Hey, so here are the highlights of Chapter 2 from the book, The Heart to Start by David Kadavy. I Hope these notes will help you as much as it has helped me.
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
—Maya Angelou
It is effortless to praise the great and neglect their struggle to the top.
“As weak as I was in my daily life, I felt one thing with unshaken conviction, and I felt it more strongly than ever when I stared in that mirror: I had something to offer the world. It didn’t matter whether I became famous for it, or if it made me a million dollars. But I felt, rather I knew, that I had something uniquely mine to give – something that only I could do.“
David Kadavy
When we create our Art, it’s a process of self-actualization. Your true Self is constantly in conflict with the expectations of the world around you.
David Kadavy
This internal chatter is powerful, but we’re so well practiced in obeying its fears that most of us never even notice it. To find the heart to start, you have to listen to that chatter. Not to heed its advice, but to tell it why it’s dead wrong.
David Kadavy
Now this Next quote is regarding Helen Keller’s story, on how she learned what words meant:
All that changed when her teacher, Anne Sullivan, was walking Helen down a path where there was a spout of running water. Miss Sullivan placed one of Helen’s hands under the water and signed “w-a-t-e-r” into the other hand. At that moment, Helen first understood that objects in the world had names. She recalled, “Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me.”
David Kadavy
When our true Self doesn’t get a chance to follow its desires – when it doesn’t get the creative exercise necessary to arm it with a vocabulary in which to express itself – it acts out in strange ways.
David Kadavy
The only way to become your true Self is to find the Art inside you and make it real. Your Art is the best expression possible of who you really are. You make Art when you take your passions, your interests, and even your compassion for others, and combine them to make something uniquely yours.
David Kadavy
Self-actualization through Art isn’t a neat and orderly process. The doing often comes first. It’s only later that you realize what it means.
David Kadavy
The Next Quote is an example by the Author:
Jodi was a lawyer. She decided she wanted a break, so she and a friend took a year off to travel. To keep friends updated on their travels, Jodi and her traveling companion started a blog together. Jodi’s friend quickly lost interest in writing, but Jodi found herself wanting to continue. She started writing about the places they were going, the food she was eating during her travels, and her experiences navigating her culinary adventures with celiac disease. When I interviewed Jodi on Love Your Work, she told me that when she first left, she was convinced that she would return to her job. But her friend thought otherwise. “You are one hundred percent not going back,” her friend told her. It wasn’t until more than a year later, after her friend had returned to work, and after Jodi had extended her trip, that Jodi realized she had created a new career for herself. Jodi’s writing has helped thousands of people escape vicariously, plan their travels, and consider their own escapes from their careers in law. As Jodi’s story illustrates, the mere act of making your Art can lead to surprising self-discoveries. This is all the more reason to just get started.
David Kadavy
Up Next is Chapter 3: Your Ego Fears your Art
(Here is the Book)
(I’m not getting paid to do this lol)