“There’s no talent, neither genius without hard work.”

— Dmitri Mendeleev

Mozart wrote music for 10 years before he made any great classics.

In fact, much of his early work borrowed from other composers. Can’t you just imagine a music critic from 1780, quill pen in hand, lambasting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for being totally derivative?

My last newsletter focused on your ability to court creativity.

Today brings us to the skill you need to make creative impulses real: resilience. Something beyond essential when it’s so easy to give up.

Bias for negativity is a survival instinct. Failure and rejection conspire to make us think, “I’ll never be like So & So. I give up.”

But So & So deals with the same stuff.

Resilience is a manual override.

Commit to a positive vision, and remain committed all the time. It’s popular to complain—but optimistic people and teams outperform negative ones. Positive feelings enable us to improve our lives.

Your body is a tool for this. Mind-body, body-mind. Manage the chemical response to your experience, starting with your thoughts. Lean on deep breathing, tapping, long walks.