Rick Rubin's Tips for Creative Growth

We all are artists. The question is, is are we a better artist today than we were yesterday? And are we doing everything we can to be the best artist we can be tomorrow? And it's, it's, uh, we're all art. We may not all be da Vinci. Are, are we better than we were? And can we continue to become better and better and better? And it's an ongoing iterative process over the course of our lives. We often don't realize we're in control, but we're in control of our own lives and we can make different choices. And if the things in our life are not bringing us joy and happiness, if our career that we've devoted all of our lives to isn't bringing us joy, we can change them. If we decide our relationship is not the right relationship, we don't have to suffer in that relationship. We can live in a way where we're living in an where we're, uh, engaged and paying attention and, um, making each choice count or we can live in a almost like sleepwalking through the day, which many, many of us do. Many of us do just go along, just, you know, repeat yesterday again. Um, and I suppose the principle argument to the book, although it didn't set out to be this way is that, um, is that the way we choose to live in the world impacts our ability to, um, to make more beautiful things. You know, one of the things I say in the book is the audience comes last and the audience comes last, not because I don't care about them or I don't like the audience in, in service to the audience, they have to come last. The, I, the thing that the audience wants is the best thing they can get. If we're, if we're trying to make it for them, it won't be the best thing it can get. It'll water it down. It'll, the process of making something for someone else undermines it. If there's a group of people who are expecting a and you, you no longer feel like that artist, you know, you've, you've moved forward and your concern is that the audience hasn't moved forward. It's a very uncomfortable place to be. You can continue going through the motions in the old way and thinking that that will please and it may or may not, or you can be true to yourself. And in that process, you'll alienate some of your audience and maybe get new, get new fans. It's, it's the reality of the situation. Difference, not always better. It's often not. That's the other thing. It's like, just because it's different doesn't mean it's better. And let's assume that because it's different, it's not worse. We don't know. It's like, it has to, you have to experience it and Sometimes the shock of the news, very exciting. And it's like, ah, yeah. But sometimes it's, if someone tells me something that doesn't make sense to me, I want to know more. I want to know everything. I don't, I don't discount what they're saying, just the opposite. So there's time where having rules make sense in general, in the world, rules are there to establish an average behavior. And I'm not sure that average is anything to aspire to. So sometimes, especially in art, if you want to create something special, often it comes from breaking rules, from going beyond the accepted norm of how it's done. When we're creating something, we, we can get into it to a point of tunnel vision, to where through the singular focus of working on it, we lose perspective on what it actually is. Yeah. There is no right way. And sometimes when we do something and find success in the way we've done it, we think that's the way it works. Yeah. But it's rarely the only way. And that, and it could quickly become a limiting belief. If you start making things that all start seeming very similar. Yeah. So opening it up to trying a completely different way, using a different palette, you'll definitely learn through the, you know, you'll learn both through successful and failed experiments. Like each one will get you closer to where you're going. And it's, it's impossible to know until you try as many things as you can try and you'll be surprised. And you'll say, Oh, well, these, these three things are all kind of good. I've never done them these way before, or the old way is still the best, or you won't know. There's no way to know. And you also find out what's most fun. Like what were you, what part of the discovery process is most exciting to you? And that might work its way into it sounding a particular way. If you're engaging in it in a way that sparks something new in you out of the excitement of the way that it's happening, you may not, you may run out of energy, but not creativity. You know, you may be too tired, but that's all not, not the, in some ways, the more you engage in, in different creative practices, the better they all get. They all get better. The thing that taps out first is just energy. You know, you run out of steam, but not, not out of ideas or creative spirit that that's, it's eternal and forever. You can yet sometimes removing the distractions, it falls into place. And I can also say the opposite is true in the studio where we'll be working and trudging along and it seems mediocre. And then all of a sudden it gets good and everyone looks at each other, like something's happening, you know, and we, you feel it in the moment that that's actually more common feeling it in the moment and recognizing something special is happening. Never say you can't do it. Say, I haven't done it yet. I haven't done it yet. And that's true with everything. It's like, there's nothing that you can't do. You may not have done it yet. We don't know if you can do it or not until you really practice. And then you find out if you can do it or not, or how well you can do it. Yeah. And it's not going to happen without doing the work. So, so, uh, I would suggest that you write and record as much as you can all of the time. And instead of thinking of it as, um, think of it as a hobby. Just think my hobby is I'm going to write and record songs. And then they'll come a time through that process where you'll look back and go, Hmm, I think this batch is ready to share with people.