Yesterday I had a terrible day. I was a 2. Did you know publishing a book is not as easy as it sounds and will require every last bit of grit you have? Did you know that you can spend $600 in one 20 minute visit to the vet? Did you know that at least I have new Christmas pajamas and they are definitely making things better?
Well now you know. Hoping today will be more 4-like. You’re always welcome to tell me what number you are, 1-5, and why, in the comments. Now on to three items to tuck into your mental backpack for the week.
FOR THOUGHT (excerpt from Today Was Fun)
The pressure to conform is strong. Especially when we feel insecure about our work, it can feel like the safest thing to do is to make our work look like everyone else’s work. This is why we get so many soul-sucking slide decks. There are the bullets and the graphs, and sometimes you just look at them and say, “What is your actual POV? Is there anything interesting or profound or actionable here at all? Can you just say in a sentence what the point is and skip all the tables?” I mean, usually I say that way nicer, but that’s how it goes in my head.
A lot of this comes down to creative confidence: the ability to create something you believe in and show it or say it clearly to others.
Take the acclaimed and definitely not normal screenwriter Stanley Kubrick. Someone once asked him if it was usual for a director to spend so much time lighting each shot. He said, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anyone else light a film.”
The guy gave zero fucks about what normal looked like. He had confidence to do what he thought was best. Working this way honors our instincts and unrefined brilliance and liberates us from best practices. Most of all, it’s brave and gives us the courage to put our ideas into the world without the safety net of “I’m just doing it how we’ve always done it. Don’t blame me!”
In our world today, there are so many best practices and methods and frameworks that while everyone has gotten smarter, the unintended consequence has been that many things are the same. Ads for banks are the same. Billboards for sports drinks are the same. Venture capital firms—“We are investing in the next generation of world-changing companies”—are the same.
Instead, brilliant work is about having the bravery to not start with what is known, but to start with what you aren’t quite sure of yet but are excited to discover, invent, and share with the world.
FOR ACTION
My acting teacher always used to ask us: “When it comes to a bacon-and-egg breakfast, what’s the difference between the chicken and the pig?”
“The chicken contributed. The pig was committed.”
It’s worth asking yourself and adjusting:
What in your life are you willing to go all in on? What’s worth your bacon?
And also, where are you giving bacon-level commitment where an egg is enough?
FOR FUN
This has nothing to do with work but made me guffaw and I thought it might put a smile on your face too. This is me and Brad to a T.
See you next week,
Bree
What’s the less cringey version of “smash that subscribe button”? I don’t know, but I do know I’m grateful for every share to LinkedIn, every Substack restack, and when you forward posts to friends. It helps to make the working world a little more human. Thanks, truly.
Hi Bree! 🤗 Brilliant work never comes from doing what's already known. Yet, it's easy to slip back into doing what everyone else is doing or what you think you should be doing. It's something that needs to be constantly considered. Thank you for sharing your insights!