*Typing*

Holy men don't die when they lie on a bed of nails because their weight is evenly distributed. In other words, there is less pressure on any one single nail.

I have found the same to be true in regards to creative projects. If you place all of your weight on a single creative project, it will feel excruciating each time you come up against a sharp point of friction. Instead, spread yourself out good and thin over two to three creative projects.

Each time you get stuck on one creative project, step away, let it breath and move to another. You will feel less pressure during the creative process; and you might even be more prolific.

Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 books throughout his career. His secret? He worked on multiple books at once.

I am fortunate to have fallen in love a couple of times in my life. While every love is different, what has remained the same––at least for me––is the way in which the love hits me. It feels not unlike stepping into a galloping river and then being completely swept away. I believe most good things are this way: friendships, experiences, opportunities and creative pursuits. They require a degree of work and thoughtfulness but they should feel as though there is an invisible wind at your back. We have a tendency to romanticize pain and suffering, believing that for something to be valuable it must embody these qualities. But, what if this isn't true? What if good things felt good and bad things, bad. What if the way in which something makes you feel is indicative of whether or not it is a thing worth pursuing? I digress.

It's impossible to compete with someone without also comparing yourself to them. Competition is comparison. It's a comparison of who is better. If it's true originality you're after, you should never compete. You should seek to create work that's so wildly abnormal, it exists beyond comparison and stands alone from the competition. It might take a lifetime to create work of this nature. However, even in the moments you fail, by attempting to create outside the confines of competition and comparison, you will create work that feels fresh, new and ambitious. Good luck.

I was writing from this coffee shop in Santa Monica yesterday afternoon. Pinned to the walls were all sorts of posters saying different things. Be it the 3 p.m. caffeine crash or an inexplicable wave of melancholy, I wasn't feeling so hot. I could feel my pen begin to choke as if it was running out of gas and so I looked up to give the words room to breathe. I locked eyes with a poster that read, "It's not about feeling good all the time, it's about getting good at feeling." I took a moment to feel what I was feeling. Then, I got back to writing.

Uncertainty and anxiety are not one in the same. Uncertainty is feeling uncertain. Anxiety is feeling discomfort about feeling uncertain. Everyone experiences uncertainty. But, not everyone experiences anxiety.

Those who experience less anxiety than others aren't necessarily more certain. They're just more comfortable with being uncertain. It's counterintuitive but you don't alleviate your anxiety by developing greater certainty. You alleviate anxiety by recognizing you will never have the certainty you crave.