I must be going through growing pains. I have the almost uncontrollable urge to tweak things.
One of the things I’ve been tweaking is my tagline. I love taglines. I’m obsessed with them. Whenever someone tells me their business idea, my mind starts crafting a slew of them. To paraphrase an old but effective tagline for a certain brand of potato chips, I can’t write just one.
Almost every day, I think of new ways to briefly explain what being mildly creative is all about. And yesterday, it just became too much. I had to share what I’d come up with.
Does My Tagline Tell the Truth?
I wrote a post explaining all my brilliant reasons for changing my tagline. I explained my fear that my current one, “Leading a Life of Quiet Inspiration”, might be misleading. It does a dandy job describing what it means to be mildly creative, but I wasn’t so sure what it said about me.
I didn’t want to give you the impression I’m writing while sipping green tea, listening to Yanni, and sitting in the lotus position. You’re more apt to find me drinking diet cola, listening to Green Day, and sitting in the slouch position.
Tempted by the Shiny and New
So I came up with a new one. And then shortly after hitting the publish button, I came up with another one, and then another one, and then another one, and, well, you get the point.
I couldn’t choose, and to be honest, none of them worked as well as the old one. Leading a life of quiet inspiration is really what it’s all about. It’s just not what I’m always about.
The Tagline of My Soul
I’m not always quiet and I’m often uninspired. Frequently nervous, loud, and awkward, I’d make a pitiful mountain top guru. You’re more likely to find me clumsily tumbling down a slope than peacefully meditating on a peak. In other words, I’m a goofball.
But being a goofball is precisely why I had to find a way to calm down and focus in order to actually accomplish something. And focusing, at least part of the time, on leading a life of quiet inspiration is the best way I’ve found to do this.
Tag, That’s It.
So, the more things change the more they stay the same. Quiet inspiration it is.
Taglines to Spare
Now there’s just one problem. What do I do with all these wonderful little taglines I’ve created?
That’s easy. Share them with you.
Ten Alternate Taglines for Mildly Creative
- Finding Your Center without Losing Your Edge
- Finding Your Muse without Losing Your Mind
- Mind Management for Creative People
- A Simply Sane Approach to Creativity
- Create more. Freak out less.
- How to Get Creative without Going Crazy
- Creativity + Productivity – Insanity = Joy
- Lighting a Creative Flame that Won’t Burn You Out
- Self Expression without Exasperation
- Relax. It’s Just Art.
Maybe you have some of your own.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I love your tagline about leading a life of quiet inspiration…it gives me something to aim for!
I totally had a visual of you after you wrote, ‘I didn’t want to give you the impression I’m writing while sipping green tea, listening to Yanni, and sitting in the lotus position.’…I’m sorry, but that made me laugh out loud! Glad you’re not anything like that, mind you! I love the edge that you bring to your articles…it’s what keeps us coming back plus it’s how it’s spreading so well! You’re giving us all our ‘ah-ha’ moments! You are definitely our quiet inspiration!
Ken, I love the alternate tag lines. My other favorite potato chip tag line is “Get your own bag,” which makes me think here of “Get your own tag.” I am also reminded of how in college (high school?) random combinations of words used to make us to say, “Oh, that would make a great band name.” Tag lines seem like maybe the grown up version of that game? Definitely a fun game to play.
You could continue to come up with them periodically and create small banner images out of them. Then set them to rotate randomly so that we get a different one each time we come. Leave the cool “quiet inspiration” one in place and just place this banner below somewhere.
I was going to suggest Jonathan’s rotation idea – I couldn’t ever settle on one any more than I can keep the same screensaver for more than a couple of weeks.
And I just may have to “borrow” this one:
Create more. Freak out less.
Jonathan and Chris, thanks for the advice. I had actually already decided to do that. I’ll be combining them with some drawings and putting them into the rotation in media box on the right.
But I thought it would be fun to share a few that I’d come up with.
I read your tagline as a play on Thoreau’s “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” So, my first impression was of a witty and well-read individualist — nothing passive or wimpy about it.
However, I do really like “Finding your center without losing your edge.”
Hey Ken,
Trying to catch up on things. Been extremely busy lately. I’m going to be honest about all those taglines. Mildly Creative is the home run. The others are all cool but they are not as good IMO. So whatever, you are not always what the tagline says. I love green tea, have one pretty much every day, but listen to Yanni and do the lotus thing??? No thanks. Green Day rocks – I’m with you there! And so do so many other bands (I plan on taking in a Megadeth/Slayer concert with my teenage son soon – how is that for an old man!!!).
So what if you are not always perfectly true to your tagline??? Come on. Just be yourself. Look back and read about being mildly creative. That’s what got you here. Why abandon it now?
Later,
Mo