POD: Let’s back up a sec, here.
Posted on November 17th, 2009 in making things
Whoo, that last one was a bit of a rant, wasn’t it? But I needed to get that out of my system, because I’m tired, I’m just dead tired of the “everything’s broken/too hard/scary/etc so why bother trying?” nonsense. And I know it’s not new, but a few years back it just started snowballing because here’s the truth of it: It’s a million billion times easier to tell people what’s wrong than it is to try and make something right.
I’m am well self-aware enough to recognize that following a ranty post with that last statement is comedy gold, yes.
But now I’m going to switch gears and go a little hearts and flowers and rainbows on you. Because I do honestly get that it’s honestly hard to start something, and it’s even harder to finish it. Yeah, I know, I really do. But now’s the time to do it, isn’t it? Haven’t you noticed how many people — complete strangers, even - are getting genuinely and creatively excited about Doing Stuff? Part of it’s very likely the end-of-the-decade rush — it’s hitting some people like a ton of bricks, but it’s infecting even more people with cabin fever. Folks are dusting off projects they first started thinking about in 2005 or 1999, or just finally flipping the switch and starting on something completely new.
And if the feedback I’m getting is any indication (and I’ve got comments disabled here because they don’t suit me, but I do pay attention to Twitter and I read everything on Whitechapel) — there are a LOT of you right. on. that. cusp. of taking the first step. So look, I know I’ve been giving you lot a hard time about “just getting it done,” but before I get into my list of Stuff What I Learned Working With POD sometime tomorrow, I wanna back up a step and talk to you.
Here’s what you need to do, right now, tonight. No, NOT tomorrow morning, or this weekend, or once your work rush has let off a little, or after the holidays, or sometime in the New Year: Right. Fucking. Now.
Decide what you want to make.
And I’m talking about the single most complicated and ridiculous creation you can think of…
NO STOP IT I DIDN’T SAY HOW or WHY or WHEN, I only said WHAT.
Just the THING. That’s all. Is it a book? Is it a script? A necklace? A toaster-cozy? A shirt? What is it? What do you want to make?
And oh I mean it when I say ridiculous and complicated. Look, if you want to take 365 photos of your toaster, one for every day of the next year, sometimes with toast and sometimes with a bagel and sometimes with an English muffin and one shot with a Very Dangerous Fork, and you want to blow those images up to 8.5×11” and put them into a monthly magazine with no words and just a picture of the appliance in its knitted cozy on the front and that’s what you want to make? Then that’s what you want to make.
That’s what you want to make.
I SAID STOP THINKING ABOUT THE HOW OR THE LOGISTICS OR THE MONEY OR THE TIME. STOP IT.
This moment, right now, this THING that you’re deciding to make, this thing exists independently of the fiddly bits for now. This, what you’re doing here, is something that back in the olden days — before the slagosphere wasted all your time telling you how not to do things — they called a goal. It’s a beautiful and magical thing that doesn’t need money or time or effort to believe in. It’s only different from a dream in that you made it yourself, instead of letting your subconscious do all the work while you sleep.
Now, okay, here’s the little-bit harder step, are you ready?
Look at that THING you just said you wanted to make. Really look at it. Now, right now, tonight, NOT tomorrow morning, or this weekend, or once your work rush has let off a little, or after the holidays, or sometime in the New Year: Right. Fucking. Now.
DECIDE WHETHER YOU’RE GOING TO DO IT, OR NOT.
Period. This is it. You’ve been putting it off, or you’ve been planning to get around to it, or you know that once you get a little spare time it’s at the top of the list… for HOW long now? I’m looking at you. I know you’re already taking a breath to rattle off the list of all the things standing in your way. and what’s more, I know you know they’re just excuses.
And it needs to end, now. Your life is never going to GET less stressful. It’s honestly not. That’s not how life works. When we put off the things we want to do, the stress of that adds into the stress of life. You’re not going to GET more hours in the day. You’re never going to have enough money to put aside spare time. You’re not going to suddenly have That Moment where it all gels and you suddenly break out and start doing what you want to be doing… unless you MAKE that moment, right here, right now.
Oh I’m making a sappy speech right now, sure I am. Imaginary music should be swelling on my cue. But I’m telling you the absolute truth, okay? If you say, right now: “Oh whatever, I’ve heard that before, but it’s different for me, I’ve got different troubles and it’s not going to hurt me to wait until 2010″ — then you’re already out of the game, and I’m sorry, but that was that. You might get there in ten years, sure, anything’s possible… but it’s going to have to be a different you that gets you there. Because you, right now, haven’t got it. And that’s fine — not everyone does — but it’s really time for you to put your energies into whatever you think is more important than Making What You Want.
The rest of you, well, you just signed on for a metric fuckton of work, and tomorrow you’re going to start realizing how much — but you’re all going to make it. As long as you’re telling the truth, as long as you’ve decided you’re going to make your Thing, as long as you’re not shitting yourself just so you can feel like this paragraph is for you — you’re in. It truly is just that easy — you make your goal and then you do every damned thing you can to get it done. You’re making a THING. What, you think you can’t make a little Time? Time isn’t half as hard as making a Thing! If you can write a book, you can make time. If you can sculpt, you can create the moments to do it. If you can make pictures or music or knit or anything, then a little jiggery-pokery of space-time is nothing at all.
(That’s all a lie. It’s hard as all fuckity, honestly. But you said you weren’t lying when you said you wanted to do this thing, so you’re fucking well in it, now.)
That’s it. Do it, or don’t. Shit, or throw out the pot. Pick one, and stick with it.
And if you come back tomorrow, I’ll be here helping the folks that, just like you, decided to Make Something.