The eight words that shape my approach to life (especially when the shit hits the fan)

Happy New Year, my friend. I hope this message finds you as well as can be under the chaotic circumstances we’ve endured the last several years. And I also hope you enjoyed (or are still enjoying) your holiday food coma. 🍰 😴

Right before the break I shared these questions I reflect upon during the holidays, including:

What accomplishments are you the most proud of this year?

Probably the most common response I received was:

“I survived. Does that count?”

Yes! Survival absolutely counts as an accomplishment given the dumpster fire otherwise known as “The 2020’s.”

• If you struggled to find consistent work and pay the bills, I promise it wasn’t you. The industry is broken.
• If you lost your health insurance and had to mortgage your soul just to stay insured, I promise it wasn’t you. Our government is broken.
• If you fell off the wagon with your healthy habits and spent most of the year proverbially living in the fetal position just to survive, I promise it wasn’t you.

You are not the problem that needs to be fixed, my friend.

I no longer believe that “optimization” is a goal worth striving for. But I do believe (and have the research to back up) that the endless pursuit of progression, growth, and purpose are what make life worth living. Even amidst uncertainty.

If you feel stuck and are desperately hoping 2025 is not a repeat of 2024, I promise you that “resolutions” are not the answer. I have no doubt your social media feeds (not to mention your inbox) have been hijacked by the “New Year, New You!” crowd.

More like → New Year, Same Bullshit.

If New Year’s Resolutions actually worked (spoiler alert: They don’t), then there wouldn’t be an official “Quitter’s Day,” i.e. the most likely day of the year when most people will fail to achieve their resolutions. The only ones who succeed this time of year are the people selling quick-fix programs and products to the people who failed using last year’s quick-fix programs and products.

Here’s why Resolutions like “I want to make more money this year” are useless:

• Resolutions are vague. They lack a vision or a clear plan.
• Resolutions lack a system that can be broken down into actionable steps.
• Resolutions encourage “all-or-nothing” thinking. Either you succeed or fail, there is no nuance in between. (And your likelihood of failure is 91%.)

Given that Quitter’s Day is January 19th, given how broken and lost our industry is right now, and given the unmitigated chaos we may potentially experience come January 20th and beyond, it’s safe to say that far more people are feeling hopeless rather than hopeful this new year.

If you are one of those feeling more hopeless than hopeful, I’d like to help change that my friend.

The 1% We Can Control

Rather than focusing on the 99% of circumstances completely outside of our control, I’d rather focus on the 1% of our lives that we can control. No matter what is happening to us, what we can always control is how we choose to respond.

If you are still struggling to find consistent work despite having built a very successful creative career up to this point, here are three potential choices going forwards.

Choice #1: Continue the same behaviors, but hope for different results.

This is quite literally Einstein’s definition of insanity, yet I hear from people every single day who after two years still believe that ‘waiting it out’ is the best approach. While much of the data suggests we’ll see more creative work in 2025, I don’t believe we’ll ever see the volume of work we did pre-2023. Hoping things go back to “normal” is a recipe for hopelessness.

Choice #2: Go back to school and earn another specialized degree.

Even 5 years ago one could argue the safe path to stability was earning a specialized degree in a more predictable industry, perhaps as an accountant, an executive, a lawyer, a doctor, or even a pharmacist. But there is no longer any career path safe from artificial intelligence and “The Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Even the traditional academic system is struggling right now to provide resources that prepare graduates for the uncertainty of the 21st century. Specialization has become the riskiest path of them all.

Choice #3: Build a more diverse creative career on your terms.

No doubt this is the scariest option, but I truly believe this is the path we all must embrace if we want to survive The Great Correction. This path will require the most work, it contains the most uncertainty, and it will definitely lead to the most failure. But on the other side of fear is potentially a whole new world where we’re no longer beholden to the status quo and can live more fulfilling lives based on our own definition of “success” rather than society’s (broken) definition.

Whenever faced with difficult choices I’m reminded of the most powerful eight word phrase that shapes my approach to life (from 4x World Weightlifting Champion Jerzy Gregorek):

→ Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.

What separates those who succeed from those who fail is not resolutions. It’s not more motivation or willpower. It’s not cold showers, waking up at 5am to “eat your frog,” or forest bathing (look it up…it’s a thing).

What separates those who succeed from those who fail is an endless series of difficult choices.

There is no simple formula that leads to success, but I do believe the difference between success and failure – regardless of the circumstances – can be determined by 5 key factors:

• The BELIEF you can succeed (coupled with a resilient mindset)
• A clear VISION (and a defined path to your success)
• A strategic PLAN (with concrete action steps)
• A strong NETWORK (because you can’t do it alone)
• A compelling STORY (that attracts the right people to you)

Each of these is nothing more than a series of strategic (and often hard) choices.

• Choosing to weather the storm rather than avoiding it (and believing in your ability to figure things out along the way).
• Choosing to defy the status quo and build a life on your terms.
• Choosing to take action (even when you don’t feel like it).
• Choosing to put yourself out there.
• Choosing to share the value you bring to the world.

If, like me, you’ve made the difficult (but necessary) choice to redefine your career path in 2025…but you’re terrified of doing it alone…then you might be a good fit for my yearlong Creatives Mastermind small group program.

👉 Click here to learn more (and schedule a Zoom chat)

If after reviewing the program information above you’d like to be one of the 10 brave souls who embarks on this yearlong career bootcamp with me, I look forward to seeing your name on my calendar.