Wise Sayings

When I am feeling low or unmotivated to do my creative work, I look for wisdom from others who have come before me. Many are encouraging and some make me laugh. Here are a few gems I have collected over the years:

“It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.” – D. W. Winnicott

“The hardest thing is to start anything in the world. The second hardest thing is to finish it.” – Jonas Koffler

“To succeed you got to persist through failure. You got to persist through CRAP: Criticism, Rejections, Assholes and Pressure.” – Richard St. John

“Without vulnerability, there can be no transformation.” – John Malecki

“Too often, we are distracted by a self-loathing of that difference, of the gap between what we want and who we are. We regret not being perfect and this painfully stalls us.” – Mark Nepo

“Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.” – Gail S. Neehy

“It doesn’t matter how a thing starts off, what matters is paying attention to where the ideas are leading you. Because when you think you’re leading them, that’s when you get into trouble.” – David Lynch

“Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us.” – Roy Adzak

“Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight.” – Brené Brown

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” – James Joyce

“Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.” – Napolean Hill

“Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line.” – Brené Brown

“Many of our goals and dreams and ambitions are valuable as stepping stones to a mystery yet to unfold for us.” – Mark Nepo

“Time is absolutely vital to the creative process.” – Alice Aspen March

“It’s less about how do I find the time and more about why do I find the time. You’ll always find time for things that have a strong enough why.” – Kelly Stocker

“You never follow your passion; you bring it with you.” – Mike Rowe