I have been lax ("not sufficiently strict") on releasing content this year. Part of it is the feeling of burnout, and overwhelming urge to reorganize things. Not to mention I don't want to let down my guests who had spent their time to come onto the show. #polycast
However the stress from not wanting to let them down, leads me to feel even more burned out, and thereby goes a downward spiral. In all my years of self-development at least I am able to recognize that happening, and I try to alliviate that stress. The guests have been greatly kind, and understanding.
This being said I think I may do another sprint to get them out, so I can then focus on repurposing them all. Video/Audio > Blog > Clips > Tweets, etc.
Onto the exciting!! Even on my worst days I still look at content creation as a beautiful thing, and something I never want to stop doing. In fact today when I was overwhelmed from editing, I then decided to write this blog post. 😅
The Structure of Life
How people live their lives is each different, and even from a young age I lived pursuing what I enjoyed. Even at the detriment of my success, for example playing Fallout 3/NV to the early morning, making me too tired for school. I even had a bad dream last night where I was back in highschool and was failing for some reason. I bring this up because during that school age I had to structure my life around school, work, and family. I had no say for the most part, and I felt trapped. As soon as I moved out, I was out of school, and had the freedom of choice.
I started structuring it around work and content creation. I remember staying up late, not playing games, but rather tweaking or fixing my website. Wordpress sure did need a LOT of fixing. However so did Ghost at the start of this year, not much since then!
Check out my Review here:
Dustin Miller | PolyInnovator
My blogging life has become so much more simple since then. I consolidated half a dozen blogs into one, and found a new writing life and style. Even created arguably the BEST ghost theme out there. Based off of the "Simply" theme, if one is to stand on the shoulder of giants, let us remember them!
The Innate Motivation
Now I've learned that motivation is a myth, and one can't just feel like doing something. I think Gary Vee's initial impact on me was great, as his excitement fueled me to work more and more. Ironically not TO burnout, but his books got me OUT of burnout. Helped me start a reading habit out of nothing, and I had to do something similar during the quarantine. Start exercising habit again basically from nothing, and I even started an interviewing habit as well.
Going with the flow of the universe if you want to say it that way, lead me to start networking and connecting with people. I stopped what I was doing with the OmniContent for something much more fruitful.
It became a "phase", as I like to call it, basically out of nothing.
This was because I was motivated by each new interesting person, if I could tell they were multidisciplinary in some way, or had something to contribute to the space, then I would interview them. To be clear I didn't hold the bar too high, but I wouldn't just interview anyone. I put in ungodly amounts of research into each guest, and many of them even mention that during our talks. This is because I adored that person. I wanted to make them feel amazing, and to have a fantastic conversation.
My motivating drive was that feeling I could give them, and then after when releasing the interviews was to not let them down. Now I have certainly gotten much slower to release. Although I have not, and will not stop.
That isn't motivation, that is a promise to them as a host, and it is great for getting this type of content out.
However what about the OmniContent, Micro-PolyCasts, Books, Courses, or even the dang MVP for the Modular Degree. The latter someone even asked me about today!
The Next Steps
Motivation doesn't come, you make it happen by building up progress little by little, and celebrating the wins. No matter how small they are.
In this mindset I have been thinking about how to go forward with PolyInnovator. As I mentioned in the beginning when my brain felt stale, I would then rearrange my living spaces. It helped freshen up my environment, and feel anew. I felt that the same thing could be done with my personal brand.
I still love my dark theme, and the red has been so important to me. I can't even really describe with words why I picked the red. Not to mention even in some of the early drafts of my website I have loved the honeycomb asthetic. A hub of innovation was the original goal, and a grid like design to be like that old idea. Along with a fresh coat of paint, whether that is small like replacing the gold, or drastic like replacing the red. 😲
I felt that a design refresh across the omnichannel board was needed. Perhaps even in the header image of this blog post you will get a taste of it.
With this refresh perhaps some new motivation will sprout forth, and help me get the interview sprint accomplished. The start of the next season, and even the restart of the OmniContent and book writing.
Cheers
