I ACTUALLY DON'T WANT TO TRAVEL THE WORLD INDEFINITELY

I think that’s a myth. Quit your day job and travel the world for the rest of your life. It sounds great. But I think it preys on those who are dissatisfied with their jobs and tricks people into thinking that a life abroad is always better. Aka the grass is greener on the other side. I don’t think it is better. Nor do I think it’s greener. I think what people want is not to travel indefinitely and go to every country in the world. I think what people want is to know that if they wanted to travel abroad, they could. It would be within their realm of possibility. I think what people want is to know that it is within their power to live a life that brings them joy, not necessarily escaping overseas to a so-called “better life”.

World travel is not the answer to all of life's problems.

by Jason Lam

THE VIDEO PLAYLIST

Inspired by the text playlist I made a while back, I wanted to create a video playlist to serve exactly the same purpose: Get me pumped to keep creating and remind me of what matters in life.

If you're not in the mood for reading, this playlist might give you the necessary inspiration you need for your next endeavor.

Videos are intentionally curated for their short duration. #1 and #6 are kind of long though. Enjoy!

1) Alain de Botton on Status Anxiety - Alain is one of my favorite philosophers. He takes knowledge from the greats and delivers his material in a way that is both easy to understand and relatable for modern day people like me. I'd be lying if I said I never felt status anxiety. This video makes be feel a bit better, and helps me understand why this is so prominent in our day and age.

2) First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy - I love this video so much. It's a video of a guy dancing all by himself, and before long, it becomes a giant party with tons of people joining in! I create many projects, often by myself, and the road gets lonely, often to the point where I just keep thinking about quitting. But like this dancing guy, maybe I need to believe in myself a little more, and in other as well.

3) Everyone Is Lonely - We're all alone here, so maybe try to just be nice.

4) Cookie Monster, Life Coach - HILARIOUS! I love this. SO MUCH. Educational and funny at the same time. It always makes me want to eat cookies and milk though, haha.

5) Robert De Niro NYU Graduation Speech -  In terms of graduation speeches, most people usually share the one by Steve Jobs or Jim Carey, but I think it's worthwhile to share one that's a little less popular, but just as good. I love Robert De Niro. I also went to film school, so maybe I'm biased. Sometimes I feel like I'm still just a recent college grad, positively blind to the challenges ahead of me. Blurbs: "Passion trumps reason" and "Rejection is often not about you". (Feel free to skip if you're not into the arts)

6) The Power Of Time Off - I'm slow. I work slowly. Talk slowly. And require a lot of time off to think clearly about how to approach my work. I love the fact that Tedx managed to promote a video about NOT WORKING in a world that demands that we work faster than ever. I think time off is powerful and essential to our lives, I'm glad Stefan thinks so too.

7) Tired of Your Bullshit - Nothing like a good rant to get you off you ass and getting to work. And who better than the suave Tyrese who sang all the baby making love songs of the 90s?

8) Secrets of Life - "Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you"

9) Ira Glass on the Creative Process - Any creative endeavor is rot with tons of obstacles. In moments like these, it's hard to stay motivated. Most of us quit. But Ira Glass reminds us that this is normal. Don't quit. Keep fighting.

10) Choice - "Realize that you can't make a mistake, whatever you do."

by Jason Lam

THE CRIPPLING EFFECTS OF TRYING TO STICK TO ONE "STYLE"

I’ve tried to come up with a distinct photography style for a long time.

I’m 10 years deep now and I’m pretty much giving up on that endeavor.

Why?

Because it’s one of the most crippling things you can do to your creative growth.

Trying to define your “style” is like saying to yourself, "From now on, I will only eat oatmeal for breakfast!" Or, "I will only wear blue jeans for the rest of eternity!"

Really? 

What benefit does this have for you?

And I was actually really good at answering this question: 

• So people know what I stand for!

• So people aren’t confused when they look at my website!

• So it will be easier for potential clients to know exactly what I do!

And that’s great. Especially if you make a hit, like Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 smash hit, "Dreams". Then, by all means, keep playing that song for the rest of your life. After all, it will help keep the lights on at the studio. 

But there’s a difference between marketing yourself as one thing and cornering yourself into just one style for the rest of eternity.

I’m talking about the latter.

I actually think it’s a great idea to market yourself as one thing. After all, in a world that is getting busier and faster and with people’s attention spans being less than that of a goldfish, you better have your hook strong and easy to see otherwise you will be skipped over for someone who does have an easily identifiable style

Some of my favorite artists who have a unique style:

• Peter Lindbergh

• KAWS

• Alfred Hitchcock

Do these people not do other styles? I doubt it. They probably just don’t show it. After all, you don’t want to confuse your potential clients, right? 

I think style eventually presents itself to you. It’s not something you need to force yourself into. It will come. A bit like walking in the sand. You might feel like you’re just walking aimlessly in a vast desert, but if you look back you’ll see that there is, in fact, a path that you’ve created that is unique to you and only you.

Trying to define your style prematurely leads to artistic death. It’s deciding you will only crawl, when you can walk, deciding you will only walk when you can run, deciding you will only run, when you can fly.

I’ve made this mistake more times than I’d like. It’s limiting. It’s also very boring. Can you imagine doing the same thing forever and ever? If you take a look at Picasso’s work, you can see that he changed so much. 

But anyways, let’s talk about why we really care about finding a “style.”

Money.

Ohhhh money. Well, also, branding. Clear branding, which will lead to clients understanding what you do which will lead to money. 

Not knocking it. But I think it’s important to consider the tradeoffs. Because that’s what it is, you're selling a specific style in an exchange for money. Is it worth your creative death for money? Maybe sometimes. But for all of eternity? No. Don’t do it.

What to do?

Meet halfway.

If you hit a style you like, a hit song if you will. Keep it. Sell it. Keep the lights on. Keep the food on the table. Make sure you can shower every night. But secretly on your own time, keep on trucking. Keep growing. Keep exploring. There's a term in finance called diversifying your assets. I guess creatively speaking. We can call this diversifying your creativity. 

That’s what I’m doing nowadays. I hope it works for you too.

by Jason Lam

FORGET ABOUT SEO

SEO is the first thing that will kill your writing endeavors. It will morph your writing, your titles, your word choice into the latest trends and absolutely rid your work of any soul. And that’s what makes your work unique. Your soul. Your voice. Sprinkling in keywords and the latest trends of using clickbait titles is a cheap move. You don’t need that.

Having spent far too much time on SEO and all that nonsense I can attest that the best way to spread your work is not to apply all those internet gimmicks, but instead, to simply do great work that is worth sharing. It’s hard. In fact, it’s much harder than, say, googling the latest buzzwords and plugging them into your essay. But it’s important. Better yet, it will stand the test of time. At least, that’s what I’m working towards. Not work that comes and goes with the latest trends but work that can provide wisdom for generations to come.

Forget about SEO. Just focus and creating damn good work.

by Jason Lam

STARE AIMLESSLY OUT THE WINDOW INSTEAD

I don’t know about you. But all this self-help, personal development, productivity stuff is sort of tiring me out.

I just feel like I am never enough. No matter how much I fine tune my morning routine, how many more yoga sessions I take, and how many times I tell myself to love myself, I still feel like I’m standing still and the world is whizzing right by me.

Does anybody else feel that way?

In moments like these, I like to think of some of my idols. J. R. R. Tolkien, Einstein, Hitchcock. The thing is, I really doubt they read that many self-help books, and even if they did, they didn’t read nearly as much as I have, simply because of the fact that they didn’t exist.

So what did they do instead? Were they less equipped to handle the world they lived in? Did they do lower quality work? Were they less as human beings?

I don’t think so.

And I also don’t think we really need to read, yet, another self-help book, or do another yoga meditation session, or a juice cleanse.

If anything, all of these things are just a way of distracting ourselves from the fact that the world is moving faster than ever, it bothers the hell out of us, and the only thing we can do about it is to sort of make ourselves feel slightly better by reading a book about how everything is going to be okay, and yadda yadda yadda.

I know I sound paradoxical right now. After all, much of what I write falls right under the personal development category. But I’m not knocking it. I’m just trying to put things in perspective, mainly for myself, I’m human after all. Not everything I say will make sense (unfortunately) or, rather, fortunately. (Thanks, Lewis Carroll)

So what do we do? 

I'd do what I think J. R. R. Tolkien, Einstein, or Hitchcock would do. And that is not to read another self-help book, not to listen to another motivational talk. Instead, to go for a walk in the woods. Spend a quiet morning writing in our journal. Enjoy a nice cup of hot tea and stare aimlessly out the window. Taking solace in the fact that nothing will ever truly go your way, and finding comfort in the fact that that's still okay.

by Jason Lam

THE MOST DANGEROUS PHOTO I EVER TOOK

This is it.

It was Chinese New Year in New York City. 2014. I was a student at the International Center of Photography at the time and my final project was to document first-generation Chinese-Americans practicing the ancient art of lion dancing here in America. 

The group I followed was Wan Chi Ming.

This was during the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown, Manhattan. It was ice cold, and I had already spent the past 4 months following them every day. This was a project I’ve always wanted to do since graduating from college, and I decided it was now or never. I’d probably regret it if I never allowed myself to pursue this.

Anyways, Wan Chi Ming is always the finale of the parade. And it’s sort of crazy because they actually do two parades at the same time on the same day. One in Manhattan. The other in Brooklyn. Yes, I did wish there was two of me that day so I could’ve documented both events, but alas, I decided to stay in Manhattan.

The finale is the highly anticipated double dragon. That’s right. Not one, but two dragons! They come flying past East Broadway and the people love it. The parade started towards Mott and Canal Street. I was capturing the event from the ground and planned to run up to the roof of their studio when they started to get close to the end. This was my highly anticipated final project of several years after all. I was determined to do the best I can. Plus, just the night before they hung this really beautiful flag outside their building that was now swaying in the wind. I knew it was going to be a great shot.

So everything goes well. I’m zigging and zagging between all the dragons and lions to capture as many different angles as possible. And as they came to about one block of the studio I sprint as fast as I could up to the roof. Their elevator was broken at the time, so naturally, I was huffing and puffing by the time I got up there. 

The thing is, like most New York roofs, there is a big ledge that sort of blocks your view, so I had to climb on top of that in order to get a clear overhead shot. Once on top, I had about a 4-foot ledge I could stand on to try and get THE SHOT.

But as I’m sure most of you must know, you must lean pretty far forward in order to make sure you don’t get your feet in the photo.

Mind you. I’m already standing who knows how many feet above East Broadway and now I’m leaning over with nothing to protect me from a deadly fall. No, there was no guard rail. I’m lucky it didn’t snow that day. I guess my shoes were grippy enough, otherwise, I don’t know what could’ve happened.

Anyways, the double dragons come soaring past East Broadway and the crowd goes wild. The flag isn’t quite flowing the way I want it to though, so I keep leaning and tippy-toeing in order to get the shot I want. I really only had a couple seconds to do this because the dragons weren’t going to be stopping just for me. Nor did they know I had sprinted up to the roof of their studio to do just that. 

Eventually, the wind picked up, laid the flag perfectly parallel to the double dragons and I take as many shots as possible, I get off the ledge as soon as I could and take the biggest sigh of relief. As I run back down the stairs to catch up with the crew I promised myself never to risk my life for a shot like that ever again. When I think back to it, I still get vertigo. It’s a very weird feeling. But it is very scary indeed. Most people say that is one of their favorite shots, and I’m flattered, but in my head, I’m often thinking to myself, “That was kinda stupid”.

I was in my early 20s at the time and sort of young and reckless but nowadays I don’t think it’s worth it at all to risk my life for a shot. Never again. But hey, that’s the story of the most dangerous photo I ever took.

by Jason Lam

"I THINK YOU SHOULD JUST GO FOR IT"

What I tell myself when I start thinking too much and doing too little.

by Jason Lam

MY GREATEST CREATIVITY HACK

Do you ever feel stuck in your creative endeavors? You’ve worked long and hard on a project that means so much to you and you’re so close to finishing but you’ve hit a wall. You’re making changes but it just seems to be making things worst. You’re asking for feedback but nothing seems to help. Worst of all, you can’t even tell what’s good or bad anymore.

This happens to me a lot.

But here’s one thing that I noticed works really well when I hit this brick wall:

Stop working.

Step away. If you’re anything like me. You may have worked on a project for months, maybe even years. And I get it. When I’m so deep into a creative endeavor, the last thing I want to do is step away. After all, I want to finish it and I want to finish it now! I’m so close!

But the problem is the same. I can’t finish it. And I don’t even know if what I’m doing is helping or hurting anymore.

I noticed when I stop working and step away for as long as two weeks and then come back to the work, I am much more capable of identifying the problem areas and fixing it in an instant. It happens fast. I know exactly what I need to do and how I need to do it. 

It sounds kind of odd that I couldn’t figure it out sooner, but it also makes perfect sense.

When I step away, I give my brain a chance to take a breath and reset so when I return, I have a fresh pair of eyes to critique the work without the emotional connection. And as I’m sure you know. Being way too personally connected with a project is one of the biggest obstacles to productivity. It blinds me to my flaws because I want to protect myself. After all, I’ve spent so much time on this project already! It CAN’T be bad!

I still find it difficult to stop working from time to time. I’m a workaholic. I willingly lose sleep on my creative projects. But now that I have over 10+ years of experience under my belt. I’m starting to figure out what works and what doesn’t. And stepping away from my work is really effective in expediting the process.

Now I make sure to step away from my projects. If I can, I ignore it for two weeks. I even forget about it. And when I come back I can usually put the finishing touches without the headache, stress and the sleepless nights. 

It sounds counterintuitive because if you’re not working it sounds like you’re not making progress. But like an athlete, I think it’s important to schedule rest time so our body has a chance to recover. And once we allow ourselves the benefit of taking a break, we can come back that much stronger and capable of doing what needs to be done. 

by Jason Lam

YOU DON'T NEED PERMISSION

“No one is going to ask you to do something you love. Just go ahead and start without permission, and build a body of work.” - Steve Goldbloom

Thoughts of late… all encompassed in a single quote.

by Jason Lam

1 SECOND EVERYDAY - 2017

The year I created Barely Evolved Apes.

by Jason Lam

SET SMALLER GOALS

Have you ever set a goal and failed to achieve it? I have. More times than I’d like to admit. Here’s a little tip that’s been working for me. Set smaller goals and work on perfecting the little things. It doesn’t sound as impressive and it won’t win you any cool points, but it will get you where you want to go.

by Jason Lam

THE GLORY OF THE END

One thing I can’t help but notice is the level of appreciation I always have for everything when I’m about to board a plane in the next 24 hours.

Within those 24 hours, it’s like I have a new pair of eyes, a new set of ears, and a fresh new nose and taste buds to go with it so I can truly appreciate what is around me. 

It’s like life’s way of telling you. This is about to end. Remember this moment.

And it’s funny because I try to do this all the time in my everyday life. You know… this thing called, “Being in the moment,” but it doesn’t really ever work quite as well as I want it to. If I try really hard. Sure. Maybe I am a little more focused. A little more patient. And a little more accepting of subtle annoyances around me. But nothing quite jumps my appreciation levels to 1000 quite like knowing that this is all going to end. 

Marcel Proust was a big advocate of this in his book, “In Search of Lost Time”. He advised all of us to think of death often. In fact, maybe you should even keep a skull on your table to remind you that your life will eventually end, so as to make us a little more resilient in the face of adversity and a little more appreciative for the sweet little nothings in life. 

But then that could also be a bit too somber for my tastes. I went so far as going on Amazon, searching for a replica of a human skull and even added it to my cart. But I never pushed the “Buy Now” button.

Instead, I think it is a good idea to take trips abroad often just for this very effect: Appreciation for what we already have.

There’s another saying that goes: "You don’t know what you have until it’s gone"

Therefore, we must be proactive about ridding ourselves of what we have every so often for the sole purpose of being able to RE-see everything we have in a new light. In order to bring our sense of appreciation back, we must take away all the things we've grown accustomed to due to prolonged exposure. The Golden Gate Bridge, the fact that we have hot running water, or even something as simple as having a cafe down the block from our house with that one barista who knows us by name and knows exactly we what we want every time.

I think travel has been too strongly associated with luxury. The fancy vacation packages. 5-star hotels. Cruises to exotic places with palm trees and foods you can’t pronounce. It’s all fine in its own way but this strong correlation overshadows the other really true and essential benefits of travel…

Ridding yourself of your comfort so as to be able to come back and say wow! The Golden Gate Bridge! Hot running water! A cafe down the block!

To date, nothing has been able to do this quite as effectively as simply leaving for a little while, and then coming back.

So, for those who’ve been wanting to travel, perhaps this could be a reason to do so. No, not for the fancy stuff. Not for the epic selfies. But for your own sake, and as contradictory as it may sound, maybe even a happier healthier life.

by Jason Lam

DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE NEW YEAR

If there’s something you want to do… do it now. Great big changes in your life don’t always have to be accompanied with big announcements and fireworks.

If you are going to make a big change in your life, you probably shouldn’t tell anyone either, because when you do, your brain does this little Jedi mind flip where it tricks you into thinking you already did it when all you really did was make a decision.

Whatever it is that you want to do. Don’t wait until the new year. Don’t tell anyone. Do it now. And let the results speak for themselves.

by Jason Lam

FORGET INSPIRATION

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.” 

—Octavia E. Butler

I spent the better part of the weekend looking over my daily schedule and reviewing my progress throughout the year. (2017 is almost coming to an end! Yikes!) Much of it involved building good habits and ditching the ones that don’t serve me. Suffice to say, nowhere in my schedule says, “Do (activity) only when inspired.”

I like inspiration, but I don’t depend on it anymore. Now I see it more like a lucky star I just happen to find (like in Mario Kart ). I’ll use it for as long as it stays with me, but I won’t stop working just because it’s gone.

The thing about building good habits is it can also become a bit robotic. So to counterbalance my obsession with productivity, I’ve also built a habit of not letting myself work on Sundays, aka “cheat days” for literally everything. I get to sleep in, eat a ton of waffles with extra maple syrup, and watch Netflix all day. Can not working be considered a productivity habit? Not sure, but hey, it works for me.

by Jason Lam

OFF DAYS

We all have them. When I have an off day I always try to pinpoint why. Is it because I slept too late? Did I not eat a proper breakfast? Did I forget to do my morning routine?

One thing I don’t do, or at least, try not to do is to be too hard on myself. Instead, I identify it for what it is, an off DAY. And to remember that despite it all, I still showed up. It works (most of the time).

What do you do when you have an off day?

by Jason Lam

"HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS YOU CAN"

Jamie Foxx said it best in his podcast with Tim Ferriss:

“Because in a blink of an eye, it’ll all be gone. 100 years compared to infinity is nothing… [so] you better start having some fun. We gon’ be gone in a minute! You gonna look back and be like, ‘Shit i shoulda been laughing, and now I’m dead’”

Lol. Funny, but sad, but true.

by Jason Lam

REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED

Especially when things get tough and thoughts about quitting start creeping into your head. This was a hard lesson I had to learn from having lost motivation doing many things I thought I was “committed” to. Like my definition for love, the meaning of commitment has evolved a lot throughout the years.

One thing I’ve learned is you must have a strong reason as to WHY you are doing something. Because if your WHY is flimsy, you’ll give up soon as things get difficult. So you need a damn good reason WHY, and when you feel like giving up, you need to remind yourself of that WHY.

Your WHY is the backbone of your journey. Your WHY will also evolve as you continue to grow. Quitting in the early stages and finding out something wasn’t meant for you, is in fact, part of the process of refining your WHY. So, find your WHY, strengthen your WHY, and then use your WHY to your advantage when times get tough. (I just used the word “why” way too many times).

by Jason Lam

THE MASTER

“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried” - Stephen McCranie

I often judge myself against the successes of others, clearly forgetting that they, too, must’ve failed over a hundred thousand million times before they got it right. (So, just a quick little reminder for myself.)

This makes me think of Thomas Edison with a pile full of broken light bulbs, Da Vinci with thousands of shitty first drafts of the Mona Lisa, and Elon Musk with maybe a ton of spaceships that couldn’t quite make it to Mars. No idea if these are true. But it makes me feel a little better and it keeps me motivated. Oh, and it also reminds me of another great idea. Celebrate your failures! Because every time you fail, you learn something.

by Jason Lam

THE SECRET OF GETTING AHEAD

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started” - Mark Twain

This one resonates with me because everything I’ve ever done that matters to me was really hard to start. Photography. Writing. Dancing. Video. There’s usually so much fear around pursuing the things that matter to you most. All these thoughts come up like: Am I good enough? Do I deserve this? Who do I think I am? Or the classic fear that your dreams might not be as great as you think they are. So you keep them dreams.

Damn.

But now I take those feelings as a sign that I must start. Because if it didn’t matter to me I wouldn’t be feeling those feelings. Weird, huh? The one thing you care about the most also freaks you out the most. Does anybody else ever feel that way?

The little act of starting puts you ahead of everybody else who didn’t. And I think that matters, regardless of how good you are. Because at least you’re doing it. And if you just do that enough times in a row, who knows where it’ll take you? Definitely further than here.

Anyways, here’s to getting started. Again and again.

by Jason Lam

YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT // YOU ARE WHAT YOU FOCUS ON

You are what you think about. Or maybe not. There’s also the school of thought that says you are not your thoughts, instead, you are the observer of your thoughts. So you are sort of like the stage where your thoughts play out.

But then where do our thoughts come from? I don’t know the exact answer. I swear they just seem to magically appear out of nowhere a lot of the times, then again, I think a big part of it comes from our environments. Movies, television, radio, friends, conversations, activities, even the way our living spaces are furnished - they all affect our thoughts, which then affect our behavior, which then affects our life and so on and so forth.

So, maybe you are not your thoughts. They can be a bit random after all. But maybe you are what you focus on. And whatever you focus on, that’s the direction your life moves towards. If you focus on how you never have enough, you might really end up feeling like you never have enough. If you focus on abundance in life, as crazy as it may sound, maybe your life might really start to feel quite abundant and full of wonderful things. Anyways, I guess what I’m saying is, what are you focusing on? And, is that where you want to go?

by Jason Lam