Do it!

“Choose your art, practice your art, always, always choose your art over and above anything else. If you can’t do that, then you have—what, a few more years?”

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather taking action despite the fear.

Whenever you chicken out, you don't just feel the pain of cowardice; you miss out on the pleasure of courage.

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

Making things is hard and I feel like that’s the most useful thing to say about it.

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

If you want to understand who you are or could become, it is helpful to learn more things and be active: improve your craft, put yourself in new situations, push yourself. How else are you going to have a sample of reactions to study?

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

— Howard Thurman

I love that loop. Write, revise, write, revise. It’s like doing reps in a gym. You can’t expect that 10 pull-ups will add any discernible new muscle. But 30 pull-ups, across three sets, done thrice a week, for a year? Yeah, you’re going to notice the cumulative results of that.