My angry inner teenager would like you to know that Nirvana's "Nevermind" is still an amazing album.
Art endures.
Art stands the test of time.
Art is uncomfortable.
I don't care what you're doing today, put your art into it and make it matter.
Find the places in life where you can't be distracted.
It's PROOF that you can direct you attention.
Easy focus states --> hard focus states.
I practice my mental focus on four legs.
Where do you find your flow?
After a lifetime of skinny jeans, I've switched.
🔽Straight leg
👦"boyfriend"
👖"mum" jeans
At first, I hated them.
They felt "wrong"
I didn't feel like myself at all.
But I pulled them on everyday.
Now, I love them.
Build spaces around "new" ideas that you can grow into.
What's my next frontier?
Maybe improv theatre, choir, or art class.
Have you conquered the fear of cringe?
Made peace with being seen?
Drop your ninja skills below - I'm all ears! 🎭🎨
So I started building tolerance:
💸Giving money to buskers (and looking them in the eye)
🤳Making phone calls instead of sending texts (interrupting without apology)
🙋Asking silly questions to strangers (embracing that vulnerable cringe feeling)
Baby steps toward being seen.
"Why leave the safe career?" I'd ask.
He traded nice suits and flashy corporate events for half-empty rooms with amateur drag queens in the suburbs.
But here's the truth: he was cringe-resilient and making his art.
My criticism revealed my own fear of visibility.
I used to think being invisible was my superpower. I could slide under any radar!
But it kept me stuck.
Meanwhile, my friend left his cushy corporate job to become a vlogger, then comedian, then disability rights advocate.
I cringed for him, whispered behind his back.
The logical reasons not to create will pile up:
You really are too busy.
You really don't know where to start.
You really can't give up weekends.
But this isn't "self-sabotage" - it's safety seeking. Our protective systems are designed to stop us from standing out.
If you want to create anything meaningful in this lifetime, you'll need to be "cringe resilient".
If you can't befriend that feeling of wanting the ground to swallow you up as you make your art, you just won't.
(And trust me, I'm terrible at it!)
🧵
I wonder if this is just me?
I'm 42 years old. An "old" millennial.
One foot in my analogue childhood, and one foot in the rapidly accelerating digital future.
I'm so curious if this path is just me, or is this something you can trace in your life too?
The human animal in a group is an apex predator.
When the confluence of life factors convinces you that you're a lone wolf, you can easily be prey.
Run, run, run.
But you'll miss the scenery, the sunsets and the quiet moments of bliss.
Running to safety feels eerily familiar to me.
I've done many interesting things in my life, but from this higher ground, stopping and looking back, there's no path that got me here.
Just zig zags and imagined alligators.
Urban myth: running in a zig-zag helps you escape from danger.
Unless you're literally being chased by an alligator, there's zero proof that it does.
It just slows you down getting to a place where you are genuinely safe.
🧵
