If anything it’s about finding the right stones to turn over. 

As Seth Godin points out, “Pick the right stones and cherish them as you turn them over.”

The key isn’t to pursue quantity but an in-depth appreciation for quality. 

Otherwise an overabundance of anything often leads to waste. 

The efforts of today compound over time when done with consistency. 

So bring your heart and fill it with quality.

Anything else is a pursuit of insanity thinking that to have more leads to success.

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When will you realize that this thing called life can’t be played as an observer? No matter how hard you may try.

When will you learn that all the ways you try to numb the pain won’t truly make it go away?

When will you stop checking your phone and start checking in on your goals?

When will you stop using the past as an excuse and start leveraging it as fuel?

When will you stop letting the “failures” define you?

Seriously, when will you?

The version of yourself, that better version that you see every time you close your eyes is waiting to meet you.

When will you accept the invite?

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To go after your dreams is a risk.

To NOT go after your goals is a risk.

But sometimes you have to risk it all for the invisible that you only can see.

Because the biggest risk of all is to live a life that causes you to look back with regret.

Without the leap of faith, you’ll never know what you truly could be.

So do yourself, the world, and your future a favor.

Take the leap of faith and embrace the risk.

What would your tomorrow look like if you started believing in your dreams and goals today?

The post Everything Is A Risk appeared first on David Yarde.

Sounds like a recipe for the ultimate level of burnout.

If you aren’t taking care of yourself then you’ll be in no position to take care of others. Regardless of how big your dreams to may be.

Thing is this, when we’re not focused on what we’re doing, we become seriously unproductive.

It isn’t selfish to take time to heal your mind, body, and soul.

If anything, it’s the best thing you can do for yourself and those you love.

Because what’s the sense of achieving massive success but unable to enjoy it?

You can still help others while you heal but if you’re not intentional about how you treat yourself, someone is willing to do that for you.

Life isn’t a game with extra lives or do overs.

Drop the expectation of what the world thinks you should be and embrace the creative good inside.

You do deserve to be happy, just be careful that it isn’t at the expense of your ability to create more good.

So drop the world and pick up yourself.

You’ve made it this far, aren’t you curious to see what could happen next?

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We’re all weird.

There truly is nothing called normal.

Until context is really applied.

The beauty is in owning the awkward.

Owning the things that make you who you are.

It’s when you live fully by owning the awkward parts that life yields unto you the things that truly matter.

Set aside the plans of trying to be like someone else.

Instead simply aim to be the best version of yourself daily by aiming always upward.

Awkward bits and all!

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Looking back is a catch 22 of a task.

The reality is, we can’t change the past.

We also can’t really change the future.

The only thing that truly exists is right now.

Not yesterday.

Not tomorrow.

So why waste it worrying?

If you’re sowing the right seeds and nurturing things as you should, why is that not enough?

Move on to the next thing and get it as far as you can before you have to wait on your next turn.

Agility is simply the ability to read the information present and react swiftly and efficiently.

This can’t be accomplished if your focus isn’t where it should be.

Remember, you’re destined for more.

The world is waiting on your awesome!

The post Destined For More appeared first on David Yarde.

Chances are you’ve gathered a list of goals you want to do this year. Let’s take a look at this list. Does it include things that helping towards you growing or feeling comfortable?

Hopefully, your list includes more of the former. Sure it seems scary to set massive goals but that’s how you grow. Life is never experienced from the comfort zone. If there was one lesson 2017 taught me, it was to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

So instead of the usual New Year’s resolution route. I chose to set goals which are a bit more like personal initiatives. Like most things, I like to keep things simple. Keeps things easier to remember, put in place, and hold myself accountable towards.

In short, the three words I’m aiming to manifest within this year are: Gentleness. Creativity. Intentional. As a parent, spouse, leader, I want to be deploy more empathy and gentleness to those that rely on me. As a creative, I’m going back to my core of digging deep within the realms of creativity. When it comes to my goals, taking more risks is key to me being a bit more intentional.

From there I was able to distill a list of goals initiatives that I’ll be focusing on for 2018. In each of these goals, I know my anxiety as an introvert is going to be a small battle to overcome. I also know that I haven’t completely won the war against my depression either.

I do know that unlike many years prior, I have an amazing powerhouse of support around me. With that said, let’s dig a little deeper into my initiatives for 2018:

• Love more. We all could improve in this area but this isn’t about anyone else but me. Why do I want to focus on loving more? Simple. Love and positivity always wins. Every area of life tends to benefit when love is present. Careers, relationships, and even skills. The more we love something, the more we want to invest in that thing.
• Grow more. In a way, I have the feeling that I’ve not been as hard on myself in the area of growth as I should be. If we’re being honest, I’ve neglected my creativity a bit by dreaming and playing small. Instead of putting myself in a box and standing in the way of my blessings. I’m pushing myself outside my comfort zone and challenging myself to go all in on being a creative. Besides, I’m not doing this for me anymore. My tiny human sequel is watching. I want her to have a proper example of what it is to be a creative to reference.
• Collaborate more. 2017 was a year where I got a proper taste of what it’s like to be able to collaborate with amazing individuals. People who were as passionate about creating good through practical positivity. The feeling of being able to stick to my lane while helping others do their thing is one I’m a bit addicted to. Thus doubling down on collaborations made perfect sense.
• Create more. The one thing that I realized kept me going, even on my darkest days was the feeling after I created something. Anything. Even if it was doing my daughters hair. The feeling of doing something constructive and positive. It enabled me to shift my perspective onto better and brighter things.
• Write more. There’s a level of serenity that comes to me while writing. It’s as if my thoughts and feelings become aligned and my threshold of clarity rises. As I enter 17 years of being a creative, I’ve come to realize there’s a ton locked away in the vaults of my mind. Information and experiences that I’ve taken for granted. Things that I’ve learned over the course of 2017 actually have value. It’s funny how life opens up ways for you to dig deeper into your talents. Writing has always been a huge part of my life. From documenting my journey, thoughts, goals, and creative process. Writing more can only help me to reach a better level of clarity. Also, I want to get my second book out and into the world. I’ve put up enough excuses about why it’s not done yet. This is the year to remove those excuses and get to work.
• Aim Always Upward. This one is pretty straightforward. First it was a side project but then it grew into something much more. A lifestyle at this point. One where the goal is to be better than you were the day before. To stay focused on the goal. To trust the process but above all, trust that our Creator knows best. Aiming upward on a continuous basis has challenged me to leave the comfort zone behind. Now 3+ years later, I’m excited and curious to see where this mindset takes me.

Instead of focusing on what I can’t do or what I don’t have. I’m going to be focusing on getting the good out of my head and into the world. Focusing on keeping things real with myself, on being humble, and moving upward.  Time is too short to be faking it until you make it. Keep things real with yourself and you’ll be able to keep things real with others.

We all started somewhere but that doesn’t mean you stay where you start. We’re all on our way somewhere, whether it’s a place of regret or joy in the end comes down to you and no one else. In the end the choice is yours.

This is where I’m drawing the line with myself. Less talk, more action. Less doubt and more willingness to at least try. What about you?

The post 2018: Gentleness. Creativity. Intentional. appeared first on David Yarde.

None of my plans went as I imagined they would but I did kept going. I continued to feel uncomfortable as I exposed myself to a new form of creative expression.

Then the moment of truth came. I hit publish.

I didn’t even have a name for this venture, I just knew that if I sat and waited any longer, I would never get around to acting on it.

This process taught me a lot about many of my fears but more importantly, it taught me that my biggest fears were the things I could learn from the most.

Get better not comfortable

Hitting publish wasn’t the beginning of a happy ever after story. Deep down, I knew that it could be better. So I took a look at what the data said, where were viewers dropping off, what about the content could be better?

I was filled with questions that numbers and charts on a screen couldn’t answer, so I found myself asking friends, family and business colleagues for their unbiased feedback. I heard good things, and things that made me a little uncomfortable. In the end, I gained fair better feedback than I would have sitting behind a screen attempting to run tests and tweaking content to see what performs better.

Ask tons of questions

The first part in collecting feedback was focused on things I could improve from the perception of the audience. Instead of asking people if they liked the video or not, I asked questions targeting what they didn’t like.

Following this, I focused on collecting insights from Youtube channel owners of various sizes and stages. This part of my learning taught me that it’s okay to ask for help, especially when starting out in a new area. Furthermore, I learned that things didn’t have to be perfect either.

What mattered is that I started. Otherwise, I’d have nothing to refer to when asking questions about growth, things I’ve tried and gaining insights on what I should be doing.

By asking tons of questions, I avoided hours of time that would have been wasted buying materials in an effort to have things be perfect.

Focus on building a catalog vs trying to go viral

It seems that everyone wants to go viral. Plagues go viral, stupidity also something that goes viral. People, well, you get the point.

As tempting as the articles make it seem that money just falls out the sky with a few videos, the reality is that you’ll be putting in tons of hard work. As with the case of anything that is being built with a focus of value at the center, putting together a video has many moving parts. The view shouldn’t be placed on just one video but on the story your collection of videos shares with the audience.

Even though my second video wasn’t perfect, I published it anyway. I remember that week was a rough one, I didn’t even have time to get a haircut! Why? Because I wanted to keep learning and to share a few things that were fresh in my mind about self care as an entrepreneurial creative.

Whether it’s building a video library or a business, focus on building your catalog aka your track history before you start seeking fame. A house built on the rock is far better than a fancy house built on the sand.

Don’t take yourself too seriously

This can be said about many things in life that we do and for good reason. We’re often too focused on how we appear to others that we forget who we are when the lights are off.

Life is too short to not enjoy it. Instead of beating yourself up and trying to perfect every little thing, take some time to go outside and get some fresh air, read a book, spend time with family, or travel somewhere new.

[bctt tweet=”Challenge yourself to view the world from the perspective of others.” username=”dsmy”]

Challenge yourself to view the world from the perspective of others. In doing this we open our minds to be more mindful and helpful to our neighbors.

Most importantly, don’t forget to take care of yourself. No matter how many articles you write, videos you produce, podcasts you publish, or interviews you do, there will only be one you.

Curious about where this experiment is headed? Subscribe to the channel!

The post A Few Things I Learned from Starting a Youtube Channel appeared first on David Yarde.