Creativity Matters, Only With Action
A Letter to My Future Self
Dear Zake,
I’m the 27-year-old of you from 2021, how have you been? Since 2015, I decided to take a day every month to reflect on work, life, relationship, and mental clarity. This is the 60th mail that I’m writing to you.
How time flies! I’ve sent myself 60 self-review letters in the past 5 years. Back then I was still a student at college, who has no idea about his career and life after graduation. I wrote about good/bad things that happened, inspiring new ideas or cool experiments that I could try out.
Now I’m a full-time product manager in a tech company who also pretty much follows 996 working cultures (9 AM-9 PM, 6days/week). I write about my side hustle attempts and modern life detox, making sure I don’t lose myself and the pursuit of happiness along the journey.
Although the structure of this letter changes over time, I’m trying to make it valuable, not just for me right now or me in 20 years, but accountable for you, who desperately need some extra inspiration and guidance to your dream life, despite all the shit that might happen to you every day.
Creativity Matters, Only With Action
In January and February, I completed 3,000 burpees challenge and set goals to do 15,000 burpees by the end of 2021; I started my third LIFE IS A DRUG workshop and realized there’re more problems to be solved; I had the most boring Chinese new year in the past couple years (without traveling to any new places due to COVID-19); and I had some deeper thoughts on content creation and creativity.
I post 5 videos in the first 2 months of 2021, which is not many compared to a full-time content creator. However, I think I also fall into this fallacy that you have to post a new video every week, otherwise you are not pursuing this path seriously and professionally.
Don’t be a salve to content
For every creator, the deadline is a must-have, but that doesn’t mean that we are slaves to the content. Either you are pursuing the path full-time or just sharing online for fun, we create content and share it with other people for a better life and a better version of ourselves, not the other way around. If making content goes against your value, or has some severe side-effect on your normal life, then they are no doubt a red flag.
Find a strategy that works for you
For the past year and a half, I’ve successfully formed the habit of creating a video every month based on “30 day challenge” topic, during the past 6 months, I increased the number to 3–4 videos/month. But the thing is, because I want to keep the promise to post new videos every week, I won’t be able to devote enough time and thoughts to leverage the quality, or there’re too many things I have to do besides creating, like adding subtitles and photoshopping a nice thumbnail... Sometimes I feel that I’m not creating content, but producing content like a robot on the assembly line.
Given the fact that I work 6 days a week, I eventually decided to make 2 videos every month, spending more time and energy on each video. I make 1 PM — 2 PM, 10 PM — 11 PM on every workday as my draft hours, weekends as the shoot days. And here’s a deal: Try something different in every video.
Systematic thinking
Beyond the 2 points, I was recommended the book The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, on building a system for everything you do, which frees you for more valuable and enjoyable tasks.
I was struggling with these in the past 3 weeks since my workshop started. Because I made a promise to reply and propose suggestions to everyone who joined the workshop and posted their homework, I spend all the rest of my spare time replying, instead of creating content and moving forward.
So far I have some ideas for the next workshop, and I’m also looking forward to finishing this book and applying more thoughts pragmatically.
OKR for March & April
Annual Objective: Become a self-reliant, confident human being who has more freedom over his life
KR1: Cinematography skill — Make sure every B-roll shot is visually appealing
- Match every B-roll shot with movie scenes’ composition and color
- Reach out to creators who are better at cinematography, and learn from their experiences
- Enroll in a systematic course on cinematography composition or color grading
- Watch one cinematography related video on YouTube every day during lunch or dinner time
KR2: Grow my channel to 65K and make at least one more 100K-view content
- Post 3+ new videos before the next review
- Outsource thumbnail design, subtitles, community activity, and build a system that works
- Research before every video topic, find value, connection, fun and rhythm
KR3: Lose belly fat and gain a 6-pack, body fat percentage to 13%
- Workout every day, 15min HIIT+ 15min abs ripper exercises
- Swimming every Friday&Sunday, boxing every Wednesday
- Have a 7-hour sleep every night, bedtime 12 AM
What I’m Digesting
1. Shape Up by Ryan Singer from Jason Fried’s Basecamp
I highly recommend this book to anyone who works as a product/project manager or similar role in the tech companies, the methods Jason’s team developed over the years are really down to earth and easy to understand.
2. The Happiness Trap — Russ Harris
This book introduces ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), which is a method you can simply apply to stop anxiety, and enjoy the present moment. Although I find some framework might not work for anyone, the overall idea of acceptance and embracing is powerful.
LIFE IS A DRUG. LOVE IT. LIVE IT.
Zake
