Give your attention something to search for, and suddenly your surroundings come alive.

I've been collecting footage of my life—almost Truman-style. B-roll of me, of my perspective, of walking through places. Videos of jumping rope, layered with these blog posts as narration and my music in the background, stitched together by a script I built.

When I'm filming, my attention searches for beauty.

I started noticing objects differently. Oh, I can put my camera here—what would the angle look like? Suddenly the scenery becomes alive. I see things I've never seen before. I consider my surroundings in a whole different way, looking to capture something artistic. My brain gets primed to find beautiful footage.

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Compare this to taking pictures on my phone. A cool thing at a museum, a nice moment in my day. I snap a photo thinking I'll look at this later. But maybe it takes me out of the moment rather than deeper into it.

Filming is different. It's not documenting for later—it's being summoned to something. I'm looking to capture something to be shared, not archived. A different part of me gets called up. I talk to the camera, think of things, share things I wouldn't otherwise, remember things I wouldn't otherwise.

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Maybe that's the power of art: it summons us.

When we decide to move on a project—when we decide to actually do a thing—it brings out a part of us that is otherwise dormant. Something that cannot emerge without the calling.

And it doesn't need to be lofty. A silly video project. A script that stitches footage together. A harness.

So: embrace the harness. Seek one out. Challenge yourself to create ways to summon those parts of yourself. You need a magnet—a purpose, lofty or silly, it doesn't matter. Just something to call on you to bring something forth into the world.