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Week 14
Jordyn Dunseath
May 14, 2024
TIP OF THE WEEK
Get some creative accountability in your life this week. It would be awesome if that person was another creative but they totally don’t have to be. Let people know what your goals are and let them hold you accountable to completing them. We are often the own bosses of our creativity - sometimes it’s so useful to have an external source encouraging you along.
JORDYN UPDATES
Me working on the finance tracker, haha.
Highs of the week: | Reality of the week: |
Hi! Hi! I hope you are doing well this week. I’m so happy so many of you have been enjoying this newsletter. Thanks for following along!
So this week, I want to talk about one of the most helpful things for me as a creative: learning something new. Challenging myself. When I am feeling dry, burnt out, uninspired - there’s nothing quite like challenging myself to learn something new that gets me out of that rut. The wild thing is - it doesn’t even have to be a creative thing.
For whatever reason, we as humans respond well to reward. A question I hear often amongst creatives is: “how did I find motivation to do what I want to do?” So many people sit around and wait for motivation and inspiration to come.
Let’s dive into a little psychology here. Keep in mind, I’m no expert and I’m not claiming to be. You can go check my facts elsewhere if you wish. But there are two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when you do something to gain an external reward (like washing the dishes so that the sink will be clean). Intrinsic motivation is when you engage in an activity because you personally want to and would enjoy it. Intrinsic motivation is often more powerful because it is so much more personal. Like I said, feel free to go do more research on these things - it may be good insight for you.
I bring that up because I am mostly referring to intrinsic motivation in this week’s newsletter. There’s not much that brings me deeper, butterflies in my tummy, type joy than pursuing a challenge and accomplishing it. It ignites such a fire in me to all of a sudden want to pursue 1,000 other goals.
For me, this week, I found that joy by building a finance tracker. It seems so silly but I have been using a finance tracker that I built myself in Notion for the past few years and I randomly decided to try to make it better. I asked myself: “is it possible to automate some of these processes so I can see a clearer picture of how my money is moving in each category of my life?” That question sparked a challenge and I pursued it. I then proceeded to spend hours upon hours teaching myself new coding language within Notion that would allow me to build the exact system I wanted for myself. It was SO HARD but the fact that I literally did it and figured it out was SO REWARDING.
And the crazy thing is, some of you are now a part of my newsletter because I shared that joy on Instagram. Talk about rewards everywhere. Those efforts hit both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. I was internally rewarded for accomplishing my own challenge and externally rewarded by discovering that other people were interested and excited about what I was building.
P.S. For those who came to my newsletter this week from Instagram for the actual finance tracker - I am still pouring my heart into making it a really great product for you. Stay tuned and I will let you know as soon as it is ready! I am so excited.
Anyway, I hope this encourages you to pursue some things that you actually want to do. If you are struggling to find motivation for one area of your life - go pursue something else for a minute and that internal reward will often give you that motivation you’re looking for. It will help ignite the fire and drive to pursue things again. I believe in you! You got this!
Hey, here’s my video podcast again. I can’t wait till I can get back to sharing actual creative YouTube videos with you. Hopefully soon! I just have had to prioritize other things in my life for the time being, but that’s okay! I hope you enjoy!
This week’s creative challenge:
Create some spec work this week. This is work for your portfolio that speaks to your ideal client. For instance, if you want to work with car brands, then go take some photos or create a commercial for a car brand. If you want to work within the sports industry, go gather some athletic friends and make a hype video. This isn’t paid work (it could be) - but it is work that you can have in your portfolio that will help give you credibility when you approach your actual dream client.
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Have a great day!
Best, Jordyn
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