Why is tomorrow better than today?

The topic of seizing the day, of taking advantage of the hear and now, to be about the current moment, to do whatever it is you want to do. Is a topic in business and life in general that is beaten to death. Clouded with fake motivation, inspiration and a crap facade of spontaneous wannabes that leads to wheel spinning.

Now I am not going to say there is no merit to this thesis. That would just be silly. There is tons of truth to be learned from concept of "doing" and a lot of people could benefit from hearing a message like this.

Often a lot of us get in a rut, stuck in some kind of grind. Every now and then we get an idea. Maybe it can improve your job, start a business, write a book, a piece of music/art, a non profit organization, a trend, a app etc etc. You know...those ideas you get in the shower while you are thinking about how life has lead you to this current moment in time.

Often these ideas are gone as quickly as we are finished drying off from our shower. But why? Now, I get that not all ideas should not be acted upon. With a little research and know how, we can find out which ideas just should be scrapped.

This is where the action of doing is so important. For a litany of reason we as people do not like to "do" of our own accord. We like to listen to someone else tell us what to do and leave it at that.

So by all means. If you are able to, take full advantage of that idea. Grab it by the horns and do something with it. The important part to take away here is...do it till you succeed or fail. Don't just do it and stop or constantly put it on the back-burner. Do it and do it till you can say, "Well that was a shit,ok or amazing idea." That way you can bury it forever or grow it into something amazing.

Here lies the constant battle we do with ourselves and our lives. Is this idea good? What would so-and-so think about this? What if I fail? What if i succeed? What if I never finish? Can I afford it? Do I need help? The list seems endless. We are often our own worse enemies and shoot down ourselves before the plan gets a chance to start. Audit yourself and be real about what you can and cannot do in order to figure out the best plan of attack.

You cannot change what you have done and the future is not promise. All we have is the here and now.

How can I help you?

A question that not enough working people (especially in business) sincerely ask. With no intention of getting something out of the ask. Purely asking because you are trying to help someone, to care about someone else rather than getting something for yourself.

You can often just feel it or hear the intention of the question when it is asked out of kindness versus any other reason...most of the reasons are rooted in reciprocating or making a sale etc. One of my biggest pet peeves is walking into a store and someone asking me this question. Most companies force their employees to say it. You cannot hide genuine kindness. The fakeness or sale at the end of the conversation slithers its way past their teeth and rolls off the tongue and just simmers in my ears. I HATE it.

Designers are often in a pretty awesome position because when people come to you for work or in general...they already are in need of something. But what about others, when is the last time that you asked across the aisle to maybe someone who cannot afford your services and is struggle with solutions if they need help? The bottom line and power of the dollar is what drives us into just worrying about ourselves.

It is amazing to see that when we start to care about each other, things just get better...the bottom line included. People are drawn to it. We want someone...hell, we need someone to care about us. We are social creatures and we spend about a third of our lives at work around other people. So to be around others who are not faking it who are genuine in their intent is an amazing thing.

When we patronize other companies just how much better would everyone's experience be if we could care about one another. Not because you are a customer or employee...but because you are another human and so are they.

How can I help you?

I hate trends and so should you.

I hate trends...oh so very much....they are what constantly keeps the creative ceiling low and from growing faster.

We all know what trends are, those things, music, styles, fashion, art, design, hair etc that is pervasive throughout our society for a litany of reasons. Some are cool, some are harmless and others are just dumb. But somehow we decide what is popular and it gets used up and tossed to the side once there is nothing else to use (or something different and cooler comes along).

Trends keep creativity low because we become slaves to them. We want to provide content and work that people will like so we dip into the current trends to make clients happy...which is fair. Soon we become reliant on this type of photography, those font styles, that style of illustration and now we are stuck. We are left abusing these awesome resources till they are of no use anymore.

Then once a style starts dying off and new one comes to a head the same cycles presents itself. Use, abuse, dumb and continue the cycle.

Some of these things in and of themselves could last much longer but when coupled together with other objects to identify as a style...it is doomed for the bell curve.

We keep ourselves limited by wanting to do acceptable work so we can make our living or just provide good content. If we had more resources at our hands...one could only imagine the type of work we could produce. People say to think outside of the box for something new...but that is pretty much bullshit.

Unless this new thing has some kind of inherent value, usefulness, skill etc then it will be ignored. Most of the avant garde were thissss close to being ignored and not even recognized. The best way to have a lasting change on something is to either be that one off amazing new valuable thing. Or to work at the fringes...don't go outside the box...work near the edge of the box. That is were the new trends are, that is where you can find the lasting change and permanent impression we are looking for.

Not outside the box just near the edge.