Empty Promises Book Trailer from Cross Point Church on Vimeo.

While reading the other day, these words rocked my world:

“Approval Addiction is essentially an act of abandonment. Instead of finding your value and worth from your Creator, you have essentially given up your heart for adoption. You have given it away to others for love and approval, making them responsible for your feelings.”

As artists, how does this happen to us?

We emotionally LIVE and DIE based on how people respond to WHAT WE DO rather than WHO WE ARE.

If people don’t like our songs…we have no value.
If a service doesn’t go well…we feel we’re destroying the organization.
When we build a campaign and it misses…we think we’ll be rejected forever.
A piece of art is created and we love it, but it’s turned down or doesn’t connect…and we instantly feel like we’ve been personally attacked.

It’s a slippery and extremely unhealthy slope we live on.

This is not how God intended us to live. Our value and approval can only be found in who He created us to be…not in the stuff we create.

And I get it – the balance is ever so delicate: in order to create great art, we have to be connected to it. Just remember that our value and worth is given to us FROM our Creator, not from the things we’re creating.

Walk in that freedom today…

If you would like more info about this topic.. CHECK OUT THIS BOOK. It WILL rock your world.

Sometimes it’s too much.
Sometimes we get overwhelmed.
Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we can’t get it right.
Sometimes it’s just not enough.
Sometimes it doesn’t work.
Sometimes we are jeered.
Sometimes we get lucky.
Sometimes it all clicks.
Sometimes the effort pays off.
Sometimes we hit home runs.
Sometimes we win.
Sometimes everything comes together.
Sometimes we are cheered.

Eventually, we all have a sometime.
Embrace it.
Learn from it.
Celebrate it or bury it – but whatever you do…

NEVER. EVER. GIVE. UP!

Because Sometime is going to come and when it does we need you and the gifts you bring to change the world.
Even if it is one persons world.

P.S.
Jenni Worte a KILLER POST over at SUNDAY.TV & Carlos killed this one.

In art or leadership, there is a silent powerful force that is rarely exercised…the power of the pause.

In art, we often find ourselves under strict deadlines that move us into creative production mode – where ideas come, get executed, then ship out. While I’m a fan of shipping, there is a big part of the process missing here: the pause. It slips in right after ideas and right before executions. Taking a pause – putting the idea down, walking away, and then revisiting – often allows us to see more and better options for our ideas. Allowing them the space to breathe gives our ideas the chance to become healthy and full.

In leadership, pausing allows us not to get caught up emotionally. So often, “decisive” leaders create wow decisions in split seconds. Creating a pause – a chance to diagnose the data, explore the options, and think through the response – can create even better decisions; ones that limit big mistakes because we’ve allowed ourselves time to digest before we decide. Most of the time, taking a minute to pause will not cost us anything but the frustration of people trying to complete their check lists.

Obviously, prayer matters massively.

We can’t allow the pause to turn into procrastination. Pause is just enough time to allow space for our decisions and ideas to get better, not for us to create excuses not to ship and move. Pausing makes us better, procrastination kills us.

Have you incorporated the pause into your creative or decision making process?

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The nature of art is about taking risks.

We want to create things that have never been created, do things no one has done, and try things that have not been tried. When we become audacious, it forces us to accept that taking risks leaves us exposed to what some may call “failure”.

Anyone who has “failed” understands the apprehension of taking risks the next time opportunity arrives; it can be scary. There are two things that will paralyze creativity faster than any others:

1. When we haven’t defined success.
2. When we haven’t defined failure.

Clarifying success and failure help create targets. This process also contextualizes expectations. As we start projects, bringing clarity to what success and failure look like will help us take the right risks and create our best projects and art.

Do you clearly define success and failure?

Do you clearly define success and failure? Could you share a story of your success or a time you failed?

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Have you ever thought that Creativity may actually keep you from being a senior leader in your church or organization? According to a survey done last year for the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology most people are attracted to leaders who remove risk and actually support and reinforce the status quo.

This is scary.

With the speed of our world and the turbulence for which we face daily, creativity should not only be encouraged but also championed as a trait of leadership that will help our organizations stay competitive and aggressive. The problem is, creative leaders come with stereotypes: Unreliable, Risky, Lazy, Forgetful, Aloof, Arrogant, Self-Consumed…and the list goes on and on.
The truth, most of these stereotypes are not true.

Our organizations need new and fresh ideas. As creative professionals it is our responsibility start destroying these and other stereotypes. It is time for us to be who God created us to be, in his image, creative leaders. We have the opportunity to set a new stereo-type: Passionate, Carrying, Desperately seeking new results, Hard working, Sensitive, In touch with emotion that creates connection, introspective, strategic, and willing to do whatever necessary to share the absolute most important story ever told in an attempt to help people experience life change.
It’s not something that we can do…it is something we must do.

We can lead and still be creative…and we will.

What are some of the stereotypes you experience as an artist? How are you combatting those via your art, work ethic, and approach?

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We’ve all heard that every action has a reaction. Sometimes our best creative projects are birthed by innovation that’s a response to an external force…creativity birthed by reactionary forces. This isn’t always the case, but can be a catalyst for change in thought and process.

In his book, Innovation Management, Langdon Morris exposes six forces that are becoming shaping factors for how organizations will innovate in the future. As creative departments, it’s important that we identify what could become realities in our world and forces that will be at play as we attempt to tell the story of our organizations.

• Commoditization – This is the force that drives prices down. Obviously as budgets and resources change, we are required to adjust. Resource can become a crutch for creativity. Sometimes the actual lack of resource forces us to dig deeper and work harder to be our creative best.
• Digital Revolution – Creativity has to find a way to work in a digital field. Print is going away. Advertising is changing. How we communicate and the vehicles we use to share those stories are going to continue to adjust. Fall in love with the mission, not the method. What worked yesterday won’t work tomorrow, and that’s okay – there will be something new that works tomorrow. Keep searching and stretching. Leverage technology and new mediums to help us accomplish our mission by any method that is effective. Know your audience and what technology they are using. Then, use it.
• Social Media – The landscape changes rapidly. One day everyone is excited about the next great network only to find a month later it’s gone. Explore with liberty, but invest with caution. We’re not going to move people off of something they love to something they don’t know just to accommodate us. Go to where your audience lives. If it’s Facebook, create the best and most creative Facebook in the world. The cost often can be low to engage, but you have to have a plan. Creative story telling has unlimited options in this medium so embrace it and find the best ways to tell your best stories. Social media is about creating conversations, not broadcasting. It’s creating conversations in people’s lives not having them come to yours. Don’t just hang a shingle and leave it abandoned – set up shop and start to build a community.
• Globalization – With the shrinking of our world via social media and other sources, everyone can now be part of our congregation. How are we going to use this power to creatively share our story around this very small world?
• Turbulence – While this usually scares most people, turbulence is actually opportunity masked as problems. When things get turbulent, we have the opportunity to share hope, change, and the nature of Christ. Turbulence shakes things up for us and when it does we need to be ready to respond.
• Acceleration – Ironically, the five previous forces apply pressure to this force. Our worlds are faster; our days feel shorter. However, our to-do lists are getting longer. Being a creative leader is about finding ways to creatively deal with opportunities – even when they look like tasks; finding ways to employ creativity in delegation, outsourcing, volunteer developments, and team management. Focus on the things that matter, move momentum, and allow the other stuff to find its way. Today is probably the slowest day of the rest of our lives…it’s only going to get faster.

How we address these forces will help us get better as artists and creative professionals. How are you adjusting? What other forces are you facing that could shape how you focus on innovation?

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Great meetings don’t happen on their own…they happen because they’re created.

Here are a few of the key ingredients we attempt to incorporate for great creative meetings:

• Get a diverse audience – the more diversity, the better the conversation.
• Get everyone the topic and clarify expectations as early as possible – we want our guests and contributors to show up prepared and knowing what this meeting is all about.
• Choose the right venue – Choose a space that supports your goals. We like to choose venues themed towards our subject matter.
• Be prepared – Do your homework. Make sure you have an agenda, a plan, and enough data to inspire the conversation. Have all your resources prepared and in place before anyone arrives.
• Cater to creativity – Toys keep people busy. Bright spaces keep people alert. Make sure there are snacks, drinks, and trinkets. A secret: mint actually fires endorphins that ignite creativity. Don’t be afraid to theme snacks to your subject matter.
• Take Breaks – It’s important to keep meetings moving, but it’s equally important to take enough breaks for people to stay engaged. It’s an art to manage both momentum and fatigue.
• Think “theme” & “environment.” Use necessary and available themes as props in your meeting. If you’re talking about Christmas, make the room cold, have cookies, hang decorations, play Christmas music. Planning theme and environment also sets the expectation of intentionality and purpose.
• Music matters – This is probably the easiest and most impacting rule. Music sets atmosphere and tone. Use it wisely.
• Never say no – Creative meetings are for ideas, not boundaries. Create space for people to embrace creative freedom. Allow even bad ideas to breathe…they just might spark the best ideas.
• Document everything – One person who is documenting the day should write down everything; the good, bad, ridiculous, and inspiring. We obviously won’t use all the data in our edit time but today, in the creative meeting, document every single idea.
• Start with a game – Attendees show up thinking about their jobs, family, email, responsibilities and the list goes on and on…it’s important to start with a game that will get everyone to shift into a creative mode. Something that gets their mind working creatively and out of the “norm”. This may have nothing to do with our goal, but it changes the focus and that is important.
• Keep it moving – Never let creative meetings bog down. Keep them moving. If a meeting bogs down, change the subject or the focus.
• Embrace collaboration – Mix up the room. Allow some exercises to be in groups and allow the groups to shuffle. Collaboration will inspire conversation and other ideas. It’s also important for users to share ideas with the group after exercises.
• Know your goal – Have a clear plan for what needs to be accomplished. Without knowing a target, there is no possibility of making this effective.
• Make it user friendly – Remove boundaries. Have hosts. We’re going to want effort put into creativity – not finding a seat, knowing where to park, or needing a pen. The more user friendly, the better the ideas will be.
• Make sure there is a director – Someone who knows the goal, has personality, and is aware of how to get us to the end goal. A great director is going to be like an orchestra director. Pulling, pausing, pushing, and reading the room.
• Don’t leave out the fun – Fun is paramount. Studies show creativity thrives when people have room to play.
• Think about the agenda – Some group stuff. Some individual stuff. Time to eat. Time to start. Time to leave. When breaks happen. Questions. Goals. Plans. The agenda is the road map to what may be great ideas.

What are some of your best meeting standards that help you create great meetings?

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Volunteers are the life blood of churches. Every week, volunteers help us bring to life the experiences that speak into the lives of people looking for hope.

As we lead the charge for creativity in the church, there is a pressure to make sure we’re putting together the best possible creative team to help craft these experiences. Ideally, we would all love to be able to just go out and hire 20 of the most amazing artists in the world and figure that our problems would be solved, but that’s just not a reality. So, what are some of the important traits we should be looking for in people as we build a creative team?

• Diversity – Make sure we’re pulling people from different backgrounds. This brings different lenses that can help add new voices to our conversations and creative process.
• It does not matter the job – Don’t be enamored with “creatives” based on their job. An accountant may be a more creative thinker than a musician. Look for people who will add to the mix by what they bring and who they are…not what they do.
• Challenges the status quo – THIS IS A MUST. People who are not afraid to shake things up.
• May not know what is acceptable – People who may or may not know what is acceptable in church or your organization will challenge the way you create and process.
• Self-motivated – Someone who is self motivated is not going to waste time or energy.
• Takes risks – Risk takers make creative meetings more fun. They want to try things that have never been done.
• Traveled – People who are traveled bring unique experiences to the table.
• Carry The DNA – DNA and knowing the organization is sometimes the most important trait. People who carry the DNA care a lot about the organization and will help protect the things that matter.
• Flexible – We don’t want people who can’t be flexible. Creativity is organic – it changes. When it does, people have to be able to change with it…sometimes on the fly. People who are rigid struggle with this aspect of the creative process.
• Reflective – People who will process through ideas, thoughts, songs, etc.
• Recognizes patterns and knows when to blow them up.
• Contributes without dominating – Nothing is more frustrating for the rest of the group than the guy who thinks only their ideas matter. We want people with the confidence to contribute, but the humility to let others go first.
• Committed to learning – Without continued learning, there is nothing new.
• Understands the tension of Data vs. Instincts – Both matter, but don’t always exist at the same time.
• Embrace the collaborative – We’ve got to have people who want to work with other people.
• Resilient – Because artists get attached to their ideas and leave a bit of themselves on every idea, it’s important to have resilient people who are able to bounce back from negative moments.
• Hustler – Hustle is about how we approach our work. We want to have people on our team that want to hustle.
• Can find a competitive edge – Creative teams live in the public. Our success and our failures are played out weekly on stage, song, video, and print. Everything we do is a chance to create a win or experience a loss. Competitive people hate to lose.
• We probably won’t find all these traits in one person, but we might find one, two, or five of them in someone and realize they have a passion to help us make what we do better. Get that person on your team as fast as possible.

What traits do you look for in creative team members (volunteer or employee)

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As we learn to be our creative best, we need to identify the intangible characteristics about ourselves. Do we work better in an office or a coffee shop? Are we more creative on sunny days or rainy days? And probably the most common question, what time of day do we do our best creative work? Is it early in the morning? Late at night? Right in the dead middle of the afternoon?

New research by Mareike Weith of Albion College and Rose Sacks of Michigan State University may surprise you. As reported by PsyBlog, the pair studied 428 students. They asked them to tackle six problem solving tasks at different times of the day. What they found was very interesting. The “morning people” scored better on insight based problem solving – problems that required original thinking in the evening. Likewise, the “night owls” scored higher in the morning and experienced more breakthroughs earlier in the day.

And what is the reason? Overcoming our own minds.

The study proved that most original ideas, as well as innovative thoughts, took place when the students could view the problems from a different perspective; when students felt they were in their zone, they actually got in the way of their best ideas and problem solving skills. They become more mental and less intuitive.

“When we are on, we’re really good at screening out what we think is irrelevant, and we really get focused on one thing,” says Wieth. “That’s great if you’re doing a task where you have to concentrate, but for creativity that’s probably not the best thing. We get stuck on one way and don’t think of other ways to resolve it.”

So how does this impact you and I today as artists?

We have to remember to stay out of our heads. We can’t fall in love with our formulas. Finding different perspectives and working on problems or ideas when we are not “on our A game” may actually help us to be more creative. As artists, sometimes the most important thing we can do is change our routine, our approach, and our surroundings. We have to identify when we’re allowing ourselves to get stale and be honest enough with ourselves about the importance of intentionally finding new methods to be our absolute best. Creativity is not about habits, it’s about new perspectives, imagination, and a unique approach to the ordinary.

What are some of the habits you find that can cause you to slip into the trap of normality?

I hate the feeling that comes over me when it feels like someone cares more about my “stuff” than I do.

The reality is, it is usually not true, but often the pace we run creates opportunity for our attention to get thin.

When we have thin attention we are forced to count on the status quo…which is never a good idea. As artists and creative people our job should be to war with the status quo not to make it our co-worker. However, at times, we allow this to happen and it is usually when our “to do” list has over taken our “to create” list and the dreaded thinning of our attention has gotten to code red levels.

Here are 12 ways to prevent thinning?

• Seek Wisdom & Insight- Pray for it, ask questions, quiz people, study…while we feel we may not have the time to do this, if we don’t we wont be able to create.
• Don’t make promises for someone else – Only make promises based on what you can control. One of the most powerful ways to thin our attention is to have to cover promises we made for others. Managing expectations is vital because it forces honest conversations.
• Delegate – Bottlenecks thin attention quickly. Diversity enhances creativity.
• Pick The Team – Surround yourself with high capacity people who carry the vision. When we see vision link address it immediately.
• Remain Skeptical – Being skeptical, without being negative, is a trait that forces us into reality while living in a creative world.
• Fight for what matters. – And let the stuff that does not matter go. Its not worth it.
• Control What You Can Control – When we worry about stuff that is outside of our control it only breeds frustation.
• Find a system that works, then use it – Systems can help us carry the heavy lifting.
• Embrace failing. The feeling of failure sucks, but if we fail by being audacious it is worth failing to get things right.
• Always be looking for a new or better way. Fall in love with the message not the method.
• Protect your team but be honest with them even if it hurts.

There are so many more ways to prevent attention thinning, but these are the 12 we are working on right now…what are some of yours?