Halftime Speeches (vol. 1, no. 8)

September 3, 2021 Shawn Humphrey

Here are five bolts of inspiration I’m sharing this month:

1. Don Shula on starting your work:

2. Marc Weidenbaum on the value of work over inspiration:

“I think inspiration is overrated. I think work is what is important. You can only make music if you make music. You can only paint if you paint. You can only write if you write. In general, you won’t get better at it, or at anything else, unless you do it. And so you do it. I think being inspired really happens in the midst of work, not before the work.” (ht The Art of Noticing)

3. Lauren Berlant on the reality of doing the work:

“Things are usually in my way but that’s the thing about writing…Once, I needed the perfect time and place to write. I stood in my way like a poison-pen letter to myself. But slowly, under the velocities of worldy reals that came and went, I learned to write in my own skin, like it or not. Making money, making dinner, taking care of people and stupid shit, getting sick or getting well, getting into and out of what presented, I ended up with a writer’s life. I learned to write in thirty-minute episodes on my frail mother’s dining room table with a three-year-old playing with old plastic toys underfoot. I took notes on my phone at a doctor’s office. I started the day writing in bed even though I had only ten minutes. Over time, I became allergic to the long-winded and roundabout, cutting words down to size. But then I’d become attached to a word fern shooting up in the space between words or I’d be surprised by something energetic already somehow taking off. Some people have long, lean writing muscles; mine are shortened and taut like a repetitive stress injury turned into a personal tendency. I can write anywhere now but not for long, and it’s only in the morning that I have that kind of energy and interest.” (ht Mason Curry)

4. Shay Carl on the promise of work (quoting his grandpa):

5. Encore blog post from me on the counterintuitive benefits of harder not smarter:

“[S]ometimes we need a reminder of what is possible even when the “smarter” way is not available. We don’t have access to specialized tools. We cannot afford time-saving techniques. And, we have exhausted our wits, our creativity and our genius. It is just us, our goals, and the pure unadulterated work that keeps us apart.”

That’s it. Have a great day. And, go start something! – shawn