Reflections of the Creator

 

Creativity Reflects God in Everything We Do

The summer is coming to a close and with it, the need to spend time mowing the lawn and watering the flowers. It doesn’t take that long of course, but it’s one more time suck away from writing. My Cubs games are another one. I paid for MLB network this year thinking I might only watch a handful of games. Turns out, I have the opposite problem. The team is playing well and looking to make a deep playoff run. That means it’s hard to turn off. The biggest reason for not writing as much is the 3 nights per week of personal training I do. This is new since June. I’m busier than I was at the beginning of the year by orders of magnitude.

New Realities

But even with the new responsibilities I could squeeze in a 700 word blog once in a while. Something has shifted in my attitude toward writing and I can’t pin it down. When I started the blog over 10 years ago it was a way to keep myself accountable to the process and improving in the craft. Putting it online is more about having to look at how long it’s been since my last post. Currently I’m only putting a new one out every 3 or 4 weeks. 7 to 10 days used to be the longest stretch I allowed myself without feeling like a slug who watches too much baseball. I’d scribble something out just to complete the empty space on my wall. Now I can' hardly manage that.

A lot of my favorite pieces over the years are thrown together bits of opinion that formed a semi coherent article. That sense of responsibility to the page has drifted away like a helium balloon. It’s still up there somewhere above my head on a very long string. I haven’t cut the string and let it float away just yet. When you start something creative it isn’t easy to just cut it loose. Maybe I’m stretching the meaning of the word “creative” here, but in the most basic sense the articles are mine. The ideas, thoughts and opinions presented on the site went through a filter in my brain and came out as an expression of me. Some were clear and concise, others were muddy and needed a good wash. But the quality isn’t really the point.

Old Examples

It’s how the ideas define you, how they’ve changed and what still remains core to your identity. Not what opinions have been consistent across time, but what intangibles still color your work.

 I’ll use PJ O’Rourke because he’s was a favorite of mine for so long. He was consistently funny and irreverent in a playful way. I was too young for the National Lampoon years and even much of what followed. But his journalism for Rolling Stone and even the books he wrote in the 90s put a smiley face on some very dull topics. His mixture of 60’s hippy and witty libertarian was the perfect attitude for the kind of journalism he pursued. He missed on a few of his books late in life, but I never held it against him. 

His opinions changed over time with the culture, but his writing was always smart and funny. He enjoyed discussing politics and culture, and always found a way to infuse his trips with humor.

I think the recognizable part of a person’s work is what it makes it unique. This is true in all realms of creativity. It provides the color. I was never a big Van Halen fan but I always knew his guitar the second a new song hit the radio. Kindergarten was as far as I got in studying music. The nice way to say it is, music wasn’t a good fit for me. I was kindly asked to try something else by my teacher after a few sessions with a recorder. But even with my unsophisticated understanding of music, Van Halen is easy to pick out. This isn’t to say that all work is brilliant, just that’s it reflects its creator.

Conclusion

A lot of this unique style is unintentional and imbeds itself into our work. The nature of creativity comes from the ultimate Creator though. Even when we don’t acknowledge Him, we are His handiwork as Paul says in Ephesians. Our creative acts are an outgrowth of our Father in heaven. In this, we reflect our maker. If I didn’t write another word on my webpage again, I hope that the small collection at least reflects the God who created me. I hope that’s the color of my writing. 

For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (Holman)

Responsibility, Busyness and Stress: Learning to Manage

What have I learned about being busy?

Busyness is just a feeling. It’s possible to manage multiple tasks and become more efficient. Like anything else, responsibility is a learned habit. You need reps.

The Seasonal Thing

This time of year is hectic. With fall sports just around the corner, it’s a rush to get everything out the door in time. Youth football starts on the same weekend around the state. For the bigger leagues at least, that means everyone needs a uniform in the same time frame. Production ramps up, hours increase and stress is high. The number of orders being turned in for July and August is tough to keep up with. Phone calls demand attention as customers stream in the door to shop or pick up orders they’ve placed online. Emails fill up the inbox. Waiting to respond will elicit a nervous phone call. “Did you see my email?!!”

Youth football is different from baseball in one major way. The organizations are big, 350 to 400 kids in the larger ones. Everyone in the organization gets the same jersey. They play other grades in the same league. The jersey is reversible in case they play another grade in the same organization. The entire league starts play the week before Labor Day. The trick is getting the jerseys back and sorted before the first game. Rosters are an issue though. Not everyone is on a roster when I need them to be. That means I have to do a second and a third order for the ones who are late.

Most of my stress at least, is this particular variety. No one wants to miss the window for uniform handouts and these manufacturers need time to make them and ship them back out. The trick comes from getting the rosters (with numbers) for the jerseys in enough time to place an order. It’s tight. Some organizations are better at it. They’ve got a process in place that’s as smooth as it could be.

July and August constitute email flurry month however I’ve always got a lot of late kids to add after the fact. Late is defined as beyond the first deadline, which is drawn somewhat arbitrarily around the 4^th of July.

The Current Thing

With all the busyness I’m constantly worried I’ll miss something critical. I’ve learned to focus as much as possible on the current thing.

 Finish it first, then move on. But take as much time as you need. Quick work is sloppy work. Incomplete orders always become a bigger issue than they would have, had I just taken two minutes to review before clicking send. I could write books with multiple volumes on this topic alone. If you’re predisposed to be fast and beat everyone to the finish, mistakes will happen. They’re the proverbial bald tires you never bothered to change before your last lap. For me, it’s usually a critical item or note to the factory about color changes or name spellings I forgot to mention. A lot of these orders go to factories in non-English speaking countries. To say they’ve made some hilarious (if not costly) mistakes, is to state the obvious. Instructions must be specific.

The Visible Stress Thing

Despite the hustle, I remind myself to take deep breaths when angry. I can get short and nasty with coworkers and customers when irritated. No it doesn’t happen often, but it’s unprofessional and customers can feel your anxiety. Situational stress is something you get better at working through the more you’re exposed to it. Confidence in the face of disaster is a skill that’s closer to stage acting than changing your feelings in the moment. It’s artificial, but it’s also better than the regret from a loss of control. Rushing around increases the chance you’ll add to the problem. Slowing down the situation helps to get you to a place where you can think about what to do.

We’ve had multiple issues with the aging software in recent months. We’re using two different platforms for the retail store and they don’t work together. Every week is a new problem. It’s a little awkward when the customer is in the store and I’m trying to troubleshoot or look for a payment to do a refund. If I’m not sure what to do, I’ll write down as much info as I can and try to resolve it later. Usually if I think about it for a while the answer will be obvious. But it’s less obvious in the moment, when you’re under the gun. I can’t say why this is, but my thinking is somehow short circuited by the immediacy of the task. I’m sure others struggle with this too. The good news is that it’s possible to overcome it with effort.

The Sleeping thing

On a few nights last week I had trouble sleeping. Thoughts of the coming day, deadlines and tight shipping schedules bounced around in my head. Normally I head to the gym in the morning but with the loss of sleep I missed more than I meant to. I rolled back over to try and make up for the loss. Sleep is key, the gym can wait.

This is a season anyway. Every job I’ve worked has had a busy season. With other retail jobs it’s always the last 2 months of the year. In school it was the finals week and the subsequent research papers to finish. I’m a fitness trainer as well. January and February see a surge of new members. Membership leads to new clients for the trainers on staff. Most can double their work load if they want. If I’m not careful the schedule can get out of control.

The solution is to plan ahead as much as possible. It sounds simple enough, but clients change their plans constantly and you either work around it or lose them. The closer you stick to the scheduling the better the sleep. You’re not opening up the app and changing dates around for people if you lock them in. I’ve had to say “NO” more often. Not a week goes by without at least one person canceling or trying to get a different time. I’m always polite, but I sleep better now.

Conclusion

 I’ve never dealt with this many emails and text messages in my life. Between the two jobs it can be overwhelming. But I work with others who manage twice the number of accounts and people that I do. They also coach their kid’s soccer team and volunteer at their church. They make it to sales meetings and pack a lot of their own orders. Seeing others thrive with so much responsibility is an encouraging picture of what’s possible in a hectic environment. For someone like me who is trying to put everything in order, it’s a comfort to know that so many can. I imagine I’ll look back on this period of life and smile at how easy it was, and how busy I thought it felt. We should go from strength to strength after all. Responsibility is a habit we learn. No one is born with it.