Real artists ship.

Firstly, don’t confuse the word artist with someone in a black beret and striped shirt, pallet full of oil paints in hand, somewhere in the French countryside.

Your art could be painting or plowing, building homes or building sandcastles. Your art is exactly that. Yours. Whatever creativity you have locked inside of you that unceasingly yearns to get out. That’s your art.

Sadly most artists, you and I included, don’t ship.

Our art never sees the light of day. Remember: It’s been done before. Do it anyway.

The quote is attributed to Steve Jobs, but I’m not sure it was he who first coined the term.

How many half written novels, unused paint sets and myriad other “great ideas” sit in basements and attics all over the world?

Basements of homes and basements of the mind.

Real artists ship.

Genral Patton famously said, “A good plan violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan executed next week”.

Truth.

Most of us spend so much time trying to get to perfect, that we never get almost perfect out the door.

“Don’t die with your music still in you”, said Wayne Dyer. What music lurks inside of you? When would now be a good time to share it? If not with the world, then with yourself.

Today marks 40 days since I made a promise to myself to write something, anything, every day. And 40 days in a row I’ve written something here. 40 days “good enough” went out the door. 40 days I’ve shipped.

See you on the journey.