ARTISTS
Artists aren't just creative ...they're also destructive, they challenge the way we see the world...our perception of what's possible. They disrupt the peace and bring our attention to what needs to be seen. They are masters of personal expression. Being an artist isn't a hobby or a job...It is a way of existence in the world.
Be yourself unapologetically, because that's when you truly shine.
G-Dragon
G-Dragon
The journey of self-discovery and finding your purpose, is a difficult one. it's even more challenging to persue it
Self-expression is the quality most people associate with being an artist. It's the most obvious trait, and for good reason: it unlocks many other aspects of artistry. However, just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's easy to practice.
We’ve all been told at some point, “just be yourself.” Despite the good intentions behind this advice, it often confuses us, making us hyper-aware of our body language, mannerisms, and speech. It leads to overthinking and highlights how little we might know about ourselves.
There are so many elements to self-expression that it’s hard to know where to start. The first step in being yourself is understanding yourself, or as Socrates put it, "know thyself."
“The courage to be happy also includes the courage to be disliked."
Fumitake Koga & Ichiro Kishimi: The Courage to be disliked (2013)
"Know Thyself"
The idea that we don't truly know ourselves can feel insulting or unsettling. It’s easy to dismiss, but maintaining a healthy level of reflection and introspection is crucial. It’s like checking the mirror when you’re getting ready—would you get rid of your mirror just because you think you know what you look like?
When you feel disconnected from your actions or that life is simply carrying you along, it's often because you lack clarity about what you truly want. Without this clarity, nothing you do feels like it's serving your soul.
Understanding where you are and where you want to go is key. By identifying your values, interests, and ambitions, you begin to understand who you want to be and what’s important to you. It’s not about achieving absolute certainty but about gaining a clearer idea of what you’re working towards.
This process will be uncomfortable and challenging in the short term, but if approached with intention and sincerity, it will lead to much greater fulfillment and excitement in the long run. Knowing who you are provides control and security from outside influence, seeking external validation or other factors beyond your control.
To avoid the painful introspection many people fall into the trap of believing that a single change or achievement will solve all their problems. They think, "When I do X, everything will be alright." While this mindset can motivate you to reach a goal, it can also be a double-edged sword. The joy of achieving that goal fades quickly when you realize that not much has changed.
Some people dedicate their entire lives to achieving a goal, allowing it to consume their identity. But once that goal is achieved, it can lead to an identity crisis.
Kyrie Irving experienced this in 2016. In the NBA, success is often measured solely by winning. After hitting one of the biggest shots in NBA history to clinch the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first-ever championship, followed by an Olympic gold medal, Irving found himself asking, "What’s next?"
"It was like climbing up one of the tallest mountains in the world, winning a championship. And when I got up there, and you realize that all the accolades and all the achievements, yeah, it feels good, it feels great to add that to the career. But I felt empty after a while, I just felt like I didn’t really know who I was. I didn’t know what my future was going to be."
In the quest to “know thyself” it’s not all about serious introspection, it is also about embracing curiosity and exploration.
“As artists, we seek to restore our childlike perception: a more innocent state of wonder and appreciation not tethered to utility or survival.”
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Exploration and Experimentation:
Whether you believe you’re born with a purpose or that you create your own, playing around and experimenting with different techniques, methods, and fields is essential to discovering it.
Don’t get tied down by preconceived ideas about who you are or what you need to do. Stay open to various experiences and let them make an impression on you. Even if you don’t pursue any of them further, you’ll gain valuable insights for future endeavors. Creativity isn’t about inventing something completely new; it often involves challenging biases, breaking away from standard practices, and asking new questions.
For example, you can use a common football drill to help you become a better writer. In the drill you lay out a series of cones and add a different-colored cone to signify a rule change, such as using only your weak foot. Similarly, in writing, you could insert a prompt every fifth line and challenge yourself to fill in the gaps between prompts to create a cohesive piece. Another well-known example is “Moneyball,” which used business analytics techniques to build a winning baseball team.
Exploration is crucial for creativity as it lets you see the full potential of an idea rather than dismissing it prematurely. While some ideas might not turn out as expected, exploring what’s possible can lead to surprising and extraordinary results.
It might seem contradictory to earlier advice about having a clear direction, but exploration and direction are two sides of the same coin. On any journey, there are many routes to take. Having a destination in mind doesn’t prevent you from discovering new and interesting paths along the way. Just as finding a new route during traffic can uncover hidden gems, exploration can lead to unexpected and valuable discoveries.
Are you willing to let go and explore?
"Your uniqueness is your gift to the world."
Pharrell
"No one is going to stop you from being yourself but yourself."
Individuality
This is the one people will have the most misconceptions about since most people often believe that every action you do will have to be unique however it's just not the case.
It is about celebrating the way you think, the little details you obsess over that others don't even notice. To make something unique you don't need to reverse engineer it, you just have to put yourself into the work.
Do not underestimate the value of you. That is the essence of individualism.
“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now."
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ikigai:
"Ikigai" can be translated into "a reason to live." It is a concept to find purpose and joy in life. It involves a lot of what we talked about up until this point.
Your Ikigai is built on the combination of 4 questions. (Passion, Vocation, Mission & Proffession)
1. What do you love? ~ [passion]
2. What are you good at? ~ [Vocation]
3. What does the world need? ~ [Mission]
4. What can you get paid for? ~ [Proffession]
There can be many things that fit into multiple of them categories but your ikigai will fit into all 4. Of course it requires an understanding of your values, it requires experimentation in discovering what you're good at, what you enjoy etc. but when you have an idea of the questions to ask yourself, you can begin to discover a purpose for being.
The universe is filled with infinite possibilities. Dream big and chase them fearlessly.
Pharrell Williams
Write down your goals:
Writing down the goals your trying to achieve may sound simple but it can be the difference in achieving your goal or not. When you write it down it helps your mind begin to explain specifically your goal. It adds a level of extra motivation when written down, you can look at it every time you need that reminder. Also it helps add a bit of accountability and a reminder to what you're looking to achieve.
Of course setting goals is one thing, achieving them in another.
Kyrie Irving's after playing at Continental Airlines Arena during a school trip in fourth grade, was inspired to make the NBA and wrote down, "I am going to the NBA, I promise."
Habits and Processes
The difference between achieving what you want and falling short will come from your habits and your processes.
Habit’s play into everything, the amount of tasks in your daily life that become autonomous the more time you can focus on the challenges of navigating day to day life. But your habits are so much more impactful than that. In achieving any goal, your habits play a big role. They either aid you in achieving what you want, or stop you.
Your potential is directly linked to your habits. You can set your day up to make it the kind of day you want to have, one that pushes you closer to your goals.
In Atomic habits, James Clear tells us the 4 laws of habit forming/behavior change are . [ Make it obvious, Make it attractive, Make it easy, Make it satisfying. To break a bad habit you’ll invert these rules. [Make it invisible, Make it challenging, Make it unattractive, Make it unsatisfying]
For example:
You decide that you want to spend less time scrolling through social media first thing in the morning.
Leaving your phone out of reach from your bed at night makes it more challenging to grab your phone and scroll social media first thing when you wake up. You are using an inversion of the third rule to make it more challenging to do that. This simple change can be the reason that instead of spending 30 minutes extra in bed scrolling, you instead are out of bed within 5 minutes of waking.
“Good habits create good art. The way we do anything is the way we do everything. Treat each choice you make, each action you take, each word you speak with skillful care. The goal is to live your life in the service of art.”
- Rick Rubin
No matter the goal, it’s important that your habits serve you. And help you pursue the things you want to. They allow you to be the person you want to. The goal isn’t what brings results, it’s necessary to provide motivation and a direction, but ultimately your habits and process are what will allow you to achieve it.
Kyrie Irving has made dribbling a basketball so automatic, he no longer needs to think about it, instead he can focus on watching the defenders feet, and then making the adjustments and counters purely of instinct without needing to think. The repetition and deliberate practice to build these skills, have allowed him to become arguably the greatest ball-handler to ever play the game.
It takes time to develop. It takes deliberate practice but it will always be worth it.
We’ve all heard the saying it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. It’s possible for anyone, just keep working.
“The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get”
- Jim Rohn
The habits required for you to achieve your goal will be far more long lasting and rewarding than the achievement itself.
The process is more important than the end goal, building habits and following your values when doing the action. It will allow you to build a level of appreciation and respect for the process and limits the importance on the parts that we cannot control.
“Greatness is not for a few chosen people. It’s meant for those who persistently pursues their dreams everyday and make that choice when they wake up.”
To be considered an artist, to know thyself is not enough... you’ve got to go one step further and be thyself.