Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad

by Austin Kleon

We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can really control is what we spend our days on. What we work on and how hard we work on it.

Yesterday’s over, tomorrow may never come, there’s just today and what you can do with it.

There will be good days and bad days. Days when you feel inspired and days when you want to walk off a bridge. (And some days when you can’t tell the difference.)

when your days pretty much have the same shape, the days that don’t have that shape become even more interesting.

Not every day is going to turn out the way we want it to.

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.

“The phone gives us a lot but it takes away three key elements of discovery: loneliness, uncertainty, and boredom. Those have always been where creative ideas come from.”

When nothing’s fun anymore, try to make the worst thing you can. The ugliest drawing. The crummiest poem. The most obnoxious song. Making intentionally bad art is a ton of fun.

In an age obsessed with speed, slowing down requires special training.

If you want to change your life, change what you pay attention to.

We’re all complicated. We all have personal shortcomings. We’re all a little creepy, to a certain degree.

We’re afraid of changing our minds because we’re afraid of the consequences of changing our minds. What will people think?

“Think for yourself!” goes the cliché. But the truth is: We can’t. We need other people to help us think.

The trouble is that we’re increasingly becoming a culture that is clustering into like-minded communities and networks.

If you’re having trouble finding people to think with, seek out the dead. They have a lot to say and they are excellent listeners.

If we do not get outside, if we do not take a walk out in the fresh air, we do not see our everyday world for what it really is, and we have no vision of our own with which to combat disinformation.

Some of us blossom at a young age; others don’t blossom until old age. Our culture mostly celebrates early successes, the people who bloom fast. But those people often wither as quickly as they bloom.

Whenever life gets overwhelming, go back to chapter one of this book and think about your days. Try your best to fill them in ways that get you a little closer to where you want to be. Go easy on yourself and take your time. Worry less about getting things done. Worry more about things worth doing. Worry less about being a great artist. Worry more about being a good human being who makes art. Worry less about making a mark. Worry more about leaving things better than you found them. Keep working. Keep playing. Keep drawing. Keep looking. Keep listening. Keep thinking. Keep dreaming. Keep singing. Keep dancing. Keep painting. Keep sculpting. Keep designing. Keep composing. Keep acting. Keep cooking. Keep searching. Keep walking. Keep exploring. Keep giving. Keep living. Keep paying attention. Keep doing your verbs, whatever they may be. Keep going.