Happy Sunday!
Welcome to Issue #02.
If you haven’t read The War of Art, go grab a copy right now. It has quickly become my favorite go-to book when I need a creative push.
Here’s a brilliant passage:
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Have you ever brought home a treadmill and let it gather dust in the attic? Ever quit a diet, a course of yoga, a meditation practice? Have you ever bailed out on a call to embark upon a spiritual practice, dedicate yourself to a humanitarian calling, commit your life to the service of others? Have you ever wanted to be a mother, a doctor, an advocate for the weak and helpless; to run for office, crusade for the planet, campaign for world peace, or to preserve the environment? Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.
Read it. Share it. Apply it.
8 Small Ways to Remain Alert and Focused Throughout the Day, Brain Fog or Not // Medium
Brain fog is a universal internal barrier every creative has dealt with. Don’t beat your mental blocks into submission with caffeine or productivity hacks— build smaller, more sustainable habits to remain alert and focused throughout the day.
It’s Not About Intention, It’s About Action // Ryan Holiday
The discipline of perception is worthless on its own. What matters is what follows—the discipline of action…
How Covid has created a new battle for relevance // Toby Harrison
It’s about brands but relates to anyone producing creative work. Harrison argues that crisis doesn’t change views—it intensifies them: “What was once important, is now vital. What was once irritating, is now unbearable. A crisis turns up the heat on what we desire and exposes the raw nerves of what we despise.”
Global Conversations // Vogue
Stumbled across this article a few days ago— it’s weirdly applicable and insightful for all artists.
“Creativity never stops, no way. It needs to keep moving. You have to find a way to do it. I believe the way forward is to just keep creating content and to use the spaces we have to tell our stories.”
Something interesting I’m reading —> If you enjoyed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, then you may also like The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World. It’s a captivating piece of science writing that offers an insightful guess at what our history looked like before humans.
Something I’m thinking about —> “Creative work is…a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”
I think this is a question that every artist is constantly battling with: How and where do I share my work with the world? We all want to contribute—but there are almost too many different outlets and platforms to choose from.
What do you think? Send me an anwser on Twitter @JonahMalin95.
Until next Sunday,
Jonah