2:00

effect on

2:02

your life and your mindset and your

2:04

situation that you see in your system.

2:20

I'm pretty overwhelmed right

2:23

now by the

2:26

world everything just every

2:28

second of the day it's just

2:30

so much and I honestly

2:33

most of the time do not know what

2:35

to do about it and

2:37

my guess is you're somewhere in

2:40

that zone as well. You

2:42

probably have heard of the

2:44

idea of Dunbar's number if

2:46

you haven't I'll just very

2:49

quickly explain what I think it

2:51

means. It's this idea that we

2:54

evolved as a species to

2:56

deal with about a hundred

2:58

and fifty people in our

3:00

community in a tribe and

3:03

that we can kind of

3:05

handle that amount of humanity

3:07

and problems and birthdays

3:09

and just names that's about

3:11

what we can handle and

3:14

I don't know if you've

3:16

noticed but our communities have

3:18

gone far wider than that

3:20

the amount of stuff that

3:23

we are trying to deal

3:25

with at this age

3:28

is a little bit more than that and

3:31

it's no wonder that we're all really

3:34

really struggling and I think when

3:37

I look back to when I was a kid even

3:40

then I was deeply overwhelmed

3:42

that was like pre-internet explosion

3:44

I think the internet existed

3:46

but it wasn't anything like

3:49

it is now and I look back when I'm

3:51

a kid and I'm thinking of course I could

3:54

barely contain the multitudes of

3:56

stuff going on when even

3:59

the birth phase

4:02

of Pokemon had 151 characters, was

4:04

more overwhelming than what we could

4:07

remember. Not to mention that I

4:09

don't know the last time you

4:11

checked in on where Pokemon is,

4:14

but it's something like 10 times

4:16

that. It's something like 1500

4:19

Pokemon. Is

4:21

that 10 times it? This isn't a math podcast,

4:23

so I don't know. I'm not

4:25

going to check the math, but it's

4:28

a lot. There's too many. Too many

4:30

Pokemon, like Mudflap and Dimpleflips.

4:33

Are those real Pokemon? You don't know.

4:36

Neither do I. And it's getting

4:38

just completely out of hand, and

4:40

I think it's indicative of the

4:43

general state of things. And so

4:46

what do you do? Look,

4:48

I don't have all the answers, but

4:50

I do know that on

4:52

a regular basis as a creator,

4:55

I can find myself deeply

4:58

distracted, deeply overwhelmed,

5:00

not really knowing

5:02

how best to spend my time. I can

5:04

feel like I have focus for five minutes,

5:06

and then I open Instagram and I'm

5:09

like, oh, I should be doing that. Oh man, I

5:11

should be focused there. And you

5:13

have all these people like, oh, you know what

5:15

you need to do? You really need to get

5:17

on clip tops, snorts. It's

5:20

kind of like YouTube shorts, but they're

5:22

backwards and you can put secret

5:24

messages in it. Is that a real app? I

5:27

don't know. And neither do you. You're checking

5:29

the app store for that because

5:32

you're like, could be. I mean, it

5:34

definitely, honestly, it sounds like it's

5:36

real. That's

5:38

where we're at, people. What do you do when

5:40

you find yourself in that zone? So

6:02

the thing that has been helping me most

6:05

with the overwhelm of what I have

6:08

to do as a creator to get

6:10

by or to get anywhere, to level

6:12

up, has been to shift

6:15

my claim to frame. Now

6:17

I know that doesn't make any sense, but let me

6:19

explain what I mean by that. So

6:21

when I look back to when I

6:24

was a kid, my creativity really knew

6:26

no bounds. I was doing anything and

6:28

everything. I'm guessing if you're

6:30

a creator, you would probably like that too. It's

6:33

not like a unique story. I

6:35

was making letters for friends

6:37

with drawings and pictures and

6:39

stories. I was making comedy

6:42

videos and skits with my cousins.

6:45

And probably my number one prized possession

6:47

back then was this talk boy

6:50

that I got for Christmas. Talk

6:53

boy was this thing that Kevin McAllister

6:55

had in Home Alone 2 where he

6:58

would record himself. It was like a little

7:00

voice recorder, but it looked super futuristic, back

7:02

to the future like. And

7:04

I got one of those for Christmas and

7:06

I was freaking obsessed. And I used to

7:08

walk around in the woods and make fake

7:10

radio shows with my friends. And so we

7:12

just made tons and tons and tons of

7:15

stuff. But as I got older,

7:17

I got the impression

7:19

or grown ups even told me,

7:21

like, you can't do everything.

7:23

You don't get to do it

7:26

all. You have to choose one

7:28

thing to focus on for your

7:30

career. And I chose

7:32

illustration because I had some talent

7:35

or skill in drawing. I had

7:37

some resources like pencils and papers.

7:40

I had those things that were

7:42

actually professional tools in that direction.

7:45

And I thought, all right, I will

7:47

choose this kind of creativity. I

7:50

want to be an illustrator. But

7:53

as I have got into the

7:56

practice, I have started to get

7:58

really annoyed and really overwhelmed. by

8:00

the fact that making pictures and

8:03

drawing is such a small fraction

8:05

of what it means to try

8:07

to build a practice around illustration.

8:10

You know, I have to

8:13

make freaking emails all

8:15

day. I have to create

8:17

silly videos to get anybody to

8:20

pay attention to what I do

8:22

on Reels and TikTok and

8:24

I have to make this

8:27

podcast every single week

8:29

in order to just

8:31

keep the thing chugging along.

8:34

But as I started

8:36

reflecting on all this, I

8:38

realized that what is

8:41

a podcast other than

8:43

a fake

8:45

radio show made with friends

8:48

and what is a reel

8:51

or a TikTok other

8:54

than a dumb comedy

8:56

skit and what is

8:58

email other than

9:01

having pen pals that

9:03

just never stop writing to you.

9:06

I can't redeem email fully. I

9:08

thought about what it would look

9:10

like if childhood

9:12

me that was being

9:15

forced to choose one expression

9:17

of their creativity. If

9:19

they could come see what I do now

9:21

and see what I do on

9:23

a regular basis, what might they say?

9:26

Would they say, man, you got a

9:28

lot of stuff you got to do

9:30

or would they be like, wow, you

9:34

get to do everything. You

9:37

get to do all of it. And

9:39

this shift isn't

9:41

just a little

9:43

mindset trick that some kind

9:45

of toxic positivity. The more

9:47

I dug into this, the

9:49

more I realized that

9:52

this shift from

9:55

having things put

9:57

on you to getting to

10:01

do things, choosing the

10:03

things that you have on

10:06

your plate isn't just

10:08

a thing that sounds nice,

10:11

it has

10:13

real science behind it and

10:16

it's a complete and utter

10:18

game-changer. And so when I

10:20

say that we

10:23

need to shift the

10:25

claim to frame or that I have

10:28

shifted my claim to frame it's dramatically

10:30

helped me, what I mean by

10:32

that is getting to do

10:34

something and having to do something, getting

10:37

and having those are your

10:39

claim on something. It's

10:42

how you possess something

10:45

and all of the things that are

10:47

the obstacles in front of you, whether

10:50

you get to

10:53

do them or you have to do them, dramatically

10:55

changes how you feel about

10:58

them on a neurological

11:00

level. This idea

11:02

that you need

11:05

to make this shift from I get to

11:08

go pick up my kids or I have

11:10

to run today versus I get to

11:13

run today, this is a shift you've

11:15

probably heard of. It's a mindset shift

11:17

that gets talked

11:20

about a lot but the

11:23

second thing I want to talk about is

11:25

how I internalize

11:27

this and bought into it

11:30

in a way that made a

11:32

dramatic difference in my life. The

11:35

second piece is you need to

11:37

understand why you have to get.

11:40

Why you gotta get, you gotta get, go

11:42

on get, you gotta get, you

11:45

gotta get. I had to understand it, I

11:47

don't know if you're like me but something

11:49

needs to do more than just sound

11:52

nice. I need to believe

11:54

that it's worth embracing

11:57

on a level that can almost be.

12:00

proven, right? I need some of the science

12:02

and that's what really helped me. Now,

12:04

I recently was reminded

12:06

of this have to get to

12:08

shift by an

12:11

illustrator and an artist named Scott Erickson.

12:14

He goes by Scott the painter on

12:16

Instagram. He's a friendly

12:18

colleague acquaintance that I know from the internet.

12:20

I've met him in real life, talked to

12:22

him on the phone a couple times. I

12:24

don't know him super well, but I'm

12:27

inspired by the multi-facet

12:30

of his creative practice

12:32

because he does public

12:35

speaking events. He does illustration

12:37

and he shows up online with writing.

12:39

We have a similar practice in a

12:41

lot of ways. And so over

12:43

the past couple years, we started to compare notes

12:46

a little bit and he has a painting

12:50

in his studio space

12:52

where he took a thrift store

12:55

old-school kind of landscape painting

12:58

and in white paint just painted

13:00

over the

13:03

words I get to. And

13:05

he recently posted on his Instagram at

13:07

Scott the painter all about

13:09

this painting and why this

13:11

shift is so important. And

13:14

it reminded me of this

13:18

thing that I just heard about that

13:20

had had a dramatic impact on

13:23

my approach to creativity and my

13:25

approach to all the stress and

13:28

overwhelm that I was feeling in

13:30

my creative practice trying to thrive

13:34

as a creator in the

13:36

modern era that we find ourselves in. I

13:39

came across this idea in

13:41

the book Wonderworks by Angus

13:43

Fletcher. Angus Fletcher just happens

13:47

to be a guy who also

13:50

lives in Columbus, Ohio. He works

13:52

at OSU with Project Narrative and

13:55

he calls himself a story scientist.

13:57

His background is in neuroscience

14:00

and Shakespeare. And

14:03

it's a really interesting overlap and

14:05

his approach to story and his

14:07

approach to creativity, trying to nail

14:09

down the inventions

14:11

that make these

14:14

creations have these

14:16

chemical reactions in the people that

14:19

interact with these creative

14:21

things is kind of

14:24

exactly how I think about creativity. He

14:26

wrote a whole book about something

14:28

like 22 literary inventions. It's

14:32

called Wonderworks and he goes

14:34

through specific places

14:37

where writers throughout

14:39

history discovered inventions,

14:42

discovered things like foreshadowing

14:45

or stretching the

14:47

truth or metaphor

14:50

or whatever, things that have

14:52

an actual impact on

14:55

our neurochemical brain

14:58

state. They, it's

15:01

almost like magic spells

15:03

where these words can

15:05

cause us to shift

15:07

our moods and change

15:09

our wavelengths and brain

15:11

states and all that kind of stuff.

15:14

And he kind of goes through and lays out

15:16

a bunch of different examples of these. And

15:18

one of the ones that really

15:21

blew me away, partially because it's

15:23

just an incredible concept, but also

15:26

because there was a little bit

15:28

of synchronicity involved, I randomly opened

15:30

to one of the chapters that

15:33

was about how to get energized

15:37

from a story, an invention

15:39

in storytelling that will energize

15:42

you. And I opened

15:44

that up because I thought, oh, that sounds kind of creative

15:47

pep talk, like the stuff that I talk

15:49

about in my own podcast and

15:51

my work, how you get pumped and psyched

15:54

and stoked. It passed, we're going to get

15:56

jazzed out of our minds about making stuff.

15:58

And so I started reading. in this

16:00

chapter and it was all about

16:03

how good stress works

16:05

in your body versus bad stress.

16:09

And if you don't know, there is

16:11

stress in your body. You

16:13

probably know that, but what you might not know

16:16

is that there is such a thing as good

16:19

stress and bad stress. There is stress

16:21

in your body that hurts your body,

16:23

that breaks it down, that can cause

16:25

you all kinds of health problems. I

16:29

even believe that it

16:31

can turn from emotional problems to

16:33

physical problems, problems with your heart,

16:36

problems with your body just from

16:38

stress. But that's bad stress

16:41

and our body metabolizes

16:44

stress differently.

16:47

So there's this thing called stress, which is

16:49

the bad stress, and there's this thing called eustress,

16:51

which I'd never heard of. I'd

16:53

never heard of that term. I've heard of good stress, but

16:55

I didn't know it's called eustress, E-U, S-T-R-E-S-S. You

17:00

learned to spell a word today. See, you

17:02

got your money's worth of learning already. But

17:06

eustress, eustress is the kind of

17:08

stress that actually makes

17:10

us happier, that actually is good

17:13

for us. We need some

17:15

types of stress. And

17:19

the example that he gave of a

17:22

story that produces this kind of

17:24

eustress in us through

17:26

a literary invention is through

17:28

the book Frankenstein. And

17:31

the reason why that blew me away was because

17:33

that was the book that I was reading at

17:35

the time. I started reading

17:37

Frankenstein because I've just started to

17:39

get into like classic literature. I'm

17:42

in my third book in that

17:44

direction. And for some

17:46

reason, a whole bunch of things have

17:48

come together and I'm all in. I'm

17:50

loving some classic literature. In Frankenstein, I

17:52

started reading that because my daughter was

17:54

reading it at school. And

17:57

I thought, I need a new book. Maybe I'll read this at

17:59

the same time. something to talk about,

18:01

something to bond over. And

18:03

I started reading Frankenstein and it's a

18:05

phenomenal book. I highly recommend it. And

18:08

one of the reasons I recommend it

18:10

is because Fletcher talks about

18:12

how this book

18:14

was a shift in horror

18:18

or spooky stories because

18:20

it kind of turned into

18:22

a thriller because

18:24

unlike other spooky

18:27

stories, in this book

18:29

the monster isn't

18:32

choosing to come

18:34

out of nowhere and chase

18:37

down this person. This person

18:39

chose to create the monster.

18:41

And there's an interesting shift. There's

18:44

actually a monumental

18:46

shift in the difference between something

18:48

that you have to run from

18:51

to something you're choosing to

18:55

run towards. And

18:58

he talks about how in the

19:00

body the difference between good stress

19:02

and bad stress, the difference between

19:04

bad stress that will give you

19:07

heart problems and issues,

19:11

the difference between that kind of bad stress

19:13

and the good stress that gives you things

19:15

that you need, things that keep you happy

19:17

and healthy, the only difference between

19:20

those two things are whether

19:23

or not you feel

19:26

like you chose these

19:28

problems. And so whether

19:31

a problem or an obstacle or

19:33

a monster that you're fighting today

19:36

is causing you serious

19:40

bad stress or seriously

19:42

good stress, the

19:44

only difference is whether

19:46

you see it as something you have to deal

19:48

with or something you get

19:50

to deal with. And I

19:52

think when you understand that, or at least when I

19:55

did, I started to realize that

19:58

all the obstacles in my way They. Then

20:01

I. Can't. Choose to

20:03

get rid of their here to

20:05

stay. I need to figure out

20:07

how to choose to embrace them.

20:10

How to choose? To.

20:13

See them as something that I

20:15

get to do. Rather, Than

20:17

something that I have to do. Now.

20:21

If you're like me, Distills.

20:23

Kind of in the realm of an idea. I

20:26

need something I needed action

20:28

that will help me. Put

20:31

this to use that will

20:34

help me feel. This

20:36

thing that I know is

20:38

for him and south. Next

20:40

I want to give you

20:42

three questions that can help

20:44

transform. That's from a cool

20:46

idea that sounds great to

20:48

something that you can actually

20:50

cel on command. I'm really

20:52

excited I the three thank.

20:54

They've had a big impact

20:56

on my life and my

20:58

credit practice in the past

21:00

few months. Every

21:07

week on this show on create

21:10

a pep talk I have given

21:12

myself the obligation of not sharing

21:15

Saying that are just cool idea

21:17

as I have to have a

21:19

clear sense of how I put

21:22

this thing to action in a

21:24

way that really made a difference

21:26

and so every single time we

21:29

do the show it ends with

21:31

a creative call to adventure as

21:33

a creative call to action and

21:36

number three major. and deal with

21:38

the overwhelm and the onslaught of

21:40

all the frickin responsibility that you

21:42

have death at de silva as

21:45

as the creator number three as

21:47

these three magic words now these

21:49

three magic words come from one

21:52

of them the happiest characters i

21:54

ever encountered ask catch him now

21:56

if you're not a millennial or

21:58

younger you might No Ash

22:00

Ketchum. Ash Ketchum is the lead

22:03

character in the TV series of

22:06

Pokemon. So Ash

22:09

Ketchum is a jovial almost

22:11

annoyingly happy character who has

22:13

this best friend, his partner

22:15

in crime, Pikachu.

22:17

Okay, the Pokemon the most famous

22:19

Pokemon that there ever was. He's

22:22

like an electric mouse, okay? Now

22:25

You probably know Ash Ketchum. You probably

22:27

know Pikachu and you

22:30

probably know Ash's catchphrase

22:33

and his catchphrase is I

22:35

choose you Pikachu

22:42

I choose you Charizard I

22:44

choose you Emails

22:47

I choose you TikToks

22:49

I choose you like that

22:51

those three words are the

22:54

magic words that can change

22:57

Everything can change every obstacle

22:59

in your path another

23:01

thing you might not know about ash and Pikachu

23:04

is that Ash might be a

23:08

Psychological mindset master

23:11

because guess what? Even

23:14

though there's whole movies called

23:16

I choose you about Pikachu

23:19

Ash didn't choose Pikachu Ash

23:22

Accidentally slept in the day he

23:24

was supposed to get his starter

23:27

Pokemon and he didn't know is

23:29

he gonna choose Bulbasaur? Charmander Squirtle

23:31

those are the three options that

23:33

every new pokey trainer gets to

23:35

choose from and so he's going

23:37

to go Pick up his

23:40

Pokemon, but he's running late and when

23:42

he gets there guess what? Oh,

23:44

no All of those

23:46

starter Pokemon have already been

23:48

chosen and the only Pokemon

23:50

left is this temperamental

23:53

brat of a Pokemon

23:56

and guess what it's Pikachu and That's

23:59

who he is is forced to

24:01

start with. But Ash

24:04

Ketchum is a master in positive

24:06

psychology apparently, because instead of thinking,

24:08

I got to have this one,

24:10

oh my gosh, I got to

24:12

be the very best with this

24:14

one, no, he doesn't

24:16

say that. He says, all right,

24:18

Pikachu, I choose you even though

24:20

I didn't have an option. And

24:23

so I didn't realize that this whole

24:25

time that when Ash was

24:28

saying I choose you, he's actually

24:30

saying I choose you, spell EU

24:32

as in you stress. That's the

24:35

secret. And there's three things or

24:37

three questions that I've been

24:40

using in my real life, that

24:42

every time I do them has

24:45

an impact on the moment

24:47

that I find myself when

24:49

I'm feeling too stressed and

24:51

dysregulated and overwhelmed. And

24:53

they all have to do with these three words. And

24:56

they go from past to present to

24:58

future. And so for the past, I

25:01

think, why would

25:03

I have chosen this life? Now

25:07

you've probably heard woo woo spiritual

25:09

people say that you

25:12

chose your parents, you chose the life you were

25:14

going to have. I

25:16

choose not to have a stance

25:19

on that. I think that in

25:22

some ways that's

25:24

a problematic idea. And

25:27

other ways, it

25:30

just seems a bit spiritually

25:34

or literally far fetched.

25:37

However, even though I don't

25:40

know if I

25:42

believe that it's literally true,

25:44

I probably would lean towards

25:47

not. I don't really

25:49

care because I think this is one

25:51

of the most powerful mindsets to choose

25:55

because when you believe, when you choose.

26:00

to believe that you

26:02

chose your parents, that you chose

26:04

your life, it has

26:06

the effect of turning all of

26:08

your stress from bad

26:10

stress to good stress. And

26:13

so you can ask yourself, even

26:15

if you don't choose to

26:17

really believe it, you can ask yourself

26:19

hypothetically, just

26:23

fictionally, why

26:25

might I have chosen

26:27

my parents? Why might

26:29

I have chosen the obstacles

26:32

and challenges that

26:34

I knew I would get

26:36

into if I chose to be this

26:39

person? And you start to think

26:41

about all the benefits and all

26:43

the things you learned and all the

26:45

ways that those hardships and pains have

26:48

turned you into the person that can

26:50

help people with the exact same challenges.

26:53

And it doesn't redeem all of them, but

26:55

it does give you an insight. And it's helped

26:57

me realize that if I

26:59

had chosen the path that I chose, a

27:03

path that meant growing up without

27:05

my mom around, one of

27:07

the reasons I would have chosen is

27:09

that absence of the

27:12

nurturer made me so

27:15

nurturing to other people. The

27:18

whole podcast that I've done for nine years, there's

27:21

a way in which that is primarily

27:23

about nurturing creative people because I wish

27:26

that's what I had. And

27:28

it goes back to that comic,

27:30

Gary Shandling, who said, give what

27:33

you didn't get. That

27:35

creates credible things in the world.

27:37

And it's a really difficult, but

27:39

powerful choice that you can make.

27:42

You can be bitter about what you didn't

27:44

get, or you can use that

27:47

pain in that hole that's

27:49

dug into your soul as a

27:51

well, that springs

27:54

forth all the things that you wish

27:57

that you didn't, that you wish that

27:59

you got. that you didn't. That's the

28:01

first one is, why might you have

28:03

chosen this life? What reason would you have? Even

28:05

if you don't believe that you did. The second

28:07

one, this is the one I've been using the

28:09

most recently, and I wish I could credit it,

28:12

but I saw it randomly on the internet. And

28:14

if you know where this comes from, let

28:16

us know and we'll put it in the show notes. But

28:19

I heard about this parent

28:22

who said that they

28:24

started doing this thing that made

28:27

all the difference in whether they were able

28:29

to be present with their kids. And

28:31

they said, anytime you find yourself

28:34

wishing away time, staring at

28:36

your phone, you're at the

28:38

pumpkin patch, and you're

28:40

looking at Instagram instead of looking at

28:43

your kids on the hayride, anytime you

28:45

find yourself feeling that way, just

28:48

stop for a moment, close your

28:50

eyes, and just imagine that

28:53

you're your 80 year old self, and

28:55

you've just chosen to come back

28:57

and relive this moment because

29:00

it was such a gift. And

29:03

I think even I can find myself doing

29:05

that when I'm not trick

29:07

or treating, but

29:11

dealing with kids puking in

29:13

the puke bowl that is

29:15

the Halloween bucket. All right,

29:17

that's also not my idea. I

29:20

heard, I saw a tweet where someone was

29:22

like, hey, it's not my

29:24

rule, but

29:27

the rule of the universe says the Halloween bucket has

29:29

to be the family puke bowl. Anyway,

29:32

sorry for being disgusting, but I thought

29:34

that was hilarious. But even then, I'm

29:37

sure when I'm 80 years old, if I

29:39

am lucky enough to get to grow that

29:41

old and be around that long, that

29:45

if I had a chance to temporarily

29:47

travel back in time to the days

29:50

when I got to nurture

29:52

my kids in the middle

29:55

of the night, when they woke up feeling sick, that

29:57

I would choose to do it. I would choose that.

30:00

moment and I'm getting kind of

30:02

choked up because I freaking

30:05

hate when my kids are sick.

30:07

I hate losing sleep. My

30:09

kid woke me up last night, my teenager

30:11

woke me up with all these stressed out

30:13

problems and all this stuff and I had

30:15

gone to bed early because I hadn't been

30:17

getting enough sleep and I had to get

30:20

up and talk to her for like an

30:22

hour and I was grouchy and I was

30:24

frustrated and this mindset

30:28

has helped me through

30:30

those moments when I realized like

30:32

I would choose to go

30:34

back to this when it's

30:36

gone. And so the third

30:38

piece, the third choice is a

30:41

future one and it comes from business

30:44

writer Michael Hyatt and

30:46

he talks a lot

30:49

about writing your eulogy and

30:51

Ryan Holiday who's also in the business

30:54

writing and also kind of pop philosophy

30:56

writing. He talks a lot about Memento

30:59

Moray which is this idea

31:01

of remembering that you're mortal, remembering that

31:03

you're not gonna be here forever. It's

31:05

kind of in that realm but Michael

31:08

Hyatt really suggests that you create a

31:10

life plan and as part of that

31:12

you write your own eulogy as morbid

31:14

as that may sound. But

31:16

it's really one of the most life-giving

31:18

practices you can have. When

31:20

you are in your deathbed, when you

31:24

are finally gone, what

31:27

will you have wanted to have chosen to live your

31:30

life all

31:33

about? When you think

31:35

about your spouse or your significant

31:38

other or your family or your

31:40

friends, what do you

31:42

want them to say that

31:45

you chose to live your life about?

31:47

That's the third question. What

31:49

do you hope that you

31:51

choose to live this life for? And

31:54

you know I think there's a through

31:56

line. I think the powerful thing for

31:58

these three questions for me is that

32:01

at this moment in time my

32:04

life is a lot about choosing to

32:06

be nurturing and it's hard to

32:08

be nurturing if I'm completely honest as

32:11

a guy that's not a quality

32:13

that is really celebrated as a

32:17

man it's not a thing that

32:19

people think of as a core

32:21

masculine trait I don't really get hung

32:24

up on the gender thing I never

32:26

have painted my nails since I was

32:28

a kid I once

32:30

picked when I went to go get

32:32

my iPod mini out of the target

32:34

little locked up case and there was

32:37

an old man helping

32:39

me get that helping

32:41

me choose which color

32:45

iPod mini I was gonna get I actively

32:48

chose the pink one partially to probably

32:50

mess with that guy but also because

32:52

I like being different I like

32:55

pushing the boundaries I like all that thing

32:57

that's just oh and and also pink just

33:00

my favorite color probably and

33:02

I don't have any problem with that but

33:04

I do know that all of

33:07

societal pressures and the

33:09

norms are gonna

33:11

get to you whether you choose them or not

33:14

and for me I've

33:16

realized actively recently

33:19

that I'm gonna choose nurturing

33:23

I'm going to face the challenges

33:25

and the stress of being a

33:27

creator being a father being

33:30

a friend and I'm

33:32

gonna choose those stresses and I'm gonna choose

33:34

to move through them in the

33:37

most nurturing affirming loving

33:40

way that I can and I

33:42

think those three magic words of

33:44

I choose you I choose this

33:47

problem I choose to

33:49

make this podcast I

33:51

choose to make this

33:54

the best possible scenario I

33:56

can simply by choosing

34:38

Creative Pep Talk is your weekly podcast

34:40

companion for your creative journey. I'm your

34:42

host, Andy J. Pizza. I'm a New

34:44

York Times bestselling picture book maker and

34:46

illustrator for clients like Apple and Xbox.

34:49

I pep talk teams at creative hubs

34:51

like Warby Parker and Sesame Street and

34:53

I make this podcast because as someone

34:55

with ADHD, it takes a whole lot

34:57

of creativity just to get out of

34:59

bed in the morning, let alone attempting

35:01

to try to create a thriving creative

35:03

practice. This show is just me

35:05

sharing the things that seem to be helping me

35:07

in case it helps anybody else. Shout

35:10

out to Yoni Wolf and the band Y

35:12

for our theme music and soundtrack. Huge thanks

35:14

to Connor Jones of Pinning Beautiful for sound

35:17

design and editing the show. Massive

35:19

thanks to Katie Chandler, Ryan Appleton

35:21

and Sophie Miller for podcast assistance

35:24

of all kinds. Thanks to you

35:26

for listening. Until we speak again,

35:28

stay pep talk.