Below are some quotes that I really liked from the book.
I Wrote This Book Because I Needed To Read It
The principles apply to anyone trying to sustain a meaningful and productive creative life.
Chapters
1. Every Day is Groundhog Day
The creative life is not linear.
Rather than restricting your freedom, a routine gives you freedom by protecting you from the ups and downs of life and helping you take advantage of your limited time, energy, and talent.
When stuck in the mornings, I draw a line down the middle of the page. In one column, I list what I’m thankful for, and in the other, what I need help with.
2. Build a Bliss Station
Silence and solitude are crucial.
This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation.
You must learn how to say “no.”
The only antidote is JOMO: The Joy of Missing Out.
3. Forget the Noun, Do the Verb
Let go of the thing you’re trying to be (the noun) and focus on the actual work you need to be doing (the verb).
I am not a thing - a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process.
Don’t get bogged down. Stay light. Play.
4. Make Gifts
Resist the urge to monetize every bit of your creative practice. Be sure there's at least a tiny part of you that’s off-limits to the marketplace.
One of the easiest ways to hate something you love is to turn it into a job.
5. The Ordinary + Extra Attention = The Extraordinary
Pay attention to what you pay attention to.
Your attention is one of the most valuable things you possess… First, you must protect it, and then you must point it in the right direction.
Attention is the most basic form of love. It provides material for your art and helps you fall in love with your life.
7. You Are Allowed to Change Your Mind
To have hope, you must acknowledge that you don’t know everything and don’t know what’s going to happen.
Interacting with people who don’t share our perspective forces us to rethink, strengthen, or trade our ideas for better ones.
If you want to escape the noise of contemporary life, visit the past for a bit.
8. When In Doubt, Tidy Up
There’s a balance in a workspace between chaos and order.
Keep your tools organized and your materials messy.
9. Demons Hate Fresh Air
If we do not get outside, if we do not take a walk in the fresh air, we do not see our everyday world for what it really is.
10. Plant Your Garden
Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring… patience is everything!
The outer demons… they might take us with them, but this, too, shall pass.
