Getting Work To Work Chris Martin Studios

Neal Morse is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and creative cross-pollinator who not only makes epic progressive rock concept albums about the lives of Martin Luther, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus but also brings his creativity to multiple projects including NMB, Transatlantic, Flying Colors, and D'Virgilio, Morse, and Jennings. In this conversation, Neal and I explore song lyrics he's written over the years centered around creativity, spirituality, business, and the future. He also shares how he creates with a focus on limitless possibilities and abundant creativity, the challenges of writing for different projects, how faith plays a crucial role in his creative process, and his approach to business over the years. Most importantly, we talk about the spiritual power of music and how it can connect with us at a soul level.

It's a big week here at Getting Work To Work. The 7th anniversary of the podcast is this Friday featuring an interview with one of my heroes. I'm releasing the second episode of the documentary series about a farmer. And, as always, I'm thinking about what's next. There's always something to plan, produce, schedule, and promote. Perhaps that's why I was lying awake last night, avoiding the next wave of production, by obsessing over things already finished. I was replaying moments from the interview earlier in the day. Hoping people will like the video. Wondering what this monologue will be about. My mind was racing. Sound familiar to you? I don't think I'm alone because a thought occurred to me this morning, echoing my conversation with Mike Brennan: Why am I not taking time to celebrate? Why is celebrating anything so hard, especially when you know that the clock never stops?

What are you searching for with your creativity? Perhaps you want to find a way to make a living. Or maybe you want to engage in the most profound pursuits of humanity. Today on Getting Work To Work, Mike Brennan and I dive into the deep end of the pool and examine creativity from the perspectives of meaning, happiness, and play. Mike is an illustrator, public speaker, and podcaster passionate about helping creatives build daily creative habits. In this conversation, we discuss what holds us back from doing our work, the business side of creativity, and how to work through the moments we are stuck.

A day doesn't go by where I'm not considering the future of work. How will ideation and creation work? Will it be writing prompts, letting a computer spit out a rough draft, and then editing the results? What about distribution and economics? How will people find our work, and what will they be willing to pay for it? These are all great questions to think about and consider in the fast-paced world of the 21st century. But an unexamined question entered my mind: What role does history play in our work moving forward? Will we allow it to shape our experience or shun it to our detriment?

When you think about your creative expression, do you dream of ideas or the end product? I've always marveled at film directors who claim to see the finished product in their minds or even songwriters who hear the song playing in their imagination. For many, that is what successful creativity looks like, tapping into something already there and bringing it into existence. For others, like me, I might get tiny glimpses of an idea, but I generally have to start smashing ideas together to find out what they'll be. I've had the opportunity to be on a couple of podcasts recently, talking about my creative origin stories. And as I reflected on those experiences, I realized that I approach creativity the way I do today because of how I taught myself to play the guitar.

When thinking about protecting yourself from other people's words, the first thing that might enter your mind is criticism or feedback. Criticism is being externally thrust upon you by critics—either professional or merely haters—and feedback is being requested from others and received by you. At least, that's how I differentiate between the two. It can be challenging to open yourself up to criticism and feedback, it is a necessary skill, but that's not what I mean by protection from the words of others. I mean those moments when people treat you as a commodity, a demographic, or a willing audience member to spread their ideas. In these moments, words can do the most damage when an element of control is in play, so I will share a few ways to protect yourself and your creative spirit.