You’ve got to apply power to the throttle, and you’ve got to start rolling down the runway. This will take fuel; this will make you tired; this will add risks to your day. But once you achieve flight speed, you’ll see the Earth fall away beneath you, and you’ll finally be headed somewhere.
Read MorePREPARATION
Preparation is all about learning how to listen to our senses to figure out what we want to do, and then asking them to step aside for a while so that we can think clearly. Preparation is the difference between practice and improvisation. Preparation is the invisible shield held by pros.
Read MoreEMERGENT PROPERTIES
Emergent properties tend to have deep truths. They bubble up organically, like they were just waiting to be discovered all along. The best way to cultivate their growth is to learn how not to suppress them, how to get out of your own way.
Read MorePULLING FOCUS
In business, in leadership, in education, and everywhere else where creativity has a place to shine, there are probably all sorts of things right in front of you that could play valuable roles. If you’re not seeing a solution to your problem, consider shifting your focus and see what pops into view.
Read MoreEFFORT
Success only comes from doing the thing that you want to say “you’ve done”, but that doesn’t always mean that you’re going to have a good time doing it.
Read MoreRICHARD WAGNER IN TEL AVIV
When we respectfully engage those who philosophically challenge us or even provoke anger, we open the potential for new understanding and a wider middle ground. Perhaps that’s the most profound value of a creative life in the first place.
Read MoreTIME'S ARROW
Hit the target or miss the target, the arrow's gone from the bow. What we dream of doing with our precious dart only has limited time to get done. Tomorrow always comes with The Sun and night will follow after the day is done. The eternal question for someone whose creative engines automatically churn are whether that day will be spent just marking time’s passage, or if there will be some intention during the day that sends the arrow home.
Read MoreTHE MYTH OF WRITERS BLOCK
Without a doubt writers have good days and bad days, too. Some days the words tumble out like gravel from a dump truck. Some days they’re stuck deep in the muck. But when the right words don’t just come out, as inevitably will happen from time to time, the pro knows that there’s no excuse to calling it quits.
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 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.
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