so send alarm for two and a half hours so you have no reason to look at the clock or otherwise synchronize with the outside world until that alarm rings takes discipline but I do find thinking about the external interactions as synchronizing your space with others to be helpful because it gives you a clearer picture of what you're trading away when you do allow yourself to become distracted so think of your time not as time but as space that you will fill with the things on your list you want to achieve you set your intention to work through that list and not synchronized with others and really that's it okay I know it's it's on the surface it sounds too simplistic but if you do try this I wager you're going to get through everything on your list plus the stuff you didn't think you're gonna get through you're gonna find yourself worried that you set your alarm wrong and in a panic you'll you'll check your clock and realize you still have half hour 45 minutes left that's at least been my experience every time I do this as it is for most people that have tried this now there is a catch and you knew there would be a catch for this to work you actually have to take ownership of time you have to fully accept that your perception of time comes from within you and that you can create time to fill a space time is only a measure of that space in retrospect and therefore not super useful that the space is created with your intent in practice this may not be as easy as it sounds because it means you'll be giving up the ability to use possibly your favorite excuse just as it is for many of us you no longer get to say I don't have enough time or I will never find the time to get all that stuff done these can't coexist with the idea that time comes from within you and thereby you create time or more accurately you create space just drop those phrases from your life and it won't be easy at first but you'll quickly be made aware of how often you had externalized time as a way of excusing what you didn't do or more often true what you didn't want to do you also start to notice just how often others use time as an excuse so is it science psychology or who I for me I personally don't care I just find this process works there's lots of rational reasons that you could say of how it fits with traditional time management or productivity advice I'll leave that up to you this is just my process of of how I approach it give it a go and you know if it works for you then well I'm happy so here's another thought I want you to consider see how it lands for you how it feels in your body projects most often fail when there's a misalignment between your goals and your desires so projects most often fail when there's a misalignment between your goals and your desires spend long enough working on various projects and you'll you'll realize goals are necessary we they're critical a project with no goals is like sailing without destination right it's just aimless floating but we spend energy doing so but you know this I'm not going to talk about the importance of setting goals rather let's discuss desires I see desire as the inner driving force that moves us towards the things we want this sounds obvious enough yet many creatives really struggle in this area they set goals whose outcomes do not materially align with their own desires so then is it any surprise that their energy and drive falter as they near the end of their project this leading to stall projects quite often our projects have goals that are aligned with external desires that is desires held by a person a group or institution that's their desires not yours on the surface this is all well and good for the external party at least but if the project doesn't succeed then who really benefits whose responsibility is it to ensure an alignment between a goal and the desires that fuel us who whose responsibility is that I believe the answer is that all parties are responsible if I'm commissioning a project and I want to be successful than I should try to include persons whose energy will be nourished by the project not depleted to do otherwise is simply not sustainable but however it's not realistic to expect that all projects will be led by someone who cares whether our desires align with their goals and their desires so we have to work with you know within the realm of reality here and so with this in mind trying to find ways in which a project's outcome can tie into your personal goals and desires make that your reason to input energy so without this alignment though you'll find lots of other reasons to do other things so I'm saying is well let me give you an example let us say you're on a team building a combat robot and your role is designing and building the drive system the mechanics the electronics that actually move the robot around the the field most probably the collective teams desire is to receive the glory in of destroying all the opponents and winning the tournament you likely share in this collective external desire but what if what's your personal desire have you taken time to figure that out what's your project is your project to finish the robot is your project to finish your personal project actually just the drive system this isn't to say you're you're not connected to the collective project clearly your project needs to integrate with the other system so again this is a matter of shifting perspective and doesn't need to constitute change of process so once you have clarity of what your desire is in the scope of your project your project not the collective project can you then set intent holds and hold space for your creativity what would they all come look like if you figured this out before starting a project if you could feed your desires and you were clear on what success looks like for you personally would you have more energy available how would the collective project fair I very much recommend that you gift yourself space to sit down and get clear on all your current projects so the stuff you have sitting around you know right now maybe these are paying projects you're currently doing or you know the project that you didn't get finished in time for for EMF and you know just like think about what desires you you can align with that project and I was gonna yeah I guess it leads to this thought which is a thought on unfinished projects a project that you never start is not an unfinished project it's just an idea and it's okay to have ideas I countless like notebooks filled with ideas and I know only a few of those will ever become real and there's nothing wrong with this ideas are cheap until you commit resources to them so simply don't start projects without comes that don't align with your desires available real resources are an obvious factor so money people tools but by far the most important aspect when deciding what projects to start is how they align with your desires so so also just because your desires do not currently align with the project doesn't mean that it never will sometimes what what doesn't align now will again at a future date and everything will fall nicely into place at that time but maybe not go as smooth if you started it now so before you begin a project that's the moment where you have some control over the external or at least control over how it will play into your project this is the best place to take inventory of what what else you have control over and determine if there's abundance enough to see the project through so as many times when it's appropriate to push through resistance you feel but when deciding to start a project is not one of those times listen your body and your gut feelings the main point here is is don't start a project that isn't likely to be completed you probably have a good sense of this before you even start it and if you have that feeling and if if you don't have an alignment with your desires if it's not going to to nudge you forward in life it's best just to not start it your success to fail ratio will go way up if you only take away this one thing so we've talked about a lot we've talked about you know collecting unfinished projects we've talked about the internal versus the external talked about holding a heroic mindset in painting yourself as the hero in in your narrative in your projects we've talked about time and space and I'm pretty sure I've left most of you skeptical on that but that's fine we can continue the conversation I'm happy to and aligning goals with desires and maybe most importantly it's just not starting projects that don't align with our desires so you being here today has been an important first step towards finishing future projects I believe by being here you're acknowledging there's a pattern in your life that you'd like to change and that you're willing to commit effort to breaking this cycle and this is no small thing with that I look forward to future conversation with you if you feel so inclined to reach out I want you to feel free to approach me if you see me wandering like I said before I'll be in the RGB tent for the for the few hours that remain but yeah also feel free to reach out any time after the event that's my my email is yeah Jason at making shit real.com