By Austin Kleon
When people give ADVICE, they're really giving it to their PAST SELF.
Replace GOOD and BAD with:
WORTH STEALING and NOT WORTH STEALING.
Your OUTPUT reflects your INPUT. Consume intentionally.
Create a FAMILY TREE of where your influences come from.
Always carry a NOTEBOOK.
DON'T WAIT until you know who you are to get started.
FAKE IT until you MAKE IT.
All the WORLD is a STAGE.
PRACTICE by COPYING the work of MANY.
The way in which you FAIL when copying your influences will create your STYLE.
MAKE the art you want to EXPERIENCE.
Balance the ANALOG and the DIGITAL.
It's good to have a lot of SIDE PROJECTS going on at once.
Being BORED invites IDEAS.
Don't feel like you have to choose one PASSION to focus on. Keep all your passions in life.
Do good work and SHARE it.
You have more freedom to experiment while you are UNKNOWN.
WONDER at something. Then invite others to wonder at it WITH YOU.
You DONT have to share EVERYTHING.
Spend time with people who are MORE TALENTED than you.
Make friends, ignore enemies.
Write FAN MAIL to your influences that you never send.
Get used to being MISUNDERSTOOD.
If people say NICE things, write it down and reread it when you feel DOWN.
Be REGULAR and ordinary in your life, so that you may be violent and ORIGINAL in your work.
-Gustave Flaubert
Each day you finish your work, mark an X on the calendar. NOW DON'T BREAK THE STREAK!
Keep a logbook. Not so much a diary, just what project you worked on, what movie you saw, where you went out to eat.