even the grey days have something to offer. may not always be what you’re after or what you had in mind. hell, it might be something completely out of your realm of thinking. maybe just a nudge towards something smaller but different.

whatever it is, i’ve always found something in even the grey days, even the most mundane reading, even the slow times. this last weekend i had the privledge of shooting the 39th annual portland marathon for runner’s world. it started in the dark + the rain + only the dark part of that equation changed for the better. needless to say, we were after a very specific look + the conditions weren’t helping.

along comes this fine gent merrily making the most of his day…. + his bicep. had to laugh at the time but looking back i think it was the break i needed to snap me back to attention. bring the focus out of the grey + into what i was really doing. which is what i’m passionate about. you can’t have the good days, the great shots, the peak moments without the grey ones. even if you don’t live in the great pacific nw.

two great videos with ideas + inspiration via brain pickings. the feature is called opening lines: how famous creators got their start.

I used to play the guitar when I was ten, you know. So I figured maybe my thing is playing the guitar, maybe that’s my little gift. Like somebody can make a cake, or somebody else can saw a tree down, and other people write… Maybe I got a better gift. But as of right now, I haven’t found out what it is.” ~ Bob Dylan, in a 1963

the first is steve jobs back in the day. really much more vocal then i expect but obviously excited about his work + motivated. the second is artist raghava KK on his life + it’s evolution along an inspiring + unique path. i like what both are saying. not just via their stories but through their lives, their actions. it’s readily apparent that they love what they do. + as a result have been stuck on it for a long, long time. the 10,000 hours of malcolm gladwell. the stick-to-it-ness that has to be in place to really succeed.

wrapped up a week of being inspired last week with students pursuing their passion for photography with a talk i give called my better is better then your better. it’s based on the nike / w+k ads from a few years back. the idea being that we’re all around to (a) be in business + (b) be creative. pursue passion, work hard + take pride in what you do. we should all be able to say “my better is better then your better” in some way, be it simply expressing our personal point of view or dominating what you do best. it’s not a put down towards others as much as it is a statement of belief in your self, your work + perhaps most importantly your efforts.

reading courtesy of ibooks on my flight home i was then caught by this piece off change this titled The Power of Passionate Creatives. the one thing among many that stood out for me was this,

Passion puts you ahead of the competition.

An interesting thing happens when we pursue our passions as our profession: We actually seek out more challenges. Rather than viewing them as sources of stress, we see them as opportunities to get better faster.
We want to push ourselves to the next level, and we get restless if we remain in the same place too long.
No matter what the area of work, some people are quite passionate about what they do. They can’t wait to get to work and test themselves. They love to drive their performance to new levels.
Increasingly, these are the people you will be competing with in the future.
We’ll say this a different way:
If you are not equally passionate about the work you do, you will undoubtedly get marginalized. The pressures will just be too overwhelming.

brilliant. kind of thing you intrinsically develop as a creative business owner but never put into place as an advantage. my better is better… in crazy synchronicity the piece even touches on my current book Matt Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft where he argues that working with one’s hands can have deeply philosophical, even spiritual, meaning. if you haven’t, you should.

so here’s to creativity coming out your ears. this mind blowing trailer from life cycles, might help. it’s the best thing i’ve seen lately. pure inspiration. an ex pro rider friend relayed to me,

Holy ?!@#, I believe the standards for bike movies just went up a notch. Looks like a National Geo documentary merged with The Collective. Super rad.

i hear about persistence as a key to success now more then ever. in fact, just got a newsletter talking about it again this am. + while i’m a believer in that i’ve always felt there’s more to it.

my accordion teacher back in the day used to say that the “practice makes perfect” maxim is a bunch of bullshit. it should really be “perfect practice makes perfect”. her philosophy, which i’ve so readily adapted, is that you can’t just put your head down + expect repeat motions to get you ahead. there has to be conscious fuego behind it. it’s not just a persistence that pushes work forward but that combined with a form of what i’m realizing is intensity.

look around – you see it everywhere in success.

crazed people pursuing projects with wild abandon without fear of the consequences. it’s not a loud spraying of personal attributes or greatness but rather an eternal burning, a ceaseless drive.

persistence on it’s own is fine. it does move things along. i’m just not so sure that that direction is forward.

this kid cudi tune, pursuit of happiness, from lissie does it for me lately. (check out the bassist double dutying the drums.)

the moving process is off to a slow but steady start. going through the old files for a few reasons, namely to get 4×6 prints out to the good folk who’ve come this far with me. the adventures have been far + wide over the last 12 years based here in the rockies.

as i come across the gems i’ll post a few here. here’s ex pro mtn biker + all around hard charging nice guy pete. much thanks for all the dirt, sweat + blood over the years pete.