great artists think like this

The difference between master artists and everyone else has nothing to do with the work they created. It was the thinking behind the work. I spent the last few years studying how hundreds of the most creative people in history created their best art. And one of the biggest things I discovered was that we can't make different art until we think different thoughts. And so in this video, I'm breaking down the six mental shifts that separate a master's mind from everyone else's. If you still even one, then the way you create will never be the same again. All right, let's dive right in. Okay, so the first shift is one that changed me the most. The idea that you're most afraid of might be the best one you have. Master artists know that there's a difference between a bad idea and a scared idea. A bad idea feels flat. It feels empty. But a scared idea feels alive. Our heart rate jumps and you know, we think that we can't say that or we get nervous at the thought that people will know that it's about us. And so we start to doubt our ideas. But doubt it isn't strictly evidence of weakness. Sometimes doubt is proof of depth. Think about Edvard Munch. He painted anxiety, grief, jealously, and dread all at a time when respectable art was not supposed to look that emotionally exposed. The fear he felt had nothing to do with the idea being wrong. It was evidence that he touched something real. And isn't that the goal that we all have as creators anyway, right? To touch something real. And so here's a test that I use. When I doubt an idea, I always ask myself, am I disconnected from this, or am I exposed by this? If I'm disconnected, then let it go. But if the answer is exposed, then that's usually the one. All right, and that leads right into the second shift. Because even with the right idea, we still quit. And here's the truth about quitting. Artists never quit at random. They quit on a schedule. Because when artists quit, it usually isn't a decision. It's a pattern. Every creator has these exit signs, but most of us has never even learned to read them. Master artists on the other hand study the moments right before they quit. You see, the urge to stop, it almost always follows the same sequence. First comes confusion, then boredom, then some form of embarrassment, and then some story about why this project wasn't right anyway. Even if the sequence is slightly different for you, master artist, they always knew their unique exit signs. Hemingway famously stopped writing mid-sentence on purpose, so that he could never face a blank page. He literally engineered around his own quitting pattern. Also, Jose Saramago knew that an overwhelming big goal could become the excuse to stop. And so he asked himself for only two pages a day. Not a brilliant chapter, not some big breakthrough, just two pages. And that made the next step too small for him to abandon. Look, we don't abandon projects. We obey patterns. So, the next time you feel the urge to abandon something, don't fight it. Don't obey it. Just write down what happened 5 minutes before. And if you do that three or four times, your pattern will be staring at you right in the face. Remember, you can't outrun your exit signs, but you can learn to read them. All right. Now, the third shift is one that we need to hear almost daily. Artists need to understand that just because you had a thought, it doesn't make that thought true. Master artists don't believe every thought they have while creating. You could think that this is terrible, but that's just a thought. It's not a fact. Feelings, they visit the studio all the time. They should get managed. You should be able to hear a thought without having to hand it the keys to your vehicle. John Steinbeck kept a journal while writing The Grapes of Wrath. And in it, he wrote over and over that he wasn't a real writer, that he was fooling everyone. And look, he wrote all of that while writing the book that won him the Pulitzer. Let that sink in. If Steinbeck's mid-project thoughts got the final say, we would never have The Grapes of Wrath. Doubt didn't hold him back, but believing that doubt would have held back his best work. The masters, they feel everything we feel. They just stopped mistaking feelings for facts. When your thoughts start saying terrible things, just take a step back and write about the feeling a bit. All with the intention that you will keep going. By the way, if you want all my notes from the last few years of studying creative masters, every insight, every inspiring idea, just tap the link in the description below and tell me where to send them and I'll send them for free. Okay. Now, the fourth shift. As artists, we need to stop judging a seed for not being a tree. Half of what we call bad is just early. Master artists, they always ponder the tension between if something is wrong with the work or if it's just unfinished. Because there's a difference. Something wrong needs to be deleted, but something unfinished just needs some time. Like, think about that. We'll look at a rough draft or a first sketch or a demo and we will compare it to finished masterpieces. So, of course it loses. But we need to remember that every masterpiece was once embarrassing. Comparing your draft to someone else's finished work is like comparing your seed to their forest. At Pixar, um they said that every single film started as what they called an ugly baby. Yeah, just something that's awkward and broken. Nothing like what we see in the theaters. Their entire culture is built around protecting the work in that fragile stage instead of judging it. So, the question we should be asking ourselves isn't is this good? The question is is this done growing? Those are two completely different questions. A master artist never confuse them. Okay. That brings me to the fifth shift, and this one is a little strange, but stay with me. The critic in an artist's head is not one person. It's a group of people. As in, there's more than one of us inside of here. There's the artist, the audience, the perfectionist, the child, the teacher. There's the the scared one, you know, like the version of us that doesn't want to be judged. There's just so many different versions of us. And they all have opinions, and they never agree. The artist wants the work to be true, and the scared one wants the work to be small. And so, you can hear the same critique from a different voice, and it has a completely different meaning. So, before you accept the criticism that's brewing inside of your mind, try to be present enough to understand who's the one giving it. When I rewatch my own videos, I've learned to ask, "Who is talking right now?" If it's the artist, then I'll listen. I listen to the videos, and I really observe I I observe it through that lens. But if it's the scared one, the one that's just trying to avoid embarrassment, I really try to make sure that voice doesn't get a say. Not every one of our inner voices need to have a seat at the table, but every voice will try to take a seat if you let it. All right, now is the last shift, and I believe it's the most important one. Master artist, they separate the problem from the reaction to the problem. And here's what I mean. Let's say a painting needs a different color. That's the problem. But a lot of times our mind, it takes that and it turns it into believing that it's saying something about how talented we are. But that's two completely different problems. One is about the work and the other is about our worth. And master artists, they never let those two merge. Art doesn't wound us. It's our interpretation of it that does. And there's a famous story about Herbie Hancock playing with Miles Davis. And one night, Herbie hit a chord that was just flat out wrong. And Miles, he didn't even flinch. He just kept playing the notes that made the wrong chord fit. And to Miles, it wasn't a disaster. It wasn't a judgment on anybody. It was just the next thing to respond to. Miles Davis showed that a problem is information while the reaction is optional. The reaction can be adjusted. So, creator to creator, here's what I want to leave you with. The studio you most need to renovate is the one between your ears. Notice your scared ideas. Learn your exit signs. Doubt your own doubts. Let seeds be seeds. Check who's critiquing. And when the work has a problem, let it be the work's problem, not yours. Because the world doesn't need more artists thinking the way everyone else thinks. It needs creators like you brave enough to think like master artists. And one more thing, thinking differently is hard when everyone around us is trying to make us think the same. Sometimes the next shift in our art doesn't come from learning more, it comes from finally being around people who understand what we're trying to become. That is why I created the world of creatives. It's a private collective of serious artists and writers and musicians and filmmakers and builders from all around the world who are serious about making their best work, not competing for attention, not pretending to have it all figured out, just becoming more courageous, more honest, and more ourselves together. Because the people around us, they don't just influence what we create, they influence what we believe is possible for us to create. So, if something in you feels like you want to be part of a circle of serious creators, I'll leave a link in the description below with the application for you to apply. All right, stay creative my friends, and I'll see you in the next video.