Where Will You Be One Year From Today?

One year ago today, the Cherrico Pottery Team and a group of close friends documented me setting the World Record for ‘most pots thrown in one hour by an individual.’ You can view the official record here or actually watch a video of me setting the record here:

A lot changed in one year. Tens of thousands of new fans started following my artwork and our Facebook live videos have been “going viral,” which is just a fancy term for getting popular. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly gratified that so many people are inspired by my art and career. The Cherrico Pottery Team and I are doing everything we can to serve these new followers and customers (make sure you are signed up for our email newsletter to snag any new pottery when it emerges from the kiln). It’s just that popularity doesn’t seem like a good goal.

Better goals entail crafting gorgeous art, serving customers in a thriving business, supporting an artist lifestyle and making the world a better place. Building something long-lasting and beautiful seems more helpful and honorable than building something popular.

With that that mind, this is my goal for the next year:

“One year from today, my goal is to break ground on a new pottery studio that supports future pottery production with 100% solar fired pottery.”

This goal is ambitious and has never been done before. It has that in common with setting the pottery Guinness World Record on a Kickwheel (the previous record of 150 pots was set on an electric, motorized wheel).

I might not accomplish my goal, and that’s okay. This is the mindset I had when attempting the pottery World Record and it served me well. If you have an ambitious goal and fall short, you’re still headed towards success. Anytime I embraced this mindset, my efforts filtered into other surprising successes, like when celebrity Tim Ferriss made new YouTube videos and a Cosmic Mug popped up in the background, or when I got a personalized letter from Neil deGrasse TysonHe’s the Director of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC and host of StarTalk Radio and StarTalk on National Geographic Channel. He was one of the initial people who inspired creation of Cosmic Mugs back in 2014.

You might fall short with an ambitious goal, but you often fall into a higher level of accomplishment than you might have ever thought possible. Plus, the “worst case scenario” probably isn’t that bad. Tim Ferriss has a great TED Talk that illustrates the incredible power of questions like, “What’s the worst that can happen?

Journaling helps. These bullet points are a summary of my journal entry from a year ago. They describe my “worst case scenario” plan for a failed GWR attempt:

  • Try again in one week. The record requires 350 pounds of clay and I have over 1,000. I can try again at least once more without consequences.
  • Determine exactly what went wrong. Remove the hindrance through practice for a minimum of 1 hour, twice daily.
  • Fire the practice planters and sell them for $5-10 each to cover costs. People bought nearly all 1,000+ practice planters in 2015, so they are a guaranteed sale.
  • If you injure your back (side note: I threw out my back practicing for the record) then add one more week for a recovery period and attempt the record in two weeks.
  • If you run out of money, sell more Cosmic Mugs to the waiting list of people who didn’t get one during Kickstarter.

That’s it! There was literally nothing else to worry about, even if I failed. That was comforting. Stress and fear melted away, my focus returned to the record and I conquered it.

What are your goals? Where do you want to be one year from now? Leave a comment at the end of this post telling us something you want to accomplish, a place you want to live, a career or personal goal, any goal.

(GIVEAWAY RULES: Leave a comment on this post telling us about your “one year goal” before Friday, March 10th, 2017 at 5pm Central and we’ll enter you to win GWR pot #101 totally free. One winner will be chosen randomly and announced in these blog comments the same Friday around 6pm Central. To enter, you must leave one, genuine comment about your “one year goal” or the moderator will not approve your comment. Please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Please allow 24-48 hours for your comment to appear. Thanks! *ENDED. Giveaway Winner: Comment #105, Christa”).

This post was published March 7th, 2017, but it might live here on the internet for decades. Whenever you happen to read this post, share one goal you hope to accomplish one year from now. Put it in the comments below, visible to anyone. Mark your calendar to check back one year from now. What’s the worst that can happen?

To accomplish great things, it’s often important to selectively ignore popularity, red notifications and the intoxicating smart phone buzz. Focus on setting and achieving goals.

Enjoy Reduced Shipping Costs: Pottery Orders Just Got Cheaper

We’re getting better at packing and shipping pottery all the time. We lowered shipping costs across our entire online store! This is great news for everyone, but especially for international customers and accuracy for bulk orders.

Guinness World Record Pottery Pre-sale

The first 10 out of 159 Guinness World Record pots have been posted. July 1st our press page goes out to 50+ news organizations worldwide. 100,000+ people (woah!) already watched our team break the record in this Facebook video! Many of you asked to get your hands on one of these pots before they sell out, so I wanted to make sure you newsletter folks got first priority. We hope that you see this artwork as an investment that will likely appreciate in value.

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Special thanks goes out to all of the folks at Guinness World Records for letting us collaborate with stunning, official certificates that are included with each world record pot. As a thanks for being part of our newsletter, enjoy 50% off Guinness World Record pottery during this pre-sale before July 1st:

Coupon Code: GWRPOTS50

We have 159 total and you might still be able to get one in the coming months, but we don’t know how crazy things might get after the July 1st press release date. Most importantly, we are happy to know that this art has already begun to positively affect people globally.

We are still working on photographing pots, but if you are interested in purchasing a certain number, please reply to this email with your requested number and we will give you first priority.

New Lunar Mugs, Cups and Cosmic Mugs July 1st

Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for a new body of artwork available by July 1st. Cheers! (with a Guinness of course)

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You’ve got to keep advancing a frontier and then there is a new headline to report on...if you advance frontiers, heroes are made.”

– Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil DeGrasse Tyson photo by Joel Cherrico

Birthday News: Officially Amazing! Guinness World Records Approved our Epic Pottery Feat!

Guinness World Record: Most pots thrown in one hour by an individual

March 7th, 2016, we made history. Our team documented me throwing 159 pots in one hour, setting a new pottery world record! Check out the Guinness World Records website for our official record.

The record was 150 pots, and I threw 159 pots in one hour. I performed this feat on a traditional Japanese style kick wheel, instead of an electric, motorized wheel like the previous record holders. I added this extra level of difficulty because I am committed to using my art to inspire people globally to attempt and achieve great goals.

“Why climb the highest mountain? … We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills…” – John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962

Today is also my 28th birthday! YAY!

To celebrate, please enjoy this 60% off coupon TODAY ONLY if you want to give me a birthday gift by buying yourself a pot. 🙂

Coupon Code: BIRTHDAYPOTS60

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Photography by Caitlin Brutger and Julia Eckart

Gorgeous, Functional, Affordable Pottery: Coupon Package for The New Online Store

For the month of April only, you can get amazing deals on some of the best mugs, cups and bowls that I’ve ever created…

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We made a great coupon package just for you, as a thanks for subscribing to our email newsletter list:

Coupon Code: SPACE50

50% off ANY “Space Inspired” Pottery

*Expiration April 30th, 2016

Coupon Code: STANDARD40

40% off ALL “Standard Ware” Pottery

*Expiration April 30th, 2016

Coupon Code: POTTERY30

30% off Storewide

*New Customers Only

STORE.CHERRICOPOTTERY.COM

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this possible, most notably, photographer Julia Eckart. As a Junior studying at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University, Julia has done truly professional work as our company’s marketing intern. She has built an amazing, new online store, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Watch for new pottery being added throughout the week! If any of the pottery categories run out, will do our best to keep stocking them with new pottery all month long.

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“Is this generous? Is this going to connect? Is this going to change people for the better? Is it worth trying?”

– Seth Godin, Author, quoted on The Tim Ferriss Show

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Photo Credit:

By Joi Ito – Seth Godin, CC BY 2.0

Julia Eckart Photography