Yesterday I listened to a dialogue between Debbie Millman and Seth Godin on art-making, resistance, anxiety, how the internet has changed our working lives, and vulnerability.
I think it may have changed my life.
Usually at this point I would say something like ‘Make a pot of coffee, find a quiet place, and soak up their wisdom without being interrupted.’
If you are like me, however, you will need to be accompanied by a good notebook, a nice ink pen, and several pots of coffee, to do the whole thing justice.
Their dialogue contains more revelatory moments than I dare to mention, but for me the whole thing centred around two key points.
One, that you will never feel ready to make the art [insert your passion here] that you feel called to. Waiting for the right conditions is a waste of time. And two, that the more you feel called to do or make something, the more you will feel what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance. And however successful or well-known you are or become, it will never go away. Never.
The best that we can do, Godin says, is to recognise that it is there, welcome it, then dance with it.
His final statement about this was in response to a question from the floor: how, exactly, do you do this? I make a habit out of it, he replied. After five-thousand-and-whatever blog posts, every single day for however many years, my brain knows that I need to write a blog post when I wake up. It’s not a question of thinking maybe I will, maybe I won’t. My unconscious has already decided for me. It’s a decision.
So I say: treat yourself. You can listen to the whole thing here.
Anthony Wilson 
So many of Seth Godin’s posts are relevant to the craft of writing and to life in general. “I make a habit out of it” reminds me of Stephen King who says that he writes every day in fear to forget how to do it.
One of my favorite from Godin is:
“You already have permission
Just saying.
You have permission to create, to speak up, and stand up.
You have permission to be generous, to fail, and to be vulnerable.
You have permission to own your words, to matter and to help.
No need to wait.”
I used it in one of my posts a while ago.
http://evelyneholingue.com/2013/03/05/dr-seusss-day/
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Thank you so much Evelyne! And thank you for pointing the way to your own terrific post. It is great.
As ever with good wishes and many thanks
Anthony
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