5) Lack of Belief Capital
If you’re reading this, you got it into your head that you have more potential than you know how to use. At night, the visions torture you — you’re not who you could be. You obsess about your body (am I attractive enough?), your environment (shouldn’t I be richer?), and time (I’m wasting my life, I’m already [insert age]…)
Don’t get depressed. We’re going to climb out of this pit. Stick with me, talented (don’t worry, I know you are), and unfulfilled readers. Let’s break down exactly how to bridge this gap.
Here are the habits holding you back and…
The Creative Life Is Possible
Your actual bottleneck is probably your network
My favorite writer in the world isn’t someone you know — yet.
He’s a better writer than me, and he’s for sure a better writer than most of the people making a living doing it. He makes me angry at how good he is. Besides the book Catch-22, it’s the only writing that’s made me laugh out loud.
I told him, “You are beyond skilled enough to be a writer. That is no longer your bottleneck. I think your bottleneck is your industry contacts.”
We discussed this for over two hours. We realized that we would rather spend 400 hours…
How to tell if you will make it
I’m standing in the middle of nowhere on a road trip. I’m looking at some nothing parking lot in some nothing town at some nothing gas station. Instead of feeling lonely and depressed — like I normally might — I think, “Man, thank God I can write about this.” What do you know ?— here I am doing it.
Being a writer takes all the random meaningless out of my life and puts it all under the umbrella of storytelling. Without writing, I couldn’t justify the way I exist. …
The Creative Life Is Possible
Just keep writing
My friend is a TV writer. Almost all of the editing and rewriting he does gets rid of the parts where he tried to be “different.”
We tend to think we need to shake it up. After all, if we don’t do something new, then why do it at all? Tempting, but wrong. The point of creativity is to create — not to create the opposite of what has been established willy-nilly. If you do it differently — the reason needs to be better than different for different’s sake.
The same is true for creative business ideas, articles, and even…
The Creative Life Is Possible
If you can’t feel it, you won’t get it
I want you to try something really quick: Pay attention to what your impression of me is. For whatever reason, you clicked on this article. Maybe you’ve seen me before, or maybe the headline caught your attention. Feel all of that so far? Bare with me.
What do you think of me? In your body, who do you think I am? Notice how much information there is! How could you possibly know so much about me? You’ve only glanced at me on the internet— and we’ve probably never met.
Human beings are excellent at making snap judgments. In fact, our…
The Creative Life Is Possible
95% of people won’t even try
In 1843, a man named Henri Murger was chilling in Paris with bohemians and artists. He wrote a book of short stories about them called Scenes of Bohemian Life which were the first-ever tales of romantic “starving artists.”
A young playwright approached Murger about his stories. They made plays about starving artists called La Vie de la bohème. They were massive successes. That, in turn, made his book a massive success.
The man who literally coined our modern interpretation of what it looks like to be a “starving artist” was himself, a very fed artist. He sold us the idea…
Experts have very few options
The Japanese have a word for “beginner’s mind” — Shoshin. Even advanced martial arts students are encouraged to have shoshin. Openness, eagerness, and a lack of preconceptions. Experts tend to get their ass kicked.
For beginners, a would-be ass-kicking is merely a chance to learn.
Our ego always wants to be an expert. An expert is safe. An expert is finished. If your life is already everything you dreamed it to be — congratulations, you’re an expert. For the rest of us — we are forever beginners.
1) Beginners Replace Fear With Curiosity
Roland Griffiths — a pioneer in the modern world of psychedelic research —…
The Creative Life Is Possible
You don’t need fame or luck
We need stories like we need food. So why don’t most storytellers get paid?
Because they are writing to seem like a writer — not to solve problems.
What a writer is good for
Imagine you’re in a tribe of early humans. You know an elder whose only job is to tell stories around the campfire. The rest of the tribe happily feeds him while he sits around all day.
Feeling jealous, you decide you want to be a storyteller. Looks easy. You’re not very athletic and you want some status. You learn all the stories and the elder lets you practice telling them. …
This chart illustrates the nearly impossible task of writing a classic
You could put any piece of creative writing somewhere on this chart. The great classics would all hover around the center. Your guilty pleasures would hang out in the bottom. That movie you’re “supposed” to watch (but never will) is going to be in the upper left. That preachy book full of spiritual lessons is in the top right.
To add to the fun — the closer you get to the center, the more unstable it becomes. …
You don’t realize how deep lack goes
“If you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. If you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack.”
Greg McKeown — you crazy for this one. Lack mindset is 90% of what keeps us from where we want to go. But 90% of my lack thoughts go unnoticed.
To change your life, notice your lack.
While I’m reading a book on my couch, my body slips into stress and worry. Will I get the things I want? Am I successful enough for my age? I can’t remember the entire last page I read… That…
Taylor Foreman
Lost southern boy writing in Los Angeles. The intersection of creativity and money. taylorforeman.com
