20 Quotes From Austin Kleon's Keep Going That Make You Keep Working Towards Your Creative Dreams
Other Than Death, There Is No Finish Line Or Retirement For The Creative Person.
Author Note:
I am going on a break from 31st July (Sun) to 15th August (Mon). I need to rest and recharge my creative batteries before I jump into the August cohort of Ship 30 for 30.
You can read about it, in detail, here.
1
Other than death, there is no finish line or retirement for the creative person.
2
Yesterday’s over, tomorrow may never come, there’s just today and what you can do with it.
3
A routine gives you freedom by protecting you from the ups and downs of life and helping you take advantage of your limited time, energy and talent.
4
Not every day is going to turn out the way we want it to. All routines and to-do lists are aspirational.
5
Every day is like a blank page: When you’re finished filling it, you can save it, you can crumple it up or you can slide it into the recycling bin and let it be. Only time will tell you what it was worth.
6
You must play a little hide-and-seek in order to produce something worth being found.
7
[Skipping news (and social media) is]
… not sticking your head in the sand. It’s retaining some of your inner balance and sanity so you can be strong and do your work.
8
Saying “no” to the world can be really hard, but sometimes it’s the only way to say “yes” to your art and your sanity.
9
Let go of the thing that you’re trying to be (the noun), and focus on the actual work you need to be doing (the verb). Doing the verb will take you someplace further and far more interesting.
10
One of the easiest ways to hate something you love is to turn it into your job: taking the thing that keeps you alive spiritually and turning it into the thing that keeps you alive literally.
11
It is easy to assume that of only you could trade your ordinary life for a new one, all your creative problems would be solved.
If only you could quit your day job, move to a hip city, rent the perfect studio, and fall in with the right gang of brilliant misfits! Then you’d really have it made.
All this is, of course, wishful thinking.
You do not need to have an extraordinary life to make extraordinary work. Everything you need to make extraordinary art can be found in your everyday life.
12
It’s impossible to pay proper attention to your life if you are hurtling along at lightning speed.
13
When your job is to see things other people don’t, you have to slow down enough that you can actually look.
14
What you choose to pay attention to is the stuff your life and work will be made of.
15
We are afraid to change our minds because we’re afraid of the consequences of changing our minds. What will people think?
16
Uncertainty is the very thing that art thrives on.
17
Tidying in the hope of obtaining perfect order is stressful work. Tidying without worrying too much about the results can be a soothing form of play.
18
To exercise is to exorcise.
19
Art requires the full use of our senses. Its job is to awaken is to our senses. Our screens, on the other hand, have made us lose our senses and our sense.
20
Try your best to fill them [your days] in ways that get you a little closer to where you want to be.
Go easy on yourself and take your time.
Worry less about getting things done. Worry more about things worth doing.
Worry less about being a great artist. Worry more about being a good human being who makes art.
Worry less about making a mark. Worry more about leaving things better than you found them.
(I will highly recommend reading Keep Going by Austin Kleon.)
