Build Work That Still Feels Like You Five Years From Now

**Matthew Gottesman** (0:02)
Welcome to The Niche Is You. My name is Matt Gottesman, at Matt Gottesman on Instagram, and this is my daily podcast where I create short, quick hitting episodes to help you uncomplicate life, creativity, and the pursuit of your highest self. There's only main character energy here. Now let's get into it.
Welcome to episode 849, Build Work That Still Feels Like You Five Years From Now. Build work that still feels like you five years from now. I want to talk about longevity and not rushing yourself, and finding a pace to really dive deeper into the work and the way in which you create from your perspective and you develop your taste and not play to just the trends. Because it's so easy to get caught up in what's hot today or like what's doing really well or what's the trend and what's going viral and things like that. And it's funny, I was on a podcast recently and someone said, well, we were talking about this. And he said, well, that's easy for you to say. He's like, your stuff goes viral all the time. I'm like, from good work, I hope. I was like, I just like being in the work. I'm like, and I like it, whether it goes viral or not. And I was like, so after a while, when you focus on the depth of your work, it just has a resonance that builds up, and it continues to go from there, but it's long term.
And it's not just in the writing.
I've always thought about when you do anything, what's the long view of it? Like, is it something you want to be doing five, 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now? Is it something that even when you don't feel motivated, you can show up to? Is it something that fulfills your soul? Is it something that just, you feel so innately called to it that you want to take care of it? Look, I look at it as, if you right now were given the relationship you always wanted, the relationship, like, I mean, this, maybe some of you already have it, so you already know this, and you're like, I want this forever, and I will show up to it every single day with all of me. You want the same thing for other aspects of your life, too. Especially the work that you build, because the world changes, because innovation changes things, because we end up having access to more tools, and now in a very connected world, more people, and there's so much there, right? And so often I get asked from the entrepreneurial side, and the consulting side, like people saying like, hey, well, you know, this is what's doing really well right now. And I'm like, yeah, but create the trend. Don't, like, you want to set it, not follow it, you know? And so then I also get people to ask, like, what do you do? Like, what happens when people, you know, copy your work? I'm like, well, yeah, they're probably going to copy your work if you're setting a bar. And that's okay, because you're always, you're always thinking about your next work. They're always thinking about yours. So it was like, just, you know, but cover yourself, right? There's ways to protect some of it. And so, you know, you have to be very careful. There are people like, well, this is what's trending right now. This is what's happening right now. And I'm like, yeah, but don't, yes, we want to be present. Yes, we want to be cognizant of what we're doing right now. But how does it relate to future self? How does it relate to the vision? How does it relate to sustainability of what you want for yourself or for your family or for anything that you create? How do you create long-term thriving success? And what does that look like for you and sustainability and momentum? So you're not just pivoting to a trend, you're expanding on your kingdom, you're expanding on what you're building. So I always say trends fade, conviction lasts.
What's your conviction for what you're building?
And I made a note here that there's nothing inherently wrong with paying attention to what's happening around you. Of course not.
I'm always aware of what's happening online. I grew up over 20 plus years of analyzing the internet and social and platforms and tech and all that other stuff. So I've been, it's a switch, I can't even turn off. I see all the kinds of things. And so people will ask about, have you seen this? Have you seen that? I'm like, yeah. And I'm aware of it.