On starting

Thoughts and habits not conducive to the work:

• Believing you're not good enough.

• Feeling you don't have the energy it takes.

• Mistaking adopted rules for absolute truths.

• Not wanting to do the work (laziness)

• Not taking the work to its highest expression (settling).

• Having goals so ambitious that you can't begin.

• Thinking you can only do your best work in certain conditions.

• Requiring specific tools or equipment to do the work.

• Abandoning a project as soon as it gets difficult.

• Feeling like you need permission to start or move forward.

• Letting a perceived need for funding, equipment, or support get in the way.

• Having too many ideas and not knowing where to start.

• Never finishing projects.

• Blaming circumstances or other people for interfering with your process.

• Romanticizing negative behaviors or addictions.

• Believing a certain mood or state is necessary to do your best work.

• Prioritizing other activities and responsibilities over your commitment to making art.

• Distractibility and procrastination.

• Impatience.

• Thinking anything that's out of your control is in your way.

Rick Rubin, the creative act