Be A Pro

“The advice I like to give anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to do an awful lot of work…All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.” -Chuck Close

“When inspiration does arrive, it is invariably energizing. But it is not something to rely on. An artistic life cannot be built solely around waiting. Inspiration is out of our control and can prove hard to find. Effort is required and invitations are to be extended.” –The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

“The amateur tweets. The pro works.” –Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield

Amateurs rely on inspiration and the fickleness of feelings to get to work.

Professionals just get to work. Day in. Day out. It’s who they are. What they do.

Decide ahead of time what you’re gonna do and know why you’re doing it. Then take massive and continuous action.

Be A Pro.