Stuck and predictable. We stop beating the heart to our own drum. Instead of chasing our dreams, we ride the coattails of others. We become a cog that seeks to please rather than to push. How we align our attention, to the duty or to the clusters of individual freedom, is what determines our self-worth. […]
Tag Archives: work
Self-scrutiny is the thief of joy
What do you for a living? It’s either the first or last question you want to answer at a dinner party. Any time you have to open up about a personal topic it burns the lips. Comparisons are natural, contentedness is artificial. Everyone acts happy but they always want what they don’t have. If you […]
Creativity is a game of inches
It comes as no surprise that bad work begets good work — the more you create, the more you have to play with. People mistakenly believe that successful artists excelled all along. But what you see as the viewer is mostly the result of trial and error. What I enjoy about the internet is that […]
Doing honest work
When it’s all said and done, your satisfaction will depend on your level of completeness. Should your efforts have skirted the work in any way, incompleteness may leave an indelible stain. It’s better to surround yourself with honest efforts and avoid being dirty. Only cheaters hide in the soil.
Slow appeal 🐢
Conventional wisdom says that we should emphasize speed over power. After all, he who runs the fastest wins the race. But life is a marathon, not a sprint. Malcolm Gladwell once said proper books should take at least two years to write: “We need to be a little bit more tortoise-y and a little less […]
Risky indecision
In the absence of ideas, we’re lost floating at sea. Weighed down in idea debt, a lack of action can have the same debilitating effect. Interia is the purported enemy. Just write the truest sentence already. What works better is facing fear and proceeding right into it. Keep your eyes on the prize and spend […]
Creativity is a fancy version of productivity
People confuse busyness with productivity. Answering emails all day is mostly a waste of time, as is instant messaging co-workers. Doing something — typing into little boxes all day — fulfills the human desire to feel useful. Similarly, people often perceive what artists do is an unnecessary use of time. But creativity is a fancy […]
‘Intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you’
Despite popular belief to the contrary, there is absolutely no power in intention. The seagull may intend to fly away, may decide to do so, may talk with the other seagulls about how wonderful it is to fly, but until the seagull flaps his wings and takes to the air, he is still on the […]
The only reassurance you need
We treat fame and social media status like currency. We presuppose that anonymity or a lack of engagement trivializes what we do. Even worse, we let TV and Instagram determine our self-worth. But what and who matters is rarely popular. No one wants to pull back the curtain and see the sweat and tears of […]
Impatient with action, patient with results
Impatient with action, patient with results. Taking consistent, small steps, each day turns thousands of drips into a bucket of water. But it’s not so much the practice that matters. It is the execution. Shooting the basketball with improper form every day is not going to help come game time. The fundamentals for adaptability go […]
Open to detours
Open to detours, fixated on the wrath of curiosity. The single-minded goal-setter scrounges for practice. In theory, doggedness is the least path of resistance. Like a magnet, we’re drawn to specialized learning. But we can’t afford to put the right brain to sleep. Quiescent, it too begs to act. The creative compulsion knows no boundaries. […]
‘Give yourself Permission to Suck’
If we never get started, we never get good, and you can’t get good without first being bad. To overcome perfectionism and get started, you need to accept that your first attempts will not be up to your standards. You have to give yourself Permission to Suck. David Kadavy
Sitting decreases blood flow to the brain 🧠
We hear it all the time. Get up and go for a walk. It’s how Walt Whitman jogged the brain so he could keep generating writing ideas. Even Steve Jobs held walking meetings. But now the science proves that taking a quick stroll reactivates the flow of blood to your brain. Scientists at Liverpool’s John […]
Four to one
The goal is to be good at more than one thing. Everyone should be versatile. But sometimes it is better to narrow yourself to expand. Instead of doing everything, you focus on doing one thing well. And the rest gets better as a result. Take social networking for example. It’s a misperception that one has […]
‘The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now’
“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now,” goes the old saying. Waiting to start almost always means never. The work in the head of a perfectionist will never match the reality it takes to get there, a path fraught with failure and mistakes. But you […]