How To Enjoy The Process

“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 make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.” 

— Chuck Close, artist

We could do something, we might do something, but we don’t. And so the work doesn’t ship, or it doesn’t meet its potential.

I’m not alone in facing Resistance. It happens everywhere we look.

Some of the symptoms of Resistance seem contradictory, but if we go back to the definition, that makes sense. Here are a few:

• Procrastinating


• Ignoring or avoiding

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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... See more

Productivity is not drudgery and chores. It’s your ability to take a vision in your head and manifest it in the real world.

Productivity is also not about working harder and longer. It’s about working more efficiently, which means minimizing waste. Think wasted time, effort, energy, or potential.

Productivity is not some random hacks and silver... See more

Painter and visual artist Chuck Close on inspiration:

"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... See more

“Why didn’t they simply do the perfect thing on the first attempt?”

The short answer is: that’s not how this works. Things are not linear or clean. We can only asymptote towards perfection through trial and error.