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Wellsbaum.blog

Writing about life and arts

  • Tighter the brief, the deeper the craft

    Tighter the brief, the deeper the craft

    April 1st, 2021

    Once we commit to a creative project, we make choices within it. We narrow down everything into a tight brief so we can build something conclusive.

    The frames in place help guide our unconscious decisions. There’s no blur between what we’re making and what we want to make. 

    Slowly but surely, we commit to a process despite all the doubt. We gather a proper stream of blood flow and breathing, focusing free-flowing talent into a concentrated effort.  

    Distracting opportunities have to die for the most important craft to live. 

    We don’t need more of anything; instead, we play with what we already have. We hunker down on the front lines and figure out how to shape our materials. Boredom is welcome, as it provides the opportunity we need to have the next big idea. 

    And once the art is out there, it’s out there. We try not to take feedback personally — not to repress or ignore negativity — but to acknowledge we shipped! 

    How we perceive our work is more important than how others look at it. Society is either too polite or doesn’t care. Passion, care, sticktuitiveness — these traits are leverage. 

  • Don’t hold that thought 💬✒️

    Don’t hold that thought 💬✒️

    March 31st, 2020

    When in doubt, speak up. Talking is a tool for excavating thoughts—microphone in hand or not. It’s only after the speaking occurs do the words begin to flow.

    The same goes for writing. One doesn’t need an audience in order to do it. The movement of the pen gears the brain into motion so that words hit the top of the tongue at precisely the right time.

    “The pen is the tongue of the mind.”

    Horace

    Speaking and writing cue the neural pathways. They lay the groundwork for ideas to germinate and bloom.

    Chatter, whether external or internal, are the firsts step in solidifying beliefs and discovering something interesting to say. The real enemy is a chattering brain that hesitates and never spits it out.

    Inspiration and perfection are for amateurs–start before you’re ready.

  • ‘The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it’

    March 6th, 2020
    'The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it'

    “Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no resistance.”

    The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
  • How we decode reality

    How we decode reality

    April 27th, 2020

    We are not born with information.

    The severity of an illusion lies within its shadow of a doubt. Objects as artifice are as credible as our eyes make them out to be.

    The gut loves to sensationalize fear. The beating heart frustrates under the tick-tock of boredom. The mind interprets thoughts that drive reality.

    What makes the external world feel real?

    From the outer world to the inner state, sculpting perception is irrational but intentional as we all seek to decode reality into meaning.

    What is the external world but just a bunch of code that exists in our heads, sorting out the facticity of objects?

    Our impulse intends to give experience the benefit of “truth, both in matter and in mode.” We use our pragmatist razor to cut comprehensions down ruthlessly.

  • Guilted into trying

    Guilted into trying

    February 20th, 2020

    Things are never perfect the first time around, a bit better the second, and mind a few tweaks, they seem to be just about right in the third and fourth efforts.

    The fear of failure is good quality control. It ensures that in the process of disrupting ourselves, we appreciate the challenge of ascendancy.

    Riding the wave of uncertainty

    The attempt to blaze our own trail is never easy. Being misunderstood for long periods of time dampens the mood. But there will always be more guilt in not trying.

    Dreams require a ceaseless imperative of movement, the confidence to tread into unknown territory regardless of faith and doubt.

  • It’s never too late to do something incredible

    It’s never too late to do something incredible

    March 19th, 2020

    Everything good takes time.

    We have to get comfortable with the idea that the work worth doing almost always never comes to fruition immediately.

    Our craft is also likely to be misunderstood for long periods. There will be periods of self-doubt and chapters of confusion, all signals that the muse wants us to keep going.

    If we’re 100% certain about where we’re headed, then we need a little more nuance and complexity in our life.

    Being vulnerable and taking on challenges fuel aliveness, preventing one from getting too satisfied with results.

    As the Japanese artist Hokusai said:

    “Until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive.”

    Hokusai

    If we work on something long enough, it should look just as simple and confounding as when we first found it.

  • It’s a hard-knock life

    December 4th, 2019

    The easy life exists but it fails to register.

    Anyone who’s name is worth remembering endured some type of struggle.

    The imperfect life contains lingering questions and punctuating doubts. But the vulnerable also acts — whether out of curiosity or bravery.

    “I never lose. I either win or learn.”

    Nelson Mandela

    Knowledge is a byproduct of failed activity.

    It’s the hard-knock life, after all.

  • A curious rebel

    November 15th, 2019

    When in doubt, you can always depend on your curiosity. It is the fire starter for all important questions.

    But inquisitiveness is not the only fuel you need. Sometimes you need an anarchic kick. The best medicine is straight-up rebellion.

    When conviction fights convention and curiosity whets the mind, the amalgam produces an orderly disorder that begs for reinvention.

  • Thinking less to do more

    Thinking less to do more

    February 9th, 2020

    Rhythm builds thoughtlessness. Work can become more natural out of mechanical motion, a kind of doing without thinking.

    Employees can’t make one hundred sandwiches in a couple hours without silencing the monkey mind. The process of unthinking begets a chorus of action.

    Similarly, we can’t dribble a basketball nor soccer ball effectively while focusing on the mechanics of the perfect touch. The gears of cognition get in the way of flow. Continued practice helps numb the disease of crippling doubt.

    Habits are bicep curls for the brain

    Good habits strengthen human software, primarily if we aim to do something consistently.

    Like brushing our teeth, it’s the repetitive locomotion that undermines inertia and compels one to keep connecting the chain.

    We can get used to being productive if we choose to make practice non-negotiable. All such preparation helps plow the field.

  • The complexity of confidence

    June 1st, 2019

    Repetition and practice drown out self-doubt and bolster fortitude.

    Do anything enough and the brisk tempo of the mind takes over. Habits help undermine pressure.

    Just as a camera presents the mere surface of reality and not its context, so too does the complexity of confidence.

    We can only push on if our belief is stronger than our fears.

    Strong opinions, loosely held

    “Be confident, not certain”

    Eleanor Roosevelt

    Without instruments for coping — practice, fear-setting, meditations, etc — we would feel forever lost.

    Because of the pre-programming work we put in, we can shake off all the dizziness of uncertainty if and move on with courage despite any self-doubt.

  • Face the facts

    October 6th, 2019
    gif by Falcao Lucas

    To weave through a world when there’s no anonymity and everything is discoverable — we are one google away from all the answers.

    But it doesn’t matter how much we know. People cognize to fit what they want to believe, regardless of the facts.

    We tend to throw all the information we don’t want to hear into a deep hole.

    The more we deny the truth, the more it snowballs into a series of lies, rubber-stamped onto black screens of irreality. Call it the disinformation highway.

    Upon further reflection, we should be forced to deal with what’s no longer pleasant: the real world.

    Disagree with it. Run away from it. But live with the doubt that we could be wrong on many issues. Tribes are meant to be broken.

  • Living with the unknown

    July 10th, 2019

    Things don’t need all the explanations we try to give them. The urge to seek definition has as much to do with our obsession with absolutes as our inability to trust ambiguity.

    As soon as we identify the type of bird, we cease thinking about it so. We google up all the information we can get to further corroborate the knowledge of its existence.

    Things exist independent of human activity. Our obsession with assigning names and roles is an attempt to break common ground. But it’s a creative tax.

    When we embrace the art of the unknown, we let our imagination run wild. There is no endpoint. Ideas and fantasy are available to everyone.

    Even the most valid explanation puts its authentication in doubt.

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