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The following quote helped me a lot: "The professional knows that the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting to work, sets in motion a mysterious pr

The following quote helped me a lot: "The professional knows that the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting to work, sets in motion a mysterious process that produces inspiration. The amateur waits for inspiration, the professional knows that it will come after he starts. The professional therefore acts in the face of fear, when the amateur fears a big creative endeavor he waits for the fear to disappear, the professional knows this will never happen and starts anyway." Basically, what it says is that you'll never feel like doing something that you don't want to do, and that's exactly the reason why you should just start doing and get it over with. That's my opinion

draw_down 7y ago
Well, there is nothing wrong with being an amateur. Recall that the root word means “love”. And I don’t think it’s necessary to hold a professional in higher regard than an amateur, either. Though you’d almost certainly pay the professional more money.
glouwbug 7y ago
Oh boy, I enjoyed that. Everytime I sit down to face a nasty problem I get a little sick, but as I start working a flow slowly starts to build, and before I know it the Starbucks I'm at is empty. I wouldn't consider myself a professional, but I know how to beat my own inner dialogues it seems
- nukst 7y ago
  I can relate to that. Sometimes I'm dealing with a problem that is really complicated and I tried to solve several times without success... I can feel the resistance in bed, when having breakfast and before I sit on my chair and fire up vim to go to that very block of code. It also tears me apart to go to work and leave it unsolved. Resistance drags us down really, really bad. It makes it difficult to go back to working on a problem. Not a professional here, but boy this is the point where amateurs quit and that's exactly where I feel the urge to quit too... but somehow I just don't. That's where it clicks "I have to find a solution to this somehow!". Maybe it's a bit of ego but I don't drop something I started[1] and when I finally find the solution, it's almost orgasmic. I feel like I'm the biggest man in the world, and that's my drive to keep moving[2]. -- [1] Unless it becomes crucially destructive and is clearly harming people, but I guess you get what I mean. [2] I don't want to make it over minimalist because there's a lot more to it, but I'm referring to this specific motivation building block (I believe motivation isn't just an isolated urge to accomplish thing, but rather several `blocks` that together compose this `will` to do things).
  - kingludite 7y ago
    From chess I learn that being professional about things means absolutely nothing. You just do it and get to the point where instinct wants you to run away in horror. To me, this is where the work starts. The point where the boys stay behind and the men move on. If you want to be better than others (like in chess) you cant just stop where everyone else would stop. That would be silly.
ellius 7y ago
"The War of Art," if anyone needs a source.
- CrazyStat 7y ago
  Thanks! As it happens I was looking at the book the other day and decided not to buy it. Maybe I should take another look.
- jolmg 7y ago
  Thanks for that. Could you help me with something? I'm reading the foreword of that book right now from Amazon's preview, and it says that it's the 1st of a set of 3 books. I found the 2nd, "Turning Pro", on Amazon, but I can't find the 3rd, "The Higher Realm". Was that book renamed to something else after the foreword was written, or has it still not been published, or what could have happened to it? Do you know anything about that? EDIT: Hmmm... On checking the foreword again, I see it says that book one is actually "Defining the Enemy". I'm starting to think that these 3 "books" are actually sections of the physical book. I guess the physical book "Turning Pro" of the same author might be completely unrelated to the equally named book two the foreword mentions. That's pretty confusing if true.
  - beardbound 7y ago
    I have that book on kindle and just checked the contents. You’re correct. The book is split into three sections called books.
taauji 7y ago
I have observed that most of the times, when I am not motivated to work, it is becasue my sub-concious mind is unable to correctly traverse the behavior tree and find a route from 'the non intuitive task' leading to the 'sexy results' I am after. My concious thinking mind has already done that. But your sub-conscious brain being able to link the results with the efforts is not a precondition to start working. It only facilitated the process, and does not act as a deciding factor.
- tehwebguy 7y ago
  What an apt description of how I often feel.
dyukqu 7y ago
>The professional therefore acts in the face of fear, when the amateur fears a big creative endeavor he waits for the fear to disappear, the professional knows this will never happen and starts anyway." It sounds like the most fundamental and precise definition of (the reason of) procrastination.
Dansvidania 7y ago
I am in a bind now. I agree with your quote, although I just stated that reducing complex matters to tweet-sized sentences is one of our big generational problems. Whether or not it was an intentional, what a magnificently oximoron-like answer! I tip my hat to you, sir! :D
- LoveMortuus 7y ago
  It's actually a really important quote for me, I have it saved in my notes and I had it printed on a A3 paper and stuck it to a wall. If more people lived by it, the world could be a more productive and fluid experience, instead of all team members waiting for the last day before the deadline to actually start working or a project, I'm sure you all know how that feels...

draw_down 7y ago

Well, there is nothing wrong with being an amateur. Recall that the root word means “love”. And I don’t think it’s necessary to hold a professional in higher regard than an amateur, either. Though you’d almost certainly pay the professional more money.

glouwbug 7y ago

Oh boy, I enjoyed that. Everytime I sit down to face a nasty problem I get a little sick, but as I start working a flow slowly starts to build, and before I know it the Starbucks I'm at is empty. I wouldn't consider myself a professional, but I know how to beat my own inner dialogues it seems

nukst 7y ago
I can relate to that. Sometimes I'm dealing with a problem that is really complicated and I tried to solve several times without success... I can feel the resistance in bed, when having breakfast and before I sit on my chair and fire up vim to go to that very block of code. It also tears me apart to go to work and leave it unsolved. Resistance drags us down really, really bad. It makes it difficult to go back to working on a problem. Not a professional here, but boy this is the point where amateurs quit and that's exactly where I feel the urge to quit too... but somehow I just don't. That's where it clicks "I have to find a solution to this somehow!". Maybe it's a bit of ego but I don't drop something I started[1] and when I finally find the solution, it's almost orgasmic. I feel like I'm the biggest man in the world, and that's my drive to keep moving[2]. -- [1] Unless it becomes crucially destructive and is clearly harming people, but I guess you get what I mean. [2] I don't want to make it over minimalist because there's a lot more to it, but I'm referring to this specific motivation building block (I believe motivation isn't just an isolated urge to accomplish thing, but rather several `blocks` that together compose this `will` to do things).
- kingludite 7y ago
  From chess I learn that being professional about things means absolutely nothing. You just do it and get to the point where instinct wants you to run away in horror. To me, this is where the work starts. The point where the boys stay behind and the men move on. If you want to be better than others (like in chess) you cant just stop where everyone else would stop. That would be silly.

ellius 7y ago

"The War of Art," if anyone needs a source.

CrazyStat 7y ago
Thanks! As it happens I was looking at the book the other day and decided not to buy it. Maybe I should take another look.
jolmg 7y ago
Thanks for that. Could you help me with something? I'm reading the foreword of that book right now from Amazon's preview, and it says that it's the 1st of a set of 3 books. I found the 2nd, "Turning Pro", on Amazon, but I can't find the 3rd, "The Higher Realm". Was that book renamed to something else after the foreword was written, or has it still not been published, or what could have happened to it? Do you know anything about that? EDIT: Hmmm... On checking the foreword again, I see it says that book one is actually "Defining the Enemy". I'm starting to think that these 3 "books" are actually sections of the physical book. I guess the physical book "Turning Pro" of the same author might be completely unrelated to the equally named book two the foreword mentions. That's pretty confusing if true.
- beardbound 7y ago
  I have that book on kindle and just checked the contents. You’re correct. The book is split into three sections called books.

taauji 7y ago

I have observed that most of the times, when I am not motivated to work, it is becasue my sub-concious mind is unable to correctly traverse the behavior tree and find a route from 'the non intuitive task' leading to the 'sexy results' I am after. My concious thinking mind has already done that. But your sub-conscious brain being able to link the results with the efforts is not a precondition to start working. It only facilitated the process, and does not act as a deciding factor.

tehwebguy 7y ago
What an apt description of how I often feel.

dyukqu 7y ago

>The professional therefore acts in the face of fear, when the amateur fears a big creative endeavor he waits for the fear to disappear, the professional knows this will never happen and starts anyway." It sounds like the most fundamental and precise definition of (the reason of) procrastination.

Dansvidania 7y ago

I am in a bind now. I agree with your quote, although I just stated that reducing complex matters to tweet-sized sentences is one of our big generational problems. Whether or not it was an intentional, what a magnificently oximoron-like answer! I tip my hat to you, sir! :D

LoveMortuus 7y ago
It's actually a really important quote for me, I have it saved in my notes and I had it printed on a A3 paper and stuck it to a wall. If more people lived by it, the world could be a more productive and fluid experience, instead of all team members waiting for the last day before the deadline to actually start working or a project, I'm sure you all know how that feels...