This Chase Jarvis Show with Elle Luna doesn’t fall short of being up there in the best of the best.
First off, Elle is an amazing author and creative who encourages all of us to find our purpose and just do it. Her first book, The Crossroads of Should and Must was a popular blog turned book, which I’ve personally read and highly recommend.
It will inspire reflection on how you’re currently living your life (EEEEK, right!?). The book/blog helps bring up the questions of what you should be doing versus what you must do. Both are great pieces! Go check out the blog and the book. She’s also done a few public chats.
This Chase Jarvis Show aired on May 31st, 2018 and covers a lot of ground – it’s an hour and a half long so it was difficult to boil down this bad boy. But, nonetheless, I’m taking my best shot and hope you find the nuggets useful.
Without further ado, here’s your summary and golden nuggets:
In summary – we all live in a world where we feel the pressure to do what we should versus what we feel we must.
Shoulds are felt by culture, society, mom and dad, friends, family etc. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever done anything in life where you felt you should. And maybe felt shame when you didn’t want to do the should.
Musts, on the other hand, are things we simply love to do. Things that make us feel good. Elle’s should was to be a lawyer – which ended up not happening after a few failed attempts to get into law school.
Long story short, she discovered her must…Writing, painting, and creating. (Far cry from being a lawyer…sorry lawyers!)
Elle Nugget
“Must is who you are. It’s what you believe. It’s what you know to be true. And you’re really really quiet with yourself”.
She goes on…explaining you will feel trapped or imprisoned if you’re doing your shoulds and not your musts. In order to get out of this hold, you first must recognize your shoulds in order to escape them.
Elle Nugget
“The first thing a prisoner needs to know before they can escape is that they’re in prison”.
GOLD!
Elle Nugget
“Get to know your shoulds so they can lead you to your musts”
Practical Application:
Lists your shoulds and ask three questions:
- Where did I first hear this?
- Are you true for me? Or is this should true?
- Do I want to keep holding on to you?
Elle Nugget
“In order to let go of the shoulds – kindly put them down and let them go…should is the doorkeeper to must.”
Defining Musts:
-
- Musts are things you just love
- Musts make you feel good
- Must is unavoidable
- Must is no choice but to
- Must is obvious
- Must is choiceless
Elle also explains why we hold onto the shoulds and are afraid to do things we love – we’re afraid of what our loved ones will think of us but she explains it’s from their heart – they don’t want us to quit that great job, follow our passion etc. because –
Elle Nugget:
“The people around us want us to be safe, and take care of us and not be starving artists.”Side note…(In case you need info on how to not be a starving artist check out Jeff Goins book, Real Artists Don’t Starve.)
Because we don’t want to disappoint our loved ones, Elle and Chase discuss the need for support, a tribe, a community. Elle created #the100dayproject to promote community and helping wannabe artists move toward a daily 100 day ritual of publishing their very own creation. It happens every year – check it out if you’re feeling stuck and want a community to support your musts.
Moving on…Chase speaks about the difficulty of naming ourselves, artists.
He explains – he was an athlete and his creative side didn’t shine through and he wasn’t sure the two worlds could collide. But then he realized he could have both.
Chase Nugget:
“There’s a possible fusion between action and activity – which means you can be athletic and be wildly creative”.
Super cool for those jocks out there dying inside because they want to create but might be embarrassed. I personally always figured I wasn’t a creative type because I too was an athlete – turns out I’m pretty creative! Who knew!
Halfway through Susie Herrick joins the discussion and talks through discovering your feminine voice. She talks about doing a lot of internal work in order to have the most impact on the world. This is a big ol’ heavy convo! It summarizes ways in which we can all think about how we look at the world, our own internal messaging and how that reflects outward. A few of my favorite points that came from the discussion with Susie…..
Elle Nuggets:
“The more you get sorted out in here (inside) and you stop talking shit in here (pointing to her heart), you get sorted out there (to the outside world)”.
“Love doesn’t always mean making things okay, sometimes love means making things not okay.” Elle repeating Susie’s advice
My favorite —–>>>>>
“A lot of individual change creates a lot of collective change”.
This podcast was a slam dunk! If you want to check the full episode out, go here. Below are more great quotes and my takeaways:
More Nuggets on Creativity:
“Creativity creates more creativity.” – Chase
“On the 100 day project: The outcome of the 100-day project is the process – letting go of this idea of creating fetishized objects. It’s about getting beyond the object itself and just continuing to get your butt in that seat every day.” -Elle
More Nuggets on the Need for Community:
“Without community, it’s hard for your idea to travel.” -Chase
“There’s this part of us that needs to be consistently making a community for our ideas to be able to go beyond just the four walls in which they were created.” -Chase
“Creating a community isn’t just a nice to have it’s a must!” -Chase
More Nuggets on Love and Honestly:
“Truth without heart is cruelty.” -Elle