♪ Slow down babe you're going too fast ♪
This is gonna be a simple
walk and talk video,
unscripted because I need
something quick and easy.
And that has been the constant struggle
of my channel for the past three years.
(upbeat music)
Hey it's your gal
Ahsante helping you move,
consciously and creatively
through life so let's go.
One of my main goals for
the past three years,
since I graduated from college,
was okay like now that
I'm done with school,
I'll finally have time
to actually post a video,
every single week.
(sarcastically laughing)
That hasn't happened if you've been,
following me for a while you'll know,
I am someone who is really ambitious
who's really achievement oriented.
And so when I set my mind to a goal,
like I wanna accomplish
it as soon as possible
and you really have to
pace yourself sometimes.
It takes patience and it
takes extended periods
of hard work which is really tough
but definitely necessary.
This goal that I have of posting videos,
a video every week,
at first it was around the
algorithm and expectations
and also getting more
videos to you the audience.
And at this point because consistency,
has consistently eluded
me for three years,
it's now just about me
and whether I can do it.
Like it's a personal challenge now
that I'm like okay this is something
that I need to prove to myself
that I can actually do.
And it's really it's not a matter
of not having time, right?
When we can't achieve our
goals it's never a matter
of not having time,
it's not having the priority, right?
I have just had to face that,
adulting takes the work
especially when you're,
first setting up your adult life.
I had to focus on finding a job.
I had to focus on finding a place to live
and I of course wanted
to live in a nice place
and have a nice job.
And so that took some finding.
I didn't just keep the
first thing I found,
I had to keep moving.
I moved 12 times in two years,
I had to keep searching,
keep searching and you have
to make life a priority sometimes.
You have to judge your
priorities and balance,
case yourself accordingly when
it comes to your other tasks.
So I'm figuring out that pace now,
I'm figuring out how to do
that work life work balance.
When I figure it out I'll
definitely let you guys know,
if any of you will figure it out,
let me know in the comments.
What I feel about YouTube,
similarly to Garret
Robinson felt in a video
that he put out recently.
If you don't know Garret Robinson,
he is a person you should check out,
if you're creative he
makes things about writing,
he's also very socially progressive,
socially aware thoughtful guy.
So if you're into my videos,
you might be into his.
I will link him in the description,
definitely go check him out.
But he basically said look,
I've been doing YouTube for a while,
we've been (mumbles)
this thing for a while
and I have these benchmarks,
these goals that I wanna hit on YouTube
but I feel like I would
not have given my channel,
a fair shot if I don't
post one video every week,
for an extended amount of time.
That's how I feel as well
and it's frustrating.
So I'll say like new videos every Thursday
and I'll keep it up for like two months
and then kinda fall off the wagon
but goals are not things that you can,
just immediately jump to
the finish line on, right?
You've to walk your way up to it,
you've to build it
and making videos just like
anything else is a skill,
it's something that you get better at
that you get faster at.
And then making the type of videos
that I've been making recently,
is kind of working new muscles for me.
New sought of production
workflows and processes
and I just have to forgive myself when,
two weeks is gone by and
(mumbles) put a new video.
Like there is now,
I always feel so self-conscious
and it's all self-pressure
but it's the pressure of knowing
that you're not meeting your goals,
knowing that you're not
doing your personal best
and what you know that
you are capable of doing.
I'm gonna have to work up to that,
I can't just flip a switch and turn it on
and boom all of a sudden super consistent,
fabulous production quality Ahsante.
It's not gonna work like that.
I've actually been really
bad at pacing myself,
when it comes to the work that I'm doing
with this channel.
I'm working to that internal deadline
of make a video every other week
or make a video every week
and I'll get to a point where it's Monday
and I've thought of
this great video, right?
I've thought of something
that could use animation
and clips and really
work my creative skills.
And then I'll feel like it's not feasible
to accomplish in four days
and then I'll try to think of another idea
that is feasible in a like
a four day time period.
And then I'll work that idea out
and get creative with that
and then once I've blueprinted it out,
I realize that's now an idea
that will take more than the three days
that I have left and so
then I'll end up doing,
yet another idea that is okay,
what is something I can
do in like 24 to 48 hours?
And then I'll flesh out the idea,
I'll do it and I'll spend like 12 hours
and stay up all night working on the video
and then I post the video
and I'm completely burnt out
'cause I just stay up
all night while doing it.
And then I'll just be so over video making
that I'll be not into it and just kind
of close the laptop and walk away.
And that's not good, right?
And then my original idea
that I had planned for
at first never gets accomplished
and that just adds to my
mountain of frustration
with sought of not
reaching my full potential.
So that is what the cycle of working
to rushed deadlines has gotten me.
Ill pacing (chuckles)
products that are good
and beneficial and people seem to enjoy
but are not exactly the thing
that I had in mind to do.
So I think I'm gonna try
something a little different
as opposed to saying to myself self,
I'm gonna go get this done by X day
or I'm going to upload at X frequency.
I'm just gonna work on my next video idea
and do what I wanna do.
Get that idea done and
it'll go up when it goes up.
So I'm gonna give myself the time
and the space and the grace
to actually execute the ideas
that I wanna execute
knowing that at first,
I'm not gonna reach my goal
of uploading every week or
even maybe every other week,
it might be 16 days, 15 days.
Most of my video ideas
don't take that long,
like I'm not gonna spend a
whole month working on a video.
Most of my videos take
like somewhere around 15
to 25 hours to make but you
can't rush these things, right?
You have to take it at a manageable pace,
make mistakes in the beginning,
learn from those mistakes.
Know how to do the thing better
with a goal of steadily
increasing the pace.
So you can't start up here,
you're gonna start where you're,
kind of accomplish things at the level
at which you can operate now
and then work my up.
And work my way towards more consistency,
while also maintaining
the level of creativity
because that is something that
I really have enjoyed doing.
Over the past couple of videos is,
incorporating more footage more graphics
and I wanna keep that sought
of elevated production style
as a consistent theme on my channel.
So it's about patience,
it's about knowing your capacity
and working with your
capacity, not fighting it.
Not denying it, keeping a
good pace that's healthy week
to week and hopefully increasing my pace
so that I can reach my goal.
If you're into personal development,
this is not a typical video of mine.
I kinda made this as just
a PSA popping on here
that I'm gonna be doing whatever I need
to do to finish these things
and also because I wanna make
a second video this month.
Damn it, and it's July
31st so it's now or never
but if you're interested
in personal development
and life motivation then
you should subscribe
so you don't miss new videos.
I the comments let me
know if you've ever had
to pace yourself in trying to reach a goal
or task and how that went.
And thank you to my Patreon patreons
who make this work possible.
All my patreons I listed
in the description,
shout out to y'all you the best.
As always remember to live spiritedly
and think creatively and
I'll see you next time.
(happy a cappella music)
What's making me happy this week,
is Beyonce on the cover of Vogue
with a black photographer, yes honey.
It's ridiculous that it was like, what?
A hundred and, well over 100 years,
in all of Vogue's history of the magazine,
there has never been a cover shot
by a black photographer before.
They disrespect.
People love black culture much more,
than they love black people.
And that only happened because she got,
editorial control over the
cover in unprecedented way
because she is the queen bee.
But that's why it's so important
to be intentional about
who you hire and who you invest in, right?
Because if you're not
intentional then you sleep up
and have no black people on their roster,
for 100s of years.
Now it's wild how in
2018 we're still having,
firsts like this but it
just shows where we are
and that we have a long way to go.
Well, I'm gonna go edit this bad boy
and get it up tonight.
I'll be right back.
♪ Slow down babe you're going too fast ♪
♪ You got your hands in the air ♪
♪ With your feet on the gas ♪
