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the work is why you are here.
the desire to find a new truth, solve an old problem, or serve someone else.
Creativity is a choice,
the practice is the output,
“Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions.”
The practice will take you where you seek to go better than any other path you can follow.
Let’s call it art. The human act of doing something that might not work, something generous, something that will make a difference.
“The renewal of societies and organizations can go forward only if someone cares.”
When you choose to produce creative work, you’re solving a problem. Not just for you, but for those who will encounter what you’ve made.
Practicing how to throw. Getting good at throwing. If you get good enough at throwing, the catching takes care of itself.
Throwing is the process, the practice at work. Catching is the outcome of the process.
The desire for outcome is deeply ingrained, and for some, this is the moment where they give up.
Our work is about throwing. The catching can take care of itself.
For the important work, the instructions are always insufficient. For the work we’d like to do, the reward comes from the fact that there is no guarantee, that the path isn’t well lit, that we cannot possibly be sure it’s going to work.
Would you do it if you knew you were going to fail? Yes? Then do it anyways because that's exactly when everyone else gives up.
art: the act of doing something that might not work, simply because it’s a generous thing to do.
Art is the work we do where there is no right answer—and yet the journey is worth the effort.
Art is what we call it when we’re able to create something new that changes someone.
Art is the generous act of making things better by doing something that might not work.
we can always control our actions. Your work is too important to be left to how you feel today.
If you want to change your story, change your actions first. When we choose to act a certain way, our mind can’t help but rework our narrative to make those actions become coherent. We become what we do.
what if we built flow into the process? What if it were a choice?
It all comes back to trusting our self to create the change we seek.
Flow is a symptom of the work we’re doing, not the cause of it.
Once you decide to trust your self, you will have found your passion.
Our passion is simply the work we’ve trusted ourselves to do.
The trap is this: only after we do the difficult work does it become our calling.
“Love what you do” is the mantra for professionals.
Lost in this obsession with outcome is the truth that outcomes are the results of process.
Good processes, repeated over time, lead to good outcomes
“You can’t really decide to paint a masterpiece. You just have to think hard, work hard, and try to make a painting that you care about. Then, if you’re lucky, your work will find an audience for whom it’s meaningful.”
Time to start trusting your self, trusting the process, and trusting that you are actually as capable as you are.
A good decision is based on what we know of the options and the odds.
A good outcome happens or it doesn’t:
focusing on outcomes at the expense of process is a shortcut that will destroy your work.
Doing the work simply involves acknowledging that we’re capable of caring enough to make the work better. To learn, to see, and to improve.
The search for a guarantee is endless, fruitless, and the end of possibility, not the beginning.
my best work involves doing things I’ve never done before.
if you need a guarantee you’re going to win before you begin, you’ll never start.
The imposter is proof that we’re innovating, leading, and creating.
Before you are a “bestselling author,” you’re an author, and authors write. Before you are an “acclaimed entrepreneur,” you’re simply someone who is building something.
The only choice we have is to begin. And the only place to begin is where we are.
Simply begin.
the only way to have a commitment is to begin.
The truth is simpler: If you want to be a leader, then lead. If you want to be a writer, then write.
It’s important that they developed the habit of identity.
Acting as if is how we acquire identity.
Writers write. Runners run. Establish your identity by doing your work.
It’s a practice that begins with trusting yourself to show up and do the work.
Trust is a commitment to the practice,
a decision to lead and make change happen, regardless of the bumps in the road,
in fact, the way they deal with imperfection is precisely why we trust them.
