It's a Wonderful Story: How I Made It: How Chase Jarvis solved the gap in his creativity and wrote his
Get Chase Jarvis's advice on releasing your creativity, tapping your intuition, doing the same thing over and over using his IDEA framework to create your own work.
Whether you know it as your purpose, passion or calling, locating "it" can feel a lot like an adventure.
That thing which makes you want to get up earlier in the morning. to stay up late at night, and, If you're lucky, even live for a bit longer.
Sometimes, we're born with our passions in the back of our tongues. Certain people are aware of their desire to be a writer the first time they pick up an instrument. A few kids are aware of their desire to become a vet from the moment they see their first furry-faced friend.
But for most of us, pursuing our passion doesn't happen in a straight line. There are many changes and twists until the creativity you have released, and you are upon a career path that seems perfect.
This zig-zagged career path did not differ for Chase Jarvis , a successful photographer, director, entrepreneur, and co-founder with CreativeLive the largest live streaming educational company.
A self-proclaimed "hyphen," Chase bailed on medical school, was kicked out of a Philosophy Ph.D. program in the early sabbatical from a professional soccer career, before going after his love of photography as a hobby.
Not only did he become famous as a photographer cooperating with brands like Nike, Apple, GM, Google, Colombia, Pepsi, Red Bull, and more- but Chase also hosts his own show, the Chase Jarvis Live show in video and podcast form.
The show is chock-full of witty interviews with some of the most popular creative giants in the world that range from Mark Cuban and Richard Branson to Brene Brown, and Seth Godin.
The privilege was having a conversation with Chase on the latest episode of I Made It , a podcast for creators who are action-oriented in which he reveals his creative process in the making of his latest artistic project -- a book called Creative Calling .
Let's start with the first and foremost lesson learned from his wild-ride of a career: How do you find your enthusiasm?
You look within.
What does it mean that Chase "looks within" to pursue his creative call
To realize his ambition of becoming a photographer, artist and creator, Chase had to work over external pressures -- like his peers, parents, teachers, and culture -- and reflect on himself.
A simple concept, but an arduous one to embark on.
Why? There are so many external forces to consider.
In Chase's words "I had to extract myself from everyone else's plans and pursue the things that I believed in."
Despite all "inputs of your parent, friends and TV and media," Chase believes humans are fundamentally "creative devices".
And those creative machines innately possess "the creative capacity to create the living and life we desire and deserve more than anything else in the world."
To get in touch with your inner creativity, you need to look within and dig deep.
"Creativity is a powerhouse inside of every one of us that, when we unleash it, it can transform our lives and deliver vitality to everything we do," Chase explains.
Wow! Pretty impressive stuff, don't you think?
The concept of releasing your inner creativity is the foundation of his book, Creative Calling: Create a consistent routine, fill your life with meaning, and succeed at work and in life .
The book written by Chase is the tool that allows Chase to outline his system to assist people pursue their dreams. In particular, it's an approach that is built on the acronym "IDEA" is a term that means:
I can - think of
D - design
E - execute
A amplify
The most authentic detail about the book is that Chase employed his structure in writing the book. "To consume alcohol, eating as well as drinking my own pills when I was writing a book an absolute delight," he muses. "And it's positive proof that the method was effective."
The actual details of how it worked for the guy -- and how it could work for you -- is a little more complicated as well.
There's not much else, in the end.
Chase's three-step creative method
Chase describes his book's creating process into three major steps, the first of which is to go inside and trust your instincts.
"Step one to me is cutting through the noise and focusing on your inner voice, your true soul of the things you would like to see happen in your own life," he shares. "Step one was coming to the realization that I wanted to carry in this direction, and it was the curiosity that I felt within me."
You think intuition is a bit snooty? Think again.
"There's a really strong correlation between intuition, personal agency, and the power of your own," Chase coaches, and says that the whole process comes to "realizing that you are the author of your own story of the life you live."
Chase believes that we're trained to not to trust our intuition and society teaches us to view it as "whimsical or fickle and fleeting." In the real world, it's something that we should rely on more.
It's referred to as "a gut feeling" instead of "a head feeling" because the intuition you have stores the entire information that you have learned from life's events and is felt throughout the body. "It's only a bit harder to access," he explains.
If you are able to see this clarity from within like Chase has done in his book idea- the rest is easy, as long as you put some significant action to that concept (more about that in a moment).
Chase's second step in writing his book was deconstructing his colleagues' work, as well as his own accomplishments, in order to uncover any patterns.
From there, he applied his IDEA framework repeatedly while refining it along the way.
It's the psychological side of the equation, in any case. The physical aspect of writing a book drills into two pieces.
What is the process? Chase divides his writing into two phases
There are two major components of Chase's writing method:
He is cultivating his ideas
He is shaping his book
In the process of developing his ideas Chase's primary goal was not to judge his writing. "It's not about the quality of work. People get stuck on that way too soon," he warns.
Instead of allowing him to think too much and distort the process of writing a book He aimed to take iterative action and turning his writing routine into a daily habit.
"For me, it was just, without judgment, putting words on paper in a repeated fashion," Chase shares. "True professional lifelong creators know that this is actually the way to develop your unique style."
And a personal style, according to Chase is something that cannot create without action. Your personal style is something you achieve by doing. "Personal style " is present but it's not an active. It's a habit. It's just a habit."
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Alongside creating your own style doing something to cultivate your ideas has an additional benefit -- it allows you to overcome hurdles.
"It's the movement [of actionwhich allows you to sidestep obstacles and go over the, around or even through them," says Chase. "And if you're flat-footed but you're not putting your foot in the air, it's really, really challenging."
For Chase his part, this activity included jotting down thoughts on his phone, on pieces of paper and making use of Evernote wherever the place he traveled.
He started flooding his world with his words, and then wrote each day as a place for his thoughts.
The act of taking action meant long weekends during a few years. "I found myself breaking it into smaller sections and writing in the morning and every weekend."
He chose the early morning "when thoughts are fuzzy and there's hardly any obstacles to you and your subconscious" as the time for his daily dose of brainstorm writing.
The second phase of his creative process, Chase changed into what he calls "actual the book" and created his novel through collaboration with his readers.
The author bounced ideas off of his wife, friends as well as his agent. He utilized their feedback and conversations to help steer the direction of his novel.
After having written and ruminated over his ideas for a few years, he spent two days writing a proposal that he presented to the agent who was delighted with the proposal. "Oh what a relief, this is it. This is the thing we've talked about for more than five years," his agent reacted.
Although it appears to be an easy process, it's one that took perseverance and dedication in order to achieve.
Chase had been "building and cherishing and cultivating communities around his creativity for many years." With his cultivated community, though, he was able to realize his goal of writing a book that was meaningful.
This means that his experience in book writing is similar to the "10-year rapid success" concept.
In other words, Chase had to invest enough time and energy in order to overcome the creative gapan idea which was coined by Ira Glass -and which refers to "the space between artwork you see in your imagination as opposed to the work you can actually create."
If you're a creator who wants to close your own creative gap, Chase imparts words of wisdom especially for you.
Chase's tips for creators who are passionate
In order to unleash your imagination, that is "the the most authentic, profound essence of what it's like to be human," Chase recommends simply taking action, even if your ideas aren't fully fleshed out.
Through consistent work and action The gap in creativity can be reduced.
"You must begin making something, and you must begin investigating it through an action" he affirms.
"I've been trying and trying for decades on certain projects to think my way out of it," Chase divulges. "It's just by taking a really imperfect action where you can determine the next steps."
Chase also advocates for "pursuing what you're naturally drawn to do and makes you feel good, where your curiosities lie."
Actually, that's the goal of his book -- to assist people in pursuing the things they really want to achieve and to discover the creative side that is hidden under the surface.
Chase believes "humans are "creating machines.. That's the thing that makes us different from all other species in the world . . . It's just that we haven't been taught to release it."
Up to now, but.
Be sure to check out Chase's book Creative Calling for those who would like to know more about unleashing this calling.
If you want to get more excellent information from creators of power like Chase take a look at the full I Made It podcast right here .