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DO THE WORK!
Where butts need to be kicked, we shall kick them. Where kinder, gentler methods are called for, we’ll get out the kid gloves.
moving from a lower or less conscious plane to a higher one.
Resistance (i.e., fear, self-doubt, procrastination, addiction, distraction, timidity, ego and narcissism, self-loathing, perfectionism, etc.)
The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.
Only two things will remain with us across the river: our inhering genius and the hearts we love.
Good things happen when we start before we’re ready. For one thing, we show huevos. Our blood heats up. Courage begets more courage. The gods, witnessing our boldness, look on in approval. W. H. Murray said:
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and ma...
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Babies are born in blood and chaos; stars and galaxies come into being amid the release of massive primordial cataclysms.
The hospital room may be spotless and sterile, but birth itself will always take place amid chaos, pain, and blood.
Start playing from power. We can always dial it back later. If we don’t swing for the seats from the start, we’ll never be able to drive a fastball into the upper deck.
Discipline yourself to boil down your story/new business/philanthropic enterprise to a single page.
Figure out where you want to go; then work backwards from there.
What is Nude Descending a Staircase about?
a mortal to challenge the monster. He must be monstrous himself. Obsessed, arrogant, monomaniacal. Ahab.
Thoughts and Chatter Have you ever meditated? Then you know what it feels like to shift your consciousness to a witnessing mode and to watch thoughts arise, float across your awareness, and then drift away, to be replaced by the next thought and the thought after that.
Ready to Rock and Roll
Ready to roll? We need only to remember our three mantras: Stay primitive. Trust the soup. Swing for the seats. And our final-final precept: 4. Be ready for Resistance.
Soak up what you need to fill in the gaps. Keep working.
Don’t stop. Don’t look down. Don’t think.
Unless you’re building a sailboat or the Taj Mahal, I give you a free pass to screw up as much as you like.
Set forth without fear and without self-censorship. When you hear that voice in your head, blow it off.
liberating ourselves from conventional expectations—from what we think our work “ought” to be or “should” look like.
Stay stupid. Follow your unconventional, crazy heart.
Act, reflect. Act, reflect.
Spew. Let ’er rip. Launch into the void and soar wherever the wind takes you.
When we say “Trust the soup,” we mean the Muse, the unconscious, the Quantum Soup. The sailor hoists his canvas, trusting that the wind (which is invisible and which he can neither see nor control) will appear and power him upon his voyage.
unconscious, the Quantum Soup. The sailor hoists his canvas, trusting that the wind (which is invisible and which he can neither see nor control) w...
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When we say “Stay Stupid,” we mean don’t self-censor, don’t indulge in self-doubt, don’t permit self-judgment.
He does it all by instinct. Fearless, child-like, primitive instinct.
Your work-in-progress produces its own gravitational field, created by your will and your attention. This field attracts like-spirited entities into its orbit.
Seth Godin calls “thrashing” (a very evocative term)—momentum is everything. Keep it going.
Act, then reflect. Act, then reflect.
These tests are being set for you.
This is your trial by fire.
You retain free will and the capacity to act.
On the field of the Self stand a knight and a dragon. You are the knight.
Resistance is the dragon. There is no way to be nice to the dragon, or to reason with it or negotiate with it or beam a white light around it and make it your friend. The dragon belches fire and lives only to block you from reaching the gold of wisdom and freedom, which it has been charged to guard to its final breath.
All grievances related to aspects of yourself dependent on the accident of birth, e.g., how neglected/abused/ mistreated/unloved/poor/ill-favored etc. you were when you were born.
The only items you get to keep are love for the work, will to finish, and passion to serve the ethical, creative Muse.
This time we’ll lick it. We’ll fix this jalopy and get it back on the road.
We are too dumb to quit and too mulish to back off.
Where did this train go off the tracks?
It’s hard because it’s hard.
the stroke that split the diamond.
The solution was mechanical.
The story can’t just be about “the clash between man’s will and the malice of nature.” That’s not enough. It must add the element of man-as-part-of-nature-himself. So that Man is dueling the evil inside himself and being consumed by it.
