The lockdown really opened me up.

Welcome to the 8th edition of?Newsletter for Noobs.

Two Saturdays a month, I'll share a story from my personal experience in?#branding,?#copywriting,?#storytelling,?#personalbranding, or?#futureproofing.

Enjoy!????

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Estimated read time: 4 mins

I drew that picture in 2020.

Not long after COVID hit, everyone went into lockdown. I think it was May because Finland was warming up.

I was speaking a lot with the lads back home. I missed them. And the lockdown sounded brutal in England. We started having weekly zoom meetings.

In the first call, someone suggested an idea to help us feel a bit closer – drawing.

Each week, we had a theme – and we would have to draw a character related to that theme. The first week was 'The Simpsons': three of us drew Homer; the other two drew different characters.

I've never been an "artist". I painted a few masterpieces in school once that still sit in a frame; in a box; in my mum's attic – but nothing to write home about. My Homer wasn't bad. I'd traced most of it – which I later confessed to the boys. I enjoyed it, though.

Something happened to me after that.

And I had a love affair with art...

"But I'm not creative!"

It was a global pandemic. I got bored – so, I drew. And it helped.

I'm not saying I'm gonna be the next Van Gogh, but when it comes to art: this is the best work I've ever done.

Creativity feeds off boredom. That's its diet. It needs it to survive.

Being bored is rare these days. There's too much going on. Too much to do. If boredom finds you, embrace it. And use it to your advantage.

To create, you have to be bored.

Bored with what exists.

Bored with what others do.

Bored with the way things are.

It will make you unhappy. It may even make you feel sad, but don't confuse sadness with melancholy. Because, Melancholy is our friend.

It's in these moments that creativity thrives.

It was in these moments that I created something special (in my eyes). I'm not an artist, but when I put my mind to it, and the time, and the effort, I can draw shit like this!

A lot of the people I had Discovery Calls with told me the same thing:

"I'm not creative, I can't write my story!"

I asked them what they meant by that, and I let them rant for a minute or two.

They told me the most incredibly engaging, heartfelt, raw and honest story about themselves and their problems. They told me how they fell in love with what they do, why they are doing it, who they want to do it for, and how. Their story was better than I, or anyone else, could have written for them because it was true and personal.

Art doesn't have to be "creative", it just needs to be expressive.

And the most effective way to express yourself, is to know yourself.

When there's so much noise, and so much stimulation, and so much pressure, finding time to stop, quiet the mind, talk to yourself is difficult. But you have to look for boredom.

If we're never bored, we'll never change.

So, look for boredom.

And when you find it: embrace it, enjoy it, use it.

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I've made it my mission to inspire as many people as I can to become?#futureproof?through strong?#personalbranding.

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Thanks for reading! ???

David