2018 Reading List

With the New Year approaching, everyone is discussing their plans for self improvement. One of the ways I am constantly developing myself is by reading. If you consider yourself a creative, YOU HAVE TO BE READING. This is a very simple way to stay fresh and relevant. I've listed 5 books I have on my reading list for 2018. Feel free to join me reading these books throughout the next year!

BONUS: I added a 6th book with several creative excercises to help you strengthen your creativity. I've never used this book, but I've often found myself wondering if there was a resource like this out there... well, there is!

1. THE WAR OF ART by Art Pressfield.

A succinct, engaging, and practical guide for succeeding in any creative sphere, The War of Art is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul. What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor—be it starting up a dream business venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece? Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success.

The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognize and overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectively shows how to reach the highest level of creative discipline. Think of it as tough love . . . for yourself. Whether an artist, writer or business person, this simple, personal, and no-nonsense book will inspire you to seize the potential of your life.

2. Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Art HUGH MACLEOD.

When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog-gapingvoid.com-and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures. MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person? Ignore Everybody expands on MacLeod's sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. For example: -Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less. -If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything.

Things are made slowly and in pain. -Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one. -The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will. After learning MacLeod's forty keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.

3.Called to Create: A Biblical Invitation to Create, Innovate, and Risk by Jordan Raynor.

We were created by an infinitely creative God to reflect his love and character to the world. One way we do that is by continuing his creative work. In this energizing book, serial entrepreneur and bestselling author Jordan Raynor helps artists, entrepreneurs, writers, and other creatives reimagine our work as service to God and others, addressing such penetrating questions as

- Is my work as a creative really as God-honoring as that of a pastor or missionary?
- What does it look like to create not to make a name for myself but to glorify God and serve others?
- How can I use my work to fulfill Jesus's command to create disciples?
- Will what I make today matter in eternity?

To answer these questions, Raynor shares compelling stories from an eclectic group of 40+ Christian entrepreneurs, including the founders of TOMS Shoes, Charity: Water, Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, Guinness, HTC, and Sevenly, as well as nontraditional entrepreneurs such as C. S. Lewis, Johann Sebastian Bach, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Raynor's "show" rather than "tell," story-driven style makes you feel as if you are sitting at the feet of some of the godliest and most successful entrepreneurs of all time.

Perfectly poised to reach today's growing creative class, this unique work restores God's position as the first entrepreneur, helping readers see the eternal value in the work they do today.

4. Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory by Tod Bolsinger.

Explorers Lewis and Clark had to adapt. While they had prepared to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, instead they found themselves in the Rocky Mountains. You too may feel that you are leading in a cultural context you were not expecting. You may even feel that your training holds you back more often than it carries you along.

Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and consultant, Tod Bolsinger brings decades of expertise in guiding churches and organizations through uncharted territory. He offers a combination of illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.

If youre going to scale the mountains of ministry, you need to leave behind canoes and find new navigational tools. Reading this book will set you on the right course to lead with confidence and courage.

5.Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity by ED CYzewski.

Creativity is a gift everyone has been given to share, but doubt, discouragement, and distractions hinder the ability of many to pursue their creative passions. Creating Space advocates for the creative gifts in every person, arguing that...

- Creativity is not a mistake.
- Creativity can be developed.
- Creativity is a vitally important gift for others.

This brief manifesto on creativity is for everyone. Whether you doodle, sing in the shower, knit scarves, or scribble poems, Creating Space will encourage you to make space in your life in order to fulfill your creative calling, using your gifts to their fullest extent.

 

BONUS

Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills by David Sherwin.

Have you ever struggled to complete a design project on time? Or felt that having a tight deadline stifled your capacity for maximum creativity? If so, then this book is for you.

Within these pages, you'll find 80 creative challenges that will help you achieve a breadth of stronger design solutions, in various media, within any set time period. Exercises range from creating a typeface in an hour to designing a paper robot in an afternoon to designing web pages and other interactive experiences. Each exercise includes compelling visual solutions from other designers and background stories to help you increase your capacity to innovate.

Creative Workshop also includes useful brainstorming techniques and wisdom from some of today's top designers. By road-testing these techniques as you attempt each challenge, you'll find new and more effective ways to solve tough design problems and bring your solutions to vibrant life.

What books are you reading in 2018? Comment below!

Limitations

"It's raining,"

"We don't have that kind of money for a stage display,"

"I only have a iPhone camera..."

There will always be limitations. Whether we are part of an organization or just trying to get through the day, we constantly can find roadblocks ready to stop us in our creativity. I am currently reading a great book "Created for more: 30 days to seeing your world in a new way" by Jonathan Malm. Every chapter has a theme to "help awaken the spiritual act of creativity within [us]." His main point in the second chapter: limitations force creative solutions. The second I read that it hit me. This has been true my entire creative life! AND typically when I run into a limitation, I have the freedom to be more creative! After spending some time with this idea, I thought I would share some major limitations I have come across and how we can overcome them. 

Resources

Ah, Resources. Gear, Money, Budgets. "If only I had..." story of my life. No matter what creative channel I am working in, this limitation ALWAYS comes up. When I first started getting into electric guitar, I became obsessed with new pedals! I thought if I would only have "___" pedal, I could have an amazing sound. It got to the point where I had such a huge pedal board I could hardly carry it. I ended up downsizing and keeping what I really needed. 

The best way to battle the limitation of not having the resources you need is to maximize the resources you have. If you have a budget you get to work with at your church, figure out how to stretch that budget into ways you never thought possible. Don't forget you can look around and, if possible, sell some of the resources you haven't used in years. I think this is being a good steward with what you have. 

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Another way to maximize your resources is to push their limits to the max. Going back to when I started building my pedal board, I actually was using an iPad to drive many of the pedals I needed. I built a bluetooth unit with pedals to send cues to my iPad so it was if I had the pedals on my pedalboard, but used all of the horsepower from the iPad to drive the sounds I needed. I was able to have an amazing amount of sound at my fingertips for the fraction of the cost if I were to buy all of the pedals individually. Eventually I was able to save up and purchase specific pedals for specific needs, but this was a great way to get me started without having to purchase several hundred dollars worth of pedals and use what I already had.

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Another example of this is to use everyday items to fill the gap. Example: when we first started getting into video at Evident Church, we didn't have all the money upfront to dump into fancy equipment. If you know anything about video, there are several key components that are mandatory. One - a good camera, two - great sounding audio, three - lighting, lighting lighting! Obviously I wasn't able to purchase top of the line gear right away so we worked with what we had. I purchased a consumer DSLR camera with a kit lens, used an audio interface with an old mic we had laying around, and used some ikea lights we used for ambient lighting in our Headquarters. Believe it or not, we were able to create some pretty incredible videos without purchasing very much.

 If you can perform at a professional level with amateur gear, just think what will happen when you have professional gear to work with! Every time I purchased a new pedal I tried to push that specific pedal to it's maximum potential. Every time I ran into a roadblock where I needed a new piece of equipment, I first used what I had. Maximize the resources you have available at your fingertips to jump over this limitation.

People

It's easy to get hung up on not having the people you need. I was just recently at a large church talking with the worship team and they said they didn't have the musicians they need so they bring in someone outside the church. People can absolutely be a limitation. So what do we do?

If we want to overcome the limitation of not having the people we need, use the people you have! I don't mean run the same few people you have into the ground. Look around at your people and think about who you can invest in. 

When I started at Evident, the worship ministry was small.... like 3 people. That's too small. The same few people were playing every weekend and it still wasn't enough. The first thing we had to do was lower our standard of excellence. That doesn't mean we sacrifice quality for quantity, it just means we have to look at what is most important. For me, having more people involved in a worship ministry is more important than creating a rockstar band that never hits a wrong note.

As I started to get to know the people at Evident, I would hear of people who may have had some musical experience in their past. I would first start to build a friendship with them, then help them develop their skill, and then add them to the team! Within just a few short months our 3 people turned into about 10-12. On Christmas Eve we had a full stage of musicians! 

No matter what your situation is, there are people you know you can develop and train. Don't look for the same people who do everything, try and find someone who is ready to get involved, and has potential. They are out there, waiting for their shoulder to be tapped.

Knowledge

This is my favorite limitation! I know that sounds funny, but I love running into a roadblock where I have no choice but to figure out how it works.  Whether I am working on my motorcycle, trying to figure out how someone did a transition in Premiere Pro, or learning a new riff on electric guitar, we live in the age of information. We seriously have all the information we need to do anything! 

  Here's a few resources I use to learn: 

Youtube.... duh... Seriously. so. much. information. Sort through the junk and learn like crazy!

Skillshare - This is a great resource for creatives. There's a small fee, but you can usually find a code. I think I paid $50 for a whole year. I would recommend this website. There's lots of classes for specific skills. Invest a little and harvest much.

PremiumBeat - This is a great website for video and editing. Lots of great blog posts and links to free content. This blog may not be for you but there are several out there for your specific need. search google for what you need.

facebook - Believe it or not... Facebook has a great support of creative people who want to do more than share photos of their kids or silly memes. There's a million different groups on Facebook full of others who have the same passions as you. I am in a group called "Canon 80D." This group is devoted to people who have the same camera I do and they share what they are doing with it. These groups have a wealth of information, all you have to do is join the group that suits you and use Facebook to learn.

Pinterest - I use Pinterest for two things: 1. learning information about a specific topic or 2. find creative ideas to help me overcome limitations. This site originally was designed primarily for females, but it has changed. I suggest it for every creative!

Time

Time. Time is amazing. No matter what, I don't have enough time. I currently am unemployed and somehow STILL don't have enough time to do what I want to do. There is only one way to overcome the limitation of time: fit the big rocks in first. Have you ever seen the example of someone filling half a bottle full of sand, then stones, and then large rocks? The rocks never fit. BUT if you fit the big rocks in first, add the small stones in between, add sand in AND pour water in after the sand, you actually fit more in than before!

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Figure out what your priorities are and get them on your schedule. If you really want to overcome the limitation of time, you have to prioritize what is important in your life. Once you get what's important in your schedule, everything else will fit in between. 

At the end of every chapter, Malm adds a challenge. Here it is:

“Choose one project you’re working on. Then cut your resources for that project in half. Move your deadline closer. Cut the budget. Remove some technological resources. Create some limitations.  Now think creatively. Look for unique ways to accomplish the same goal. Decide what’s really necessary for the project. You’ll find many of the resources were unnecessary for accomplishing your goal.”

At the end of the day, you can overcome any limitation if it means enough to you. In every area of our life we run into limitations and you have to choose what is most important to you.

What limitations have you ran into that I didn't discuss? How do you overcome them?

5 BOOKS FOR CREATIVES

READING

Reading is a HUGE must for the creative. Here's 5 books you should be reading to help your creativity:

1. BIBLE

          DUH! We should all be reading the Bible, Right?! As much as that's true, it doesn't always happen. As creative artists, we must make reading our Bible a daily priority. here's a few reasons why:

• Input/output - What we input is what we will output. If we want to produce healthy output, what better input can we take in than the Bible?!  Just remember: 
      What you say flows from what is in your heart. (Luke 6:45nlt)
   
• Examples of excellent creativity - There's so much creative content stuffed in the Bible. The whole book of Psalms is just a bunch of poems, that have lasted for thousands of years! When I feel stuck, a great place for me to look for solid content to help my creativity flow is the Bible!
   
• It's always with me - If you haven't already, download the YouVersion Bible App. What an amazing tool! You can highlight, share, save, make images, there's even an iMessage app. This is a huge tool for me I use throughout my day.

 

2. Pursuing Christ. Creating Art.

Besides the Bible, this has been the book that has the greatest impact on my life and creativity in the past several years! If you haven't already, I highly recommend it! No, it will not give you tips on how to create more or better, it will help you understand how your creativity works and the purpose of it. 

3. The purpose of man

Understanding our purpose will help us in our creativity. Tozer does a great job helping us understand the purpose of why we are here and what we should do about it!

4. Make your idea matter

Story is king. This isn't a fad. Story is king. If you want people to remember your idea, you have to give them a reason to remember. Read this book. Especially if you have your own business. 

 

5. Creativitiy inc.

Speaking of story, this entire book is on the story of Pixar. Just to warn you, this is a book you will have trouble putting down until it's finished! The stores will keep you captivated all the way through with little nuggets of truth to apply to your life. Get it! It's worth it.

Bonus How to be creative: 5 steps to boost your creativity

This is a simple, fast read. Lots of great reminders sprinkled in this little book. These 5 Steps, although simple, are powerful. Check it out. Currently the digital version is free on Amazon! 

If you want to be creative, you have got to investing in yourself and your mind. I found myself constantly pouring out and never having any input and I had nothing left. 

What books have you read to help fuel your creativity?