“… Because, while we’re each unique, we have far more in common than we’re comfortable admitting. Amplifying our differences may make us feel special, but it’s not particularly useful when it comes to getting better.
Being unique is a great way to hide from the change we need when someone offers us a better future. Learning from the patterns and the people who have come before, though, is the only way any of us advance.”
Uniquely unique, by Seth Godin
“Most of the things that we do have two possible outcomes: they might work or they might not. Being able to live with the possibility of either is essential if we’re going to move forward.”
The two risk mistakes, by Seth Godin
“creativity keeps the world alive, yet, everyday we are asked to be ashamed of honoring it, wanting to live our lives as artists. i’ve carried the shame of being a ‘creative’ since i came to the planet; have been asked to be something different, more, less my whole life. thank spirit, my wisdom is deeper than my shame, and i listened to who i was. i want to say to all the creatives who have been taught to believe who you are is not enough for this world, taught that a life of art will amount to nothing, know that who we are, and what we do is life. when we create, we are creating the world. remember this, and commit.”
― Nayyirah Waheed
“Look for integrity, selflessness, sacrifice, and compassion. Find those who champion justice and fidelity. But above all, seek men who emulate humility and meekness. Do not, as so many others do, be deceived into thinking it is a weakness. Meekness is strength wrapped in humility, my dear daughter. It is strength under control in a world where so many are out of control.”
A Letter to My Daughter About Young Men, by Benjamin Sledge
I get intimidated all the time. ALL THE TIME! Looks like an interesting read: Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps. I know, I know: two kids and two businesses and still trying to feel like a grown up. Maybe I never will…
“It’s not about what someone can do for you, it’s who and what the two of you become in each other’s presence.”
Do Your Friends Actually Like You? Interesting article by Kate Murphy.
“When you write, everything is literature. Your grocery list. The note to your wife. The email to your mom. Your out-of-office reply. If it’s going to be read by someone, you owe it to them to make it worth their time.”
How my out-of-office reply became national news, and what we can learn from that, by Michael Herschel
“What if joy is my only metric for success?”
– Sarah Jones
(via Elizabeth Gilbert)
“But what can happen over time is this: You wake up one day and realize that you have put yourself back together completely differently. That you are whole, finally, and strong – but you are now a different shape, a different size. This sort of change — the change that occurs when you sit inside your own pain — it’s revolutionary. When you let yourself die, there is suddenly one day: new life. You are Different. New. And no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot fit into your old life anymore. You are like a snake trying to fit into old, dead skin, or a butterfly trying to crawl back into the cocoon, or new wine trying to pour itself back into an old wineskin. This new you is equal parts undeniable and terrifying.”
Beautifully honest post on divorce, by Glennon Doyle Melton. The PS at the end resonated especially. Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth Gilbert.
“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.”
– Dalai Lama
There are currently so many people living with no sense of potential, zero positive vision. We must change that, but not with fueling their fears…
“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
(via Jonathan Fields)
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.
If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to do an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.
Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction.
Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”
— Chuck Close
(via)
“The soul never thinks without an image.”
– Aristotle
(via)
“Finishing big projects takes so much time that we often kind of lose sight of how far we’ve come in the process. And unfortunately there’s no built in progress bar.”
— Jocelyn K Glei
I wish life came with a progress bar. An idea I discovered in this this thoughtful CreativeMornings/LA talk by Jocelyn K Glei.
“Don’t hire a dog, then bark yourself”
– David Ogilvy
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
– Helen Keller
(via)
“Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a f@*$%load of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.”
– Dave Eggers
(via Jonathan Fields)
“Poorly written emails are an early warning of intense busy. Yes, I lack the time to proofread an email, but the mail is sent. At least I accomplished something. The step beyond this is when shit is truly falling on the floor, and while shit on the floor is professionally unacceptable, there used to be a point of irrational pride in my head during this situation: Look at me, how important I must be, with all the… busy.”
A Precious Hour by Tanner Christensen
(via Coudal)
PATIENCE: We lose our temper because we believe that things should be perfect. We’ve grown so good in some areas (putting men on the moon etc.), we’re ever less able to deal with things that still insist on going wrong; like traffic, government, other people… We should grow calmer and more forgiving by getting more realistic about how things actually tend to go.
Ten Virtues for the Modern Age, by Alain de Botton
Carolyn Sewell said it. Chris Piascik illustrated it. And I am trying to teach it to my kids.
“Instead of looking at technologies programmed to enable human beings to better navigate the world I see technologies optimized to help corporations better navigate and manipulate human behavior. That’s not technology’s fault but a question of who and what we’re allowing to build our applications and whether or not we’re willing to look at them from the perspective of human need.”
Staying Human in the Machine Age: An Interview With Douglas Rushkoff, by Andrew O’Keefe
(via Jocelyn)
“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”
– Scott Adams
