Bounce back
The art and science of being scrappy
A wise man once said “Last night took an L but tonight I bounce back.” That man was Big Sean. While the lyrics of that song also refer to how to tell if a woman’s butt is real, there is some deep wisdom in it. It stays on my playlist that I tap into whenever I feel like tapping out.
As usual, as soon as I decided to create a blog post about resilience, I ran into some real-world hiccups to see if I really meant it. The internet where I’m staying decided to call it quits today, so it’s taking multiple restarts and deep breaths to create this. But, if this posts, I must have found a way.
Here’s the thing about doing anything worthwhile. It takes time, energy, and a whole lotta failures to find your way to the work that works. Obstacles are inevitable. It’s what you do with them that matters.
There’s this idea circulating in the culture that everything that is for you is easy and if you ask me, that’s a dangerous thing to believe. If a path is for you, you can bet that it will be beautiful and interesting. Magical, even. You can also bet that it will present you with mountains to climb and hurdles to overcome.
In the realm of creativity, the ones who manage to create a body of work are the ones who learn how to just keep climbing. There’s a grit to them. They are the scrappy souls who bounce back over and over again.
We see the moment when an actor holds their Oscar or the author hits the bestseller list. Rarely do we get to see the early mornings, sacrifices, and years of quiet consistency that led to that mountaintop moment.
The highs are not sustainable, which is why most artists who live balanced lives have a routine that they return to through the ups and downs of the creative journey.
Seth Godin has done a blog post every day for over 20 years. That’s a hell of a lot of bouncing back. In a podcast chat, he said “Tomorrow I will post another blog. Not because it’s amazing, but because it is Tuesday.”
Austin Kleon has sent out a newsletter every Friday since 2013. In an interview about his process, he shared that he doesn’t really mind learning out loud and doesn’t have the embarrassment gene.
Liz Gilbert kept sending her work to publishers through seven years of rejection letters before she started getting some traction.
In my own creative life, I’ve been making the shift from creating something really great every once in a while, to making a thing every weekday and posting it. There are several blog posts from the last few weeks that are NOT my best work. I can find many flaws, but instead I’ll keep creating. I’m not looking for perfection but consistency.
It isn‘t passion or inspiration that will get the thing made. It is a consistent system that you can return to through all of the days that you simply don’t feel like it.
Through all the silence, self-criticism, and doubt, bounce back.
Good things come to those who just keep climbing.