“An expert is someone who, over many years, manages to remain confident enough to keep trying and humble enough to keep learning.”

“You have no responsibility to live up to someone else's expectation of you.Spend as little time as possible chasing other people's preferences instead of your own.”

“Slowing down enables you to act in a high quality way.Kind rather than curt. Polished rather than sloppy.It's hard to be thoughtful when you're in a rush.”

Poet and novelist May Sarton  on letting go: “I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep… Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.”

Writer Joan Didion shares some life advice:“I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave's a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace.

What is one lesson you learned (or relearned) this year?

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

communication

Communication

3-2-1: Slowing down, letting go, and lessons from the year

Do not make life decisions based on immediate compulsions. Looking back after many years, it should still be a worthwhile choice.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

Mystic Quotes - Sadhguru

Helps to spend extra time on morning routine and prepare my mind for the day.Also, you will feel fresh and energetic

Wake Up Early

Use affirmations, talk to yourself, meditate, exercise, etc.This will help to keep your balance:Physically and Mentally

Have A Morning Ritual

Ask yourself how can I help others? How can I be of use to someone who is in need.This will provide you with a sense of motivation. Remember:"All you can take with you is that which you have given away."

Think About Serving Others

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

strategy

Strategy

business

Business

Morning essential

Don't try to fix things that are not broken, if you are not ready for them to get worse.Sometimes, we see the oportunity to improve something that seems easy and not very time-consuming. It can happen for some reason, when trying to improve it, that things get worse and more time is required in order to get it back to the previous state.

Unnecessary Focus

Sometimes, problems get solved by themselves.When no immediate and critical action is required, time can show that the problem was not in need of an action from our side to be solved.

Unnecessary Action

You can solve the problem: You can do it, no reason to be stressed.You can't solve the problem: Nothing you can do, so don't get stressed.

Unnecessary Stress

Solving problems needs more than knowledge and experience. Needs a clear and calm mind.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

Patience and Solutions

Comparing ourselves to others allows them to drive our behavior. Sometimes this comparison is motivating and sometimes it’s destructive.

Comparing Can Be Motivating As Well As Destructive

At worst, when we compare ourselves to others we end up focusing our energy on bringing them down instead of raising ourselves up.

Comparisons between people are a recipe for unhappiness. 

your focus and energy is placed on what you’re capable of now and how you can improve yourself.Life becomes about being a better version of yourself. And when that happens, your effort and energy go toward <a href="https://fs.blog/2016/04/munger-operating-system/">upgrading your personal operating system </a>every day.

Being You - Is The Only Game You Can Really Win

Compare yourself to who you were yesterday.

Compare Yourself To Who You Were Yesterday

<ul><li>Think of anything you want to achieve. Learn and practice that.</li><li>Learn to know yourself. Observe your thoughts 💭.</li><li>Make your self care plan like having a coffee ☕ or tea 🍵, set a good and healthy diet, make excercise regimen or take a stroll in your surroundings to enjoy nature, listening to music etc, read a book 📖.</li><li>Have a journal for brain dump.</li></ul>Or you can do a lot of things just to focus on yourself and learn from everyone. Try not to things personally. Its all about mindset.

How To Focus On Yourself

I believe in the power of self awareness. To achieve self awareness we need to focus on ourselves instead of others. 

When you stop comparing yourself to others and turn your focus inward, you start being better at what really matters: being you.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

The Danger of Comparing Yourself to Others - Farnam Street

Negative space is the area around and between a subject. It is most evident when the space around a subject forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape. A popular example of this is seen in Rubin’s vase

How Negative Space Can Improve Your Drawing

The ability to discern and draw negative space comes with the following key benefits:Drawing what you seeUnderstanding CompositionUnity in Drawing

Why is learning Negative Space Important

A recurring message in art classes and tutorials is that as a beginning student, you should: “draw what you see not what you know”, this can be easily done by drawing with negative space. You have no previous knowledge of the negative space unlike the object itself, therefore you would have to draw by focusing on what is in front of you. Drawing with negative space makes it easy to abide by the laws of perspective and foreshortening.

1. Drawing what you see

If you are just starting art and design, it is easy to assume that your work is to fill up the blank page but in truth, you need to work with the blank page. An artwork/design is a combination of both positive and negative spaces on the page.

2. Understanding Composition

Asides from helping you with the compositional elements of your drawing, paying attention to negative spaces can ensure that everything fits together with the page. A major mistake every beginner makes is to start a drawing without due consideration of the page, only to realize towards the end that the drawing is going off page at one point and too tiny at the other.

3. Unity in Drawing

These ideas show how negative space is important in drawing

Negative spaces are present in all art and design even though they usually go unnoticed. Picture this: while watching Tom and Jerry, every time one of our favorite frenemies gets punched or pulled through a door leaving their shape in it, the principle of Negative space is at play. The form you see is only…

entertainment

Entertainment

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

How To Improve Your Drawing With Negative Space

Creative writing requires that you consistently and consciously push your imagination to create unique scenes, characters, backgrounds, storylines and so much more. While this is something many adults consider to be beyond them, imagination remains a natural human faculty one we are born with and which never truly leaves.

How To Develop Your Imagination For Writing Easily

<ol><li> Exercising Your Imagination</li><li>Slow-down</li><li>Your work and Imagination</li><li>Effects of Mass Media</li></ol>

Identifying the Hindrances to Your Imagination

Consider what happens to other parts of our bodies when we don’t use them. If, for instance, you don’t use your arm for years, eventually the muscles and ligaments will atrophy. Then, when you try to do something with that arm, you won’t be able to. This is the situation that most of us are in with our imaginations: It’s not that we don’t possess a faculty of imagination; it’s that, for most of our lives, we haven’t had a chance to use it.

Exercising Your Imagination

Our lives have become so fast-paced that we no longer have time to dream. Daydreaming at work or school as reported by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0028393217302592?via%3Dihub">science direct</a> could be a sign that you’re smart and creative but to do this, the imagination needs to be in a relaxed state. When you are rushing around and under stress, it’s just about impossible for your imagination to operate as it was designed to do.

Slow-down

We usually don’t get much chance to exercise and develop our imaginations at work. In the highly complex technological cultures of the twenty-first century, survival depends not on one’s ability to make mental pictures, but on one’s intellect. <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/245498/fostering-creativity-work-managers-push-crush-innovation.aspx"> A Gallup survey</a> of 16,500 employees found that merely 35% of workers are given a chance to stay creative at work.

Your work and Imagination

We live in a culture that bombards us constantly with deliberately constructed artificial images: advertisements on billboards and in magazines; the fast-moving images of television and movies and of course the internet and social media. Many recent studies have demonstrated the negative effects of watching television, showing that this activity impedes children’s abilities to read, write, think, socialize, and engage in physical activity.

Effects of Mass Media

<ul><li>Close your eyes. In your mind imagine a blank sheet of white paper.</li><li>Now imagine the outline of a square, drawn in black lines, on that paper. </li><li>Now fill the square with red. Got that? Now change the color to green. Now make it yellow instead.</li><li>Then turn the square blank again, erase the page, let go of the image of the page, and open your eyes.</li></ul>

Exercising Your Imagination: Use Your Visual Imagination

You may have found it easier to picture some colors than others; that’s fine — you don’t have to do this perfectly. And if you had difficulty, don’t despair; with regular and frequent practice you can easily recover your ability to imagine.You can adopt and adapt this practice with your other senses too. Touch, Sounds, Smell and Taste.

Moving Forward

These ideas show some of the hindrances to imagination and how to solve them with exercises.

Creative writing requires that you consistently and consciously push your imagination to create unique scenes, characters, backgrounds, storylines and so much more. While this is something many adults consider to be beyond them, imagination remains a natural human faculty one we are born with and which never truly leaves. Think of it, if you can…

writing

Reading & Writing

creativity

Creativity

People pay a lot of attention to physical cuts and injuries. But what about emotional ones? Though they don’t often get the care they deserve, they can be just as detrimental to you. motional harm, pain, and injury can lead to various mental health problems.It’s not always easy to reduce or prevent emotional harm, but it can be done. You can do this by articulating worries, filling time well, practicing mindfulness, listening to feedback, being socially connected, and fueling your body. These habits, while simple on the surface, will work wonders for your emotional wellbeing!

Emotional Wellbeing Comes First.

It is always wise to solve emotional crisis, rather than overlook it.

These six smart emotional and mental habits can helpyou prevent or reduce the likelihood of experiencing emotional harm.

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

6 Habits That Help Prevent or Reduce Emotional Harm

For better or worse, when you dive into the world of self-employment you get to see a rare glimpse of what you are truly made of.When you show up every day to put in the work, you are stepping into discomfort.Stamina, execution of business strategy, resiliency, accepting and enduring temporary pain… these will all lead you to question “why am I doing this?” That is often the toughest part, and if you can find the answer and execute on actionable steps that move you forward, you will move on to bigger challenges. With bigger challenges, comes more success and the cycle repeats.

Self Help Is Best Help

For better or worse, when you dive into the world of self-employment you get to see a rare glimpse of what you are truly made of. From the outside, it may appear like many successful entrepreneurs go about it alone, like they were born to run a business, but even the best and most successful people in any industry use coaching and tools to create success in their lives and businesses. When you show up every day to put in the work, you are stepping into discomfort. So if stick to your toolset and remind yourself why you are suffering every day by clearly seeing your bigger vision, and you will achieve the success you dream of. You can find a lot out about yourself through misery, and you have the chance to find something amazing.  Stamina, execution of business strategy, resiliency, accepting and enduring temporary pain… these will all lead you to question “why am I doing this?” That is often the toughest part, and if you can find the answer and execute on actionable steps that move you forward, you will move on to bigger challenges. With bigger challenges, comes more success and the cycle repeats so long as you remember why you chose this path in the first place.

Knowing one's own caliber, one can best utilize Oneself at bigger success.

For better or worse, when you dive into the world of self-employment you get to see a rare glimpse of what you are truly made of.

habits

Habits

startup

Startups

5 Things You Need to Master to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

<ul><li>Everything in this world is a remix or an upgrade</li><li>What we call original is just an edited version of an inspiration.</li><li>" What is originality? - undetected plagiarism." - William Ralph Inge</li><li>A good artist understands nothing comes from nowhere, all creative work builds on what came before.</li></ul>

Things You Need To Know About Being Creative

<ul><li>Start early, don't wait to find your voice before getting started</li><li>When you put more of your work out in the world you will eventually figure out your voice.</li><li>It is in the act of making things, that we figure out who we are.</li><li>Imitate your favourite artists and idols understand their perspectives and behaviours. </li><li>Don't simply copy, instead understand , learn , create and release your own version of the idea</li></ul>

Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started

<ul><li>Step away from your screens</li><li>Try using more of your hands to write or create art.</li><li>It's proven that, when you use your body creative ideas flow more easily.</li><li>Screens distract us and hinder our creative flow</li></ul>

Use Your Hands

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">"The work you do procrastinating is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life" - Jessica hish</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The stuff that you do in your free time is probably the ones you will thrive at.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">In your hobbies creativity flourishes and your interest is peaked </li></ul>

Side Projects And Hobbies Are Important

<ul><li> Don't worry about your ideas getting stolen.</li><li>Share your process for the world to see and learn</li><li>Doing good work is difficult, but you eventually get better</li><li>But sharing good work is very easy. Just use any social media you are comfortable with.</li><li>The chances are that,nobody is going to read it in the beginning. But don't do it for them, do it for yourself.</li></ul>

Do Good Work And Share With People

<ul><li>Be nice, connect with people around the world</li><li>Geography is not our master anymore,and networking is easier then ever.</li><li>You are only as good as people you sorround yourself with,this translates to the digital world as well, follow people that have positive impact in your life.</li></ul>

Be Nice , The World Is Small

<ul><li>"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." - Gustave Flaubert</li><li>It is very boring to be creative and you will find it hard to maintain a social life.</li><li>But creating beautiful art is the reward you reap.</li></ul>

Be Boring, It's The Only Way To Get Work Done

<ul><li>Choose what to leave out</li><li>You can't possibly create everything you ever set your eyes on.</li><li>So carefully choose your work, and give your everything to it.</li><li>“Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the colors in the palette, that just kills creativity.”- jack white</li></ul>

Creativity Is Subtraction

This book as thought me to get out of my comfort zone and Create. Everything in this world is a remix of what came before. You just have to know how to steal it.

Unlock your creativity. An inspiring guide to creativity in the digital age, Steal Like an Artist presents ten transformative principles that will help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life. Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path. Follow interests wherever they take you—what feels like a hobby may turn into you life’s work. Forget the old cliché about writing what you know: Instead, write the book you want to read, make the movie you want to watch. And finally, stay Smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring in the everyday world so that you have the space to be wild and daring in your imagination and your work. “Brilliant and real and true.”—Rosanne Cash

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

books

Books

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side. When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book. The result is inspiring, hip, original, practical, and entertaining. And filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination.

I’m a writer who draws. I make art with words and books with pictures. Author of Steal Like An Artist and other bestsellers. Visit my website: http://austinkleon.com/

Austin Kleon

Steal Like an Artist

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