Weekly Grab
This is my weekly compilation of photos and prompts. If you’d like to see these delivered daily to your inbox when they’re first released, including some subscriber only exclusives, consider supporting my work with a Substack subscription (also complimentary, but donations welcome). Thanks for following my curiosity journey.
Stay curious, preferably with a camera in hand.
Listed
Some lists are functional, like the one for groceries. But, many are status driven. Being in company changes how we believe we’re seen. So, we can find ourselves chasing and working hard to be on the list. The dean’s list, honor roll, football team, best seller, student roster and such. And of course, almost all of them are made by someone else. And, we hope to be included.
Conversely, a better list might be the one where we decide to add ourselves. And, perhaps the best list of all is the list of one.
Too Much
When does it become too much? When are we crossing the line?
Pausing is a great skill.
Busy
Sometimes, we need busy to be productive. But often, we mix up the two. We confuse activity with traction. Just because we’re doing something doesn’t mean it best serves the desired outcome.
What are the essential parts required to get where we’re going? What other business can we strip away in order to achieve even more?
Winning
Some games are set up for winning and losing. The rules give us a framework to do our best to achieve a very specific goal. These are healthy and fun, mainly because they end. Confoundingly though, we sometimes try to apply the same construct to other parts of life, creating a ratchet of competition and comparison towards a mythical top. This can lead to judgement, burn out and unhappiness. Of course, there’s no real winning and losing in life. We should be content then with merely having the chance to play. It’s not poker, it’s an experience.
When is winning important? What aspects of our work and life do we need to reframe as an infinite game instead?
Lab
A lab is a place for…
- experimentation
- creativity
- trials
- failure
- problem solving
- flow
- focus
- making
- trying
- taking risk
We all deserve/need a lab. It might not be a physical place. The key is to carve out some space where our best work occurs, where time passes differently, where we are tested and where we get better.
What does your lab look like?
Focus
We can create circumstances where the rest of the world seems to vanish, where the anticipation of the outcome is so strong nothing else seems to matter much.
How can we bring this sort of attention to our work in order to make it more impactful? What can we do to create this sort of focus?
Make Believe
The truth is that it’s hard to make someone believe if they don’t want to go where you’re going. Facts are virtually irrelevant.
Other than the truth, what makes our story compelling enough for someone to take the journey with us? More importantly, what do they need to leave behind in order to go?
Get the Camera Out 