Post-it Note Sessions #1 — The Block, The Cave, and The Notes On My Wall
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Creative Life podcast. Okay. So we are going to be doing something different today because I'm completely unscripted. I'm in my studio here in Marhalla. It is twenty three forty three on a Friday night.
Jim Kroft:What a mirth am I doing still at the studio? Well, we're gonna get into that. Now what I realized was that I've been missing doing the podcast. I love this podcast, but I've had to put both the podcast and my YouTube and some some of my other content channels aside for, let's say, some of the higher values of what I'm aspiring to do in my artistic life. And that means specifically trying to get the triptych of the three things I'm working on artistically out into the world.
Jim Kroft:The whole project is called Chromatic Zero. It starts at the beginning of twenty twenty four. It is an album. It's a rock and roll album. It then developed into a image book, which is illustrates the story of the album.
Jim Kroft:And then finally, somehow, I started writing an actual book to outline what on earth was going on. So there's been so much going on that it's been just not possible to carry on the podcast while I've been doing all of this, but I feel very dissatisfied by that state of affairs. And, anyway, tonight, I was in the studio, and I was just thinking, well, the creative life is something unscripted. Every single day, you are trying to work out. You're trying to react to life.
Jim Kroft:You're trying to react to your circumstances, to your dreams, to your aspirations, to that thing, that purpose that you set out with when you decided that this was the life that you were going to go into. And all too often, we live amidst some type of chaos, and we don't talk about it. And I think that nowadays, everything's getting so perfected, so put through this blender of AI, and I feel like that's exactly what I want to fight against. I want to offer something different. And as such, I thought on the podcast, I'd like to invite you deeper into the reality of what I'm going through.
Jim Kroft:So this is the first of a a new type of co podcast. The usual podcast, which is more scripted and which, relates and balances off my sub stack will carry ongoing. But this is the first of what I'm going to call the Post It Sessions. Post It as in, yes, indeed, Post It Notes because in my studio, I'm always tormented by all of these notes that I'm writing myself. And I just looked at my desk, and it was just full of all of these multicolored Post it notes.
Jim Kroft:I looked on my wall. There are Post it notes every everywhere. And then I just thought, you know, I want to communicate more. I want to get deeper into the weeds. And I thought what a fun way to do it is just to tell you what's been going on and to dive into Deep One as a sort of indicator of what's been going on in my own creative life and to share deeper and in more real time and a more spontaneous flow the tactics that I'm working on, the psychological hooks or scaffolding that I'm leaning into.
Jim Kroft:And, hopefully, that will start off a different type of conversation, if you like. Now maybe some of these, as I get into it, will be more focused, towards one thing. I don't know. This is the first time I wasn't intending to do this. In fact, just seconds ago, I just realized that, yeah, this would be fun.
Jim Kroft:So we're just gonna dive into it. Now in front of me, on my wall, there are there's a line of pink Post it notes, and at the top of it, that says content. So that's some of my content ideas. Then I've got self and self, a little reminders to myself about what I you know, the psychological robustness or a message or something that, as I said, a scaffolding, something that I can lean on to because it's been it's been a sort of very kaleidoscopic sort of period in in in many ways, but not not in terms of outwards. I think we have periods.
Jim Kroft:You know, I think of my life, and there's been so many periods in my artistic life that have been pointing outwards. You know, I think of when I was on EMI, and I was touring all over Europe supporting all types of different bands. I think when I was well, way before that, when I was in London in a rock and roll band, me and and and then going all across The UK living in the back of the van. I remember being outside Aberdeen freezing. It was winter.
Jim Kroft:Oh god. There's so many memories, and I wanna share this stuff. Yeah. Playing rock and roll show in Aberdeen. Absolutely going off, coming out, speaking to so many great Scots, having some whiskey.
Jim Kroft:Oh, there was some bad breath. My god. I'd have to turn my turn my head away up in Aberdeen. My god. Was born in Dundee.
Jim Kroft:And, you know, there are there are times in your creative path when the world calls you out. Those were great days when I was, like, hungry and out as an independent musician. There were wonderful days when I emerged through the underground, got signed by a major label, what a validating experience it was, and it came with so much opportunity. And then later on, after I lost that deal, I went out and I became a filmmaker, and all types of things happen in my life from going out and recording the march of hope, my refuge my my documentary that explores the lives of refugees. And I want to talk about all of these different things that I've been involved with.
Jim Kroft:But the point at the moment that I want to talk about tonight, or at this point with the Post It Note Sessions, is that you have times when you you don't have stuff going on on the outside, and it's just you and life. And you have to develop psychological frameworks. You have to distill what you are going through, and you have to find ways to keep yourself going because my god, sometimes the world will give you nothing. That is part of the reality. You're going to have to find it in yourself.
Jim Kroft:And I know sometimes that that can it can give you two responses. Sometimes the response is like, yes. I'm gonna find it in myself. I'm going to get up. I'm going to get out there, and I'm going to pull myself together, and I'm going to do whatever the hell it is that I can do.
Jim Kroft:And that, yes, there are all these things I'd like to do, but all you can do in those moments is you can focus on the one thing you can do because the coulds don't matter. We get lost in the dreaming, and we forget that there's always one thing that you can do. So if you're in the dark, if you're unsure, what is that one thing that you can do? Concentrate on that. Eliminate the rest for now because if you do that one thing, it will open up something else.
Jim Kroft:Now beyond that, yes, these times that we are in the wonder of the world and the world is giving us all these things, but equally, other times, we have to retreat into our own cave. We have to go into that dark night, and it doesn't mean that you have to go into the depression or the darkness or the sadness, but it might. But what it means is that you're going to have to find that deeper resolve, and you're going to have to find the shape of whatever is inside you, and you're going to have to explore that void, that abyss. And out of that abyss, what I've found as I've gone in those moments is that sometimes it's been extraordinarily disorientating. But then you're in there.
Jim Kroft:And once you're in there, what are you going to do? You have no choice but to venture forth through the dark until you find something. And in my experience in life, if you have the courage to go into that void, at some point you come across a bushel. There is something out there through the dark. There is always its opposite right in the heart.
Jim Kroft:But my god, you have to have courage, and you have to go out into that dark night forth, and you have to call everything in you, and your fucking compass is destroyed. It's broken, or you lost it, or you feel like an idiot because you dropped it and it smashed. It's like, how can I be so damn stupid that I am the one person in the world that had the compass that voluntarily went into the dark and I dropped the effing thing and it broke? But that that is the point where your true moment comes, because you have gone through the threshold, and you are asked the question of will you go forth into the dark and find what it is that you're meant to discover there? Are you going to find it?
Jim Kroft:You know, it is asking you who the hell are you? Are you willing to become who you could be potentially? And what a wonderful question that is to have in front of you because if you start answering that, that will lead you towards that light because in that darkness there is an opposite. I swear to God because I've been in that dark too many times in my life to know not its nature. I know the nature of it, and I feel that.
Jim Kroft:You once you start mapping out that part of yourself, I think of it as that inner potential, you know, that living potential that's in all of us, and it's bewildering, and it's scary at one point, and it can fragment you, and it can draw you to the edge of your own sanity, your own life. But once you're in there, stuff starts revealing itself to you. So, yes, you know, a million people with their damn Post it notes, they will have all of the things that they're going to do. But I have this blue line of self, and that's I'm gonna talk about some of the ones that are on there. And those are just simple messages that I put on the wall to keep myself going.
Jim Kroft:And then I have the yellow ones next to them, which is, you know, the the more practical things, and then all the crazy notes around. So, look, what I have found in this period of my life is and this is one of the reasons I stopped doing the podcast was because I was going into the cave for a while. And I don't know if you know the story Joseph Campbell, but Joseph Campbell is one of one of one of my heroes. And I really mean heroes because I remember all those years ago when I first found him, and I was in this point, and I was in London, and I had this sense that I was not with living my own story. I was working so hard as a musician.
Jim Kroft:I was playing so many gigs. I'd left one band and I'd started another, but I just had this gnawing feeling. And I realized that there was something it wasn't just that there was something missing that that this point in my life. I was of such a fragmented family, lost my mother as a teenager. I wasn't speaking to my dad.
Jim Kroft:I just felt on the edge every single day, and I was suffering from panic attacks. But I had this crazy knowledge that I had to go out and find something as a musician. I felt like it was the one path that was open for me, but I felt in the dark. And I went out, and I went to this cottage, and and I went, and I I I I I just there was an amazing library there, and I went through different books, and I found Joseph Campbell, and I found different Joseph Campbell books. And I found the hero of the thousand faces, and I found another one which is called Pathways to Bliss, and I think there was another one.
Jim Kroft:I can't remember the name off the top of my head. But I read about Campbell and about Campbell's decision. I think it was in the I think it was just as the Great Depression was hitting, and he realized that he had to go out to this small cottage, and he just he had this idea. I think he called it the ridiculous idea that he had just had to go out, and he had to follow his thinking to the edge of where it led him. And he went off, and that was when he started sort of going into mythology.
Jim Kroft:And he started making the connections between things that no no one had ever created connections before. And, you know, you can imagine, you know, his mind. He's got all this mythology from all over the world, and he's and he's following everything from Dostoyevsky to the Egyptians, going you know, studying ancient caves. He's just feeding from everywhere, and he's making the connections, and he starts realizing that there is there is this unity. There is this this this this archetype before the myth, and that was what he does he called the hero, you know, the hero's journey.
Jim Kroft:That is what the what what you're doing. And the reason that suddenly sort of came up in my mind was for two reasons. First of all, because one of these yellow Post it notes is called hero mode. And, so I'm gonna go into that in a minute. But the the the the point is is that I've been in this period where I've been the the projects that I've been working on, the album, getting through my writer's block, and coming to this image book, and then trying to write this book have become these escalating hydras.
Jim Kroft:Hydras? Hydras? Is it the hydra? The one that you that that's that you cut off the one and it it keeps is it the Medusa? It's the hydra, isn't it?
Jim Kroft:And and, you know, the heads keep expanding. And I realized it was just I was trying to chase too much, and I had to sort of eliminate different things. And so I eliminated some of the content because content does come with a pressure. And it you know, you every single week, you're trying to kinda keep up with this content machine, and we all feel bound to it. And, you know, we all know that this is part of the the reality of a creative life.
Jim Kroft:And I talk about this on the podcast, and I have so much to say about it. But I realized that I just had to get off the train because the and I talked about this a little bit in the last podcast because I felt that the communication of the journey was actually taking away from the living of the journey, and I realized I just wanted to go deep into my own artistic journey. And so I cut off from a lot of things sort of like going in, and everything that I felt that I wanted to develop were you know, each of them was something that was going to take so much time. And the thing that I find about content is that so often content really draws you back to the surface. And I I mean, it's hard to say because it's like, obviously, I'm talking about lots of different ideas on this podcast, and I love talking about it.
Jim Kroft:But you're talking about the reflection of things. You're not talking about the thing. You know, you're not going into the thing itself. There's such a difference between the communication and the talking and the sharing and the talking about and the actual thing itself. What is the thing itself for you?
Jim Kroft:Are you going into that voyage inside yourself, into that cave? You know, like Campbell going out and reading for those five years because that's what he did. He went out for five years, and he read and the you know, he said no to a professorship. He said, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing what the world fucking expects of me.
Jim Kroft:And he essentially jumped off a cliff. And the thing is is that sometimes you have a deeper calling in you, and you have to find that out. And so often in the arts, the reason that we have this weight, the reason that we have this pressure, and the the reason that we carry these burdens or these feelings of failure is because we know that we're not listening to that voice. And the thing is, if you're feeling that voice at the moment, you have to find out what is the block. You know, what is it that's preventing you?
Jim Kroft:And, yes, I know that so often It is life itself. You know, there are so many obligations. There's so many things we have to do. You know, the price of everything's gone up. You know, they shrunk every single food, every single package of food.
Jim Kroft:I mean, it's like, how does anyone do anything anymore, let alone they have their families? It's incredibly challenging for everyone. But we have to find our way back to that center, to that thing that's nagging us, that thing that won't leave us alone. And for me, that manifested in that I felt like I was getting a little bit swallowed in the content side. You know, I kind of maybe I could sort of maybe as an independent artist, because I'm an independent artist these days, maybe I thought that if I would just, you know, develop the audience again, that that would really give me the opportunity to to give me the opportunity to go further into my creative life in the future because that, of course, is what we're trying to do.
Jim Kroft:When we're making these moves, we're trying to build the next thing that can keep us going. What is the thing that's going to keep us going? You know, so often we have to lend ourselves out, you know, for me, for years and years and years, doing all this film work as a freelancer, you know, working with companies with you know, doing trailers for companies or doing the doc the the mini documentaries or the interviews or whatever it is that requested of me. Wonderful experiences, but you're you're lending yourself out and you're giving your skills to other people so that you can get paid, so that you can carry on with your own path. And I think that you you you know, sometimes the ways that we're taken away from that center, they start calcifying.
Jim Kroft:They start calcifying in a way that's very painful, and we start developing this block. And this block, it becomes so big in our minds that we don't feel like we could ever move it. And we know that underneath that block, there is some other potential, but we don't know how to shift it. And the thing is is that the one reality is that you just have to put the feeling aside and get back to that one thing and do the thing that you can do. And you have to remember that you can do it.
Jim Kroft:The block is not a reality. It is it is, it's in your mind, and it doesn't matter what age you are. It doesn't matter if you had kids. It doesn't matter if you're struggling. It doesn't matter wherever you are.
Jim Kroft:If you feel that voice in you bursting through you, you have to find a way to give voice to it again because that is the one of the purposes. Or maybe it is the purpose of life to feel that potential, and you got to goddamn well listen to it. You can't repress it. You can't ignore it because you know what happens. It starts calcifying your spirit.
Jim Kroft:It drives you to cynicism. It drives people away from themselves. You have to orientate. You have to move back towards that center. And I know it's not easy.
Jim Kroft:And one of the things as we try to and this is something that I've gone through. As we try to get back to that center, it's difficult because you don't feel like your skills have developed as you might have hoped that they would have. And the challenging thing is is that as you go back to try to develop those skills, you can have this hangover of all the work that you feel like you could have done in the past, and you know that you're not exactly where you'd like to be. And you've got this mythic, perfected version of yourself in your mind. And where you think you could have got to, it stops you getting to where it is that you could go from this point.
Jim Kroft:So there, that is the challenge that you have to face. And as your own spirit reveals back to you that you're not exactly where you want to be, you have to have a look at that. What is the nature of what it's saying to you? And very often, it's simply saying to you, you've got to learn something new. You've got to deepen.
Jim Kroft:You've got to go into the cave. And the thing is, very often, with our artistic projects, it's bound to this sense of validation. We want to go in the world and bring something out. We wanna have it finished before we've even effing started it, and you gotta put all of that shit aside, brother. You gotta put it all aside because the thing that you have to return to is that that is inside you to start with, and you have to start doing the hard stuff.
Jim Kroft:So on the one of my Post it notes in front of me is do hard things because it's going to be hard, and it's okay that it's going to be hard. But you can't let the the sense of the difficulty start eroding you or pulling you away from the fact that you can do hard things. Look. Some of the hard things I'm trying to do at the moment, artistically, I'm trying to learn the piano in my forties. It's a nightmare.
Jim Kroft:It's a disaster. All of these keys. I don't write music. I'm not Mozart. My god.
Jim Kroft:I have no idea how people do this stuff altogether. But it's a wonderful journey when you sit down and you make the decision that you're going to do the hard thing. You're going to do the hard thing. And why do you do the hard thing? You do the hard thing because you're going to have the courage to develop a new language inside yourself.
Jim Kroft:And why are you gonna develop that new language? You develop that new language because it's going to give you the skill set to express that which you find inside yourself. I found that after all of these years when I haven't been been able to be a full time musician, I was way off where I'd like to be. I was like, oh, man. I just wish I was, you know, I was I was better.
Jim Kroft:I wish I learned the piano. I wish my guitar playing was better. I wish I'd taken better care of my voice. You know, all of this stuff that can become a weight. But that weight can stop you doing anything at all in your life, and you have to ask yourself, are you going to use all of that as some type of preventative to trying to get back to the thing itself?
Jim Kroft:For me, it's like I recognize this. I recognize, okay. There is something that I want to get to artistically, and I don't feel that the tools I have at this point in my life are the tools that I need to get to it. They were tools that worked when I was the version of myself that was a couple of years ago or that was five years ago or that was living in London. You know, there are different tools that come to you at different points, but that's the point when you're in the dark.
Jim Kroft:You're out there looking for the next skill. You're looking for the next tool. You're looking for that thing that maybe a guardian or an angel or a demon in front of you has dropped, and you find it. And you're like, what is this thing? What is this thing?
Jim Kroft:Okay. I don't know how to use it and you're tapping on it. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Jim Kroft:What does it do? And you're shaking around, but you know that there's something there and you've got to react to it. You have to develop the skill. You have to learn how to new to to how to to to yourself, your potential through the learning of the gift. And, you know, the that often means one thing.
Jim Kroft:It means time. It means a set of days over a long period where you are going to say no to other stuff, and it might even mean that you're going to have to disappear in some way from the world, and people do that. Campbell did that when he went into the heart. I mean, Patty Smith did that when she had her kids and she went to Detroit and she spent the eighties. She, you she didn't produce anything during that time.
Jim Kroft:You know, she called it a hiatus. Or you can think of Jesus going out into the desert. You know, he went into the desert to make a space to have that conversation, that conversation with what was within him, what was within him speaking outwards and inwards, pregnant with the nothingness, asking the questions that surfaced and seeking the answer that only the desert and his confrontation with the nothingness could lead to. And what did it lead to? Well, it led to conversations with the devil, and then it led to an understanding of the godhead that he felt within him.
Jim Kroft:And you find these manifestations in whatever is. And when you dig deep enough into your spirit, into the stories, that's the stuff that can inspire you. And, you know, we've got to stop filling our heads with the content and all this nonsense and actually just think what's the meaning of this stuff because the meaning is within you. Your understanding is far deeper, but you got to make this space. And the paradox is that the world is always telling you have to do, do, do.
Jim Kroft:That's the danger with the content stuff. It's do, do, do. You're filling yourself with content. You're outputting yourself with content. You're talking about stuff all the time, and you're not becoming the thing itself.
Jim Kroft:Are you willing to become the thing itself? And that is the challenge. Are you willing to become that which you might be potentially? That is the potential of your life, and it's within you. The Zen Buddhists have this phrase, which is there is a face that you had before you were born.
Jim Kroft:There is a face that you had before you were born. You know? Are you willing to get to it? You know what? I've just.
Jim Kroft:I've got, like, a I got a song I wrote years ago. I mean, I wasn't planning to do this. Wait a minute. Let's have a look. Since one takes, I'm not stopping it, I'm getting my guitar.
Jim Kroft:Alright. I don't know if I don't know if you if this microphone is picking this up at all. So this might be daft as hell. I don't even know if I can remember how this goes. Let's see if I got a have I got a pick around?
Jim Kroft:Pickety pickety pick pick pick. I need a pick. No pick as you Pick. Here we go. So this was a song called Lost Paths.
Jim Kroft:Let me just see if I got my headphones on. I can't even play this since I was, like, 21, I think. I wonder if I can remember it. Now while I was picking up, there was a there was a line there was a line about the Zen Buddhist. I'm sure because I can remember years So anyway, it's something that if you like that, drop a comment.
Jim Kroft:I'll see if I can figure it out. But you remember, so no. No. There's this face that you had before you were born. You know, can you find God, with the most that was probably sounding terrible.
Jim Kroft:My voice is all awesome, big, all this stuff. But anyway, the point is you've got this this voice this voice, this face inside yourself, and you're capable of things that you can't even imagine. But you got to string those days together. So what's the plan? What plan are you going to take?
Jim Kroft:You know, what what is the plan? What you you you got to decide. I think you've got to decide what you're going to say no to. You know? And for me, it was, like, really hard to say, right.
Jim Kroft:I'm, you know, I I'm ex trying to explore the language of the modern world with all this content and stuff, but, you know, it's not the basis of who I am. Who I am is about trying to dig into that stuff. It's about to take some of these ideas and to try and convert it and put it out in some type of artistic form. And that requires disappearing. You know, you got to disappear sometimes.
Jim Kroft:You got to get off this effing treadmill, this never ending infinite game. You know, it's an infinite game. It never stops, and sometimes you have to pause. And the thing is is that we think we're gonna pause, that we're somehow dropping out. We're somehow failing.
Jim Kroft:But the pause to find you know, you you you have to sometimes be willing to go into the stuckness. And if you very often, we are stuck, and we can't get out of it. And why can't we get out of the stuckness? Well, you can't get out of the stuckness because you're not willing to listen to the message that the stuckness is trying to say to you. There is a message within the stuckness, and the reason that you can't find what the message is is because you're not willing to stay still.
Jim Kroft:You're not willing to pause, to sit within the void and say, okay. What are you saying to me? You know, what is it that you want me to do? Because there is something that you're to do, but you have to have the courage to stop. And I know that it's against all of the advice, but you've got to listen, you know, what's inside you.
Jim Kroft:And for me, it was saying, yeah, well, says do hard things. You know? It well, diff I just started following the breadcrumbs of the different things that I wanted to that I felt that I I needed to do. And I thought it was just inverted commas going to be an album, but then it was like, right now, I want to go more into the sense of writer's block and explore, you know, what it is to be in your forties and at this different stage of your life. And that kinda became the whole project to explore how, you know, how you keep going as a as an artist.
Jim Kroft:You know, when you're some when maybe you feel like, you know, you've had your moment or you feel like the marketplace has already made its judgment. You know, what next? What next? Are you just gonna give up? Are you gonna are you gonna retire into the night and say, that's me done?
Jim Kroft:I don't think so. I don't think so. There's something else that you're called to do. You have to walk into it. And for me, I just felt like, you know what?
Jim Kroft:I just feel like I gotta go out. I gotta try and get better. Gotta have the courage to try and get better, to develop this new language for this new phase, this new stage of life. And so the next Post it note says courage. And every single day, I've been trying to remind myself to to have courage.
Jim Kroft:You know, can I have the courage for the path, for the for the courage to to do this a little bit differently than is the way that, you know, we're encouraged to do stuff? You know, we're encouraged. We're encouraged all the time to do stuff that isn't the stuff that maybe we really have to do that we're meant to do. And the courage is so very often in my experience about saying, right, I'm I'm not going to, like, be throwing myself out at this point in time. I'm gonna have the courage to dive in deep, to develop a new language, to learn a new instrument, to listen to that.
Jim Kroft:And, you know, the next Post it note, it says scene by scene because out of the void, I started writing. And I and I write my newsletter, that's writing outwards towards the audience. But I I I always dreamed of writing when I was a teenager, and then I'd lost my mother at the end of my teenage years, and it sort of ripped out, you know, this this this notion of mortality, you know, like death arrived as the end of all ideas at that stage of my life because you're a teenager and you're confronted by death and you're like, well, how do you how do you measure up to death? You know, what idea can can can can can can can stand forth in front of your experience of mortality and the fact that you're going to lose the people you love and that that is part of what we have to go through. And and I found that so painful, extraordinarily painful.
Jim Kroft:And it ended this idea of, like, wanting to be a writer for years and years and years in my life. So in many ways, you know, that that's what brought me to music because music is a far more primal expression of whatever it is you're going through. You know? You can just howl. You can howl.
Jim Kroft:Whatever the hell is in there, you put it out. And, you know, that's why I do it in my voice because I just I howl. You know? The pain has to find an exorcism. It has to find an exit point.
Jim Kroft:And it's healthy. And it and and, you know, it costs something. It takes chunks out of your spirit sometimes. But I have the word scene by scene because at this suddenly, at this stage in my life, I I came to this this this book, and I realized I just had to write it. And and I sort of I was, again, busy busy with life even though you're trying to kind of cut down.
Jim Kroft:You know, life doesn't relent, does it? There's always a new job. There's always somewhere new you have to go, something you have to take care of. And, very often, our own projects, you know, pulling in all these different directions. And, and I just remembered scene by scene, you know, and that's really inspired, I guess, from Anne Llis it Lamott?
Jim Kroft:Anne Lamott? Anne Lamott, book Bird by Bird, which is such a beautiful book, Bird by Bird. And, well, that's the story, if you don't know it, where now I think it was her her brother was on assignment and they were kids, and he just had these, you know, this vast project that he was trying to do. And he was overwhelmed like we all get. And he just you know, his dad came in.
Jim Kroft:He's like, well, what's going on, son? He's just I just don't know where to start. And his dad said very simply, well, you know, son, you gotta take it bird by bird. Just take it bird by bird. And, I thought it's just beautiful.
Jim Kroft:So I've been trying to take it scene by scene. So that goes on to the next Post it note, which is raw. It just says raw. It's a bunch of words, raw, scrappy, fun, emotional, and it's just, you know, I think that, yes, when we step into, let's say, that void when we're trying to work on something new and trying to find what is speaking to us, we can also assume you know, we can let out all types of dungeon dragons in the dungeon. But I think that in parallel, you have to see if you can bring the levity.
Jim Kroft:And what's helped me to keep going with the book because I've, you know, I've been wrestling I've been juggling, sorry, not wrestling, juggling with setting up this solopreneur business amongst other things. And, you know, there's so much to learn when you're building a product to market. And I just I just I I would often have one hour in the day and I'd be like, right. That's my writing time. I sit down.
Jim Kroft:I couldn't kind of get the context of the book. Couldn't get back to it. I was trying to write too well. And I just I just remembered, right, I've got to keep the fun in it. Keep the fun in it.
Jim Kroft:And I have found by trying to give myself the gift of not writing well, you know, of now I've just rediscovered the fun in it. And and it's important for me to say this tonight, you know, because this week, I've made some more content for the first time. This is my second podcast this week, and I've got out of the rhythm with the writing. And it helps me at this point just to remember that. It's like you very well may only have an hour a day for your creative project, and your creative project might be vast like a book.
Jim Kroft:It might be going on for years. So you really first of all, you have to commit to that that set you know, that sequence of days where you're really going to do it. But then when you're doing it, you have to figure out how you're going to get into that voice every day. And it's a great tactic to remember that you must enjoy it. You don't have to prove yourself in every second.
Jim Kroft:Like the idea bird, but take it bird by bird. You can take it light. You can say, right, this thing. And I've just found that it's it's been so liberating, especially after with the music, having this this this very hard writer's block in 2024. I find it really liberating just to remember that creativity can be fun, that it can be it can be something that is light and that that you can trick yourself into very deep ideas, into into spaces that you didn't know that you could go into because, you know, ultimately, it's about flow.
Jim Kroft:And we always think flow is about sort of the the the always about sort of effort. You know? You have to psych yourself up. You have to show up, all of this heavy stuff. And sometimes it just happens through the lightness.
Jim Kroft:So that's really helped me to take it scene by scene, to keep it light, and paradoxically kinda get into into deeper stuff. So and I've been rabbiting along. I've got millions of Post it notes. Maybe I should just cut, you know, cut it there, keep it short and sweet. But I'm just I'll just take I'll take another one just at random from the wall, to cap it off.
Jim Kroft:And yeah. So on the on the content side, so I've got the content, and I've I've I'm trying to kind of get back to my content game. And maybe I'll go into this sort of another time because already since I've started doing some content, there's been a reason I'm coming back to it this time. So I'll go into that next time because maybe that's a good place to leave off. But I realized that I I just feel like there is a rhythm with this stuff, and I I realized, okay.
Jim Kroft:It's been long enough. I kinda haven't done a YouTube video for, like, six months. What whatever it is. Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's long.
Jim Kroft:Maybe maybe it's less. Podcast, I think the last one we'll pull from this week was in February. So it's been ages. And I just kind of I just really wanted to speak again with the audience because it, you know, it gives you such a lovely feeling when you're in this communication with the world. I mean, sometimes you have to go into that disappearance, you know, but sometimes you have to come up for air and you have to communicate.
Jim Kroft:And I just felt like it was a really good time at the moment. Then suddenly when I made the last podcast, I started getting excited. It just felt it felt it was giving a different color. And it was been really fun to remember how much that I enjoy it. And one of the reasons I want to use the podcast to be a little bit looser and to do these Post it Note Sessions is that, you know, I've been scripting out the podcast, you know, every time.
Jim Kroft:Then, of course, that becomes this sort of huge weight where you're trying to gather your thoughts and you're trying to do your deep research and you're trying to really give the best of yourself in every second. And, look, in life, it's really important to give the best of yourself. But I think part of part of life is to learn to trust yourself. You know? What are the ideas that are singing and flowing through you?
Jim Kroft:I was really nervous about doing this podcast right now. But I think that we have far more inside ourselves than we give ourselves credit for. I mean, if I'm really honest, I was really like, do I want to do it? Have I, you know, do I have the fluidity? Do I have the flow?
Jim Kroft:Can I have that access to my ideas? But you sit down and sometimes you discover something new inside yourself. You know, I feel quite in flow tonight, gaffing about like an idiot as I am. But I think of you out there and I think of your journeys and I think about some of the sort of perils and the stuff that I've been through and, you know, what wonder is that we get to share. And so I've got this content, this this pink pink Post it notes.
Jim Kroft:And what it says, it's just content at the top, and then it's this this sort of, yeah, raw, scrappy, fun, emotional, value, education, impact. That was just some words I was trying to remember because I think that was just making everything heavy again. And, you know, the three the the the triptych of chrom matic zero is a big heavy project, but then, you you know, it's a book. It's a book. It can take you ten years.
Jim Kroft:It's an album. You know? It's it's it's an image book. This stuff, it's a lot of design. It's hours and hours and hours.
Jim Kroft:It's indescribable hours. I feel I feel like Atlas with the weight of the world. And I'm really trying to finish this project to show you some of the stuff that I'm working on, but that's not the motivation. It's, you know, you want to give the gift so that you can be freed of the gift. And I think what I forgot is that the content can be a light counterpart.
Jim Kroft:You know, as long as the content isn't taking over, it can be a light counterpart. So it's really fun just to come and speak with you guys. And, you know, please drop a line on the Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Or if you're listening on on on Substack, let me know because I think with podcasts, you know, the it's it's probably the area where you get the least feedback from your audience. And, you know, we really need it.
Jim Kroft:We all need it when we're doing this stuff. It gets so motivating. I remember I just I was out in Berlin, like, I think it was like early in the year and someone came up to me and said, I love your podcast. And it was like, it made my day because the idea you're trying to build it and you see that some people are downloading it, you often don't know who it is. So please, you know, give some feedback if you're enjoying it.
Jim Kroft:Love me to hear. Tell me who you are. What pain points you're going through? Let's, you know, let's let's find out more about each other. And, you know, as I was thinking about this kind of content side, was sort of also thinking just, you know, how you know, what is it that I want to do?
Jim Kroft:And as and maybe I'll go into this next time more, but I sort of I just wanted to remember to share, you know, share your journey. And it's like if if you don't do anything for a year, you're sort of yeah. You're you're you're gonna come out with evidence of your completed artworks. But it's like, what's going on? You know, you're not gonna have the opportunity to tell your audience about the sort of colors and the flavors and the micro lessons, and there's so many micro lessons.
Jim Kroft:And I just you know, I want it to be that sort of documentary thing, sharing the journey. You know, what are the actual tactics? You know, what are the psychological frameworks that you're learning that keep you going? I think it's only when you're really within the storm that you can really share that stuff. So that's that, you know, that's my thinking that and this is why I'm sharing the journey at the moment.
Jim Kroft:The next post at work is what are you working on? Now you guys can think about this. It's like, you know, we we kind of get blocked with the content. We won't and we think our lives are not interesting. Well, your life is far more interesting than you know.
Jim Kroft:You know, I think my life is uninteresting. And then I'm like, I take a step back. I'm living and working, you know, in the iconic Mahala Arts community. I mean, people look at this from all around the world, and that's my daily life. And there I am going, oh, I don't know what to talk about.
Jim Kroft:It's absolutely absurd. And, you know, but it's like it's also you know, it's the everydayness of life, of every different color of life, you know, that maybe you've moved country. Maybe you're thinking of moving country. Maybe you got a project. Maybe you're blocked on something.
Jim Kroft:Just, you know, go into that stuff and share it. And, you know, I think I think you have to find the right cadence between what you share and your deeper artistic project. You know, that's what always what I'm thinking about is that tension between artistic creation and what you share through content. And it's really hard to get the balance. I really struggle with it.
Jim Kroft:And, you know, this podcast is one of the reasons that I, I I I have it. You know, it's trying to navigate that tension between content creation and deep artistic work. And but I think that a nice way of thinking about it is just it's just thinking about these two questions. You know? Share your journey.
Jim Kroft:You know? What is it from your journey today that you can share as a little thing and to not really worry so much about the results and do it the next day, make it a little bit better. And within the context of sharing your journey, you know, what are you working on? What are you working on? Simple as that.
Jim Kroft:I wanna get back to that. And, yeah. So those are just some of the stuff that I'm thinking about. Now there's lots of stuff, lots of other Post it notes out there, but, I think that this is a good place to cap it because I can wrap it on. I'm so grateful that you've listened.
Jim Kroft:If you'd like to find some of my links personally, my name is Jim Kroft, and that's Kroft with a k. And, you know, all the music on this this this podcast is my own, unless it's otherwise stated. And, you can find me on YouTube. My Substack, The Creative Life, is going really well. Please come over.
Jim Kroft:Subscribe to that. And if you are trying to build out your Substack, check out my digital product, The Creative no. That's not true. It's called the Substack Workstation. And, I will also yeah.
Jim Kroft:I'll share more of the solopreneur journey as we go. But, look, this is fun. We can do this once a week, I hope. Well, you know what? I'm not gonna make any promises because I think at the moment, I just gotta get back to the book.
Jim Kroft:I have no idea what I'm doing. Do any of us. You're all wonderful. As Nietzsche would say, turn it all to light and fire. Get back to believing in yourself.
Jim Kroft:You're amazing. We've got this one opportunity. It's all before you. Believe in yourself. Keep loving.
Jim Kroft:Keep going. I just managed to turn it off. So look at that. It's not I put it before we could it's, it's not a one takes, it's two take because I I I cocked up. The trams going by that damn tram in my orphids.
Jim Kroft:I don't know if you
