The pot’s almost finished. Mid-morning rain.

Good.

Swing open the MacBook Pro (Space Grey, 2020) to check that Google Doc note I made last night while trying to sleep.

Oh yea, now I remember…

Darlings.

This one’s hard. I mean, they’re my darlings after all. Important characters. But they’re confusing my energy and keeping me stuck…as exciting and as good as they are.

Well-meaning too; they deserve a spotlight, a whole movie of their own.

But I need clarity and focus. A small realignment.

This’ll take some time.

The coffee pot just dinged. And I’m feeling pretty good about this.

5+ active passion projects. All with 5 year plans and ready-to-grow brand kits. Everything’s fully worked out.

Sort of.

Each one equally important and deserves my full attention.

Each one has potential, lots of runway. All is possible.

I should do it all, because it all excites me. And I can do it all.

It’s the curse of potential. A multi-passionate’s riddle. The shiny object conundrum.

But take stock and look around…focus has become a dull blade and each project is a big steak. Progress is slow and my hand is cramping.

If I truly want to get through these proverbial steaks, I need to cut a few projects first.

At least temporarily.

Even if I do love them all.

But the context switching is getting too much. So the chopping block it is.

Killings your darlings can feel like a weird creative sacrificial ceremony, pushing off some projects into a volcanic pit of “someday” so the focus gods may let the others live.

But that feels dramatic. This is just what needs to be done. And it feels right.

Follow your bliss and intuitive hits.

Listen for your inner voice; it’s quiet, but it’s also kinda loud.

Deep down, you know what you need to do. What you’re meant to do in this season, or even this life.

Often, it’s the stuff you’re most afraid to do or the things you procrastinate the most with.

Or it’s the stuff you react to emotionally the strongest when you see others doing it (be that excitement, urgency or jealousy). I’ll talk about how I handle these emotions in future letters.

But for now, think it through. Dig deep if you need to. You probably don’t need another decision list or Claude chat tips for how to choose.

What are most compelled or excited to do?

And watch out for weekend side quests or random rabbit holes, they’re seductive. It’s fun to follow the thread, and I support it (serendipities and exciting dots connect there). But tie yourself to a rope so you can pull yourself out before spending too much time on something that really isn’t the path.

What’s the thing you want to shine your spotlight on for the next year (at least)?

Maybe it’s something innate in you (like a calling you’ve felt since childhood), or maybe it’s just a feeling. There’s probably something in you quietly guiding, whispering “this darling’s worth saving.”

And I know it sucks when you truly have multiple voices pulling you this way and that way. I’ve never been a single title kind of person myself, so I get it, the thought of choosing one lane is absurd.

I still struggle.

But they do call it kill your darlings for a reason.

And no stress, you can revive them one day. They’re just going into cryo; timing + patience is everything.

For me, killing darlings means one of two things:

Naturally, I’ve chosen the latter.

I’m stacking art and music with a backdrop of travel. This No Compass writing project, my Pinterest account, and the videos sitting in my DaVinci Resolve are all just content channels built around the main thing. But they’re not the main thing I care to be known for.

Killing darlings (or even just assigning better roles) has shifted my whole approach and motivation in life. It’s why I’ve started slowly sharing my art in these letters.

Suddenly, this newsletter (plus my No Compass blog and YouTube channel) don’t feel like unrelated disconnected distractions…suddenly, they’ve become levers for reaching my creative goals.

This is the artist content strategy that makes the most sense to me: share your philosophies and ideas on life in whatever format you like, and then use your craft as the projects/mascots/products to express those ideas deeper; the art and music are just visual and sonic expressions of my ideas and POVs on life.

Even though writing and video are passions, they’re not the spotlight or the things I want to be most known for…not right now, at least. They’re supporting characters, content vehicles to deliver a mission.

This is how I approach being a multi-passionate creator (if you’re into that): you can use all your passions in your ecosystem, but just assign them to the right roles.

Later, after letting your core darling grow, you can always write a sequel for one of those secondary darlings—a movie of their own, another realm inside your universe.

But when everything is connected and assigned a clear role with a shared North Star, stuff just runs smoother and motivation is strong. Writing this letter, for example, feels very connected to my larger artist visions, I no longer feel like I’m ignoring that goal.

And all I had to do was kill some darlings and see the bigger picture.

Alright, that’s a wrap. The coffee’s run cold and now I need to finish the sketch I made for this letter (pinned as the hero image above).

Lemme pass the mic to you now—do you have darlings you need to kill? What’s your biggest struggle in choosing one core thing? (reply to the letter, would love to connect)

Alright, thanks for reading and chat again soon

✌️