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4 Questions to Help You Stop Drifting and Start Focusing · The Daily Writer

• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everybody to the Born to Create podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm your host.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an author, musician, and a teacher.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: But most importantly, I'm a husband and a dad.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the show, we talk about practices, habits, and strategies that help us live out our creative calling.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode number four, and today we're going to be talking about four questions to help you stop drifting and start focusing.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the post that accompanies this episode, as well as all the links, at KentSanders.net slash stopdrifting.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's stop dash drifting.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The time I spent in grad school was one of the most exciting periods of my life, but it was also one of the most dangerous.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Once a week I would drive about a hundred miles to the seminary where I was taking classes at the time.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: The drive to the seminary in the early morning was fine, but the drive back at night was a killer.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: After sitting in class all day, I would get really drowsy and sometimes start drifting off to the side of the road.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Drifting is dangerous, whether it's happening in a car or in your creative life.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are several reasons that I think we start to drift.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're too busy, we feel overwhelmed, we don't have clarity in our lives, or we're just plain tired.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever the reasons, the end result of drifting is the same.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: We lose focus and start heading toward the danger zone of confusion and frustration.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So how can we stop drifting and get back on track?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of offering a one size fits all solution, I want to offer four great questions that can help us think about critical issues and clarify our direction.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: These questions will spur your thinking about your overall direction in life, as well as a more specific direction for your creative work.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Question number one is the question of identity.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The familiar phrase know thyself is attributed to Socrates, but it actually predates him.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless of who said it first, it's a piece of wisdom every artist should follow.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know who you truly are, you won't carve out your unique place in the universe and make the art that only you can make.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I speak of knowing yourself, I'm specifically talking about three items your personality, your skills, and your spiritual gifts.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you know how you're wired and what your skills are, and probably more important, what your skills aren't, it frees you up to truly be yourself.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: It also releases you from the obligation of trying to be somebody that you're not.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm a big advocate of personality and spiritual gift inventories.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's much better to work with your personality and gifting than against it.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is the question of purpose.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I here?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: This question deals with your purpose and your calling.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: When you dive into the issue of why am I here, things can get kind of existential pretty quickly.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But if you know me, I like to keep things pretty simple and practical.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'm talking about here is really your creative purpose, which is the ultimate aim of what you want to accomplish, as well as your spiritual creative calling, which is what God's calling you to do vocationally.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's definitely some overlap between these areas, but I think they're separate enough to warrant their own categories.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you're clear about your purpose and your calling, you have a sense of mission and momentum that'll help keep you going despite any obstacles that you might face.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: After all, your calling isn't so much something you decided to do on your own, rather it's what God has put into your heart to accomplish.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite writers, Frederick Biekner, said The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't think of a better way to define what your purpose is in life.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Number three is the question of audience.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I serving?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is an area where artists and creative people oftentimes get hung up.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Especially in the Christian community of which I'm a part, we're pretty good at helping people have a sense of purpose and mission, but defining our audience is sometimes a whole different ballgame.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Many times I think we're reluctant to define a specific audience for our creative work because it feels like we're leaving some people out.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the harsh reality is that not every single person will be interested in your work anyway.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, at any given time, you're only going to reach a portion of the entire population.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it stands for reason that if you're only going to reach some people and not all people, why not go ahead and make an intentional choice about it so you can be more successful in reaching the people who your art is really meant for to begin with.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: When you define your audience, it means that you're beginning to treat your art like a business instead of like a hobby.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: In the business world, this is called your ideal customer.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: In the Christian community, sometimes we're uneasy mixing a sense of business and divine mission.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: We feel like we're somehow compromising our values if we treat our art like a business.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, I think the opposite is actually true.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Treating our art like a business can allow us to reach more people and do much better work.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't necessarily mean that your goal has to be making money.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: It just means that you take your art seriously by setting goals and holding yourself accountable for results.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: One of the key elements of being a professional, I think, is the willingness to define the person you're reaching with your creative work.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Who's going to read?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who's going to listen to, who's going to watch or purchase your products and services?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Those are great questions.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And even though you may be involved in art as a ministry, I think it's still really helpful to think about who your ideal audience is, even if you never plan to make any money from it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a perfect example.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: A few months ago I spoke to somebody who had written a book, sort of an autobiography, and they asked for some suggestions on self-publishing it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I gave them a few thoughts and then asked if they had a plan for doing a book launch or building some type of audience.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the question really caught them off guard because they had never considered the idea of building an audience before publishing the book.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: They just hoped that somehow, in some way, the audience would magically materialize once the book came out.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: That story illustrates why it's so important to think about your audience before you put a lot of time and effort into a project that you hope people will buy, or at least be interested in.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Once you do that, and you also have a clear sense of your identity and your purpose, you're in a much better position to create work that's going to connect with people.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, number four is the question of work, which is what should I be doing?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: After we've gained clarity about our identity, our calling, and our audience, then we must decide on what we should specifically be doing with our time.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: In business terms, our art, quote unquote, is the product or service that we create for other people to enjoy.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's really easy to get this process mixed up because we want to get to the fun part of making stuff, and who doesn't want to make stuff?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because, I mean, after all, we're creative people and we love doing that.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But just let me be clear.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not suggesting that everything that we create has to be for a business purpose or has to be for some kind of set audience.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: That would drive any creative person crazy.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: The reason is you've got to have some type of creative outlets that are just for you with no other purpose than just to create for the fun of it and for the enjoyment of it.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: A great example of this is the tree house that I built a few years ago for my son.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It had no business purpose.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't going to sell tickets for treehouse tours or make any money from it or anything like that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I just did it for the heck of it and because I wanted the challenge of figuring out how to build a tree house.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And also because I wanted to build something cool for my kid, naturally.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I had a blast building that tree house.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was loads of fun.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most fun things I've ever did, I've ever done, uh, actually, my English isn't too good today, I guess.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned a lot in this process and it had no business purpose, but it really boosted my creativity, and I had a blast doing it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So the question, what should I be doing, mainly concerns productivity, and it concerns really three specific areas: your goals, your use of time, and your commitments.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You must be clear on these three areas if you're going to be productive.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's vital to have a clear handle on how you're spending your time and whether you're setting or reaching goals that will produce results for you.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's also vital that your commitments in life aren't working against your creative goals.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, if you're really overcommitted with volunteer commitments or, you know, things with your job or other types of things in life, if you're so stressed that you can't create anything, then your commitments are actually working against you.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I know in this episode I've given you a lot to think about, and in future episodes of the podcast, I'll break down each one of these questions individually as well as the issues within each one of them.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think all four of these questions can help you stop drifting and start focusing in your creative life.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you'll take a few minutes to think about each one of them and whether you have a clear answer for each one.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So let's review these four questions as we start to wrap up here.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, who am I?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, why am I here?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, who am I serving?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And number four, what should I be doing?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your answers to any of these questions.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can join the conversation and find the post and the links that accompany this episode at KentSanders.net slash stopdrifting, and that's stop dash drifting.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: When you visit my site, you'll find all kinds of great resources to inspire your creativity.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'd also love to share a gift with you when you subscribe to my newsletter.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out as well as learn more about my books, writing, and services at KentSanders.net.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I really like to connect with you and you can tweet me at Kent Sanders, or you can find me on Facebook and Instagram as Kent Sanders.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I also hope that you'll consider joining our Born to Create Facebook group by visiting KentSanders.net slash Facebook group.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: What will you do with the time you have left?