Meet new people. Try new foods. Run further then I ever have. Start a new hobby. Read more books. Travel. Fear less. Stay bold.

The best way to stay creative is to soak up as many experiences as humanly possible. Get out and start exploring.

It’s easy to slave over a body of copy for days and days.

Write. Edit. Read. Repeat. Change. Write. Write. Write. Edit. Repeat.

We get lost in the world of copywriting and soon enough we forget our objective. When you’ve edited something so much you feel like you don’t even know how you got to where you’re at, remind yourself of this:

Stop thinking and just write.

Too often we overanalyze, we listen to other people’s opinion and we get scared about shipping the words on our page. Next time this happens to you, take a deep breathe, trash the content you’re working on and start from scratch. Trust me, you’ll be better off then trying to force that last copy into something that isn’t working. Your writing should be simple and easy to read. In most cases, you’re audience is another human and most people like very short, sweet and easy-to-read copy.

People don’t want to read a novel, they want to read a tweet. They want to know what’s in it for them. They want to hear a story. They want something they can relate to. Give them this and you should be good to go. Forget buzzwords and correct feature/benefit analysis. Write in simple, common-Joe language and you can’t go wrong.

Stop Thinking. Just Write.

When I was younger my dad use to tell me something each and every day. I would roll my eyes and think to myself, “I’ve heard this a million times.” For some reason, this statement has stuck with me and it brings a smile to my face every time it pops in my head:

Learn as much as you can…because what you learn is what you can become.

I’ve thought about that statement more in my life than I ever thought I would. It inspires me in the darkest moments and it holds so much truth. I hope all of you learn something new every day and inspire those around  you to learn as well. Keep hustling and learn as much as you can because what you learn is what you can become.

Keep the hustle alive and never settle for less than your dreams.

1. Staying in better touch with my closest friends. I fail at this and it needs to change.
2. Following my heart and trusting my gut. Too often I trust society and it never pans out. I need to have more faith and trust that feeling that lingers deep within my heart.

If you’re reading this, you can keep me accountable. Feel free to call me out on these areas and ask how it’s going.

What goals are you planning for 2012?

I really appreciate everyone that takes time out of their day to read this blog. Thank you so much.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryan-mccarty/

• Working out (running, lifting, biking): Your brain is saying “you can do it” but your body is telling you to “stop”.
• Writing: Your “out of ideas”…or you’re just not use to writing that much content in one day.
• Time: You “can’t get up that early…” or your mind is stuck in the pattern of whatever time you usually get up.

If you expand your mental capacity will you be more productive? I’d love to hear your thoughts… In the meantime, I’ll deep-dive my thinking on this topic… It’s interesting!

I recently did a review on the Saucony Hattori for Running Village. Enjoy!

I added some video projects to the writing section of the site that I’ve been fortunate to work on in the last couple of years. It would be rad if you guys checked them out!

Is anyone else doing any script writing, copywriting or creative directing for TV spots or Web videos? If so, leave links in the comments; I’d love to see what everyone is currently working on.

With all the great responses from my last post about building a community of Iowa writers, I thought it would be cool to get a t-shirt printed up. Collectively we can come up with the concept and we can all rep our passion about writing and content creation. Here are a few slogans to get us started. Feel free to add other suggestions in the comments and I’ll add it to the poll. Choose up to two favorites. And of course we’ll print these on American Apparel 50/50 blend.