Creators' Corner #35 - Reflecting Forward on 2023

Photo of the week: First Sunday back in Munich called for a walk in Englischer Garten ⛄ . Needless to say, Lily loved it.

Hey everyone 👋. Greetings from Munich! I'm finally back in the Northern Hemisphere after a three-month 'workation' in Cape Town.

Welcome to the 21 new subscribers this week. We're up to 266 creators. Thanks so much for being here. If you're new to Creators' Corner, this is a place where I write about my corporate-to-creator journey and share tips on writing and creating visuals.

Here's the previous edition of the newsletter for those of you who missed it. As always – please reach out if you have any thoughts or ideas. I would love to hear from you.

Small talk:

2023 is off to a flyer! One month has gone by in the blink of an eye.

Going self-employed has got me working harder than ever. I am juggling actuarial consulting, content management and writing my own newsletter. At the moment it feels like I'm treading water.

Here are two things I'd like to share with you if you're behind on your (self-imposed) goals for the year. Don't be too hard on yourself, you're doing great.

1. Message I received from my writing buddy, Rik van den Berge, last week:

"The bar we set for ourselves (as self-improving individuals) is usually way higher than the bar others set for us, I've noticed."

2. Tweet from Michael Sklar reminding us to be kind to ourselves if we're already behind on our goals for the year:

You’re 2 weeks into January.
Already behind schedule?

If you’re doing something for the 1st time that involves creativity or variables you don’t control, all plans are optimistic hypotheses.

On Monday, make adjustments so you’ll feel better next Friday.
— Michael Sklar (@michaelsklar) January 13, 2023

One previously optimistic hypothesis I'm revisiting is whether I can write a newsletter every week while managing my other commitments. Settling into a bi-weekly rhythm might make more sense until I find my feet.

Line-up this week:

New essay: Reflecting Forward on 2023
My favourites: quote, tweet and essay of the week
CV4W Guest Series: Writers who Draw with Salman Ansari

1. Reflecting Forward on 2023

Welcome to part two of the annual review.

A couple of weeks ago I posted my year in review. Today I take a look at the year ahead.

Click the link below to read about the principles I wish to follow, the priorities I've set and the goals I'd like to achieve in 2023.

TLDR version:

Guiding principles: 1. Embracing the identity of my art (or confidently saying I’m a creator). 2. Adopting Beginner's Mind (or an attitude of experimentation). 3. Practising Negative Visualization (i.e. gratitude). 4. Getting 3 As instead of getting 5 Bs (prioritization).
Creator goals highlights: 1. Podcasts or interviews with creators I admire. 2. Creating video content (90 second clips that summarize my essays). 3. Creating more digital products (Procreate tutorial, life expectancy calculator and a mini book about my Rules for Life).

Featuring, not one, but two new images. This is the one I came up with for priority setting:

We can do many things, but we can't do everything. Only some things really matter.

2. My favourites

💬 Quote of the week: Listening can make you more interesting.

"So if you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments." – Dale Carnegie

✍️ Essay: Excellent piece by Rik van den Berge on improving your listening skills. Favourite takeaway: Be a mirror. Create the space for someone to listen to themselves.

“After all, when you seek advice from someone it's certainly not because you want them to give it. You just want them to be there while you talk to yourself.” ― Terry Pratchett

Rik doesn't have Twitter (clean living), but be sure to subscribe to his Substack if you want to read more on active listening, conversation sparring and coaching.

💯 Small win: I was featured in the Write of Passage newsletter last week.

Awesome to be featured in the Write of Passage newsletter today.

Already a few subscribers richer.

Thanks team! pic.twitter.com/Ke0X0aMAlo
— John Nicholas (@john__nic) January 18, 2023

Here's the essay if you'd like to read more about the similarities between fishing and writing.

📹 Video of the week: Thanks to my running buddy, Axel Ganzert, for sharing this killer video from Casey Neistat. Here's to hustling and continually improving.

3. Creating Visuals for Writing with Salman Ansari

Last week Angie Wang and I hosted our third CV4W workshop and first guest lecture with Salman Ansari.

It was a fun, interactive session. Salman shared his creative journey (from working in startups to writing fables for children) and created an artwork from an essay by Sandra Yvonne, one of the CV4W community members.

My favourite part was hearing Salman open up about being pushed in a certain direction in life because he was good at maths and science. Like many of us, he wasn't encouraged to explore his creativity. Only later in life did his creative energy manifest in writing and visualization.

Here's the recording if you'd like to see what we got up to! Salman also wrote an article about his love-hate-love relationship with drawing, which you can read here.

P.S. We are hosting our next guest series with Elizabeth Edwards on 8 Feb. Sign up here: