Which one are you?

Imagine that you were able to come face-to-face – right now – with the 8-year-old version of yourself. Would that kid be proud of you? Or, would that kid say, “What the hell, man? What have you done?!” and then kick you in the shins before running away.

If you just screamed, “ow!” and are hopping on one foot right now, then yeah…let’s rethink this. You may not be who you actually are.

So in full disclosure, I found myself saying ow and hopping on one foot two years ago. It hurt, but it was an eye-opener. Eye-openers, it turns out, usually do hurt. That’s probably why so many of us have our eyes closed so tightly all the time.

I wasn’t really me, and it was weird.  

Not weird in a schizophrenic way, or even in an out-of-body-experience way. It was weird more in a I-left-the-house-and-forgot-to-wear-pants kind of way. I was going through the motions, totally messing it up, and not even noticing.

To resolve this, one of the things I decided to do was to hold myself accountable for being creative. At least once a week, create something that didn’t exist previous to my creating it. At the end of the year, I’d have 52 creations that I pulled out of thin air.

#abeataweek

I started where I am most comfortable starting anything – behind my drum kit. In the year 2016, I created a new drum beat each week and posted them to my personal Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. The goal wasn’t to get attention, but to keep me accountable for it every_single_week.

It was so much fun that I continued the beats this year, too. Each week, I sit down and try to create something right then and there, on the spot, that didn’t exist a few minutes earlier.

I’ve had a few good ideas in my life – this was maybe the third best. Behind asking Lesley to marry me, and the one time in 2007 when me and some pals “rickrolled” my friend Tony when he was running a marathon. It was 2007. It was funny. Shut up.

Challenging yourself to be yourself, and keeping yourself accountable for it every single week, isn’t as easy as it sounds, but if you’re lucky, you start to see results quickly. I was lucky. It’s weird to think that you sometimes have to work at being yourself, but I guess that’s the case sometimes.

Parallel to the #abeataweek efforts, I did launch my business venture, Magic Room Brand, and the two complemented each other perfectly. Both involved me creating something that didn’t previously exist but aimed to bring value when shared with a broader audience.

It’s all a work in progress, but I guess that’s how everything should always be.

So, back to that kid…

You might come face-to-face with them again soon. How will this next interaction be different?

#bewhatyoumake