Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hacking my way through a fresh pass at “career planning” and figuring out what’s next for me professionally. Time to think and retool is one of the upsides to “unplanned career pivots” (i.e. getting laid off). While reading a post from Jonathan Fields’ blog yesterday, I was reminded of something important I tend to forget: Our primary opportunity each day is to create. Unfortunately, it’s easy to lose sight of that and fill our days with meetings and busywork to the exclusion of making time to create.
“… it’s about the work. The pursuit of knowledge, closing the gap between what I’m capable of creating and what I am currently creating. Finding and sharing meaning. Living into the insatiable curiosity, the experiments and conversations and desire to share whatever the process yields.” Jonathan Fields
He talks about going into “Maker” mode and being really intentional about this. Setting aside serious blocks of time, attention, and energy to focus on creating the big things we’re capable of. Cranking out a pile of truly creative and valuable work. But that can only happen if we’re willing to make it a priority.
That’s my goal with this time “off”. How can I dig in and build the body of work necessary to support the dreams and ideas that have been relegated to the “someday / maybe” list for far too long? It starts with choosing to make something. To create. To be intentional about it. It might seem small and inconsequential … but it’s not. It matters a whole lot.
What are you going to make today?