Make whatever you feel like you’re missing
Treat others as you’d want to be treated. Be the change you want to see in the world. Two sides of the same philosophical coin.
Interestingly, artists have their own version of these maxims. They create what they want to see in the world. The write the book they’d want to write. They make the movie they’d want to watch. They paint the murals they’d want to see.
I’m reminded of a podcast with the principal songwriter of a multiplatinum rock band. Fascinating origin story. Back in the late nineties, Mike finally got fed up of flipping through the radio dial and never hearing the hard, aggressive rap music he so badly craved.
And so, he started a band and created just that. He made exactly what he felt he was missing in the world. Because he knew that he wasn’t alone.
Sixty million albums later, his audience proved him right.
And so, if we’re not happy with the art we see around us, it’s our responsibility to try and do better. To let our work do the talking, not our words. Because the best way to complain is to make things. To invent the world we want to live in.
How could you leverage your frustration in the world as motivation to grow into the artist you’ve always wanted to be?