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    “When we stop worrying about whether we’ve done it perfectly, we can focus on the process instead. Saturday Night Live doesn’t go on at 11:30 p.m. because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30. We don’t ship because we’re creative. We’re creative because we ship. Take what you get and commit to a process to make it better.”

    Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 171)

      “Lost in all the noise around us is the proven truth about creativity: it’s the result of desire—the desire to find a new truth, solve an old problem, or serve someone else. Creativity is a choice, it’s not a bolt of lightning from somewhere else.”

      Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 3)

        “We don’t tolerate typos in commercial products, and the market has the same feeling about design that’s lazy or out of place. Graphic design represents an emotional commitment to the work. Long before we read the words or understand the images, we see the layout. Kerning and color and weight and form arrive in our brains before we have decided what the words on the page actually mean. You wouldn’t wear a clown suit to a job interview, and yet people dress up their ideas in clown suits all the time.”

        Seth Godin, Blog

          “If you never copy best practices, you’ll have to repeat all the mistakes yourself. If you only copy best practices, you’ll always be one step behind the leaders.”

          James Clear, Blog

            “There is a field where all wonderful perfections of microscope and telescope fail. All exquisite niceties of weights and measure as well as that which is behind them, the keen and driving power of the mind. No facts, however indubitably detected, no effort or reason, however magnificently maintained, can prove that Bach’s music is beautiful.”

            Edith Hamilton, Sunbeams (Page 17)

            Ethan Hawke Quote on Art and Why Human Creativity Matters

              “Do you think human creativity matters? Well, most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry, right? They have a life to live and they’re really not that concerned with Allen Ginsberg’s poems or anyone’s poems—until, their father dies; they go to a funeral; you lose a child; someone breaks your heart. And all of a sudden you’re desperate for making sense out of this life. ‘Has anybody felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud?’ Or the inverse—something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes—you love them so much you can’t even see straight. You’re dizzy. ‘Did anybody feel like this before? What is happening to me?’ And that’s when art’s not a luxury—it’s actually sustenance. We need it.”

              Ethan Hawke, TED

              Beyond the Quote (276/365)

              Has anybody felt as bad as you might be feeling? Yes. And worse. How did they come out of that cloud? They wrote about it. Talked about it. Created something with it. They expressed it. Connected with other people about it. And many of them left it there for people, like you, to find and possibly connect with, too. Have you found what they left for you? Or have you been distracted? Have you even tried to search or are you too busy not looking? Human creativity—art—is the sustenance we need to nourish our souls.

              Read More »Ethan Hawke Quote on Art and Why Human Creativity Matters

                “There’s a thing that worries me sometimes when you talk about creativity because it can have this kind of feel that it’s just nice, or warm, or pleasant—it’s not. It’s vital. It’s the way we heal each other. In singing our song, in telling our story, in inviting you to say, ‘Hey, listen to me and I’ll listen to you,’ we’re starting a dialog. And when you do that this healing happens. And we come out of our corners. And we start to witness each other’s common humanity. We start to assert it. And when we do that? Really good things happen.”

                Ethan Hawke, TED

                  “You could try to pound your head against the wall and think of original ideas or you can cheat by reading them in books.”

                  Patrick Collison

                    “Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgement.”

                    Kevin Kelly, Blog

                      “When we create rituals around powerful tools for performance and awareness, such as the morning and evening rituals, or when we train the fundamentals common to our missions or critical nodes, then we are grooving peak performance behavior into our subconscious.  These are good routines that will help unlock creativity and success.”

                      Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                      Albert Einstein Quote on Monotony and Solitude and How It Affects Creativity

                        “The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”

                        Albert Einstein

                        Beyond the Quote (73/365)

                        In lieu of recent events, it seems as though many of us are going to be experiencing more monotony and solitude than we otherwise might have expected or wanted.  And while, yes, the unknowns associated with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) are certainly nerve-wracking and have been demanding our full attention, if you find yourself in a position of isolation or solitude—rather than looking at it as a prison from exploring the outside world, why not try looking at it as an opportunity to explore the depths of your inside world?

                        Read More »Albert Einstein Quote on Monotony and Solitude and How It Affects Creativity

                          “I am often accused of being childish. I prefer to interpret that as child-like. I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things. I tend to exaggerate and fantasize and embellish. I still listen to instinctual urges. I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind. I never water my garden without soaking myself. It has been after such times of joy that I have achieved my greatest creativity and produced my best work.” ~ Leo F. Buscaglia, Bus 9 to Paradise

                            “Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air – explode softly – and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth – boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either – not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.” ~ Robert Fulghum

                              “Habits do not restrict freedom.  They create it.  In fact, the people who don’t have their habits handled are often the ones with the least amount of freedom.  Without good financial habits, you will always be struggling for the next dollar.  Without good health habits, you will always seem to be short on energy.  Without good learning habits, you will always feel like you’re behind the curve.  If you’re always being forced to make decisions about simple tasks—when should I work out, where do I go to write, when do I pay the bills—then you have less time for freedom.  It’s only by making the fundamentals of life easier that you can create the mental space needed for free thinking and creativity.”

                              James Clear, Atomic Habits

                                “Rutted routines that develop from doing the same thing the same way every time—often unconsciously, or at best without deliberate decision-making—are those that stifle creativity.  However, when we create rituals around powerful tools for performance and awareness, such as the morning and evening rituals, or when we train the fundamentals common to our missions or critical nodes, then we are grooving peak performance behavior into our subconscious.  These are good routines that will help unlock creativity and success.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal