Welcome!

There's 48 of us now. That's two full days of hour-long conversations. Wouldn't that be nice? We could chat about our 2021 highlights: our lifestyle change-ups and what's energizing us forward into the new year.

I hope we get that opportunity soon. Till then, glad you're here for another email gathering :)

Thanks for being an early subscriber to my digital postcard. I prefer the description postcard (rather than newsletter) cuz it feels more casual, personal and specific to a moment in time. Each week I share updates, anecdotes and links to things I enjoyed recently.

TIP: First-time recipient? A reply will help prevent these emails being marked spam. Don't feel obligated to say something kind or clever. In fact, I encourage the opposite. Make your reply as conveniently incoherent as possible. A quick: "sDGHsdasd" is splendid :)

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First Sketch

Minutes before publishing this drawing I debated scrapping it. It felt way too basic. But I knew I needed to start somewhere, so I hit the Tweet button on this sketch:

Tommy Lee @thomaselliotlee Drawing is my growth focus for 2022. Why? 👉 Pictures offer instant value. When everyone's reading list is overflowing, the ability to compress ideas is a superpower. Here's my first sketch. Excited to make this a daily habit + see where it leads :) pic.twitter.com/a4CT5z01MZ December 16th 2021 0 Retweets 57 Likes

I can now confirm the marketing statements of the two drawing course/communities I'm in. 😅 Illustrations stand out on social media.

This picture is currently at 4,354 impressions. That's 2,000 more than anything else I’ve posted on Twitter. It also prompted about a dozen new people to follow me.

I'm glad I ignored resistance and published. This leads directly to...

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Minimum Viable Post (MVP)

This year I did six online courses. I've found the single most important factor for my success is minimizing my knowledge-to-action gap.

It’s essential to reach a minimum viable post (MVP) fast. The content of that first post is almost irrelevant. But sharing it is crucial.

Why?

The more we know, the better critics we become. We know more problems to look for. We see more flaws. When we haven’t posted yet, this creates crushing standards.

As the gap grows between what we ‘know’ and what we’ve published, the leap across the chasm start to feel impossible.

Once we’ve published, we’re eager to post again to show our improvement. If our MVP was easy + fun it encourages us to exceed that low bar. This sets a publishing habit in motion.

Until we publish, we stress the gap between ourself and perfection.

This gap is infinite.

Once we publish, we focus on the gap between the MVP we posted, and where we can improve.

Much more healthy.

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Cube at The Polygon

Thursday I caught up with my friend Tanner at an art gallery in North Vancouver. This PVC sculpture was the standout piece:

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Mohabbat & Remnants

This first song was a surprise discovery on a run. I was listening through a playlist of Pitchfork's top 100 songs of 2021. I'd seen their review of Arooj Aftab's album when it first came out, and tried (unsuccessfully) a couple times to get into it.

But this song perfectly matched the moment it found me in this week. It began to play as I ran around my elementary school (I'm home for holidays), jogging past winter-bare trees. It's a beautiful calm, reflective song. (Folk/Classical)

Mohabbat Arooj Aftab

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This second track is by my favourite end-of-year artist discovery, Max Cooper (also featured back in postcard #5). I listened to this song on repeat last night as I began to sketch my 2nd illustration. (Piano/Electronic)

Remnants Max Cooper

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That's all till next week!

Thanks for reading,

Tommy

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PS. Replies Encouraged :)

• If you have 27 seconds to jot an impression of this postcard, please do!
• I know each of your lives bustle with activity. If it helps, think of the reply as a text (rather than an email).
• A quick jotted: “🔥🖼 ” or "Would never normally listen to a song like Mohabbat, but glad I did" is valuable signal of where to re-invest :)

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