KEEP GOING


Austin Kleon (2019). Keep Going: 

                                   10 Ways to Stay Creative 

                                   in Good Times and Bad.


This is the 3rd of a trilogy of books by Kleon, the first two being Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work! I appreciate the personal, friendly style of writing with lots of quotes--little gems everywhere--and the simple and sometimes humorous artwork.


Parts that hit me the most, and ideas for practices:

  • create a routine that protects your art, allowing you to make the most beautiful thing you can every day...let the routine also allow time for play, relationships, and meditation/prayer.
  • create lists when feeling overwhelmed to moves the ideas from inside to outside, to discern what's vital, and to focus on what can be done that day...give an account at the day's end--what did you do, what did you learn, what do you still need to do...make a plan
  • do the verbs, focus on process...do try to do the nouns, the outcomes
  • discern what you're willing to do for money and what you are not, be true to yourself, take care in monetizing what you love as you may end up hating it when the money is attached to it...instead, consider making gifts for people 
  • ignore the numbers, especially those related to social media--the only things that really matter is: did you do what you felt called to do, did you do a good job with it, and do you like it...
  • give yourself the grace to revisit old journals, drawings, books, movies, songs...let the creative connections in your remembering and musings rekindle and enliven what you are creating now
  • let the garden teach you about life--e.g., draw the same tree every day for a year--drawing brings you into an intimate relationship with the thing you draw...you notice and observe things that you normally might not...you are learning to see reality as it really is
  • measure time with nature terms rather than chronos terms, e.g., heartbeats instead of seconds, sunrises instead of days, moons instead of months, seasons instead of quarters, and the "return of spring" instead of years.




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