True pros understand the importance of honing their craft, regardless of the tools at their disposal. They embrace the philosophy of Bruce Lee, who famously stated, " I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times ." It's the expertise gained through deliberate, consistent practice... See more

Although repetition is necessary, practice isn’t just repetition. When we practice, we do two things: we isolate a technique for study, and we engage with difficulty.

On the train ride I repeated this line to myself, your allocation of effort determines your reality . Mastery requires effort sustained over time. The ability to make practice sacred through repetition. It’s the gardener, philosopher, writer, financier, artist, entrepreneur. Our roads, architecture, movies, books, music, everything beautiful in thi... See more

"Mastery requires lots of practice. But the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes.

Thus, an essential component of mastery is the ability to maintain your enthusiasm. The master continues to find the fundamentals interesting."

Mastery, Robert said, requires boredom and tedium. It requires doing the same mundane things over and over and over. It requires sitting with the frustration of putting in work that doesn’t immediately pay off.

"Mastery requires lots of practice. But the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes.

Thus, an essential component of mastery is the ability to maintain your enthusiasm. The master continues to find the fundamentals interesting."

My entire philosophy of how I organize myself as a working painter can be summed up by something George Carlin said: “Just keep movin’ straight ahead. Every now and then you find yourself in a different place.”

You hear a lot in art school about how painters must continue to “grow” and “evolve”—but I think those are such bullshit words. There is gre... See more