Creator! Hey.

Today is the last day in our three-part series on building a new life, and subsequently the last chance to get the Legacy Bundle I recently brought back from retirement for a limited time (learn more here).

One of my favorite quotes on writing comes from Annie Dillard, in which she shares the famous line about “spending it all.” She implores us to write down what we have to say now, to share it with someone before it turns to dust, like a fire you store in a safe somewhere, only to return and find ashes later. You cannot contain the fire, she seems to be saying. It must be used now.

I always loved that. But she goes on to say, “The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water.”

There is a mystery in any creative act, and that mystery is where it comes from. No one really knows. I certainly don’t. My friend Andrew says it comes from the same place that created you: Nowhere.

Everything comes from Nowhere. The Void is always that which births the All. And that seems true to me, at least on a metaphorical level, when it comes to writing a line or finishing a story, or imagining some new project.

Which is to say: you have no idea what you are capable of.

At any time in your story when you think you have arrived at what you could be, you will surprise yourself. You will expand or contract, evolve in some new and interesting way. You will change. This is what life does. And in this grand experiment of living, you may find yourself wearing many masks, taking on multiple forms in your narrative. Some of those identities may shock you, or at least the “you” that you once were.

That is certainly the case for me. If the guy who started this writing business over a decade ago saw the person I have become today, he wouldn’t recognize him (and not just because I grew a beard—but that would certainly be impressive). There would be parts of me that this former self would not understand, parts he would disapprove of.

We are an ever-changing contradiction. What we once were, we may never be again. And what we are now will soon change shape.

Let’s say you had a dream once. Like I did.

Let’s say you would have done anything to be an artist or a writer, to create for a living and in a way where others enjoy your creations.

And let’s say someone came along, as was the case for me on multiple occasions, and told you this dream was silly or stupid or downright impossible.

Let’s say you believed them. Just as I did.

And let’s say you hid in the corner of a safe life that you knew protected you from any real risk or danger, it seemed, and fantasized about what could be, all the while telling yourself “that’ll never happen.”

Imagine, in this hypothetical scenario, that this feeling of potential welled up in your belly, waiting for just the right time to come out. It never went away, never sunk down past that lower dip in your gut where all great things originate. The place of near nothingness. Nowhere.

And in that quantum void sits everything you could be and are.

Let’s say days and weeks and years went by, and nothing ever changed. Let’s say one day, that feeling in the pit of your stomach never left. It was always just sitting there, in the waiting, for a time such as this.

Today.

Today is that day. The day you become an artist.

Today is the day you choose a creative vocation, even if it means going back to work tomorrow. Even if it means nobody hears you declare it on social media. Even if it means you have to work for years in the shadows.

But today, all that matters is that you began. And you know, even when no one else understands it, that something has shifted. You have started to create your future. Your legacy begins today.

And maybe we aren’t talking about hypotheticals anymore. ;)

As I’ve been sharing this past week, the love of my life and I are trying to buy a home and start a blended family. It’s been logistically challenging and emotionally exhausting. To create something new in the midst of global crises and catastrophes, and when the call to the old is so easy and seductive.

It’s not easy to do something new and bold.

And yet, this feels as right to me as the day I chose to start calling myself a writer ten years ago. It feels as right as when I told my college professors I’d be traveling for a year after graduation to play music. It feels as right as the day I started sharing my poetry for the first time with another person.

Sometimes, you just know what the next right move is. Maybe we always do, and we just need to remember. Perhaps, our work doesn’t come from Nowhere, from some spacious place where nothing living can survive. Perhaps it comes from us. There is another wonderful quote by Annie Dillard that gives voice to this mystery: “You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.”

We are here to witness the becoming of ourselves, to change into whatever we might be and document as much of the journey as we can. To give voice to our own astonishment. What a sacred calling that is.

If you need help finding that next step, knowing what to do when, I encourage you to check out the Legacy Bundle of courses and resources I've created over the past ten years. Today is the last day to get it, and you’ll get every course I’ve ever created on writing, publishing, marketing and more—for 90% off of what it would normally cost. Check it out here.

And let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you. (Seriously, hit reply and tell me what you’re struggling with).

Best,

Jeff

P.S. Every dollar you invest this month in the Legacy Bundle goes towards the next legacy I am creating: a home for children and love and a growing family. Well, you know, that and taxes and stuff. Being self-employed is hard.

When the powers that be want to push back a new dream before it can be fully birthed, we have to call on forces greater than ourselves. So I am going to you, my real boss, and asking for your support… in whatever way you can provide. Please pick up a copy of the bundle, buy it for a friend, and simply forward this email to someone who needs it. Thank you.

​