It’s amazing to me that sometimes I can wait in a long line and feel so impatient and annoyed, and other times I can stand in a long line and feel totally content, patient, and grateful. Nothing physical changes. Only my mindset changes.

Everyone is busy. Even great composers and Nobel Prize winning authors. The difference between you and people who create great work is not a clearer schedule or more resources or a DNA of genius. 

Art urges voyages.

Saying “I don’t feel like creating today” is one thing. Allowing those feelings to dictate whether or not you do create today is what separates dreamers from their dreams. 

We’re good at considering the costs of being truthful when we make creative excuses. But having a cloudy conscience has costs, too, and we’re not so quick to consider those costs. 

“If I force myself to create every single day, won’t I get tired, uninspired, and won’t it suck the passion out of my art?” This is a fair question.

You can read about it, talk about it, listen to podcasts about it, plan for it, vision-board it, and dream about it. But none of those things teach you even close to the amount you will learn once you finally…do it. 

“Don’t try to write a book; try to become somebody who enjoys writing everyday.”

“People might be skeptical about their ability to change if they’re by themselves, but a group will convince them to suspend disbelief.”

“I’m not interested in squeezing something so tight that I get every last drop.”

“The majority of tasks we procrastinate on are usually high in immediate costs but low in immediate benefits, thus making them unattractive in the short run.”

Recently, an artist told me about the freedom she feels when she commits to creating every day, even on days when she doesn’t feel like it. 

You might have a few minutes to cram, or double check information, but the best thing you can do for yourself, with so little time left, is breathe. 

It’s exciting to find someone who speaks your language. It’s enticing to jump on board with a new style of thought. It’s tempting to synthesize methods from a number of great teachers, because we feel like we’re getting the best of all worlds. As someone who’s done it a lot, I know. 

In five two-minute rounds of Boggle, I scored 15 points. My wife scored 50. She crushes me (and most people) at this game. I knew this going in.

When we see a goal fall out of consistency, we ghost the idea of it. We avoid questions about it and we avoid thinking about it because we feel guilty when we finally remember.

Giving up on your 2025 goals by the end of January is ridiculous. January represents a little more than 8% of the year.

We compare our work to our inspirations’. Naturally, we’re not as good. This leads us to believe that we might just be the worst version of whatever it is we’re doing. We definitely know we’re not the best.

We misunderstand how the creative process works. We hear stories of great artists creating in a flash during a lightning storm of inspiration, and think we just need to wait for the right moment to come to us. 

“The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.”