Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance.
Create to bring order out of chaos. Create to you know you did something with your time. Create to beat back the dark. 1
The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.
Remember, as artists we don’t know diddly. We’re winging it every day. For us to try to second-guess our Muse the way a hack second-guesses his audience is condescension to heaven. It’s blasphemy and sacrilege.
They know they are not the source of the creations they bring into being. They only facilitate. They carry. They are the willing and skilled instruments of the gods and goddesses they serve.
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.
Do not accustom yourself to arise from your bed lazy. Rather, rise promptly in order to serve your Maker. Do not sleep a lot like a indolent person. Train yourself to rise early, at sunrise. Arise from your bed at the morning chirp of the birds in order to serve the Holy One, blessed be He. (Orchos Chayim)
The act of sharing is one of generosity—you’re putting something out there because you think it might be helpful or entertaining to someone on the other side of the screen. (Show Your Work)
Let us rather see to it that our own influence on all that is yet to come balances and outweighs his influence. Let us not contend in a direct fight-and that ii what all reproaching, punishing. and attempts to improve others amount to. Let us rather raise ourselves that much higher. Let us color our own example ever more brilliantly. Let our brilliance make them look dark. No, let. us not become darker ourselves on their account, like all those who punish others and feel dissatisfied. Let us sooner step aside. Let us look away! (The Gay Science, §321)
But realize that this is a chaotic, temporary thing. Your confidence must be beset with moments of self-criticism and chaos: > Those thinkers in whom all stars move in cyclic orbits are not the most profound. Whoever looks into himself as into vast space and carries galaxies in himself. also knows how irregular all galaxies are; they lead into the chaos and labyrinth of existence. (Ibid, §322)
It will not need, when the mind is prepared for study, to search for objects. The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. (Emerson, Nature, 74)
You really can?t win?not completely. N o matter what you do, no perfect solution presents itself. Even in this simple situation, i f you behave as you really want to behave, some o f the group members will feel their wants impinged upon and will tend t o dislike you. And i f you behave as you think the group members want you t o do, you will find your basic desires frustrated and will tend t o dislike the others. Unless, b y sheer accident, your wants happen to coincide with those o f all the other members o f the group (a highly unlikely occurrence!), someone, you o r they, gets frustrated. And distinct displeasure, not t o mention anxiety or anger, on your part and theirs, tends to result. (Ellis, Rational Living, 68)
Your accepting yourself and devoting yourself to outside activities may constitute reciprocal goals. For i f you really follow your own basic bents and do not overly concern yourself about what others think o f you, you will have so little time to spend in self-centered worrying that you will feel virtually forced to find absorbing interests o n the outside. B y the same token, i f you throw your energies into outside activities and actively devote yourself t o other people and things, you normally will tend to feel less concerned about what others think o f you and, hence, to respect your own values.
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