I got a call on Tuesday night to produce this video for MoveOn about an issue I care a lot about. The script was from MoveOn and I produced it myself in After Effects and Sony Vegas; I also did the voiceover and music.
The piece took all night to produce but seems like a real commercial to me; at was uploaded right after it was finalized yesterday at 1pm New Mexico time and within two hours it had appeared on MSNBC and been featured on Politico, The Hill and the front page of the Huffington Post. It was featured last night on Keith Olbermann’s show. It got over 50,000 views on YouTube in the first day, too.
I can’t tell you the satisfaction of working on a piece about an important subject and doing all the different aspects of it. My thanks to MoveOn for giving me the gig and especially to Peter Koechley for all his hard work and the late late night notes.
People spend so much time worrying about whether they’ve made the right decisions that it occurred to me to write the quick and easy guide to making successful long term decisions.
Get on the right path and you’ve won
Last evening, I was driving back from the park with Lauren and the kids and I had the overwhelming feeling that I’d already won. Money is tight, we’re living in a hotel, so much seems uncertain – but I’ve already won because I know I’m on the right path.
We’re in the right place at the right time doing things that we love and are important to us. I’m working on my filmmaking and getting good feedback. We’re meeting amazing, interesting people in Albuquerque. Kids are happy, projects are underway. I could name two dozen things that might strike fear into the heart of anyone looking for something to worry about – no health insurance, no permanent place to live and rapidly dwindling cash.
Doesn’t matter. That’s the short term sacrifice. We won, now.
How do you know you’re on the right path?
Here’s one way to figure it out.
Through Seth Godin, I learned about the inspiring work of Chris Guillebeau. If you haven’t seen his website The Art Of Non Conformity, you need to go visit it as soon as possible. Gorgeous design, powerful life changing content, and free eBooks to download, too.
Chris’s A Brief Guide To World Domination presents what he calls the two most important questions in the universe.
1) What do you really want to get out of life?
2) What can you offer the world that no one else can?
Here’s the plan: answer those two questions then ask yourself if you’re on a path to make the answers real and present in your life.
Because if not – what the hell are you doing?
I got some great feedback yesterday on a script I’m working on for a project I started that wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t done it. The project is real and every day it’s moving closer to completion. It’s satisfying in a way that years of working for someone else never was one single time.
Stop for a few minutes today, look at your life and ask yourself Chris’s two questions.
If your current path isn’t going to get you what you really want and it’s not going to lead to you offering your special and unique abilites to the world, then seriously….you’re wasting your life.
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