Book Review: Creative Calling by Chase Jarvis

Hi, my name is Helen, and this is the brain crafty podcast. Yeah, every week I review a book and call it the book review easy and simple today's book review is by chase Jarvis. It's a book called creative calling. This is a creator who's been generous about sharing his work and his process about how he became a famous award-winning photographer and how he continues to help other creators through the platform of creative live.

So if you find this information helpful, go ahead and follow this podcast. Follow chase Jarvis. You can also keep up with what I'm doing on Instagram. I don't want to keep you let's get started. So here's the deal. If you're listening to this, it probably means that you have a creative bone in your body, and oftentimes it can happen to people who are creative.

As we also have an overactive imagination of the things that can go wrong. In our lives. And that's why it's important to follow the calling that we were called to do. I've read creative calling now three times. And in those three times, I'm surprised every single time at how much I learn, because a couple things stand out in this book review.

First of all, we got to write stuff down. We have to journal our creative calling. And I think in journaling, it puts thoughts on paper. It puts a word. To our experience and it allows us to take action, the notes to this book club and the link to this free book club that chase Jarvis puts on to talk about.

His book is going to be in the description down below. It's an amazing resource to people who are in the creative industry, because people like me who don't necessarily do it. Full-time but combine therapy with. So now time for the part that you've been waiting for, what's in it for me. Why should I read this book and how can this book help me in my creative pursuit?

Maybe you're in the field of mental health, listening to this. Maybe you're an entrepreneur or musician wherever you are. This book is for you because we all have one precious life. And it's how we spend it. That determines whether or not our life was actually worth. My favorite part of this book was when he talks about this 97 year old person who puts out their art and then gets their work published in a museum at 101 it's never too late to pivot.

It's never too late to be that person who realizes that. Have compromised their values and want to go back to who they really were. And chase Jarvis talks about how, in some ways his imagination and his creativity to imagine was compromised based on the opinions of other people. He pursued a doctorate of philosophy, a career in medicine, a career in soccer, everything, but this creative calling.

And so he challenges us in this book. What is your value in, is it another. Is it in yourself? Have you had this conversation with yourself about money? Are you scared of losing money making money? And what is this conversation about compromising your dreams? Let's say that you are a coder in Microsoft and you have dreams of opening your own cafe and restaurant.

What happens when someone tries to poke a hole in that dream? What is your relationship to that? And moreover, people talk a lot about what they want, but they don't execute on what they. In particular, he breaks it down for us. Let's say that you want to be a cook. You want to be a famous chef or you want to put your art out.

But you're too scared. What two? Most, if not all artists have in common, what most artists do every day is they make art every day. Are you making art every day or are you just thinking about making art every day? It's so easy to say that we want something, but if our action isn't behind what we want, then inevitably, we're just dreamer.

Not doers. So oftentimes people try for like three days and then they quit. But what he says is that in order for us to make progress, we have to create that mind shift, that the more time you put into something, the more you get out of it, it's more than just a mindset transformation. It's a heart and spiritual transformation to know that this is what you're called to do, and to get over the fear of.

Don't forget though, that when you read something, you also have to apply what you read. So a lot of people don't do that and then they consume so much, but they don't apply enough to don't forget to apply. But my favorite parts of the book was when chase actively discusses his struggle about going to magazine stores, because he was dead broke, didn't even have $3 to pay for a magazine with it notes from the magazines about the photos that were getting published.

He talks about working at REI while he was getting his doctorate in philosophy, living with his girlfriend and then sneaking into a place to develop his photographs and then getting paid for the first time as a photographer, he would keep the window open to the studio that he would sneak in and develop photographs from.

Cause he was. And he talks about how, when you really love something, you have the creative energy to do it. And then there's going to be this invisible force that just pushes you forward. You don't know what it is or how that happened, but it's going to push you forward. And when you're a true creative artist, you share that information because you want other people to win, too.

What I love about this book is it's so selfless. He uncovers step-by-step how he got to where he was. And he's also very smart about walking it out so that other people see his transformation in a vulnerable place. He doesn't forget who he is and where he came from. He's talking to the audience because he knows what it was like to be in that position.

So another valuable tip that I learned from this is don't forget where you came from and don't forget to give back because you were there too. There was a portion of it. Just made me love this book even more. And that he bought a plane ticket to a snowboarding competition. I forget whether or not it was the Olympics, but there is a portion of it where he was taking photos from the fence.

And then he released those photos and people didn't even know where he came. He did an apprentice under anyone. He didn't work for any fashion brands. He just took photos and put his work out there. And so he eradicated this myth that you needed to go through all of these hoops and steps to get to where your.

I want to be, sometimes it just takes the execution. And so, you know, it reminds me of this Pablo Picasso quote, learn the rules so that you can eventually break them because the rules are there to keep us structured. But if there's a non, another alternative way to get to where you want to go, go for it because it'll invent new Heights.

That you've never imagined before. And so I hope this quick book review was helpful for you. You know, let me know if this is providing value for you. I love reading. I love doing podcasts episodes about it because it helps me apply and summarize things in a concise way. And it benefits you too, because you get to hear more about my creative process and hopefully, hopefully it's helping you in your creative process.

So my name is Helen Garcia. Thanks for listening to the book review and I will talk to you next time