Notes from The Creative Act

Notes from Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act.

• We can quiet our inside so we can perceive more on the outside, or quiet the outside so we can notice more of what’s happening on the inside.
• Childlike perception, innocent state of wonder and appreciation, not tethered to utility or survival.
• Look for what you notice but no-one else sees.
• Nature transcends our tendencies to label and classify, to reduce and limit.
• The closer we can get to the natural world, the sooner we start to realise we are not separate.
• No-one is the same person all day long.
• The sensitivity that allows us to make art is the same vulnerability that makes us more tender to being judged.
• We’re not playing to win, we’re playing to play.
• By accepting self-doubt, rather than trying to eliminate or repress it, we lessen its energy and interference.
• The more we pay attention, the more we begin to realise that all the work we do is a collaboration.
• Many of our beliefs were learned before we had a choice in what we were taught.
• Beginner’s mind is starting from a pure, childlike, place of not knowing.
• Any preconceived ideas and accepted conventions limit what’s possible.
• Children have the ability to freely move from one emotion to the next without holding on to the story.
• Put the decision-making into the work, not into when to work.
• To truly weigh choices, its necessary to bring them into the physical world.
• To be evaluated, ideas have to be seen, tasted, touched.
• Whether imposed by design or necessity, it’s helpful to see limitations as opportunities.
• By breaking the rules, you’ll come to have a greater understanding of your past choices.
• Make things and share them, without being attached to the outcome.
• Treat obstacles and difficulties as plot twists in your story. What happens next?
• Self-competition is for moving things forward, making progress.
• We are unreliable narrators of our own experience.
• Approach the process with humility and the unexpected will visit more often.
• We’re required to believe in something that doesn’t exist to allow it to come into being.
• Soften, become more porous, let more light in.
• Receive wisdom skilfully. Try it own for size and see how it fits.
• By practising to improve, you are fulfilling your ultimate purpose on this planet.
• Take art seriously, without going about it in a serious way.
• Embrace the prism of self, and keep allowing reality to bend uniquely through it.
• We have stories about ourselves, and those are not who we are.

Added 2024-09-08.