The Heart To Start: Stop Procrastinating & Start Creating

by David Kadavy

People who believe they can learn, actually can (“growth mindset”). People who don’t believe they can learn, struggle to learn (“fixed mindset”).

When we create our art, it’s a process of self-actualization. Your true self is constantly in conflict with the expectations of the world around you. Is it okay to do this? Will this make someone mad? Will I embarrass myself? Will I be stripped of my “best behaved” award?

Ego doesn’t just make you act arrogant or criticize others. Ego also causes you to make excuses for yourself.

Even if you’re not the best in the world at any one of those curiosities, chances are you’re the best in the world at your particular combination of curiosities.

perfectionism is what keeps us from getting started. As our ego cradles us in the warm blanket of our high standards, days and years melt by. We get ever closer to dying with our art still inside us.

if I needed a break every twenty-five minutes, I would take that as a sign that I needed to find a new line of work.

Then you don't really understand the purpose of the Pomodoro technique. It isn’t to trick the user into keeping going, its to prevent mental overload when working on a complex creative solution. I use it when programming complex software solutions, as do many other developers, to avoid the mental fatigue that comes from keeping complex datastructures and programming constructs in the mind while creating solutions.