This week’s Juxtapost scratches the surface on why and how I keep personal development as the main priority for my creativity and to remind myself that Juxtapost was never meant to be a performance. It’s meant to be a practice.

Recently, during a routine visit to my dentist, my hygienist pointed out some minor staining on my teeth and asked if I drank coffee or tea. When I admitted that I do enjoy a daily cup of coffee and sip on tea throughout the day, she offered this suggestion: drink it as quickly as you can to minimize staining.

Even as someone who built my career on producing videos for the internet, I almost never watch YouTube. My heart truly belongs to movies. There’s something about the completeness of a film - the way it tells a full story in one sitting - that moves me.

In The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin describes a dynamic between different natural tendencies for creative people: Experimenter and Finishers. Rubin encourages us not to pick a side, but to understand both tendencies and to try integrating the one that doesn’t come as naturally. In this Juxtapost, I share three ways I find that balance.

This time of year, a lot of people start quietly evaluating the gap between January goals and July reality. And if we’re not careful, that gap turns into self-judgment. In this Juxtapost, we’re going to strike the right balance between reflection and projection as we go into the second half of the year.

Introducing Juxtapost, an almost-weekly series of bite-sized reflections from a multidisciplinary, neurodivergent creative. Drawing from all corners of life - filmmaking, art, family, business, and quiet moments of observation - each post explores how seemingly contradictory ideas can work in harmony.