Comedy
As we close out the month of January, Here's what I hope you've managed to do, and trust me when I tell you this is just as much for me as it is for you. I hope you've made a list of the things you'd like to get accomplished this year, although I hope you've made two lists—one list with COVID, one without. I hope you've made a budget. I want to recommend a website and app called YNAB -- You Need A Budget. It actually helps make sense of the one thing that causes us the most stress in our lives. Subscribe to the YouTube Channel. I'll put it in the show notes. Try the budget app out for the 34-day free trial. No, I'm not making any money from this. I like to tell you about the tools I use and whether I find this useful. I believe this is useful.I hope you've begun setting boundaries in your life. Not just about what we've talked about previously, but also about time. I hope you're carving out time--scratch that--I hope you're scheduling time to create, to reflect, and to review. These are the three most important times you need in your life. Schedule this time and don't negotiate about it. Your creation time is what you need to move your life as a creative forward, your reflection time is so you can be grounded in the rest of your life, and your review time is so you can review what you've accomplished and what your next steps are. If I can get nothing else through to you in this episode, make sure you get this one. Please consider this year one other period of time, and that's time to learn. Whether that's through YouTube, Creative Live, Masterclass, LinkedIn Learning, or just good old fashioned book learning, it might be a good idea to sit down at some point during the week and learn something that will help you in your craft or life. I hope you get some sleep, goddamn it. You're no good to anyone as a zombie. It's supposedly cool to bust your ass three ways from Sunday for the grind, but if all you're doing is work, there's no time for the rest of your life. If I have one regret in my life, it's not getting this lesson earlier. I hope you're on the way to realizing what you're worth, and when you do, don't negotiate it. I'm not just talking about work. Be willing to walk. Finally, I hope you're willing and able to change your plans. Nobody gets exactly what they want how they want it 100 percent of the time. Shit happens. Control what you can, and roll with what you can't. Improvisation, when done well, relies upon two words: 'Yes, And.' Add that to my two favorite words, 'What's Next', and you have the two things that have changed my life for the better in the past thirty years. Use them and see If it works for you. I wish you a better year than the one we've all had. We could really use it.