A Beautiful Mess

A couple months ago I spent 4+ hours in the podcast studio working on a project (the same 30 for 30 project from last week's newsletter). The room was messy, a disaster actually. Things thrown everywhere with no organization or tidiness whatsoever.

I knew I needed to record. I had already pushed it out one day, and had a commitment to follow through with.

I stepped over the bags strewn on the ground, tried to avoid eye contact with the bike shoes, papers and random items scattering the room (like a random book cover without the book?), and then fired up Zoom to begin recording.

“This is it,” I thought to myself. “We’re just going to go for it. Take action. Get into it. Let’s go!”

I hit “New Meeting” on Zoom, ready to take the plunge into my creative endeavors despite the tornado that destroyed my room, and my heart sank into my stomach.

The background of my Zoom recording was terrible. I had a white board in one corner with work-related objectives, private data, and nothing that should be on camera. In the other corner was my half completed vision board from 2022 (probably a good time to adjust some new goals and visions for 2023?). It had more “white space” than pictures, words, visions, or any type of imagery.

Who am I about to record a podcast with half completed projects hanging behind me, a scattered book shelf with random items, and a white board with work-related data and objectives that, now that I think about it, were from over three months ago?

After a moment of contemplating who I was in this world, a moment that has felt all too familiar recently, I decided not to listen to any other voices, opinions, or thoughts that crept in my head. Instead, I said screw it.

I ripped the vision board down, put it behind the door, and took the entire white board off the wall. “Where should I put it?” I wondered. “Who cares,” was my next thought. “How about right here?” I said out loud, to myself, and placed it 5 feet below where it was hanging, right on the floor, and thought to myself, “Perfect.”

I checked the Zoom video. Half completed vision board? Out of view. Check. 3 month old goals white board? “I can see the top. Let’s lower that closer to the ground. Perfect.”

Now for the bookshelf. You know in those movies when someone clears the table with one fell swoop of their arms? And absolutely dismantles everything and makes it all disappear? That’s basically what I did.

And then placed three books neatly stacked on top of each other on the highest shelf, moved a “Pray Big” sign into view on the second shelf, and added a nice cougar figure on top of the books for that “Lion-esque” look that was sure to make me appear like I knew what I was doing. Oh yeah, can’t forget the cool rock I moved into view right next to “Pray Big.”

“Perfect,” I thought. “Let the magic begin.”

I clicked record: “What up world, and welcome to another episade...” STOP. I forgot how to say “episode.” Let’s try this again.

Take 2: “What up world, and welcome back to another episode of the Seeds of Success Podcast… in today’s episode we’re diving into 30 lessons I’ve learned in 30 years. We’re going one by one - no filler… wait, are we doing no filler? Or am I going to provide some insight?” This was me, literally talking out loud to myself, while recording. STOP.

Take 3: Finally, I was rolling. Ten minutes into the recording a thought popped in my head. “Instead of recording this all at once, why don’t I break it up? Make it easier for the listener to digest, and also more strategic for myself? Take this one episode, and break into six?”

“Genius,” I thought. Next thought, “Shit, so do I stop recording? Should I scratch it all and restart from the beginning or just use this as Episode 1, and then begin Episode 2?” Keep in mind, these are the thoughts I’m having, while recording, while trying to articulate my content in a clear and concise way.

Time for the second “Screw it.” STOP. Time to run it back. Here’s the plan: we’ll do six episodes, with five life lessons broken down into each episode (this was the seamless process of how "30 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 30 Years" came to be).

And then, the breakthrough. I was rolling. Episode 1. Done. Saved. Onto the next. Episode 2. Done. Saved. Onto the next. Episode 3…. And 4+ hours later, we had 6 episodes saved, recorded, and ready for publishing. I was feeling good, with some other fresh ideas and inspired topics - so I recorded 3 more.

And then I went for my run that I planned on doing 4 hours earlier. But you know what? Sometimes the work just needs to get done. Regardless of your environment, how you feel, or if you want to. If we waited for everything to perfect, nothing would ever get done. Think about that. If absolutely everything needed to be perfect, it never would be.

So, my call to action for you: Don’t wait. Don’t wait for things to be perfect. Don’t wait until your room, office, or studio is perfectly tidy, organized, and ready for production. Don’t wait until you feel inspired and motivated. Go create your OWN motivation through the act of doing. Get started. Take action. Get moving to create your own momentum and drive your own motivation.

Mood follows action.

And then when all is said and done, take a step back and laugh at it. Enjoy and appreciate the work you did, and pieces you created, while you are standing in your own Beautiful Mess.

🌱Seeds of Success Takeaways:

• Keep momentum while you have it - use it. Savor it. Get as much juice out the squeeze you can.

• Momentum can be hard to re-create, so take advantage when things are coming so naturally, so easily, so effortlessly.

• A beautiful mess is a great place to start - embrace it, take action in the face of it, and just do it.

• When things need to get done, do the bare minimum to get started.

• Share your mess with others - this world needs more vulnerability and authenticity.

Keep Plantin’ world.

Colin M Walters

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