Motivation, Quotes and Literature...

"You don't have to have it all figured out to move forward." - Jon 'Bones' Jones

This is a quote I recently retweeted from mixed martial artist and UFC champion, Jon "Bones" Jones. I really felt like it just resonated with me. As an artist (and a human being in general), I tend to fall victim to "analysis paralysis" where I think too much about doing a particular thing rather than actually doing it.

This quote just reminded me that it's okay to not have it all figured out, as long as you work toward doing something. I still don't have it all figured out with school, fashion, my art, this blog - this list goes on and on. The important part is that I keep going.

With something so relatable coming from someone in such a different profession as me, I feel like there is a lot about motivation and perseverance that we as artists and creative thinkers can learn from great professional fighters like Jon Jones. In order to be a champion, you have to think like a champion. Am I right?

What I've Been Reading // What I've Been Up To // The Library

So I've been reading this amazing book on creativity, called Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. 

I read his other bestselling book Steal Like An Artist a while back and it was pretty cool. I might have to take it out from the library again because I feel like the first time I read it I had a different mindset about what I wanted my art to be. I was young, comfortable with the routine of going to school and coming home (little did I know that routine would be pulled right from under me).

This book has really been helping me think of what it means to be creative in the age of blogging and Twitter and Instagram, how to put out at least one creative work a day (he calls it a "daily dispatch"), connecting with other people who like the same stuff you do and who you can collaborate with in your "scenius", why you should have your own blog/website, etc. There are tons of other amazing tips for creatives and artists and thinkers and people who want to get work done in general. 

It also talks a little about how he starting doing newspaper blackout poetry pieces. I read about how he started doing them and was so inspired that I had to give it a try (that's my own above). Especially now when I'm sort of in a creative standstill, and still going to school (still trying to figure out college, oy!)

I find it hard to get into drawing something (whether it be complicated portraits or simple still life's of insects) because sometimes I talk myself out if it. I guess as artists we tend to be our own worst critics.

Anyway, I think this will be the perfect daily creative exercise for me. I love poetry and writing and this is pretty simple. Hopefully I can keep up with sharing (or just doing) one everyday. My dad might need to start hiding his newspapers ;]

Have any of you read this book? Any thoughts on it?