The Reflections from Holstee email Finding Creative Inspiration (Part 1) begins with a video from a TED Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. “In the video, Elizabeth talks about an old and rather mystical idea, dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, of a ‘genius’ that comes to us and creates through us. This genius is unpredictable, and it may or may not come to us. But we improve our chances of experiencing it just by showing up.”
Everything begins by showing up
If you don’t show up you can’t be in the game. If you don’t show up your opinion doesn’t matter.
But showing up isn’t enough.
Then you have to do the work.
You have to have the perseverance to overcome the obstacles that will inevitably be thrown in your way. You have to have the passion to keep going.
Angela Duckworth defines grit as perseverance and passion for long term goals.
Showing up is the start. Do you have the grit to continue?
The Reflections from Holstee email Finding Creative Inspiration (Part 2) talks about the resistance we all feel when we show up. “There is always something that inevitably comes up. Are they real needs or are they subconscious resistance to doing the work?”
If what you are doing is important you will find the time to accomplish it.
If it is not important why are you doing it?
The world is full of distractions. Our lives are constant fights for our attention.
We must find the space and quiet to show up, then the willpower to ignore the distractions.
“Two words should be committed to memory and obeyed by alternately exerting and restraining ourselves, words that will ensure we lead a mainly blameless and untroubled life: persist and resist.” – Epictetus
Epictetus is taking about a different kind of resistance.
Persist in showing up and doing good work. Resist all the “urgent” matters that try to grab your attention.
Educational Stoic 