Over the holidays, a family member mentioned that he’s been learning to play guitar.

Or, he had been learning, but it turned out to be more difficult than he had thought, so he gave up in frustration.

He used an app that showed the sequence of notes to play as the recording of a given song played in the background. The notation moved along, conveyor-belt style, sort of like the game Guitar Hero.

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I received hundreds of comments on a recent video in which I used the clearing of a brush pile to demonstrate how a person might make incremental progress toward a goal.

Such a high volume of engagement yields fascinating patterns. One common response goes something like this: “Oh, I could never do a project over multiple days. When I do something, I have to get it all the way done.”

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I’m starting to build a map of the experience of a creative person who longs to create something new.

I’m thinking of it almost as an old school board game-style journey, like Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, or Life — except with less randomness.

There are choices to be made along the way. Some of those choices keep you progressing linearly. Some open up shortcuts. And some are dead ends.

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Perhaps the important thing I learned in The Bootstrapper’s Workshop was to disconnect my identity and my calling from my work.

These circles overlap in the ol’ Venn diagram, but not completely.

There were many other helpful concepts that Seth Godin shared in the videos and prompts, but this was the overarching conclusion I was able to make that changed my life — and a key message I feel compelled to share with others.

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Between tennis sets, my friend remarked upon the little boy of about six who was in the midst of a rigorous practice session with his father on the adjacent court.

“He’s really good!” she said. “But wow...his father is kind of harsh.”

“Yeah,” I said, thinking about the many years’ worth of parent-child dynamics I witnessed as an educator. “Sometimes that level of performance carries a cost.”

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