The Secret to Creative Success: Dominoes
Learn to master creativity: Take small steps, build capture habits, embrace serendipity, and adopt an infinite mindset. See how the impossible becomes possible.
Hey Friends! Happy spring break to those who celebrate. Hopefully you’ve made time for something creative. Let’s get into it.
Impossible Dominoes
As a high school teacher and father of two young kids who still tries to make time for extended family, friends, and fitness, not to mention an assortment of hobbies and interests, it can be difficult to carve out time for creative endeavors. I’d love to be able to bury myself in my workshop all day to build a guitar from scratch or lock the door to my office with a big pot of coffee and write until my hands cramp, but meals need to be prepped, lessons taught, and children’s activities driven to.
Sometimes the idea of finishing a creative project feels like an impossible task.
recently shared an illustration from featuring a set of progressively larger dominoes stacked in a neat line. The largest of the dominoes is labeled “Goal that feels impossible.” The smallest is labeled “Small step you can take today." See the original below:Certain creative projects sometimes feel like the largest domino, and the enormity of it all can be paralyzing, leading you to never even start. It’s important to remember that most big projects can be broken down into smaller steps. More importantly, each completed step builds momentum toward completion.
I like to think of the dominoes in the picture, not as representing the individual steps of a project. They rarely increase in size and scope progressively like the picture would suggest. Instead, I think the dominoes represent the inertia of completing each small step.
Creating a new file in Google Docs hardly seems even worthy of mentioning if your intent is to write the next great American novel, but it’s absolutely necessary and gets the flywheel moving. It could very well be the first domino to tip.
Takeaway: If you’ve been procrastinating on a creative project, what’s a tiny domino you can tip today?
Capture Habits
In this video from David Perell’s How I Write, he discusses the idea of “capture habits,” which I understand to be a systematic approach to capturing ideas, articles, video clips, podcast segments, and everything else that might serve you as fuel for your creative fire.
What I think sets prolific creatives apart from their less productive peers is the systematic approach they take to their craft. While quantity alone doesn’t ensure quality, there certainly exists a correlation between home runs and at bats. Scoring leaders in any sport tend to take the most shots.
Mixed sports metaphors aside, the same is generally true in creative work. We learn from our errors, improve accordingly, and increase our odds of resonating with an audience when we try again. Thus, those who produce the most work also increase the likelihood of producing remarkable work.
The easier you can make it to actually make work, the more likely you are for your work to find success.
For me, as a writer, I’ve solved the writer’s block problem through my capture habit. I maintain a growing iPhone note called Substack ideas. Every time I come across something cool, innovative, and/or creative, I add it to my note. I generally include a link to the source and a timestamp when relevant.
My creative well is deep and replenishes faster than I draw from it.
Just be careful not to over-optimize your capture habit. Some people fall into the trap of building perfect Notion templates and end up procrastinating by preparing to work instead of doing the work itself. For me, a simple iPhone note is perfect.
Takeaway: If you struggle with creative productivity, consider improving the conditions that set you up for success.
The Parking Garage Episode
I haven’t watched an episode of Seinfeld in at least a decade, maybe even two. Yet, I can still quote an unreasonable number of lines from the show. The more obscure, the more likely I am to know it. In the pre-streaming era, the show made its way to syndication on several networks, and I consumed it daily for a good portion of my youth.
In the streaming clip era, algorithms have detected my love for Seinfeld, feeding me behind-the-scenes gems.
In the classic episode, The Parking Garage, George, Elaine, Jerry, and Kramer spend the entire time searching for their car in a mall parking garage. Tensions rise as Kramer struggles to carry his new air conditioner, Elaine worries about the condition of her new pet goldfish, and Jerry struggles with having to urinate with no bathroom in sight—truly a show about nothing.
It’s a classic comedy of errors as each character finds themself getting into trouble as they search for their parking space. Kramer loses track of his AC unit, Elaine’s fish dies, and Jerry gets arrested for indecency.
When they finally find the car, Kramer is supposed to drive out of frame as the credits roll, but on the first take, the car wouldn’t start. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David thought it was a much better ending to the episode and decided to keep it in.
If you look closely, you can see the actors turn their heads away from the camera, hiding uncontrollable laughter.
This story represents one of my favorite aspects of creativity. Sometimes the best outcomes happen by mistake. Despite the best plans and intentions, unforced errors occasionally turn out better than any alternative. The trick is being able to recognize it when it happens.
Takeaway: Creativity is equal parts productivity and serendipity. Every project should have a plan of sorts, but deviating from that plan should always remain an option.
The Infinite Game
In an interview between Ali Abdaal and
(at 33:15), they discuss a concept originally popularized by Simon Sinek: Finite vs. Infinite Games. Eliason says to Abdaal:The reason you play an infinite game is to keep the game going, to continue to extend the boundaries and the realm of play.
This contrasts with finite games which serve as a means to an end. College, for example, is a finite game that lasts roughly four years. Its purpose is to prepare you for a career in the real world. Even Van Wilder couldn’t play college infinitely.
I like this framework for thinking about creative work. I think about guitar building this way. Every time I shape a piece of lumber, I learn something new about the craft. Even before I finish building one guitar, I start imagining what the next one will look like.
Yes, the guitars themselves are pretty cool, but it’s the doing that I’m after.
From choosing a body shape to soldering the electronics, every step involves countless combinations of decisions, each leading to a unique instrument. It’s almost meditative.
Anyway, here are a few work-in-progress shots of my latest guitar build:
I especially like the purple heart fret board. I can’t wait to use it again on a future build.
Takeaway: It’s easy to look at specific creative individuals and wish you had their success, but if you’re playing an infinite game, the act of playing is success in itself.
On Making Mistakes
There’s something special about Substack. It’s a corner of the web, full of creative and thoughtful people. It’s the promise of social media finally realized.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how outsiders sometimes change the game. Their lack of formal training and ignorance of the established rules grant them permission to reinvent what is possible. I used Jimi Hendrix as an example, stating that he played guitar backwards and upside down.
Apparently, that was incorrect.
If this were any other social media platform, the all-knowing guitar nerds would have hopped all over me in a profanity-laden outburst. This being a better place, something else happened.
chimed in in the comments and simply corrected my inaccuracy. Hendrix did play left-handed with a right-handed guitar (or backwards to most), but he restrung the strings in a conventional layout (right side up). He also provided me with a better example of the point I was attempting to make: Albert King.His full correction is embedded below:
I have since amended my erroneous article, followed a fellow guitar nerd, and have been enjoying some killer tunes by Albert King. Check out this playlist of his greatest hits.
Takeaway: Mistakes are inevitable, but they allow you to learn and grow. Don’t fret (pun intended) when you make them. Embrace the opportunity to improve.
One More Thing
Good things are better when shared. If you liked this, it would mean the world to me if you sent it to someone who might like it too.
I’ll see you in your inbox again next week.
Until then,
-Mike
Love the domino diagram and the guitar crafting!
Great write and thanks for the mention! :)