Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

by Elizabeth Gilbert

You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.

But if you’re working on your craft every day on your own, with steady discipline and love, then you are already for real as a creator, and you don’t need to pay anybody to affirm that for you.

And always remember that people’s judgments about you are none of your business.

Also, it may be the case that there are seasons when you can live off your art and seasons when you cannot. This need not be regarded as a crisis; it’s only natural in the flux and uncertainty of a creative life.

No matter how many hours you

spend attempting to render something flawless, somebody will always be able to find fault with it.

I know that I am not only an ego; I am also a soul. And I know that my soul doesn’t care a whit about reward or failure. My soul is not guided by dreams of praise or fears of criticism. My soul doesn’t even have language for such notions. My soul, when I tend to it, is a far more expansive and fascinating source of guidance than my ego will ever be, because my soul desires only one thing: wonder. And since creativity is my most efficient pathway to wonder, I take refuge there, and it feeds my soul, and it quiets the

hungry ghost—thereby saving me from the most dangerous aspect of myself.