Say “No” To Say “Yes” To Your Art

“This book will be the most difficult of all I have ever attempted…I can do small things after 3:30 PM, but the first part of the day must now be for the book. This is a kind of necessary selfishness—otherwise books do not get written.” -John Steinbeck’s letter to his friend Pascal Covici about the writing of East Of Eden

“Saying yes to too much ‘cool’ will bury you alive and render you a B-player, even if you have A-player skills” -Tim Ferriss

In those rare moments when inspiration comes knocking, stop everything at once and answer the call. Channel it through you. Get it all down (on paper or whatever medium you work in). Stay at it for as long as it takes.

This is your shot. In order to take it, you have to say “No” to everything else right now in order to say ‘Yes” to your art.

Speaking of taking your shot…this story from Lin Manuel-Miranda…(h/t to Billy Oppenheimer for providing and inspiring this post.)

When asked, Lin-Manuel Miranda says Wait For It is the best song he’s ever written. “I was on my way to my friend’s birthday party,” Miranda explains, “when that idea showed up in my head.” He was riding the New York City A Train when “the whole chorus showed up in my head, all at once. I write it down, and suddenly, I see the shape of the whole song.” He got off the train, walked to his friend’s apartment, “and I go, ‘hey, happy birthday man, I gotta go.’ I got back on the train, and I wrote the rest of the song on the way back home—from the L train to A back up to 207 Street. You have to do that sometimes.” You have to be a little selfish sometimes. “Sometimes, you have to say no to your friends to say yes to your work.”