The first book I read in 2024, it’s a must-read and necessary book for all creators/artists a 10/10. I chose 39 quotes that stood out to me from the book.

1. Many great artists tend to be the ones with the most sensitive antennae not to create art but to protect themselves. They have to protect themselves because everything hurts more. They feel everything more deeply.
2. A helpful exercise might be opening a book to a random page and reading the first line you eyes find. See what’s written there somehow applies to your situation.
3. Deepening our connection to nature will serve our spirit and what serves our spirit invariably serves our artistic output.
4. There are practices that can assist in accessing this deeper well inside of yourself. For example, you can try an anger-releasing exercise where you beat on a pillow for 5 minutes. It’s more difficult than you might think, do this for the full duration. Time yourself and go hard. Then immediately fill 5 pages with whatever comes out. The objective is not to think about it, to avoid directing the content in any way. Just write whatever words spill forth. There’s an abundant reservoir of high quality information in our subconscious and finding ways to access it can spark new material to draw from.
5. Interference may also come from voices from within. The ones in your head that murmur you’re not talented enough, your idea isn’t good enough, art isn’t a worthwhile investment of your time, the results won’t be well received, you’re a failure if the creation isn’t successful. It’s helpful to turn those voices down so you can hear the chimes of the cosmic clock reminding you it’s time. Your time to participate.
6. The making of art is not a competitive act. Our work is representative of the self. 
7. The mission is to complete the project so you can move on to the next. That next one is a stepping stone to the following work and so it continues in the productive rhythm for the entirety of your creative life. All art is a work in progress. 
8. By accepting self-doubt rather than trying to eliminate or repress it we lessen its energy and interference. Doubting yourself can lead to a sense of hopelessness of not being inherently fit to take on the tast at hand. All or nothing thinking is a non-starter. 
9. The purpose of the work is to awaken something in you first and then allow something to be awakened in others and it’s fine if they’re not the same thing. We can only hope that the magnitude of the charge we experience reverberates as powerfully for others as it does for us. 
10. Our thoughts, feelings, processes and unconscious beliefs have an energy that is hidden in the work. This unseen unmeasurable force gives each piece its magnesium. 
11. The world isn’t waiting for more of the same.
12. We cannot force greatness to happen, all we can do is invite it in and await it actively not anxiously as this might scare it off, simply in a state of continual welcoming.
13. As artists we aim to live in a way in which we see the extraordinary hidden in the seemingly mundane, then challenge ourselves to share what we see in a way that allows others a glimpse of this remarkable beauty. 
14. Ride the wave as long as it can be ridden. If you are fortunate enough to experience the strike of inspiration take full advantage of the access. Remain in the energy of this rarefied movement for as long as it lasts. When flowing – keep going. 
15. In terms of priority, inspiration comes first. You come next. The audience comes last. 
16. Discipline and freedom seem like opposites. In reality they are partners. Discipline is not a lack of freedom, it is a harmonious relationship with time. Extending the period complicates the artist’s ability to capture a state of being. 
17. The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are and how we see the world. Artists allow us to see what we are unable to see but somehow already know. 
18. We create to express who we are and where we are on our journey.
19. Wayne Dyer said that when you squeeze an orange what comes out is orange juice. When you get squeezed, whatever comes out is what’s inside you. And part of that extract is the point of view you don’t even know you have. It’s baked into the art you make and the opinions you share. 
20. In the case of a musician who typically writes their own material I’ll suggest imagine that a favourite artist asked you to write a song for their next album. What would that song sound like? by creating something you’d be excited to hear your favourite artist perform, it depersonalizes the process and can allow the writer to break free of themselves.

21. Once it’s done you sign off on it, LET IT GO, and begin the next chapter of your lifes work whatever that may be. 
22. You are the only audience that matters.
23. The best art divides the audience, if everyone likes it you probably haven’t gone far enough. In the end you are the only one who has to love it. 
24. A river of material flows through us. When we share our works and our ideas they are replenished. If we block the flow by holding them all inside, the river cannot run and new ideas are slow to appear. In the abundant mindset the river never runs dry ideas are always coming through and an artist is free to release them with the faith that more will arrive. If we live in a mindset of scarcity we hoard great ideas. 
25. Choosing to live in scarcity leads to stagnation. If the mind creates a world that is limited, where we think we don’t have enough worthwhile ideas or material, we will not see the inspiration the universe is providing and the river slows let go and move forward.
26. If you think “I don’t like it but someone else will”, you are not making art for yourself. Fear of criticism. Attachment to a commercial result. 
27. If you are living in the belief that success will cure your pain, when the treatment comes and doesn’t work, it can lead to hopelessness. A depression.
28. So if your passion changes course, follow it. Your trust in your instincts and excitement are what resonate with others.
29. There’s always a next scene and that next scene may be one of great beauty and fulfillment. The hard times were the required setup to allow these new possibilities to come into being. The darkness is not an end point nor is the daylight. They live in a continually unfolding mutually dependent cycle. Neither is bad or good. They simply exist. This practice of never assuming an experience you have is the whole story – will support you in a life of open possibility and equanimity. When we obsessively focus on these events, they may appear catastrophic. But they’re just a small aspect of a larger life, and the farther you zoom back the smaller each experience becomes. Zoom in obsess zoom out and observe we get to choose. When we reach an impasse, we may experience feelings of hopelessness. The ability to stay out of the story zoom back and see new pathways into and around a challenge will be of boundless use. 
30. In most cases, this energy of competition oscillates at a lower vibration. Theodore Roosevelt points out, comparison is the thief of joy. Besides why would we want to create with the purpose of diminishing someone else?
31. More often than not these are outer voices that we absorbed early in life. Perhaps a critical or doting parent, teacher or mentor. These voices are not our own. We have internalised someone else’s judgment. So it can be met with the same indifference as the other random chatter. And remember commercial success is completely out of your control. All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability here and now. Working to free yourself from inner voices is a kind of mediation. 
32. When we sit down to work, remember that the outcome is out of our control if we are willing to take each step into the unknown with grit and determination, carrying with us all of our collected knowledge we will ultimately get to where we’re going. This destination may not be one we’ve chosen in advance. It will likely be more interesting. 
33. Do what you can with what you have nothing more is needed.
34. Think to yourself, ‘m just here to create.
35. For those called to art who do struggle with an overwhelming sensitivity, the creative process can have a therapeutic power. It offers a sense of deep connection. A safe place to voice the unspeakable and bare their soul. In these cases art does not unravel the maker but makes them whole. An artist earns the title simply through self-expression as they work in their own way at their own pace. 
36. We accept this responsibility with gratitude, cherish it, and protect it. Acknowledging with humility that it comes from beyond us. More important than us. And not just for us. We are in its service. 
37. The energy feels similar to another force of creation in the world: love. A kinetic draw beyond our rational comprehension. 
38. Most who choose the artist’s path don’t have a choice. We feel compelled to engage, as if by some primal instinct, the same force that calls turtles toward the sea after hatching in the sand. We follow this instinct. To deny it is dispiriting, as if we are in violation of nature. 
39. All that matters is the work itself. The art that actually gets made and how it’s perceived. You are you. The work is the work. Each person in the audience is themselves. Uniquely so. As artists we’re called to let go of these stories again and again and blindly put our faith in the curious energy drawing us down the path.

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