The blue-collar creative

Someone said they were a meat and potatoes vegan and that really worked for me. I got it. I like FOOD that’s vegan. Simple. Real. Delicious.

It takes the magic and the whimsy out of vegan food. Instead of recreating nachos using jicama paste as cheese and reconstituted petroleum as sour cream, just gimme chips and normal stuff that’s good. Beans, salsa, olives, guac, cilantro – that’s good.

The stellar creators I’ve been involved with all take the magic out of their work too. The result is miraculous, but the work is very blue-collar. It’s just plain showing up an doing. The standup doesn’t sit in a room full of windows in the woods and invite in the muse. She has a notebook that she is constantly using to jot and reorganize. She shows up at clubs and tries stuff out a few times per night. Genius jokes come sometimes quickly and sometimes develop over time. Most of the time, it looks like someone bad at writing is writing.

Same with the painter or the juggler or the architect. When done by an expert, it resembles someone showing up for their 9 to 5.

The point is to be prolific

Even though it feels like a job, the point isn’t the process, it’s the product. The impact we’re having on the world is incredible. Even the wild artists I know who create insane stuff and stay up until 4 am, they are doing mostly boring stuff to make intrepid worlds.

The process is to be enjoyed, for sure. So we need to attune ourselves to enjoy the bland march forward.

Take action : Pat yourself on the back for something you did consistently until it resulted in something. Then, think about something important that was left half done that could be completed through turning your collar blue.