“If you’re uptight about life, you turn a blind eye to opportunity.  And if you are undisciplined, you are unprepared for it.  Either way, you’re missing out.  You need both audacity and discipline.”  

—rough interpretation of the spiritual greats.

During busy periods of my life, I’ve found that the first task of creativity is carving out time and resources so that I can work on a project.  Then it becomes:  do stuff and probably suck at it.  I may not get any better, but it’s the only way I give myself a chance at becoming something great.  And the alternative to NOT doing stuff is constantly inventing excuses which explain why I never took a chance. 

In my opinion, that’s a waste of creativity; I’d rather invent products than excuses.

I think one of the coolest forms of human potential is to transform into an ever-morphing, bare semblance of an identity and use that looseness to tap the ferocity of a warrior, the critical thinking of a philosopher, the abandon of a hedonist, the meticulousness of a scholar (pick any other guise that catch your fancy)…all the while fully enjoying/utilizing each one, and all the while being able to see how fun and ridiculous all of them are.

I’m a giant believer in shortcuts—whether they be labeled technology, magic, or methodology—but I don’t think a shortcut in any way excuses the absence of discipline.  It takes disciplined thought to assess a shortcut and make sure it is still relevant and ethical, and it takes disciplined action to create new shortcuts that are viable enough to replace the current ones.

I think if you recognize that life is a prison (our limited bodies, our lack of infinite time and inability to access any point in space etc.) and then learn to enjoy all the quirks of your shackles (while being able to turn away from the black hole of indulgence at any second) then your jail is revealed to be a playground instead of a prison, and you realize you were free all along. 

That’s just my suspicion, anyway.

Ironically, I find the less precious I am about my writing—the more willing I am to do it on a regular basis and subject it to the most brutal scrutiny I can muster—the better it turns out, thus increasing the chances that OTHERS might find it precious.

I suppose you could slap some high-sounding label like “detachment” on that approach, but to me, it’s just what seems to work best.

I suspect that most people settle into [chosen identity] by following the clues shown to them through nature and nurture.  IMHO, however, the consummate artist will not settle for [chosen identity].  The consummate artist will push themselves to access ALL identities, eventually discarding the concept of identity itself.  

And during that process, I believe the act of living itself becomes The Art.

Unless one wants to engage in the cool cosplay of the guru/devotee dynamic, then either everyone’s a guru, or no one is.  Either stance allows you to learn from all sources, without getting trapped in a cage of self-righteousness.