In an inspired and inspiring essay on “everything [she believes] about writing”, author Elizabeth Gilbert talks about what it takes to do what you want (in her case, write).
I believe that – if you are serious about a life of writing, or indeed about any creative form of expression – that you should take on this work like a holy calling. I became a writer the way other people become monks or nuns. I made a vow to writing, very young. I became Bride-of-Writing. I was writing’s most devotional handmaiden. I built my entire life around writing. I didn’t know how else to do this. I didn’t know anyone who had ever become a writer. I had no, as they say, connections. I had no clues. I just began.
Elizabeth Gilbert has also presented at TED, musing on “the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses—[sharing] the radical idea that, instead of the rare person ‘being’ a genius, all of us ‘have’ a genius”.