Quartet #36: Recovering From Creative Burnout, Van Gogh's Advice to a Young Artist, and More!
Van Gogh's advice below is money.
"In order to write a book, do a deed, paint a picture with some life in it, one has to be alive oneself."
I wear so many hats around here that it can be easy to forget that!
And now on to this week's ideas...
Quartet of the Week
1. A System for Taking Notes (4-min read)
If you are the kind of person who is subscribed to this newsletter then you are almost surely like me and have ideas popping into your head all of the time. I wouldn't say that my system for taking and keeping track of notes is terrible but it's also not terribly good!
This article lays out the system used by author David Sedaris which got me thinking about my own system. I have made some tweaks to good effect!
2. Van Gogh's Advice to a Young Artist (2-min read)
This advice needs to be shouted from the rooftops! Every interesting musician I know is also an interesting person!
I know some people who can operate instruments at a world class level yet never seem to use those skills to say anything too interesting. Those people are not always interesting! But the ones who have something urgent to say, they all are to a person.
This quick reading was a great reminder of what's important.
3. How to Recover From Creative Burnout (2-min read)
Creative burnout is something that is not talked about enough. There's even a chance that I've never dedicated an episode to it before and if so that's not ideal!
This article offers six strategies for overcoming creative burnout.
4. Mindful Context Switching (5-min read)
Context switching is the process of stopping work in one project and picking it back up after performing a different task on a different project. I only learned about it recently but ever since I can't avoid seeing how much my multitasking has been holding me back.
This article offers five excellent ideas on how to practice mindful context switching.
What's New With TEM
TEM308 features a great quote from Steve Jobs about how deciding what not to do is just as important as deciding what to do as well as a quote from Brian Tracy about the specific benefits of having clarity about your mission.
My Final Thought of the Week
Here's a quote to send you on your way:
“If I hold back, I’m no good. I’m no good. I’d rather be good sometimes than holding back all the time.”
—Janis Joplin
How %#$&ing good is this quote?!
"I'd rather be good sometimes than holding back all the time" is deeply profound.
Living with one foot on the gas pedal and one foot on the brake pedal is no way to go through life. And as an artist it is an almost surefire way to be irrelevant.
Because being good sometimes is a way to matter to some people. And never being good or bad is a way to matter to almost no one.
I'm going to try to repeat "I'd rather be good sometimes..." like a mantra this week. So good!
Here's to having a creative week!
Cheers,
Andrew
The Entrepreneurial Musician
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