*Typing*

It's impossible to compete with someone without also comparing yourself to them. Competition is comparison. It's a comparison of who is better. If it's true originality you're after, you should never compete. You should seek to create work that's so wildly abnormal, it exists beyond comparison and stands alone from the competition. It might take a lifetime to create work of this nature. However, even in the moments you fail, by attempting to create outside the confines of competition and comparison, you will create work that feels fresh, new and ambitious. Good luck.

Uncertainty and anxiety are not one in the same. Uncertainty is feeling uncertain. Anxiety is feeling discomfort about feeling uncertain. Everyone experiences uncertainty. But, not everyone experiences anxiety.

Those who experience less anxiety than others aren't necessarily more certain. They're just more comfortable with being uncertain. It's counterintuitive but you don't alleviate your anxiety by developing greater certainty. You alleviate anxiety by recognizing you will never have the certainty you crave.

Carl Jung believed most coincidences weren't coincidences at all but instead synchronicities.

The Swiss Psychologist coined the term synchronicity to describe the phenomenal moments in life when two unrelated experiences become intertwined in a surprising way. While most scientists believe synchronicities to be nothing more than coincidences caused from confirmation bias, Jung felt differently.

Jung felt that most "coincidences" were directly related to the observer's mind and could provide powerful insight and direction.

I side with Jung.

I don't believe in superstition. I don't think twice about a black cat crossing the road or a murder of crows piled on the rooftop of my home. However, I do believe in synchronicity. I am constantly looking for positive synchronicities in my life to fuel my creativity, brighten my day and feel better about decisions I am making with my heart rather than my mind.

I will never walk past a heads-up penny. I will squint to see meaningful shapes in the clouds. I will smile every time I think of someone and, at that very same moment, they decide to call. I will read books and watch movies and listen to albums that people keep bringing up to me at random. I will feel luckier than a leprechaun in a patch of four-leaf clovers when I see my lucky number on a mailbox or a mile marker or etched somewhere in a bathroom stall.

I believe in synchronicity because looking for synchronicity makes my life better, happier and lighter. I believe in synchronicity because there is something beautiful about spending your life looking for positive coincidences that might not be coincidences at all.

Something horrible happens to you. Or, at least, something you deem horrible in the moment. You get fired from your job. You lose your biggest client. You wreck your new car. You get in a fight with your best friend. You get dumped by your partner. You blow a good chunk of your savings on a stupid investment. You become so stuck on a project that all the creative Imodium in the world couldn't get you unblocked.

In these horrible moments, it helps to look at your life as if you're reading someone else's memoir. When you read about horrible things happening to other people, you lean forward in your seat and hug the book closer to your face, because you know shit is about to get good. You're detached when you're reading a memoir even though it's deeply personal. This detachment allows you to enjoy the read.

You should challenge yourself to do the same with your own life. In the moments when it feels extraordinarily difficult to live your life, instead pretend you're reading about your life playing out right before your eyes.

Output is the quality and quantity of the work you produce. Outcome is the reaction to the work you produce. You have full control over your output. You have no control over the outcome. Creatives get themselves in trouble when they try to control the outcome, feel they are owed a "positive" outcome or allow a "negative" outcome to fuck-up their creative process. The only remedy to relinquish control of the outcome, is to take full control of your output. Create as much work as you possibly can, as fast as you possibly can.