This is honestly one of the hardest episodes I have ever attempted to put together. Authenticity is an incredibly difficult topic to cover and an even harder thing to achieve in life. Are you authentic with yourself? Are you authentic with others? Are you authentic in all situations and aspects in your life? Probably not, and I have to say first, that is OKAY. Acknowledge that and sit with that. Since day one of being raised as a child we are conditioned to start adapting and being kind and making sure that others are feeling good, even if it goes against what we want and need. Our whole life then is a battle between our adaptive self and our authentic self. Finding a balance is crucial to becoming happier in life. I will share all kinds of stories and studies that help me come to this conclusion.

I will also give you a few small exercises and ask you a few questions to help guide you in your quest for authenticity. I hope you enjoy this episode and I hope you take some time in your life to help you better understand who YOU ARE as a person and life the life YOU WANT. When you do this, you will give yourself more time and energy to do more cool shit in this planet!

Some of the things that helped me make this episode are listed below:

• Why You Can’t Stop Wearing a Mask
• The basics of authenticity
• Develop Authenticity: 20 Ways to Be a More Authentic Person
• Trait Self and True Self: Cross-Role Variation in the Big-Five Personality Traits and Its Relations With Psychological Authenticity and Subjective Well-Being
• The Study of Authenticity (Positive Psychology Series #3)
• Middle age and 'slowing this whole mess down', with Aaron Draplin
  When it's time to start over...(Audrey Ember)
• Dr. K Chats with @aliabdaal
  
  
  

Thanks as always for giving this a listen. I look forward to hearing what cool shit you are working on.

Music composed and performed by: Doug Wallace

So many journey's in life can be long without us even knowing it. What happens when we end up at a destination that we truly love and that truly aligns with us? Well in this case, a lot of onesies, a gong, a kazoo, the threat of art happening and a lot of people having a good time and feeling better about their day. This is only a small glimpse into what happens when you find your authentic self with Brenda Dunn (artinjest.)

In this, the 50th episode I sit down with my partner that I do life with and we cover a lot of territory. We talk about everything in Brenda's journey from studying art, to putting that creative artistic world to the side to work in the corporate world only to then return to the creative world with a whole new perspective and vision. No one could have predicted where and how Brenda would end up but she is there now and loving it. Some of the things that helped Brenda's journey along the way was her ability to hold off ego, be of service when needed, to work with a community and include others in the process of creation, saying no compassionately and wholly, and so much more.

I hope that as you listen to this episode you continue to really think about WHO YOU ARE as a human and what YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE.

If you want to get more of this energy join Brenda over on Twitch every Monday (3pm ET), Wednesday (5pm ET), and Friday (12pm ET) https://www.twitch.tv/artinjest



All music provided by Doug Wallace.

How is it that we can all think of the very best of intentions but somehow only about 50% of the time take the appropriate actions? When and where does this gap come into play?

That's exactly what this episode is all about, is helping to close that gap so that even more of your best well planned intentions become achieved action.

My challenge this week is for you to make a list of 10 things that you care deeply about, let that soak in for a bit, then cut that list down to 5 things, again wait for a few minutes then cut that list down to 3 of the most important things in your life. Are your daily actions aligned with those 3 things? If they are, then great! If they aren't then it's time to re-evaluate and to make smaller more manageable goals.

One of the best ways to understand the Intention-Action gap more in depth is with this study that I spoke about during the episode: Intention-Action Gap Study

A very important takeaway from this episode that I am hoping you will accept is to just evaluate and acknowledge the actions in life that you take, no judgement, no feeling about them just ACKNOWLEDGE them. Only after you acknowledge all of them and compare them with your list can you begin to understand if they FIT or DON'T FIT within your life and what you want from YOUR LIFE.

If you want something really badly in life what are you willing to put your head in the sand for? IF you are willing to do everything and anything to serve that goal then that's how you know it belongs in your top 3 and how you can make that gap much much smaller.

Another thing I hope you take away from this episode is that it is OK to change what your priorities are and to RE-EVALUATE often.

Longer videos of the clips in this episode:
1. Alan Watts
2. Ricky Nuttall
3. Adam Gallagher aka. Valspire Family

Come tell me what your top 3 intentions right now over at domorecoolshit.com

Music provided by: Doug Wallace

What in the heck does skateboarding have to do with life or with creativity? Well when you listen to Andrew Szeto speak, it turns out a lot. Skateboarding can fuel a passion to try new things, to be ok with failure, to find your crew, to find a mentor, to open and close all kinds of doors, it can do a lot of things to help with how we see the world.

On this episode I had the absolutely pleasure to have an in depth conversation with Andrew Szeto who is a skateboarder, a youtuber, a shop owner, a photographer, a videographer, a woodworker, an overall curious kind of doer of things. Seriously go check out some of his links (down below) and see for yourself.

Two of the major things I took away from this conversation and that I think you will as well is:

1. Hold on to your curiosity.
2. Make things for yourself.

If you do both of these things you will find yourself trying all kinds of new things creative things with much greater ease.

My challenge to you after you listen to this episode is that you ask yourself what is your version of skateboarding? What in your life can you draw many lessons from?

https://www.youtube.com/AndrewSzeto
https://instagram.com/szetoszeto

Music provided by the very talented Doug Wallace

Optimism is NOT positivity. Had to get that out the way right away because I hear people groaning already, so stuff that thought.

Optimistic thinking is really hard to do but it is so necessary in your life. Optimism is the undying belief that the future is bright. Times and life can have a million obstacles and be very rocky but you can come out in the end whole. Optimism is one of the greatest practices you can take to help make your creative practice and just life overall better. You will feel better, you will take more risks, you will take more shots, and by taking more shots you will definitely achieve more goals. One of the greatest points in this episode I cover is how Steph Curry, an NBA basketball player, has taken well over 3 millions three point shots and has only made a total of 3700+ in his career. Now I say 3700, maybe that sounds like a lot or maybe it doesn't to you but that doesn't matter, he is the most accomplished 3 point shooter of all time and he definitely wouldn't be if he stopped shooting because he doesn't make "very many" compared to how many he takes. Read all that again, wild shit. Imagine if you had a bit of Steph's resilience in your life, what you could achieve?

Optimism is about giving yourself the chance to keep creating, to keep making, to keep putting stuff out there.

I am in your corner. I hope you keep looking for what matters to you in your life and keep imagining and working towards the outcomes in life that you want.



Check out J.J. Ellis and his abstract art: https://www.instagram.com/jjellisart/

If you couldn't turn back and you could only move forward, mistakes and learning and successes and all, what would you do? What if there was no other option? Well for Dom Laporte that is kind of how it has been his whole life. He started his art practice with 33 ducks being poured out of his brain and onto a bunch of sheets of paper to now creating massive murals and running Drift Mural Co. all over the globe.

Ok so Dom is great at art, but how does one turn art into a business? Haven't we all heard about being a starving artist? Sure we have. In today's world though we have a million ways to define what an artist is and how to make a living being an artist. Dom is figuring that out and sharing a lot of his knowledge on here.

A few key points to take away from this conversation:

• find the thing you are so passionate about that you are not interested in a plan B?
• make work, inspiration or not, make work.
• be professional. Learn the craft but learn all the other skills or hire the talents that allow you to keep practicing your craft.
• learn to deal with rejection (remind yourself that it's usually about the work and not personal)
• enjoy the journey - there will be highs and lows.
• give yourself time.

I'm so pleased to bring this conversation with Dom to you all.

This weeks challenge: If you had to make 33 of something, be it 33 photos, drawings, baked goods, what would it be?

Drift Insta: https://www.instagram.com/driftmuralco
Drift Mural Co. : https://www.driftmurals.com/
Dom Laporte: https://www.instagram.com/domlasoul/

There are a million ways to help you stay open to more opportunities these are just 6 of the things that I know have helped me on my journey. These are also 6 of the tips that I have seen repeat themselves in many of the conversations I have had to date with people who are out there doing really cool shit.

1. Trust your intuition/gut
2. Put yourself in the right spaces
3. You only need 51%
4. Stay curious (life long learning)
5. Ignore everybody
6. Ask yourself, what is the risk of staying put?

Bonus
7. Say YES more often.

If you practice these 7 things a regular basis your life will change. You will have more opportunities presented to you, you will be more ready for those opportunities, some of those opportunities might even be good or turn out good. You don't know, and neither do I but I guarantee you along the way you will have made and created some really cool shit.

What a fun journey this is. Thanks for coming along.


Things I talked about/mentioned in this episode. Things and people that are doing cool shit:

Tim Ferriss Podcast
Liz Clayton Fuller
Dominic Laporte (Drift Mural Co.)

Liz Clayton Fuller (ipaintbirbs) is literally a force of nature in so many ways and I'm so incredibly excited to bring the conversation that I had with her to you folks. Liz is a natural science illustrator, a streamer, and educator, an artist, a great human and so many more things.

In this episode Liz and I chat about her journey combining her love of nature and birds with her love of art and how she has turned it into a career. The passion and excitement with which she talks about her journey is something to be admired and to be inspired by. It wasn't an easy journey, which nothing ever is, but all along the way I was most impressed to hear about her ability to stay open to so many different opportunities. Have you ever heard of any children say that when they grow up they would like to be a professional bird drawer? Probably not, but look what happens when you stay open to opportunities and possibilities. You get to do some of the things you love.

If you listen closely you will also find that Liz didn't do any of this alone. Liz found some amazing people in her life that would support her on journey. Even though, people might not have been sure about how any of it was going to go they could see the passion and support Liz in her journey. Finding your people is so key.

A few things to take away from this conversation:

1. Continue to practice your craft and you will be prepared for when opportunity knocks. There is no magic.

2. Remember that no matter what creative domain you are in your unique viewpoint is important and can't be replicated by anyone else, so you must create!

3. Practice, not only your craft, but practice capturing moments in time that will never be replicated.

4. Hold close to you your childhood wonder of first discovery and you will continue to see the world in a new and exiting light.


Challenge from this episode: What will you say yes to this week that you would absolutely no to?

Challenge from last week: What is one thing you can do to make your life just one little bit simpler?

Liz's Links
twitch.tv/ipaintbirbs
lizclaytonfuller.com/

DMCS Links
domorecoolshit.com/
instagram.com/domorecoolshit.ca

Ep. 44