There’s always a reason to be joyful. Really. But sometimes we get so busy with life or overwhelmed with what’s right in front of us that we fail to take the time to smell the tulips (I know it’s supposed to be roses, but my wife doesn’t like roses and tulips are her favorite flower…so let’s go with tulips).

So as you make your way through the day today, here are 10 good reasons for you to be joyful:

1. That new song you discovered that you can’t take off of repeat. For me it’s “Wide Open Arms,” by Marc Scibilia. Go ahead. Give it a listen.
2. Unsolicited encouragement from a friend. I recently emailed my friend, Tanner, and told him the first draft of my book was finished and I’m now in the editing process. He wrote me back with these words: “You’re really doing it, Pastor E! Love it! Praying for you.” Just those few words were enough to make me joyful for the next hour or so.
3. A well-written turn of phrase. One of the most honest writers I know is Allison Fallon. Recently she wrote about an earth-shaking turn in her life and used this phrase: “It has leveled me in the best and worst ways.” It’s not necessarily a joyful phrase, but it’s so well-crafted that it makes me joyful.
4. A handwritten note. Not too long ago I used social media to encourage others to send a handwritten note to someone with whom they hadn’t had contact in quite some time. Little did I know that as a result I would be receiving one myself. A friend of mine from college sent a note that started with these words: “Thanks for all that you share on Facebook. Your creativity stimulates mine…” What a joyful interjection into my day.
5. An unexpected blessing. This month we received notification from our mortgage company that, due to lower escrow expectations, they would be lowering our monthly payment more than forty dollars. Forty dollars isn’t that much money, but it’s enough to bring some joy into my life.
6. Learning something new. I want to share with you creative encouragement, so I signed up for a MailChimp account and have been teaching myself to use it. Each time I learn something new about it I have a real sense of joy.
7. Seasonal M&M’s. Target knows just what to do. Whenever a holiday is coming up they are sure to put the seasonally decorated M&M’s right out within my reach. In fact, the M&M’s jump right into my cart. The other day I bought two bags of the pink, red, and white ones for Valentine’s Day. I guess I’ll be buying the green ones next for St. Patrick’s Day.
8. Time together with friends. We have a wonderful front porch on our house. Every so often we call together some friends and have what we call an evening “porch gathering.” There aren’t many more joyful times in life than that.
9. A good meal. For the past few months we’ve had three meals delivered to our door every Wednesday by Blue Apron. We get all the ingredients and recipes to create delicious meals for the price of a regular grocery store run. The meals are colorful, flavorful, and healthy. Cooking a good meal that looks and tastes great makes me pretty joyful.
10. The love of family. At the end of the day, literally, as I fall asleep, I pray a prayer of thanks for a family that loves me. There is no better way to joyfully go to sleep.

What makes you joyful?

On any given Thursday night in Nashville, Tennessee, you will find both young and not-so-young musicians presenting their art. They play their music in venues all over town to crowds both large and small. Their musicianship is finer than most any other you’ve ever experienced in your life. Many have come to Music City to find their way into the wide world of the music business. Some never get the record deal, the big tour, or the big time managers. But that doesn’t mean they stop working at it.

I know this is true, because our son, Ben, is one of these hard working musicians. This past Thursday we saw him play a gig at Nashville’s The High Watt, a venue not too far from the touristy area downtown, but light years away. Broadway Street in downtown Nashville will give you the idea that glitz and glamour, or at least a regular paying job, is the life of a Nashville musician. Throngs of adoring crowds pack the honky-tonks thinking this is what Nashville music is all about.

But if they would venture to other venues, sometimes just a few blocks away, they would find musicians, bands, and shows that would make them rethink the whole idea of professional music in Nashville. One can find any genre of music, not just Country Western. Ben’s band, My Red and Blue, was the headlining act, with two other bands preceding his on the bill. The first band was a group of five hard-rocking guys called Chapels, who blasted their way through a short set. They were followed by two young women, an indie-pop duo named Sawyer, who used driving melodies and a variety of instruments to draw in the crowd. My Red and Blue finished the night with melodic, carefully worded pop tunes that had the crowd singing along.

But the show that evening was only a small part of each band’s story. Their art is part of who they are. It permeates their lives and and fills up their days.

The painting you see, the book that you read, the play you experience, the music you hear is only a small part of the creativity story. There is a wealth of life and experience that goes into what gets presented before the public. For instance, here’s a small taste of of what goes into the music My Red and Blue gets to play before the paying public:

• Ideas for songs germinate in Ben’s mind and he writes them down in a journal. Sometimes the whole idea begins with simply a title for a song.
• Songs come to fruition as Ben writes them in his own room at home, or when he gets together with other Nashville songwriters to bring a song to life. Sometimes it flows out of “hook,” a melody that you’ll remember long after the song is over, and sometimes it flows out the theme of the lyrics themselves.
• Once the song is written a demo of the song is made in someone’s room or small studio. Technology is so good these days that decent recordings can be made in people’s homes.
• All the while Ben works a “day job” to help him pay bills and save money so that he can record the songs and put them out into the world. Creating musical art is an expensive proposition involving paying musicians and engineers, footing the bill for studio time, mixing and mastering, and fronting the money for art work and CD’s.
• Once the music is made and ready to go, the musician becomes the distributor and marketer. Getting the word out involves social media, free music web sites like NoiseTrade, and word of mouth.
• All the while, Ben is writing and recording music for Sorted Noise, a music placement company that has signed him to a contract, engaging him to write music for commercials, TV, and film. They recently got one of his songs on a Spotify playlist where it garnered more than half a million “listens.”

The art that the world sees, hears, or experiences is only a small part of the creativity story. It’s only a small part of a creative life that is lived twenty-four hours of most every day. Most people think that creativity is simply a gift given to certain people. It’s really the result of the hard work of people who put their mind to producing it most every day.

Next time you experience art of any kind that moves you, remember that it is only a very small part of the creativity story. There is a life behind that art, fully engaged in bringing it into your life.

How have you experienced art that has changed your life?

I’m a northern boy, so I haven’t had much experience in my life with vultures. That is, until I moved to Florida. (Warning: nasty images coming ahead…) Now I see vultures having a feast every time there’s road kill along a highway or an unfortunate animal’s death along the bike trail I ride. More often than not a vulture is quick enough to get out of the way when there’s an oncoming vehicle.

But I recently saw a vulture that was so focused on its food that it lost its own life. It sat feasting right in the middle of oncoming traffic and didn’t move an inch as it tore apart its prey. Now there were two dead creatures lying in the road. Sometimes greed can be so dangerous that it can kill you. Sometimes selfishness can be so dangerous that it kills your creativity.

Creativity needs more than what’s right in front of us. It needs to be fed. But it also needs awareness.

I was recently encouraged by Seth Godin in an interview he did. Seth Godin puts out a blog post every single day…even on Sundays. He’s one of the most prolific bloggers out there. The interviewer asked him how he did it every day. He asked Seth where he got all his content.

Seth Godin said that it’s his job as a writer and marketer. It’s like a garbage man showing up every day: he has to do his job; he has to pick up the garbage. A writer also has to show up every day. He has to do the work. She has to keep her eyes always open for ideas. The writer can’t focus only on the food of fear. It would be paralyzing. Godin says that for every blog post he puts out, he has written seven or eight posts that he throws away.

He’s not greedy. Creating great content and enhancing creativity is all about making mistakes. Being a perfectionist is like being an unaware vulture. Nothing gets finished. No content is put out into the world. Dreams are never fueled. It’s consuming. The oncoming traffic of time and wasted opportunity might just kill your creativity.

Creative content is worth far more than what’s just in front of you. It comes from all areas of life. It comes from every interaction you have. It comes from dreams, and books, and Facebook posts.

Don’t be a vulture. Be a healthy, creative soul, feeding on the food of creativity in the safe havens all around you, places like:

• Those rare book stores
• Coffee shops
• School
• Church
• The office
• The fishing hole
• The theme park
• The internet
• The restaurant

Consuming the food of perfectionism isn’t worth losing your creative life. Feed your creativity, but don’t let your pursuit of perfection kill it. Produce content. Get it out into the world. Save your creative life for another day. Get to work. The world needs what you have to give.

What kills your creativity?

If you’re going to live out your dream you’d better be doing the right things. In my last post I introduced you to Justin and Adam Fricke, two brothers from central Florida, who are living out their dream of visiting all 50 states in a Sprinter Van, hiking, surfing, and rock climbing all along the way. It’s called The Bro’d Trip. Their journey got off to just a bit of a rocky start, but now they’re beginning to enjoy the ride and are learning all along the way.

What really impressed me about The Bro’d Trip is that Adam and Justin did everything right as they prepared to live the dream. They thought it through. They laid the groundwork. They prepared themselves as best they could. And they set out on their trip having researched, having enlisted partners, and with money in the bank.

Here are the seven right things Justin and Adam did that enabled them to live out their dream and pursue their passion:

1. They saved. Justin had the idea for the trip already more than two years ago, and it took him a while to enlist Adam to jump in with him. But as soon as Justin set the idea in stone he began to save his money and live a thrifty life. He had his sites set on purchasing a van with cash and wanted to have substantial money in the bank before they left. Adam did the same once he decided he would go along. Every time they got their pay checks a majority of it went into savings. The van was, indeed, bought with cash. The brothers have savings that will help support them as they go, as well as have some money left over when they return home.
2. They sought sponsors. A number of months before they embarked, the brothers put together a package to send out to potential sponsors. It included sunglasses and other free goodies, a note, and a video introducing the whole concept of sponsorship for their trip. Some companies ignored it. Some responded with in kind donations. Still others stepped up and provided financial assistance. In fact, one company is providing enough support for them to add a healthy supplement to their savings as they go.
3. They built a platform. Before they took off, both brothers used social media separately to introduce the idea of their trip. Once they came up with branding for The Bro’d Trip they began to promote it using a web site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. People took note and began to follow. That platform will only grow as they get more publicity throughout the course of the trip.
4. They promoted themselves. Aside from social media, Adam and Justin took advantage of local news outlets to get some promotion. In fact, the newspaper at their alma mater, The University of Central Florida, the second largest university in the nation, did a piece on the brothers, giving them both print and online promotion.
5. They used their skills. Justin knows how to blog and build a web site. Adam knows how to use video. And they both are pretty great behind the lens of a camera. Writing, photos, and video will be the lifeblood of the journey as they get the word out about what they’re doing. No doubt these skills will also be incredibly beneficial as they attempt to land jobs once the year is over.
6. They threw a party. Just before they left, the brothers and their parents threw a party for all the local people who have been, and will be, supporting them. It was a great way for them to say thank you and to provide one last way for friends and family to say farewell. Not only that, but it was a celebration of the accomplishment of being able to fulfill a dream.
7. They connected personally. All the early supporters of The Bro’d Trip got a bumper sticker in the mail and were asked to put it in an interesting place, take a photograph of it, and post it on social media. They ran a contest to see who would post it in the most interesting place. This was yet another creative way to promote the trip online. In addition, everyone who signs up on their web site to receive email updates will get a handwritten post card from the brothers somewhere along the way. In the day and age of seemingly everything being online, who wouldn’t want to get a handwritten post card in the mail?

Living out a dream takes a great deal of preparation and promotion. Justin and Adam have done all the right things. The dream they’re living will most certainly propel them to bigger and better things. But it all begins with the small details. They did the right things.

When you do the right things, you can begin to pursue your dream, as well.

What would you add to this list?