How To Have Fun

from a guy who struggles to have fun

Double Negative Dispatch Issue #94
How does one have fun when life is challenging?

That’s the question I’m asking myself lately.

When the trees are skeletal, the days are cloudy and cold, and you’re focused on doing your taxes, where does fun factor in?

I think fun is an essential part to taking joy in the process of making art. If you can’t find enjoyment in the process, you’ll never make anything great. I fully believe that. But the world wants us all to be joyless soldiers in the war for productivity.

I’m the worst at remembering to have fun. I’m very good at going “shark eyes” and numbly completing the task in front of me. I can be much more Ivan Drago than Rocky much of the time. (Ivan Drago lost if you remember)

(Fun is also a big part of this week’s podcast episode:)

Tom Sachs’ advice

I recently listened to a great interview with the artist Tom Sachs on the Rich Roll podcast. He recommends something so simple that could positively affect our day: Wake up and make something even if it’s a simple drawing or something else minor. The first thing we often do in the morning is check our phones, and how could we not? Phone addiction is nearly impossible to combat. Wake up and start your day by making something rather than consuming something. Highly recommend the podcast episode, there’s so much great stuff in there.

Procrastination: The Greatest Tool For Success

In Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell’s character (the titular Ricky Bobby) has lived his whole life based on the mantra “If you’re not first, you’re last” based on what his dad told him as a kid. Later in the movie, he mentions the quote to his dad and his father (played by Gary Cole) responds by telling him that’s an absurd mantra and says he must have been high when he told his son that. Will Ferrell responds in shock with, “What?! I built my whole life on that!”

I live on a similarly absurd mantra that I heard my dad say once: “If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute.” Similar to Ricky Bobby, I have built my life on this quote from my father. (to my knowledge he was not high when he said this, however)

I procrastinated my college work in order to pursue my own photo projects. That particular pursuit has resulted in creating Double Negative, which has opened up a whole new world. (I also still managed to graduate college somehow, so we’re all good) In fact, as I write this, I’m procrastinating doing my bookkeeping for last month. That’s why this newsletter is good today—my mind looks at the possibility of filling out spreadsheets and suddenly comes up with a really great idea for an essay.

Giving into procrastination has almost always been good my photography or art. When presented with yard work or some boring adult responsibility, suddenly going out to take pictures sounds really enticing.

Stop pinning your worth on productivity

Productivity is next to godliness. Well, at least, that’s what we’re taught. That’s what I’ve believed for most of my life. But fusing who I am to production just grinds us down. I’m greatly looking forward to Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary about the Manosphere because that’s an example of a very popular facet of our culture that takes productivity as self-worth to another level. And yet, if you read the novel Lonesome Dove for example, you have this wonderful contrast of the characters Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae. Gus takes his time. Drinks, plays cards, and looks at life with much less urgency than his companion Call, who lives in a tunnel vision of constant work and production. Focusing on productivity uncouples us from ourselves because it’s a convenient escape from self-examination, which is what Call struggles with as the book goes on.

Gus might be a more leisurely fellow, but he does what’s necessary when things go sideways.

Ultimately, everyone has their own style and pace of life. For every obsessive grinder, there’s someone who takes their time and yet gets just as far.

The End Never Comes (Until We Die)

Growth. Scale. Hustle. Grind.

For what? A nicer 401K? (as if I even know what a 401K is)

We’re all headed to the same place. If I choose to shut out my emotions, family, friends, and the little things that bring glimmers to life, the goal better be pretty worth it.

It never is.

When I was 18 I had a dream that I’d become a full-time photographer with a studio. Well…I did that, like, years ago. And then I decided to stop renting a studio after a couple years because at the time it was easier to work from home. I got to my “ultimate” dream, and immediately moved on to the next set of dreams without even acknowledging the goal post. If I burned all the boats to get to being a full-time photographer with a studio, I wouldn’t be left with much.

Sitting on the porch Gus McCrae-style drinking and playing cards on the road to my dreams sounds like a much nicer time.

Enjoy mistakes

Notice I didn’t say “embrace” mistakes. I said enjoy mistakes. I’ve gotten back into videos games over the past couple years, but I’ve grown to prefer strategy games or something that takes some analysis in order to complete a goal. Video games are entertainment, right? It wouldn’t be entertaining if I didn’t enjoy the climb, so I think video games are great roadmaps to learning to enjoy the whole process, which consists of mistakes. For every mistake, I learn something new that helps me get closer to my ultimate goal. Being mad that I’m capable of mistakes and seeing myself as a failure is a good way to become resentful of the process. The process is the whole ball game. Enjoy that, and everything becomes a lot more fun.

Ignore results

This goes doubly (no pun intended) for a good Double Negative video. This week, I’ve been shooting footage for the next video, and I have almost no plan. Basically, I’m just following my gut and doing what sounds interesting with this experimental camera I’m playing with. All I’m doing is documenting the fun I’m having. At the end, when it’s time to put the video together, the work will be much easier because I’ll have a bunch of footage of me just organically having fun. That’s way better than rigidly planning it all out and making a robotic video.

This has to be how documentarians approach their work right? A good documentary can’t be planned out, the filmmaker has to roll with the punches and figure out what to do with it all in the end. Maybe it becomes the greatest documentary ever, or maybe it doesn’t. The documentarian is at the mercy of the subject in many cases, I’d assume. Process is all they have to go on. They’d have to enjoy the making, otherwise gunning for a particular result is just going to end in a manufactured, inorganic way.

The results are coming whether we like it or not. That’s why I like Youtube. I make a video, and maybe it doesn’t work out so great. But that’s fine! Because I can just make another one.