Humans Make Mistakes

There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to mistakes. Most people I come across either think that mistakes are frequent and inevitable… Or they believe that they can be eliminated and should never be tolerated. As with just about everything, it’s not that black and white. If we want to nurture a … Read more

The Frontier Of Ignorance

You’d think that the more you learn, the more everything becomes clear. Yet, it often feels that things go in the opposite direction. You find that every question you answer brings several new ones. Each extra bit of information leaves you feeling less confident in how comprehensive your overall understanding is. And so on. This … Read more

Going For It? Or Going For Broke?

There are times when it’s important to go for it and not hold back. When you’re way better off playing to win rather than playing ‘not to lose’. But a lot of people struggle to actually do this. They push things too far and end up going for broke instead.  Part of the problem is … Read more

How To Generate Self Confidence On-Demand

Confidence is driven by many different things. Most of them require gradual, continuous work over weeks, months or more. And once you get to the point where you need the confidence, it’s too late to change anything. Whatever level you’ve reached by then is what you’ve got to work from. But there is one thing … Read more

Choose Your Time, Choose Your Attention

Only one decision in life actually matters. Or, more precisely, it’s a single decision that you make over and over again. That decision is: “How do I choose to use my time?”. Because, at the end of the day, there’s nothing else that you truly own. And once a sliver of time has slipped by … Read more

On Yaks, Harmonicas, and the Talent Myth

In my entire life I’ve only done one drawing that I’m anywhere near proud of. But that was enough to change the way I thought about “talent”… Forever. Everything else I’ve ever drawn or painted has been rubbish. I just assumed that I didn’t have the talent for it. When I was growing up I’d … Read more

No Excuses (Discipline Over Inspiration)

When you’re creative, you want the iron rule of discipline at your back. We picture the great creatives as people who wandered around at their own whim. Working when they felt like it and frittering away the time doing god knows whatever else if they didn’t. Long periods of aimless drifting followed by manic periods … Read more

I Get To

It’s amazing how a small shift in perspective can have huge consequences. Sometimes it can transform your thoughts, your feelings and your actions all at once. And those, in turn, have the power to transform your future – maybe even have an impact on a much wider scale. Here’s one of the most useful perspective … Read more

You Can’t Force The Creative Spark

To produce great creative work, move at pace. Abandon any desire for quality and simply focus on churning out quantity instead. This holds true at every step of the way — the initial glimmer of an idea; a rough first draft; any edits and revisions; and even the final polishing. Of course, this is easy … Read more