Top 3 Book Lessons

The 32 year old, who thinks she should have it all figured out by now, but is terrified by the fact that she hasn’t, the 43 year old Dad, who’s secretly in love with writing, but has never given himself permission to do so, and anyone who’s tried to turn their art into money and failed.

It has an “it’s okay, I started small too” kind of vibe to it, which I think is something many many artists need to hear before even finding the courage to start. That’s why Big Magic is perfect in helping you do exact...

I stumbled across this summary when it was recently added to Blinkist’s library. When a coaching client suggested it to me again, I thought I’d give it a shot. What a wonderful way of looking at creativity! Gilbert’s ideas are mostly common-sense, but the way she formulates them makes them ring p...

Elizabeth Gilbert suggests an often critiqued, but incredibly stress-free approach: Keep your day job, and let it fuel your creative affair.  Having a day job that pays the bills, that’s not necessarily related to your art, will give you the safety and freedom to practice your cr...

Imagine having to sing every day at a place you don’t like for people you don’t care about. After you come home to your tiny broom closet of an apartment, would you still have the energy to create more? Probably not.

We all know that one hipster guy or girl from high school, who’d spent his or her entire time writing songs and playing the guitar and now plays the bi-weekly show at a local pub, but never got a real job.

That’s the cliché version of “an artist’s life” and it’d best stay that, because

“I’m a writer.”

“I’m a painter.”

“I’m a singer.”

Announce to yourself and the world that you’re here to chase your passion, regardless of rejections and reactions . Being authentic is much more important than being original and the latter always follows the f...

Sure, the first summaries on here  aren’t nearly as good as some of the newer ones, but being okay with producing something that’s not as good is exactly what I needed to do before I was able to get here in the first place.

...

The thought “I’m going to start a daily blog” sounds great in your head – for about 12 seconds. Then the fears and doubts kick in.

“You’ll run out of things to say after a week.” “You don’t have the discipline to publish daily.” “You’ll produce a ton of crap.”

Ahh, self-talk, where ...

So, learn to let your fears and passions coexist, and it’ll help you move on and write the next page, take the next stroke with your painting brush or record the next karaoke video – no matter what anyone thinks, including you.

Elizabeth Gilbert agrees. She says instead of overcoming your fears, just get comfortable with them. Let your curiosity take the wheel, and put your fears into the backseat . They’re more than welcome to join the ride and give feedback, but you won’t take any detours because of t...

There’s a lot of talk out there these days that you “have to overcome your fears.” As if somehow, you could do something, and that would magically make them go away forever. That’s not the case. Steven Pressfield has shown us that

It’ll teach you how to be creative in spite of your fears, how ideas work, where creativity comes from, and how you can make sure your creativity keeps flowing freely.

Elizabeth Gilbert is best known for publishing the international bestseller Eat, Pray, Love in 2006, which was turned into a movie with Julia Roberts in 2010.

Big Magic is the book that’ll give you the courage you need to pursue your creative interests by showing you how to deal with your fears, notice ideas and act on them and take the stress out of creation.

"It seems to me that the less I fight my fear, the less it fights back. If I can relax, fear relaxes, too."

-Elizabeth Gil