564 - Unlock Creative Drive, Peace and Clarity with This Framework

Okay, to figure out how to solve this problem of your current circumstances where you are, we're gonna have to dig deep this time.

We're gonna have to get into the soul this time.

We're gonna have to turn to a saint, my favorite saint, Sister Mary Clarence, of course, Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, in which I think is just kind of a perfect movie.

I'm a storyteller.

I'm a picture book maker, an, uh, author and illustrator.

Everything I do, even illustration, I think of it as writing with pictures.

The wisdom that I'm looking for in life, I find in story, and there's so much good stuff in Sister Act.

This film, I think, perfectly illustrates this idea of the problem is not where you are, but the problem is that you're not where you are.

And just like so many characters in good stories, the hero has this moment where they reject the place that they find themselves in.

So Sister Mary Clarence, if you don't know, Whoopi Goldberg in this movie, she's singing in Reno, trying to be a star on stage that way, ends up in some trouble in witness protection in a convent pretending to be a nun, pretending to be Sister Mary Clarence, and it's the last place she wants to be.

She feels completely like a fish out of water, and she initially just rejects it outright and just tries to stay in her room and get out of all the activities and reject any of the Offers of friendship from the other sisters in that community, and it gets her nowhere.

And there are so many times in my life where I'm in that zone, where I find myself in a place that I never wanted to be, and my first reaction to that is a refusal.

But like lots of heroes in lots of stories, the key is that they accept where they are, and they look for what it is I need to be doing in this particular space and place of my journey.

And the tru- and the same thing has been true in my creative journey, that if I will quit refusing this moment, I will find what it is I need in this space.

And it's not mystical.

There's a way in which it feels like, wow, all things are conspiring for me, even when it's bad stuff.

I don't know if I really buy that, but what I do know is the thing in the way of what I want is what I need because what I need is to get with the reality of the space that I find myself in.

What I need is, is to come to terms with what is really happening, and it's gonna teach me how I need to be in this next season of my life.

And so this moment, this is part of a grander archetype of the hero, of the hero's journey.

It's called the refusal of the call.

And that alone is even encouraging when you realize the refusal is part of this thing.

And so f- as I've moved through my creative journey, it's been so important to notice, like, one of the keys to getting where I need to go is accepting where I am right now, that the problem isn't where I am, the problem is that I'm not where I am.

When I was in college, I went to college for illustration and design, and I did that because I fell in love with screen-printed band posters for indie bands like Modest Mouse and The Shins and Death Cab for Cutie, and that's all I wanted to do, was make those posters.

So I went to school for illustration and design.

Happened to go overseas 'cause my family was moving over there at the time, and it seemed like a good idea.