Josh Allred's Blog

Most of us eventually figure out that Santa Clause is not real. We do this by slowly putting together the pieces of how it would be impossible to travel the world and serve every child. We deduce that it just isn’t possible. We can’t find him, therefore, he must not be real. Yet, those who continue to believe still haven’t seen the real Santa. They are chasing a feeling.

That feeling of belief is important to all of us. To believe in a better world is a feeling. To believe in community, equality, civility, connection–all feelings of beliefs–since we can’t touch it or see it.

Believing can sometimes ignore the facts. While important, however, we can’t ignore what the data is saying when it contradicts our belief system. That intersection of tension is a hurdle to overcome because often they are not compatible with each other. Yet, our beliefs inform so much of the decisions we make to build the world as we see it.

What is that? What does it mean to be creative?

To me, it is a process of putting pen to paper. In other words, doing the work. Not sitting around, hemming and hawing. Not bargaining with the lizard brain to get in the mood.

It is simply working. And when it is over, then we say, “That was creative.” Not before.

We notice when someone misses a deadline or is late for an appointment. We create social contracts, invisible agreements with only our word that we will deliver.

What we don’t see is what is happening behind the scenes.

Someone working multiple jobs to get ahead, relationship struggles, debt, opportunity, belief in oneself–we only assume.

My theory is we assume the worst out of people when it is more inconvenient on our part. Meaning it is easy to be compassionate towards others when it doesn’t directly affect us. Much harder to give the benefit of the doubt to someone when we feel the discomfort of someone dropping the ball.

When we plant a seed, we have to nurture it for it to grow. And over time, with some luck, you get a tree. A tree that you may never get to enjoy. That to me is against so much of our natural instincts. To do something in the long run that has nothing to do with me.

There’s nothing more satisfying in my opinion. Doing something that goes unnoticed by the masses but perhaps changes the course for the few who choose to pay attention to what is happening.

They are not always in sync. Desires get in the way of our dreams all the time. We envision how the world and ourselves should look. And the conflict gets worse when we feel further from our dreams from where we started. Marshmallows are everywhere and how we are able to deal with that tension of denying something now for something better tomorrow is indeed one of the challenges of our times.

When I drop my kid off at school, the crossing guard urges me to not linger and to keep moving. The crossing guard doesn’t know if my seat belt is on or if I like to watch as my kids go into the building. The crossing guard is focused on moving the masses. My priority is different. I am concerned about my kids, myself, and then everyone else.

We saw this with the pandemic and we see it all the time in our culture. The crossroads of making decisions for what is good for the commons and what is best for me. I’ll add another layer to what is best for the future. Because the decisions we make today are making an impact on those who are not even born yet.

The culture works better when we work together, and at the same time, we are forced to take care of ourselves. For thousands of years, we lived in tribes. We lived in a small, tight nit community where it was easy to see the decisions affect your neighbors. We don’t live in that type of world anymore. If you drop a piece of trash, no one will notice. Amplifying this feeling of isolation that none of the decisions I make matter.

The reason why it is so difficult to make these decisions is because of the priorities we have made in our culture—efficiency, reliability, predictability, and profits. But if we valued resiliency, creativity, and equality the decisions we make would look different.

When time is limited, your ability to think through decisions goes down. That is why when people are rushed, we compromise our values in order to please the clock. In this framework, the clock is our master, not our moral compass.

If you insist that an idea is yours, you are going to have a hard time spreading it.

And if an idea can’t spread, you are severely limiting the change you seek to make.

Until someone decides to take action, ideas are never born. They remain in the ether.

Ideas are not original. They are built upon the body of work that has come before us. The day may come when you will have to decide if you want credit or to see your idea grow.

You are not entitled to fame for starting a movement.

If you were to make 1,000 sales calls, would you be better at sales than you are today?

You can reasonably say that somewhere in those sales calls you will be able to see what worked and what doesn’t. Perhaps, you make some sales along the way.

And if you were to write one blog post every day, can you say after 2,500 you will be better at writing?

Of course.

The same can be said with miles walked, push-ups, and starting a business.

When you get to the next step then you can evaluate the next iteration. You can decide whether you want to go left or right but either way, you are on the path.

We get too stuck on the end result that we forget what we can actually control and evaluate our actions.

Marco Collins is one of the few DJs in the Rock Hall of Fame. He is famous for discovering bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Beck, and playing them on the air for the first time.

There is value in having a pulse on what is happening and understanding what you see and hear others will like too.

Having good taste is knowing the punch line to an inside joke. Not everyone will get it but “if you know, you know.”