You’re not going anywhere if your road simply goes around the same old block again and again. You don’t have to court bad days; they’ll find you anyway. But you can make great, good efforts at good days, and those efforts count. Stack the deck: you can help insure that your journey will add to your overall experience in a way that matters.
Read MoreDESPAIR (2nd in a two part series)
In despair we often find our most honest voices and our wellsprings of motivation. In despair we can neither hide nor deceive ourselves about what makes us feel things deeply. In despair we are forced to try and change what we must change, because to live but a single additional day similarly burdened would be untenable, unthinkable. Despair propels our creative engines to make our own pain more bearable.
Read MoreELATION (1st of a two part series)
Filled with lightness your heart is so full: it's not crazy at all to think the novel that you've been longing to write could just come out, right now— I'll just drop into my seat for a moment or two, sketch it out—easy!—and fill in the blanks this afternoon! Anything is possible. Songs come into being unbidden. Hunger makes you feel good, as if those cranky pangs were just life's way of helping you savor your own wonderful, scintillating senses. You must have been doing something substantial to grow so hungry, right? Right on!
Read MoreRULES DEFINE FREEDOM
Rules give creative people the license to operate from a stable position. By imposing structure and rules to which a disparate crowd must conform, standardization of formats facilitates wider distribution of information.
Read MoreMOVE YOUR FEET
You have to get comfortable with the idea that you just might be in the center of the action. While often true, don’t worry about everyone watching you. The fact is, they’re generally not. You’re not the subject; the thing you’re photographing is likely the thing that’s holding everyone’s attention. When you’re learning, just move in and try to have a sense of humor about it. Once you get it, it will become second nature and you’ll move because you’re motivated to capture something.
Read MoreIN THE BEGINNING
Even the largest, most influential creations begin with the intangibility of an idea. Just because some ideas are easy to generate does not indicate whether they will grow and thrive.
Read MoreRELENTLESS
Everyone has stuff to do, but if you’re the kind of person who regards his or her daily efforts as creative expressions rather than simply lists of tasks, there’s something different about the endless punch list you need to complete. Those tasks aren’t just annoying or distracting. They’re relentless.
Read MoreTHE PROBLEM WITH POLITICS
The creative process is one of figuring something out that has little to do with gaining popularity. Politics, conversely, is all about popularity. Politics is about getting enough people to like you so that you can do things to perpetuate the trend of people liking you. Creativity is about solving problems.
Read MoreDECEPTIVE HIERARCHIES
For creative people there's a compelling moment to consider when approaching complex projects. Ask yourself if the organizational structure of your idea and your organization simply exists because you understand it. Ask yourself if the hierarchy is fundamentally sound for the particular project. If it exists because that’s the way things have always been done, you might want to start over.
Read MorePANIC
Panic’s horrible grip may be one moment away from the abyss. There’s no pretending otherwise, and there’s nothing pleasurable about it. But if you survive, remember the feeling. Someday that recollection may be the best way for you to differentiate what’s simply hard from what’s genuinely mortal.
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