Inspiration is for amateurs.

The rest of us, we just show up and get to work.

And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself

and that you will, through the work,

bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never

have dreamt if you were just sitting around looking for a great art idea. That quote is from

the artist Chuck Close. And it's a great entree into calling your bluff, because that's what I'm doing

right now. I'm calling your bluff. For years, maybe even decades, I think you've known that you

have something amazing inside you, just waiting to get made, to be developed, to put out there

in the world.

And whether your dream project is a book, a business, or a play for the local theater

group, it's just, it hasn't happened.

Whenever a birthday or some other important milestone rolls around, whenever you pause,

you step back and you look at the arc of your life, I'm banking that it occurs to you

that this creative work or even this life that you really want to be living is still out there

on hold until some, someday. Now uncreated works of personal expression, they are at the top of almost everyone that I

talk to, almost everybody's bucket list, right? The thing, the business, the book, the, that

thing that's inside of you. They're also the item that is most frequently left unchecked when we kick the bucket.

Now, if you've done that work or you actually know, then kudos, you are further along than most,

but knowing that you still haven't done that thing, I'm guessing maybe you identify the problem as a lack of time or a lack of space in your life to do the work.

To combat this, I ask you to imagine something.

I want you to imagine a kid's reaction if you snatched a crayon out of her hand just as she started drawing a picture.

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