on being ready

“The intellect is a great danger to creativity, because you use it to rationalize and make up reasons for things instead of trusting your own basic truth: who you are, what you are, what you want to be.

I’ve had a sign over my typewriter for 25 years now, which reads: Don’t Think! You must never think at the typewriter. You must feel. Thinking is su... See more

“Everything changed for me when I realized that I could take the anxious, scared 11 year old version of myself up on the stage with me. I could take his hand, listen to his fears, and say: yeah, there’s a lot of people out there. yeah, it might be a bit scary to perform in front of them. yeah, we might mess up. but it’s all good. we’ll be okay. it’... See more

Something Sasha Chapin said in a seminar he recently hosted about building a service business is that there are typically two major internal blocks when it comes to self-permission-ing (that is: giving yourself permission to do something that only you can give yourself permission to do). Most people are either: (1) afraid to do a new thing wrong, o... See more

But once we leave the world of institutions, permissioning shifts dramatically. Our life becomes a series of checkpoints demanding self-permission-ing—that is: allowing yourself to do the thing. Or: telling yourself that you are ready. If you keep waiting for permission from some external source long after anyone is responsible for giving it to you... See more

I’ve never “felt ready” for the things that scared me—things that pushed me to grow in a direction that was true, meaningful, and worthwhile. Every time I’ve done something that came from a deep place within, something that felt out of reach, intimidating or risky, I always felt rather un-ready for it. But what I’ve leapt at before I felt ready has... See more