Keep Going by Austin Kleon Book Summary
This Book in 3 sentence
- The creative life is not a linear journey to a finish line, but rather a loop.
- you should find a daily routine that you can repeat over and over again, that fuels your creativity and allows you to keep doing what you do for as long as you live.
- Worry less about getting things done and more about the worth of what you’re doing.
🎨 Impressions
In this book, we learn about how to wake up every day and be creative, how to stay buoyant and move on to the next project regardless of success or failure, and how to find new creative ideas even while procrastinating.
Who Should Read It?
if you are in the creative space, then this will help you understand the creative journey of life. Because in the creative journey we face a lot of issues and this will help you solve this issue.
plus this book takes less than 60 minutes to finish. so you’ve got no reason not to.
☘️ How the Book Changed Me
This book basically helped me how to keep going with creative space and enjoy life. There are good times and bad times when you do creative work in your personal or professional life but you have to keep going.
✍️ My favorite Quotes
“Creativity is about connections, and connections are not made by siloing everything off into its own space. New ideas are formed by interesting juxtapositions, and interesting juxtapositions happen when things are out of place.”
“To be on brand is to be 100% certain of who you are and what you do, and certainly, in art and in life, is not only completely overrated, it is also a roadblock to discovery. Uncertainty is the very thing that art thrives on.”
“We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can really control is what we spend our days on.”
“And remember: If you want maximum artistic freedom, keep your overhead low. A free creative life is not about living within your means, it’s about living below your means.” “You can’t wait around for someone to call you an artist before you make art. You’ll never make it.”
“Rather than restricting your freedom, a routine gives you freedom by protecting you from the ups and downs of life and helping you take advantage of your limited time, energy, and talent.”
“There are no rules, of course. Life is an art, not a science. Your mileage may vary. Take what you need and leave the rest.”
📒 Summary + Notes :
Every Day is Groundhog Day
This is all about starting from zero. …I really think the best thing you can do if you want to make art is to pretend you’re starring in your own remake of Groundhog Day: Yesterday’s over, tomorrow may never come, there’s just today and what you can do with it.”
A daily routine adds structure to your day. There is no perfect, universal routine for creative work; you must find what routine works best for you.
Build a Bliss Station
“It’s hard to find anything to say about life without immersing yourself in the world, but it’s also just about impossible to figure out what it might be, or how to best say it, without getting the hell out of it again.” -Tim Kreider
In order to protect your sacred space and time, you have to learn how to decline all sorts of invitations from the world. You must learn how to say no.
Forget the Noun, Do the Verb
Sometimes the best way to remain creative is to remain playful. Don’t treat yourself or your work so seriously. Learn to let loose.
“When nothing’s fun anymore, try to make the worst thing you can. The ugliest drawing. The crummiest poem. The most obnoxious song. Making intentionally bad art is a ton of fun.”
Make Gifts
“One of the easiest ways to hate something you love is to turn it into your job: taking the thing that keeps you alive spiritually and turning it into the thing that keeps you alive literally.”
“If you want maximum artistic freedom, keep your overhead low. A free creative life is not about living within your means, it’s about living below your means.”
“Do what you love” + low overhead = a good life
“Do what you love” + “I deserve nice things” = a time bomb.
The Ordinary + Extra Attention = The Extraordinary
The easiest way to “find magic in the mundane” is to draw pictures of things you see, jot down notes to yourself, make audio recordings about things that happen to you. Then, take time to look at those drawings, read those notes, and listen to those recordings. Do this enough and you’ll find that nearly everything around you is more interesting than you thought.
Slay the Art Monsters
“If making your art is adding net misery to the world, walk away and do something else. Find something else to do with your time, something that makes you and the people around you feel more alive.”
Your are Allowed to Change Your Mind
You don’t have to know exactly where you art will take you from the outset. You simply need to get moving. It’s okay to course-correct along the way.
The best way to escape the fallacy of just thinking the same thing that everyone else is thinking is to read old books. Instead of browsing the latest news sites or social media feeds, crack open an old book.
When in Doubt, Tidy Up
Sometimes the best way to gain inspiration for new ideas is to tidy up your workspace or your materials. In doing so, you may flip through old content and find ideas for new content.
Demons Hate Fresh Air
Going for walks is one of the best ways to come up with new ideas, ponder existing ideas, and combine several ideas you have floating around in your heard.
A long walk clears the mind.
Plant Your Garden
Getting outside, studying nature, and planting a garden are all wonderful ways to connect with the Earth and to remind yourself that nature is in no hurry, and that you shouldn’t be either.
Don’t forgot to join weekly newsletter for more awesone books
ronak’s Newsletter
A weekly newsletter to BLOW your mind!!ronakblog.substack.com