“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.”
That is one of my favorite quotes from Chuck Close.
So many people I meet are waiting for things to be perfect for them to start something. Whether this is spending too long on the first podcast, video, product, post, or whatever.
This pursuit of the “right” moment or time is an ultimate way to procrastinate and hold off the inevitable work.
Waiting for motivation is a funny thing. (I see the irony of this being part of a “Monday Motivation” email. I just didn’t have a better name for it.)
Anyway, I get asked a lot about what do I use for motivation? For me, it’s in doing the work. It’s problem-solving. It’s starting the first draft, knowing it’s going to suck. That’s how it gets better.
This is why I always talk about loving the process, not the end goal. The process is where the gold is. This is what keeps you sharp and making progress.
People procrastinate and wait for “inspiration” as a form of failure avoidance.
See if you don’t start, you don’t finish, you don’t get to present your idea, then you can’t fail. But also you don’t get success. This is what I loved about Highland Games and throwing. It’s that exposure of being alone in the ring and having to perform when it counts.
It’s the practice that provides confidence and ideas. That’s where institution comes from for me. It’s the pursuit of progress. It’s not a linear path. You are going to fail.
Embrace your rough drafts and make sure you fail small enough to right the ship.
Find what drives you. Figure out how to tap into that part and step on the fucking gas.
SPREAD HVIII, ALWAYS PARTY
