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    #239 Let’s play with mistakes

    You know I like word games, my friend.

    Let’s play with mistakes today.

    I don’t like that word—such a negative emotional charge.

    And what’s the opposite of a mistake, anyway?

    We have a word for doing things wrong, but not for doing things right?

    Could we call mistakes lessons?

    Bleh, so bland. Heard that a million times before.

    What about misguided actions?

    Better. Actions that guide me away from my intended outcome. And after a misguided action, I adjust my strategy. I course-correct. Until I get it right and take… guided action?

    We’re not there yet. But guided and misguided actions… I don’t know about you, my friend, but to me, that’s going in the right direction.

    A bit like traction and distraction.

    But that’s a word game for another day.

  • #307 Why wait for the pain when you can write today?

    You can wait to start writing until that moment when the frustration builds up so much that not writing becomes unbearable.

    But why wait for the pain if you could just write today?

    After all, you’re not waiting to become a writer. You’re already a writer. You’re just not writing. Yet.

    And all of that can change in one moment of deciding not to wait, but to write.

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    #8 Musenküsse

    klimt-the-kiss-musenkuss
    Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss (1907-1908).

    der Musenkuss (German) The kiss of the Muse

    Creativity becomes much easier if you see it as a game of finding new ways of describing what has always been there.

    Observing, rather than inventing.

    It’s liberating. Because now the game changes from pulling ideas out of thin air to a game of discovery. Observation. Paying attention. Building upon what’s already discovered, then connecting the dots in way nobody else has.

    Most of all: listening, when the muse finally arrives and visits you for a kiss.

    There’s this voice in my mind
    Impossible to ignore
    And yet I fill my head with noise
    Drowning out
    What deep down I know to be true
    Do I even want to admit
    That this song in my heart
    Is not about me
    But about you?

    P.S.: I’ve observed the same principle in language learning (and wrote a book about the consequences of this mindset shift).

    Which begs the question…

    Where else would we do better if we observed a bit more, rather than trying to invent from scratch?

  • #281 How to know what to write and why

    To know what you’re going to write, you have to begin writing.

    Similarly, to know why you’re writing, you have to begin writing.

    The lure towards writing is what sets you in motion.

    And so it goes for drawing. Singing. Building. Entrepreneurship. Creating. Meeting friends. Lovers. Life partners.

    The act itself is what reveals both the purpose and the shape.

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