Author Archives: thevsstudioblog

Everyone wants to feel needed (and wanted). But no one wants to be around someone who’s needy. “This is happening” should be your mindset when recruiting collaborators for your passion project. They’ll see your passion and commitment to excellence by how far you’ve already taken it solo. They’ll know you’re going to do it noContinue reading “Needy Vs. Needed”

“The things that we love tell us what we are.” -Saint Thomas Aquinas “If you want to know who you are, you can make a case, a very compelling case that God is telling you who you are by what you love. And if you get close to what you love, what you love expands.Continue reading “Love and Excellence”

“It gets dark as I sit here, and the fireflies add wonderful effects to the flowerbeds. The birds of the air, the flowers of the field–was ever Solomon in all his glory arrayed as one of these?…There are so many of those brief moments of waiting in our lives. It is wonderful how sweet theseContinue reading “Grace and Gratitide”

“After enlightenment, one is still the same as one was before. One is simply free from unreality and delusion. The ordinary person’s mind is the same as the sage’s, because Original Mind is perfect and complete in itself. After you’ve had this recognition, please don’t lose it.” – Pai-chang “Enlightenment is man’s release from hisContinue reading “Enlightened…Now What?”

It’s never going to be “the right time” to make your art. You’ll always have some other distraction, let alone responsibility or need that requires your attention. Stop waiting. Just decide that the right time is now. And start. You’ll be amazed at how everything then falls into place and the universe cooperates with thatContinue reading “The Exact, Right Time”

“Good checklists are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything–a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps–the ones that even the highly skilled professional using them couldContinue reading “Check Your Resistance”

“Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.” -Steve Prefontaine What makes my good friend Joe one of the world’s best handicappers is that he can evaluate how well a horse ACTUALLY ran a race. As opposed to how they finished. He uses tools like Beyer ratings, SheetsContinue reading “Win The Effort Race”

“The first principle is not to fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.” -Richard P. Feynman General William T. Sherman: “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?” General Ulysses S. Grant: “Yes…Lick ’em tomorrow, though.” – Conversation between the two generals after the first day of the BattleContinue reading ““The Best I Could””

Perseverance (noun) : continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : STEADFASTNESS “I will persist until I succeed. The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning, and it is not given to meContinue reading “Perseverance”

“A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play. -James P. Carse, book Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility A finite game is one bounded by rules and time. Think of your favorite sporting event for example. WhoeverContinue reading “Finite & Infinite Games”