Music and branding, research, teaching, music.
We spend much of our lives trying to avoid it.
As adults, we deny it’s very existence in our past experiences.
As friends, we lie or equivocate to our loved ones to avoid being the bearer of it.
As parents, we will move heaven and earth to shield our kids from it.
What is it?
Read MoreLearning something shiny and new is easy. Deepening your understanding of something you already know is harder.
New ideas are a dime a dozen. But good ideas? The ideas that will change your perspective or shape your art for the next six months, the next six years?
Those are rare jewels, and they're often already there your mind's ore. You just have to mine for them.
And the best way to mine your own mind is to write down your thoughts. Journal like Dorothea Brande or Josh Waitzkin. Write a letter to a friend like Seneca did, sharing one piece of wisdom that you are meditating on.
Read MoreBefore he was the drummer in Nirvana, before he was the frontman of Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl was just a punk kid drummer from Virginia who loved music and wanted to make it his life.
Obsessed with music, he spent all his time learning the music of his heroes, practicing in his room, playing drums on pillows, listening to their recordings again and again. He learned directly from the recordings until he could play them all—every thundering drum roll, every crash, every hit.
He dreamed of one day getting to play with his heroes—literally dreamed about it.
Read MoreThere’s a moment in the song “The Story,” written by Phil Hanseroth and sung by Brandi Carlile, when the beat stops momentarily. Out of the quiet, Carlile suddenly scream-sings the line “All of these lines across my face.”
Coming about two-thirds of the way through, it’s the emotional high point of the song. A stirring jolt that grips the attention in the way that great music can.
In the song, Carlile is singing about how our scars tell our stories. How our imperfections make us who we are:
All of these lines across my face,
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to who I am
What’s your number?
Steven King’s number was 30. Writer Robert Pirsig’s was 121. Theodore Geisel’s (better known as Dr. Seuss) was 27, and Madeline L’Engle’s was 26.
These are the number of times these authors’ books were rejected before they were finally published.
James Patterson's first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number was rejected by 31 publishers before it was accepted by the 32nd. The novel went on to win the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best first novel, and Patterson has sold hundreds of millions of books. What if he had stopped after 30 tries?
Read MoreOne of my favorite sketches on the show Portlandia is called “Did You Read It.” In the sketch Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein meet up at a coffee shop and get in a battle to see who has read more widely.
It starts innocently enough: Carrie: ”Hey did you guys read that thing in the New Yorker last month about how golf is an analogy for marriage?” Fred: “I did. I did read that. Did you read the thing in McSweeney’s that was comparing CD tracks and album tracks? Did you read that?” Carrie: “Ya. Did you read…”
The back and forth continues, and pretty soon they reach a fever pitch trying to outdo each other. They become locked in a battle of performative well-readness.
Read MoreJoshua Waitzkin, author of the beautiful book The Art of Learning, is a man with a singular list of accomplishments.
Waitzkin started playing chess at six years old almost by accident, and was immediately recognized as a prodigy. At seven he was the top ranked player at his age in the country. He went on to win numerous championships, and became a celebrity after becoming the subject of the feature film, Searching for Bobby Fischer.
In a rare twist, Waitzkin then trained professionally in martial arts in his twenties, becoming the world champion in Tai Chi push hands—a rare accomplishment for an American. He followed this by becoming a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and opening a gym in New York City with the great Marcelo Garcia.
Read MoreThe late Kobe Bryant exerts a massive influence on young basketball players today through video footage of his talks and interviews.
Bryant’s focus on mental toughness, continuous improvement, and a relentless work ethic has inspired countless young athletes to dedicate themselves to practice and preparation.
But when asked, Bryant talked openly about how he modeled his own game on the great players who came before him, like Michael Jordan.
Serena Williams is a living legend to countless professional tennis players today. But Williams drew inspiration from her predecessors Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova.
Read MoreMost people in the film industry who have heard of Maui-born film director Destin Yori Daniel Cretton want to find a way to work with him. Most who’ve worked with Cretton want to work with him again. Why? It’s of course because of his immense talent and craft at filmmaking.
It’s also because of how he treats people.
Read MoreWhen you are in the middle of a creative project, pay attention to what sort of rest and recreation is good for helping you finish a piece of writing, a painting, a music track, a design.
Maybe it’s sitting on a park bench, walking on a gravel road with your dog, or hiking a ridge. Maybe it’s driving to a nearby city to sit in a cafe for an afternoon and taking the long way, or biking on the back roads. It could be just doing the dishes, or knitting. Maybe it’s mowing the lawn or tending your garden.
Read MoreSometimes you just need to go where the action is. To put yourself “in the vicinity” of a hot artistic scene.
Bob Dylan moved to Greenwich Village in the early 1960s to be near the folk revival, and to seek out his hero Woody Guthrie.
Madonna moved to New York City in the late seventies and performed in clubs, eventually becoming a worldwide pop sensation.
Jackson Pollack, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol—not one of these artists was born in New York City. Each made the decision to move there.
Read MoreWhat makes someone feel compelled to share your work with all their friends? A spirit of generosity.
And when it comes to generosity, Derek Sivers is legendary.
After a career as a professional musician, Sivers’s company CD Baby made it possible for thousands of independent bands, including mine, to sell our CDs in the early 2000s.
When he sold CD Baby for $22 million, he gave it all away, putting the proceeds in a charitable trust to benefit musicians.
Read MoreBetween 1610 and 1612, sunspots were independently discovered by at least four different astronomers in England, Frisia, Italy, and Germany. None knew of the others’ research.
Oxygen was discovered in 1773 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. One year later, and without knowledge of Scheele’s discovery, Joseph Priestley also discovered oxygen.
Read MoreWhen early reviewers give you “notes” or other constructive feedback on your work-in-progress, they don’t typically just tell you what’s wrong. Often a reviewer will also tell you how they think you should fix the problem they identified. They tell you how they would fix it.
This is a vulnerable moment for the nascent creative seed that you have been cultivating. Critical feedback has the potential to blast the seed right out of the ground, disintegrate it, and scatter its torn fragments to the winds. To avoid this, you need an approach to receiving critical feedback.
Read MoreSo many artists are lonely. It’s a self-inflicted exile.
Composers struggle alone. Painters grapple at the canvas but end up grappling themselves. We feel like we have seized control, but control has seized us.
The story we make up about creative life is that it is cheapened when we have help. The critics will say that you’re not good enough to do it on your own.
Read MoreAs a creative person, you've likely had the experience of struggling with a thorny, immovable problem or puzzle: how to organize a painting, a piece of music, a piece of writing. How to kill off a character in your screenplay. What metaphor to use in your story. Which path to take on your next project. What your next project should even be.
And you’ve also likely experienced the futility of trying to force a solution. Of going to sleep hopeless and distraught, with a sense of despair.
Only to find that when you wake, the perfect answer to your question has been miraculously presented to you by your unconscious mind.
Read MoreAs a creator, you can win the creator’s daily struggle and increase your creative output by building a Creative Deep Work Routine.
What is a Creative Deep Work Routine?
The concept of Deep Work comes from Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work. Newport defines deep work as:
“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capacities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”
Read MoreAnother morning and it’s there again. That Resistance. Those distractions. That hope of an easy way out, that avoidance. That wishful, irrational thought.
Maybe today I won’t have to work for my art.
Maybe I don’t have to seek out the Muse. To make any effort. ”Please, just let the Muse seize me,” we cry internally. Seize me from my bad habits. From my social feed, my Netflix account, my over-scheduled life. Rip me from my self doubt, my procrastination. Kicking and screaming, just save me from my own apathy.
From my own lack of preparation.
Read MoreA couple years ago, Billy was just a ski instructor and recent college graduate who wanted to be a writer. After becoming interested in Holiday’s books (Obstacle Is the Way, Perennial Seller, and others), he sent Ryan an email thanking him for his work, and offered to help out on any projects Ryan might have for him. He sent the email and moved on with his life.
Then Ryan wrote back.
Read MoreFor creators, sometimes the hardest thing is just to start.
We plan, we prepare, we tidy up. Maybe I need to build a better chapter template for my book. Maybe I need to do more research. Maybe I need to go to the store to get different paints. Maybe I should search for a new sonic plugin that will really make this track sound great. I think if I could just tweak my desk setup, I could really get some good work done.
Some planning can help you fly further when doing your creative deep work. But too often, planning can be an excuse. It’s tangible, tractable, satisfying—and deadly to your creative production.
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