When does creativity happen? It seems that the more we try to make something happen, the more interference we introduce to the creative process. So how do we achieve a breakthrough?
Letting It Happen
Today’s Sunday Letters article is an extract from The Artist’s Manifesto chapter three and looks at the contrast in letting it happen versus making it happen. The popular advice and resultant often unchallenged perceptions are that if something is to materialise in our experience then we’ve got to make it happen. It’s as if our precise detailing and planning are paramount and without them, we fail. But this is a false idea.
Time To Quit
Giving up, quitting on something is kind of frowned upon, isn’t it? I mean, there seems to be this popular notion in western industrialised society that to kill something that’s not working is a terrible thing. It seems there’s virtue in keeping something alive that’s dying. It might bring you to your knees but by Jasus, you’d better keep trying to make it work as long as there’s a breath in your body or else
Does It Make You Happy?
Does it make you happy? Work I mean. Are you content with your lot? Our western industrialised culture says that you shouldn’t be. To be content, to be happy where you are equals lack of ambition and stagnation. “Become a better version of you!” The 30-something internet self-development man says. To be ambitious in the modern sense is to believe in a future where life is better somewhere other than here and now Therefore life is not good where we are.
Are You Doing It For The Money?
Today the subject of money was on my mind, and I found me asking myself this question; are you doing it for the money? I was in the kitchen making a coffee, and the question popped into my head. My answer was instant, almost like both the question and answer came at the same time. And to be honest, I was a little surprised. My answer was, no.
Mentorship And Advice: Is there A Difference?
This morning I want to share with you some ideas on mentorship and advice. It appears to me that there is nothing inherently good, bad, right or wrong about advice. It seems to be more about how open we are and how we use it. There have been times I’ve taken advice, both solicited and unsolicited.
Have You Ever Failed?
Have You Ever Failed? How did it feel? Maybe you’re still living it. In a sense I think all of us still live our failures to one degree or another. However, it helps us deal with this reality in a positive way to have a definition of failure that helps us rather than hinders us, y’know. In real terms, ultimate terms, there is no failure, only a broader understanding of things. That only comes about by virtue of having the experience.