The things we say and the projects we do are our clips. Taken together, they are our contribution. If you don’t want to be judged by a clip of something you said or did, the path is pretty clear. The best resumé says, “please judge me by my clips.”*
(Seth Godin)

The imagination can create the future only if its products are brought over into the real. The bestowal of work completes the act of imagination.**
(Lewis Hyde)

I confess I had to look up what a clip is, and I’m guessing it’s this, not these.

There’s the good, the bad and the ugly inside all of us and they make it to the outside in a plethora of ways.

In her recommendations for good writing habits, Lydia Davis encourages observation:

Take notes regularly.^

What should be take notes on?

Observe your own activity […] your own feelings […] the behaviour of others, both animal and human […] the weather, and be specific […] other types of behaviour, including that of municipalities*^

I include these words not because we are all to be writers, but because we need to be better observers of our own lives, not only to see when we are being bad or ugly, and to stop, but when we are being good and don’t notice it so that we can repeat it.

I wonder whether, if what we get to noticing is actually telling us a lot about our energy:

To be fully engaged, we must be physically energised, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.^^

The last is the biggy for me because it ensures that the bad and the ugly cannot triumph.

Bringing these thoughts together, notice when you are most energised: what are you doing?, why are you doing it”, who are you doing it with or for? and when are you doing it (i.e., are you starting or finishing something?)? Do more of these things and you are likely being your good self, and you’ll also have enough energy to do things you don’t particularly like doing, too.

(*From Seth Godin’s blog: You are your clips.)
(**From Lewis Hyde’s The Gift.)
(^From Literary Hub’s article: Lydia Davis: Ten of My Recommendations for Good Writing Habits.)
(^^From Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz’s The Power of Full Engagement.)