2023 Learnings / 2024 Mantras

When this year kicked off almost twelve months ago, I thought it would be rather laid back. I intended to work less, take more leisure, and dive into personal projects. Instead, I worked tirelessly on back-to-back events for the first third of the year, lugged all of my gear to eight music festivals, and entertained an endless stream of favors, investing hardly — if any — time into my own personal projects! Rather than relaxing, I hustled.

Why? I don't really know. Maybe it's just in me to turn whatever time I have on hand into a hyper-productive sprint. Maybe it's one of those attention "deficit" things... although everything I engaged in required tremendous attention. Maybe I'm feeling old, entering my mid-30s, looking back on a scattered, meandering portfolio, and feeling hungry to complete something!

Besides productions I delivered for corporate clients (stuff with consequences), I haven't finished anything from this summer... yet. I'm sitting on over ten terabytes of live music footage I've hardly started organizing.

Anyway... this reflection isn't about that; it's about the lessons I have learned from all of this. So, without further digression, here are my mantras for 2024:

Do Less

Less is more. Quality over quantity. Blah blah blah — we still want to do a million things, and we won't give that up. But we don't need to do everything all at once. Life can feel short, but it's also pretty long. For example, I'm only half my parents' age. Imagining living the duration of my life again before I'm in my late sixties, I can really picture accomplishing a lot more — especially since, for the entirety of that time, I will be as developed as I am now and not an aloof child wasting time-consuming and not producing. There is plenty of time to do it all, but we must prioritize, plan, and pursue. We don't need to catch everything that comes our way. Focusing on one thing at a time will produce efficient and meaningful results.

Film Everything

I started recording more videos this year than in the past three. Here is a screenshot comparing my personal videos before and after 2020. You can see the hiccup in my productivity and that my output wasn't really reaching the point it had in 2019. This year, I have collected over ten terabytes of video. Much of that is multi-cam, but I'm still trending back toward constantly making stuff.

Despite this explosion of files, I am sitting on many hollow or unframed stories. I have hours and hours of great footage from festival stages, but nothing around that. I have realized that the story is larger than the performance. My intention for this coming year is to document my preparation, travel, setup, experience, breakdown, and journey home from these events. Then, I can more fully put together a piece that captures the entirety of an adventure.

In addition to capturing and streaming live performances, I'm working on several film projects with local teams here in Reno. By the end of the year, we will have some finished work! More on that soon.

Take a Break

I'm constantly pushing off burnout, but I can feel it weighing on me, and then suddenly, it drops on me. Then I'm down for the count, and it takes some time to get back in the saddle. Scheduling time off is a must; it doesn't have to be a vacation. Vacations are complicated to plan, costly, and not always as relaxing as they look on paper. Staying home is highly underrated. Stay home and do nothing. Don't look at the Internet. Don't even take out the trash. Okay, maybe vacuum and take out the garbage because in doing these simple tasks with a calm heartbeat, we meditate on the work that life is and can perhaps attain some enlightenment around how far we've already come, allowing us to rest and relax in the present moment. TLDR taking breaks is good for us.

Ask for Help

This final bit is a classic. Seeking assistance is courageous. When we finally drain our ego and put out a call for help, we find that others are more than willing to come to our aid. Whether it's a pick-up from the airport, life advice, or help with a film project, people are often grateful for the opportunity to lend a hand. It also strengthens relationships. Even if we can accomplish something independently, it could be more fun to do it with a friend.

I've found myself in a community of diverse and talented friends who are all interested in collaborating on various creative projects. The moment I started talking about the things that I wanted to do, others began talking about what they wanted to do, and it has become clear to us all that we have incredible strength and resources to combine.

So that's it, my mantras for 2024: Do Less, Film Everything, Take a Break, and Ask for Help. The first two may seem contrary, but I've been holding a camera since I was four years old. The goal isn't to film more but rather to think about what's really important and film that.

What are your mantras for 2024? Send them to me.