Ever felt like you're drowning in a sea of information, yet still stuck in the same spot? Welcome to an episode where you'll discover why the sweet lure of passive action—obsessively gathering ideas and inspiration—often becomes a mask for procrastination. We differentiate between passive and massive action, discussing how embracing challenges, taking calculated risks, and pushing past the enchanting comfort zone of idea consumption, can drive you to your desired results.
In the second half of our chat, we explore the power of community in your creative journey. From the significance of having a coach to strategize your online art launch, to the motivating force of sharing your work with others, we tackle it all. Plus, we're excited to introduce a nifty tool we've developed to make your online launch a breeze. We close the conversation by extending an invite for you to connect with us online, and remember, the key to creative entrepreneurship is all in the mind!
I've created something special for you, here's a link to grab the template so you can create your own Visual Resume.
Ever felt like you're drowning in a sea of information, yet still stuck in the same spot? Welcome to an episode where you'll discover why the sweet lure of passive action—obsessively gathering ideas and inspiration—often becomes a mask for procrastination. We differentiate between passive and massive action, discussing how embracing challenges, taking calculated risks, and pushing past the enchanting comfort zone of idea consumption, can drive you to your desired results.
In the second half of our chat, we explore the power of community in your creative journey. From the significance of having a coach to strategize your online art launch, to the motivating force of sharing your work with others, we tackle it all. Plus, we're excited to introduce a nifty tool we've developed to make your online launch a breeze. We close the conversation by extending an invite for you to connect with us online, and remember, the key to creative entrepreneurship is all in the mind!
I've created something special for you, here's a link to grab the template so you can create your own Visual Resume.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Mind Over Medium, a podcast for artists who want to make money doing what they love. When you tune in a twink, you will learn how to attract your ideal commissions, approach galleries for representation, have a great online launch of your work, and how to do it all with less overwhelm and confusion. You will have the opportunity to hear from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses. My hope is to create a space where artists and the creative curious can gather to learn about one of the most important tools creative entrepreneurs need in their toolbox their mindset. Thanks so much for tuning in to Mind Over Medium podcast. Let's get started. Hey there, how is everybody doing today? I hope you're all doing well.
Speaker 1:
I just got back from having coffee with a new friend and was thinking about how this scenario really relates to today's topic. Making friends as an adult is something I've been thinking about a lot, and recently I decided to take my own advice and do something about it, as one does in this day and age. I reached out to someone I had been following on Instagram for a while and introduced myself. We chatted and decided to meet in real life, and now we're friends. So I stopped thinking about the something and took action on the something. So what does this have to do with today's topic about? Can we have too much inspiration? We're living in an age of mass inspiration. Before our feet hit the floor in the morning, we can pick up our phones and be inspired by the latest trending reel, tips on how to increase your following on social media, how to lose those last stubborn pounds, a TED Talk on gratitude and a cat writing a Roomba, which is really my favorite. Personally, all these hits of inspiration can leave me with a sense of confusion and overwhelm. In fact, as I was doing some research for this podcast, I was feeling overwhelmed by the number of articles I wanted to read. On the topic of overwhelm, on the one hand, I love that the internet has made it easier than ever to discover new ideas and access the latest thinking on any topic you care to imagine, but, on the other hand, the ease with which we are able to find inspiration creates a real risk of confusing the consumption of information with the actual action required to work towards our goals. Okay, what does all this have to do with too much inspiration? And my question is can we have too much inspiration and my answer is yes, I think we can.
Speaker 1:
Let's talk about the ways in which we can fool ourselves into thinking our quest for inspiration can really be a sneaky way of procrastinating. I want to explain to you the difference between a concept I learned in my coaching certification called passive action and massive action, what the difference is between the two. A lot of us get caught up in what can feel like a very satisfying habit of what we will call research, especially when we decide to pursue our creative ideas and goals or just start anything new, like a hobby or a project. We can get locked into that and forget about the action piece. When we get into this habit, it can be a tricky one to get out of, because you're actually doing something and that can feel like you're working towards something. It's like a signal to your brain that you're working towards your goal or your desired outcome. Let me explain further and give a few examples. First of all, passive action does not get you to the results you want. It doesn't get you closer to your goals.
Speaker 1:
Passive action has to do with consumption and massive action has to do with creating. When you're taking action, you need to ask yourself am I creating or am I consuming? And here's what I mean. Here are a few common examples of passive action. When I work with clients in my coaching business, this often falls under the category of and I'm using air quotes here research, which can take the form of reading about a topic, talking to someone about a topic, taking a class, googling to find out more, watching a YouTube video, and there's more. But that's the basic idea and let me clarify that some of this is okay, some of it, and it can be a slippery slope because it can feel like action, because you're moving, you're taking steps, you're learning, but there is a tipping point. What has actually happened in those situations is consumption. Even though it's active, it's consuming. You are not in the process of creating.
Speaker 1:
One big clue you're in passive action is you're thinking about doing something. Maybe you're making lists about doing something, writing down ideas about doing something, maybe talking to other people about it, but the something isn't happening. And what's so fascinating is most of us don't even realize that we're just taking passive action. We think that the reading and the studying and the understanding is the action. It's not. That's not the action. Thinking about creating a painting is not creating a painting, learning how to use a new art supply or watching someone on Instagram use an art supply is not learning how to use it. It's not using the new art supply. Thinking about marketing your work, planning how to market your work, is not actually marketing your work.
Speaker 1:
That's the difference between passive and massive action. Think about a goal you have right now. Think about how much massive action you have taken towards achieving it. Here's a great way to know if you're taking massive action you probably have failed more than once in your pursuit of this goal. If you have failed, fallen on your face, stumbled, come up against obstacles, you're in massive action. It's what pushes you up against those barriers or those obstacles. Passive action doesn't require any failure, because all you're doing is thinking about what's possible. You're not creating what is possible, and that's a big difference. I want to encourage you to take massive action and fall on your face in front of people more than once, because that's how you get the results you want. You can just think about getting them. Yeah, that's much easier to consume information, to learn information, to read information, than it is to take action.
Speaker 1:
I, for one, prefer to consume than create, because creating can be scary. Don't make. Don't get me wrong. I love passive action. I love reading, I love taking classes, I love getting coached, I love talking to people. I love all of it and I know there's a place for it. I need to balance that out with my massive action. I can hide behind passive action all day and feel a sense of satisfaction or completion, but once you realize the difference, you can kind of tell when you're consuming rather than creating. I love to be able to create all kinds of results in my life and I don't necessarily love the process of creating results. I don't like the part where I fall on my face or I have to Google how to do something and watch YouTube videos and I still can't figure it out. And I still can't figure it out. But I like the end result and I would be lying if I said I always love the process. But it does help me evolve. It helps me learn that I can overcome anything. It helps me manage my emotional life. It shows me where I still need to grow and, if I'm being honest, it never really ends, and that's a good thing. Take this podcast, for example.
Speaker 1:
I literally researched again, I'm using air quotes around the word researched and looked for inspiration and thought about doing it for over a year and while preparing for this episode, I really tried to pinpoint what it took for me to stop being in passive action and start taking massive action, and I came up with two things, the first one being I got tired of my own bullshit. I got tired of hearing myself talk about it, think about it, make excuses and procrastinate by learning about it. That is almost always the case for me, and one thing that has happened with time an effort is the amount of time it takes me to get tired of on my own. Bullshit has gotten much shorter. It hasn't gone away entirely and it might never go away, and I think I'm okay with it, but my goal is for the time I spend in passive action to get shorter and shorter. The second thing that happened is I decided to get coached on the areas of my business I wanted to expand or up level, and part of that was sharing my idea and having my coach ask really good questions about why I wasn't doing the thing I said I wanted to do, and my coach helped me not buy into my stories about why it wasn't for me or why I wasn't ready or I didn't have time, or who am I to talk about this, that and the other thing and on? I wanted to end with this with just talking about the gift of taking massive action.
Speaker 1:
I think massive action is the thing that's going to introduce you to yourself. Whenever I'm dealing with a coaching client, we talk about taking action towards a goal for a period of time and not quitting until they have their desired result. Not only do they reach their goal, they learn so much about themselves and who they are in the process of falling on their face and failing. Do you judge yourself harshly when you screw something up? Do you quit if it doesn't work the first time? Do you celebrate your successes or do you just move on to the next goal without even recognizing the growth and hard work you've put into achieving it?
Speaker 1:
Here's the reality. You're going to do it wrong. You're going to send an email and the link isn't going to work. You're going to create a painting that no one responds to or buys. You're going to offer a product that nobody wants. Are you going to use that as a reason to quit or are you going to use it as a reason to make your work better and to show up even more. That's what's available to us. It's an invitation to quit or an invitation to step in to ourselves, to pursue our goals and to not let failing get in the way of the result you want. If you're willing to fail as many times as it takes, then you're willing to take massive action. So, just to recap, yes, we can have too much inspiration, and that can very easily take the form of reading, researching, talking about and thinking about doing something. So be on to yourself when you feel it happening.
Speaker 1:
Here are a couple of practical ways to limit the amount of time you spend consuming. Versus creating Set a timer. I do this If there's something I want to learn more about. I will set a timer for 30 minutes and in that time I will read, watch, listen to whatever I've gathered that I think that will be useful and when the timer goes off, I will stop. If I still feel like I need to learn more in order to move forward, I will give myself more time, but I needed to create that structure for myself around all the consumption that I was doing.
Speaker 1:
I'll ask myself a question, a lot to this question, a lot to determine if I'm making taking action towards my goals, and here's the question am I consuming or creating? That's a pretty easy and no nonsense way of telling if I'm in passive or massive action. You do have to be honest with yourself, though, about the answer. Magic action is the secret sauce to whatever you want in your life. You keep taking action until you get the result you want.
Speaker 1:
I wanted to share just a couple of easy ways to get out of passive action or enjoying too much inspiration. If you wanted to learn more about the concept and so many others and how they can help you move forward towards your creative goals, check out my one-to-one coaching packages and you can book a 30 minute discovery session and we can see if we would be a good fit and learn more about the coaching process. You can book a free discovery session in the link in the show notes or head to my website to schedule your call. Okay, my creative friends, what are you willing to commit to taking action on over the next 30 days? I'd really love to know. You can tell me on Instagram at lianslotkin, or you can email me with the link Okay, keep creating.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much for listening to Mind Over Medium podcast today. If you found the episode inspiring. Please share it with a friend or post it on social media and tag me on Instagram at lianslotkin, or head to my website, wwwlanslotkincom, to book a discovery call to find out more about working with me one-on-one. You can also head to my website to get a great tool I've created for you to use when planning your own online launch of your artwork. It's an exercise I've taken many of my coaching clients through and it's been very helpful. It's my way of saying thank you and keep creating.