In this video I discuss the Ship Muscle for video editors. Seriously, I went back and forth for a day about whether or not to publish this video because of the graininess. But my own Ship Muscle needed a workout so I hit publish. Apologies if the pixelation is too much — I have some settings to adjust for low-light filming conditions on my phone.
What is the Ship Muscle?
I’m not sure if it was Seth Godin or Silicon Valley who invented the term “shipping” but to ship basically means to put your thing out there for the world. Your thing could be a product, a book, a video, a blog post, etc. Shipping it gets it off your computer screen and onto other people’s computer screens. Feel free to swap computer screen for cell phone, hands, or dog.
I have a term I use called “the ship muscle.” No clue if others call it this and I picked it up through osmosis. The ship muscle is your ability to ship. It’s how difficult shipping is for you. The more you work out your ship muscle the easier it is to ship.
The more shipping you do the easier it gets to ship.
Working Out the Ship Muscle
Us creative professionals constantly have to workout our ship muscles. It atrophies and rusts faster than the Tin Man caught in a thunderstorm.
The resistance we face even on the simplest of projects can keep us from completing our works. If you are able to fight that resistance off the more likely you are to fight it off again.
It’s counterintuitive but it’s true. You would think the more you fight the less energy you’d have to figure later on. That’s not the case though. When you fight the resistance you actually strengthen the ship muscle and make it stronger.
Resistance and My Ship Muscle: A Personal Story
For a long time I had an extremely tough time creating content for EVF and my other projects. So what I did was challenged myself to write and publish an article every single day.
Sometimes the articles were 50 words and sometimes they were 800 words. The goal was to ship. And that’s what I did. No matter what I put something out there for the world every single day.
Once I got into a solid practice like this (maybe 3 months in?) then shipping for other things like EVF became absurdly easier.
The resistance is still something I battle with anytime I put out content for you or videos for my clients. It’s a constant battle but the ship muscle is your friend. Keep yours toned and in shape.
Helpful Links
- The Six Skills Every Video Editor Needs to Have
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (Amazon affiliate link)
Did you enjoy this video? If so, I’d love to keep in touch. All you have to do is go here to stay in the loop on new blog posts, tutorials, and announcements.
– Josh