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Announcements:

Excited to be headed out to the platform conference in Colorado Springs in a few days. #Platform14

I am remodeling my book manuscript to include both individual and large-scale cooperative Human Creativity. This has been a very slow ramp up process but part I of the book will essentially be the creativity course I am developing and staring to film this week.

Feature Content:

Why are you taking up space? produce some fruit

Fruit trees are designed to ‘create’ fruit, when they wont, we do what we can to fertilize or to stimulate fruit production but if they won’t we tear them out.

I am an avid podcast listener on my podcast app I have about 2 dozen subscriptions I listen to regularly, my podcast listening time is basically my commute to and from work, it averages about 1 hour per day. This means I have a finite amount of time to consume podcasts, typically 7 hours per week.  I realized recently that one of those slots on my podcast listener app is this podcast and it is taking up space in my listener yet not producing regular shows.  One could say not producing consistent fruit.

I read the bible a lot and in Luke 13:6-9 Jesus told a story about a fig tree refusing to produce fruit and just taking up space in the orchard.

Luke 13:6 And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. 7 “And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ 8 “And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’ “

In context this is about God reaping the fruit of the earth of mankind, being reconciled to him back into his kingdom. But the analogy is useful also I think to human creativity.

One of the ways that I create, is this podcast, (granted me podcasting is a little experimental) but it is one outlet of creativity for me and it serves as way to connect my message with the world.

Creativity can be looked at as a form of human ‘fruit’, productivity in our career or personal side-projects are also forms of human fruit that our employers or our clients “pick” and consume.

I think everyone can increase the amount of creative fruit they produce in 2015 by making the following 3 determinations resolutions.

1. Create a cycle for your creativity: I struggle with this the most, fruit trees, at least in my area, produce fruit only at a certain times of the year. The rest of the year is a cycle of preparation for that fruitful time.
2. Prepare Yourself to Create: Similar to a fruit tree preparation is needed to produce a lot of healthy fruit. Pruning of branches, fertilization, protection from insects, guarding against critters with fences and with trunk guards, thinning of fruit that is deformed, fruit that is too numerous, or diseased. There is a lot of preparation to make healthy and abundant fruit. We also need to prepare to produce fruit. Sometimes this involves spending money, sometimes getting up early enough for alone time, sometimes it means exposing ourselves to other creative people. Intense study, brainstorming sessions, the counsel of mentors. Prepare yourself.
3. Have an mindset of Creative Boldness: When we create we must be willing to put ourselves out there. When a preacher or public speaker steps on stage they are making themselves vulnerable. When we press publish to our blog post or our podcast episode we are making ourselves vulnerable to judgment, making ourselves subject to criticism. To press through that fear and self-centeredness that refuses to be vulnerable and hit publish anyway takes a level of courage, a level of not fearing what the critics say or what the critics think. We care more about producing fruit, fruit that increases, fruit that improves in quality, we must have courage and a creative boldness.Recording directly into mp3 in my Roland R-05 recorder with no edits to the show so pardon please the poor audio quality.

I am traveling for my job and it is bumping up into travel for the Platform Conference so I am in the hotel room this week with a little extra time to produce shows and work on my book.

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