Episode 098: Building Craftsmanship – When It Gets Hard

Finding Your Groove With Kathleen Thompson

Building craftsmanship isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes fortitude to keep working at your craft. Especially when it gets hard or it’s not fun. True craftspeople work commit to working through those hard times to get to the other side. On this episode we talk about 3 actions you can take to help you stay committed.

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On This Episode

Rhythm of Life – Commitment Creates Happiness
Random Riffs – The Color of Song
Feature Segment – Building Craftsmanship: When it Gets Hard

Today’s Quote

Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek. –Mario Andretti

Rhythm of Life – Commitment Creates Happiness

Have you ever had 2 options of what to do on Saturday night? You held off committing to one until the last minute? Like Saturday morning? And then you didn’t have that much fun? Why not? What can this teach us?

Dan Gilbert TED Talk – Surprising Science of Happiness

He and a team did a study at Harvard about choice and the ability to change one’s mind. The results may surprise you.

It turns out that commitment to something makes us happier. Listen to the segment to hear about the study and how you can apply its conclusions to your life.

Random Riffs – The Color of Song

A friend on Facebook wrote a post asking us to list songs with colors in the title. It was interesting to see what people said. Before listening to the episode, why not think of your own list?

Listen to the episode to hear the list of what my friends came up with. As you would imagine, songs with blue in the title were the most numerous. After all, it’s the most popular color by a large margin.

Then there were songs with two colors in the title. There was one with three. And another that had the word “color” in it. Such a colorful variety.

Feature Segment – The Artisan Life: Building Craftsmanship When It Gets Hard

The atmosphere was so tense you could feel it ready to explode. 6 bakers competing in the Great British Bake-off. John was particularly intense. He wanted to win this thing. To prove to his parents that he should be a professional baker, instead of an attorney, like they want him to be.

He makes a pretty major mistake. And the result tastes awful. The judges spit it out of their mouths and ask for water.

How do you come back from that? What do you do when your dream appears to be going out the window? When you just can’t get past where you are? Or you have to start over because you made a huge mistake?

What do you do then?

This is where commitment comes in. The commitment you made to yourself and those whom you love or serve.

It may also be time to go back to following your curiosity and practice change to see what you can shake up. But sometimes all it takes is time.

How can you stay committed through the hard times? What can bring back the creative flow and joy of your work?

1. Go back to Why

Actions:

• Write down your why and keep it where you can always see it.
• If don’t know your why, take time to meditate on that now.
• Reframe your why so it’s not all about you.

2. Recite past successes

Actions:

• Keep a journal of successes and read it when you need reminding
• Celebrate every win or success, no matter how small.

3. Calibrate expectations

Actions:

• Test your reactions to small stuff.
• Plan for setbacks.
• Repurpose your failures.

Sometimes it’s necessary to make a change to see results. The thing that got you here won’t get you there. Sometimes you just need to persist. Sometimes there are changes already happening you can’t see.

Where are you right now? If you’re cruising, then take time to celebrate your wins. Document them for when things aren’t so great. Remember that this too shall pass.

If things aren’t going so great right now, don’t lose heart. Believe it’s possible to move past it. Then act on that belief. Take some actions listed here. Or, get in touch with me for coaching or just email. There are links in the Coaching and Contact pages.

As we said in Episode 096, we don’t need more people who can simply follow directions or take orders. We need artisans – those who willing to stand out and serve. If you’re one, commit to commitment.

Wanna know what happened with John? I tell you near the end of the segment.

So commit and take action.

1. Go back to Why
2. Recite past successes
3. Calibrate expectations

You may not win a contest like Great British Bake-off, but you can win where it matters to you.

If you'd like to share your story of when you needed commitment and time to get through a difficult challenge, leave a comment.

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What builds craftsmanship? Curiosity, change, and commitment.
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Artisan Series

090: Why You Should Be an Artisan at Work
091: The Three C's of Artisanship
092: Are You a Creator, Consumer, or Critic?
093: Where to Start as an Artisan? With a MAP.
094: What's Your Signature Scent?
095: The Foundations of Craftsmanship
096: Follow Your Curiosity to Build Craftsmanship
097: Craftsmanship Requires Change

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