I find most painters just wandering, following the look of some style which they do not understand, but they still follow like cattle to the slaughtering pen. Nothing pleases me except my own paintings now, not even the upper ech echelon. Yes, enjoyed the last Nolan show and the last Frankenthaler show, but you know, not moved, not moved. I have no more heroes. Money still remains my only problem. I cannot paint now for lack of money. I have no paint, no canvas, and I am hot. My mind is liable. My eyes can see the evidence of brightness and pigment. I have a vision I can see it very clear. That is one of countless amazing quotes from this book called Notes from the Woodshed by Jack Whitten. It has quickly become one of my favorite books ever. You could say I'm obsessed with it. I'll go ahead and say it I'm obsessed with this book, and when I say obsessed, I mean, you know, not in like the current use of that word, overuse. I'm going to say I saw an ad on Instagram the other day and it started with I'm obsessed with these socks. And maybe they are, I don't know. I mean, who am I to say that they are not obsessed with? You know socks, but in my understanding of that word. I'm obsessed with this book in that it is consuming a healthy percentage of my thoughts. It's changed the way. It's impacting the way I think about my work. You know, my studio time, my practice and just life as a whole. This book was recommended to me by a friend of mine named Jamel Wright, who goes by art, the new religion on Instagram. Go give him a follow. His work's tremendous and he's an awesome human being as well. There's something about I don't know what it is about great books, you know, but they have a way of finding you where you're at. You know, I think that the inputs that we give ourselves externally are always impacted, of course, by our internal experience. Right Like, our antenna is up for certain things, and this has definitely met me right where I'm at at this time. So I'm just really excited to share a bunch of quotes from this book and just kind of some ways that it's impacting me, and hopefully you'll find some value in that as well.
Speaker 1:It's just me today. My amazing co-host, ty Nathan Clark, is not, you know, not here. It's just that's. That's what just me means. I suppose he's done a great job of carrying the load, especially these last couple months when I've been putting in some 60, 70, couple of 80 hour weeks in preparation for a show. So he's done a few of these solo episodes and it is beyond my turn to do one as well. So Ty is reading this book as well and I'm pretty sure he loves it almost as much, maybe as much as I do. So we're definitely going to do multiple episodes together on this book as well. But for today it's just me, and I'm excited to share a whole bunch of just absolute gems from Mr Witten.
Speaker 1:So let's jump in with another one. This is from Paige. I'm going to share the page numbers here, just in case you already have the book, or maybe you go back and re-listen to this once you have acquired it somehow. But this is from page 135. He writes I don't want to admit that I'm lost or confused, it's just that I don't understand why I'm doing paintings of this sort.
Speaker 1:Have I crossed over to another sphere of painting? The light is so clear, brilliant, just like in Crete. The color commands the picture plane. The whole canvas becomes an icon of color, bathed in the light of resurrection. I am scared, frightened of something that's very beautiful. May God help me, for I don't know of any other source of comfort. My art has become a vehicle which puts me in the presence of the Godhead. I am the process. So much of this book contains just real. The depth of reflection, the intelligence, the philosophy of this man was absolutely extraordinary, and you know some of these I'm just going to read and not even comment on, because anything that I would add would just, you know, sort of there's nothing I could add that would enhance what has already been written. I'm going to go ahead and jump to another quote. This is from page 150.
Speaker 1:As an artist, I merely present and dare not explain. I have no desire to explain or offer explanations for what I do. Those people who are capable of seeing will see, and the others must be content with the trash of our technological society. As we progress into technology, so will our desire to see increase. A demand for an art form which deals with vision is in the making. As an artist wanting to improve my lot in life, I must seize the time and present myself as an artist of vision, skipping over a little bit and then jumping to the next page. Am I just to accept this evolution or reject it? If I do reject it. Am I to continue doing scrape paintings? Something in the back of my head says to use the past 10 years in order to be more sure-footed. My eye is well-trained now, and also my hand. My ability to make decisions is stronger than ever. Have I been placing too much emphasis upon the new? I've always been aware with discrete paintings that they were new in a New York sense of being new.
Speaker 1:There is so much doubt associated with painting. I am forever questioning myself, doubting my performance. I make in order to tear down, but the making and tearing down produces a painting. I must make a painting, destroy a painting, in order to paint a painting.
Speaker 1:One of my biggest takeaways from reading Witten's words is just the complete comfort he seemed to have in sitting in the balance between uncertainty and conviction, because there's a lot of both in these words. Revisiting the quote that I just shared a moment ago, I am forever questioning myself, doubting my performance, and then, two paragraphs later, I must seize the time and present myself as an artist of vision. So there's both in equal measures uncertainty and conviction, and what I love about that is it just comes from a place that starts from a place, to me, of I don't know where this will take me, but I believe it will be somewhere great. Again, that's just my interpretation. I could be wrong, but that's what I take from this is, you know, that idea of I don't know what the fuck I'm doing right now. These are again my words, not Jack's, but that is a feeling that I often, frequently, almost daily, experience, especially when I'm in the studio and holding on to a belief that, whatever this, the challenges of the day, the things that I might be working on, whatever this is right now, a belief that it's going to become something great, and so that comfort in sitting in uncertainty is really important. This is from pages 192 and 193, studio Log 1987.
Speaker 1:And what's beautiful, some of these entries are just one sentence. So, 2nd April of 1987, the worst possible scenario is when your own mind betrays you, fast forwarding to the 12th of September. It's extremely complicated and extremely simple at the same time. So, again, like I read these and I think this is somebody who's so comfortable in sitting in that uncertainty and just being okay with it's both of those things. It is both extremely complicated and extremely simple at the same time, and that's okay. I don't know about you, but I spend an extraordinarily unnecessary volume of energy trying to answer unanswerable questions and feeling a sense of unease that I don't have the answer, and, man, that's crippling. So what's inspiring about reading Witten's words is just this is somebody who figured out how to really sit with both of those opposing ideas, both of those feelings at the same time and not fight either one.
Speaker 1:Again, this is just my subjective response and thoughts about about these words. I'm not going to pretend to understand. Um, you know who he was or where he's coming from. This is just conjecture on my part, but I will say that, having read this journal, you do get to feel as though you really do. You know, know who he was and how he thought and what he did with those ideas and emotions and experiences and how it translated into his work. So again, you'll hear me say this probably five more times before I'm done here. But go get this book and read it.
Speaker 1:Let's jump back to that quote from page 151. Let's revisit that quote from page 151. There's something else I want to unpack with that. Am I just to accept this evolution or reject it? If I do reject it, am I to continue doing scrape paintings? Something in the back of my head says, to use the past 10 years in order to be more sure-footed. So part of my hope with this episode and with this book and the takeaways from it are that, if journaling is not currently a part of your practice, that it's something that you strongly consider starting, because I think and I've been journaling somewhat consistently for I don't know probably 1520 years now, off and on, and if you look back through witness journals there's, there's some sections that are that are totally missing, you know.
Speaker 1:But I think one of the things in my own lived experience that I find to be extremely, not just useful but necessary, is the power of acknowledging what is right, like reading these words this is, this is him. This is what I'm feeling, this is what I'm thinking, this is what I'm experiencing, this is how I'm processing what's going on, you know, with the work, and I think that there's just tremendous power in acknowledging this is what's going on right now. And and I'll just be our last episode with last episode with Ty and I was on vulnerability. I'll attempt to be vulnerable here and just share, like this is something I personally really struggle with, like I would consider myself to be emotionally challenged in that I push against a general sense of ick like ick, like something icky. I'm feeling something you know, without taking the time to really identify and sit with it and identify. You know what it is. I mean, it's usually some derivative of a fear-based emotion. But until we take that honest appraisal of what's happening with us, the person making the work and then, by extension, the work that's being made, there's power in identifying and acknowledging here's where I'm at, here's where the work is at, this is what's actually happening. Because until we get to that place, there's really we're extremely limited in what we can do. Going forward, we have to acknowledge where are we starting from, where is here, and so acknowledging what is allows us to take that next step forward with real intention, having really thought through what that starting point is and where we might be headed and where we might be wanting to go.
Speaker 1:Let me read another example of that. This is from page 182. He writes I am back to zero. Tonight I cut up a large circle composed of a circle grid and threw it out. I was completely bored with the pain, taking involvement of executing all these dots. I cut it up and threw it out, the only thing I have to salvage from the past 15 years is the fact of the hard backing, the bringing of the floor up to the wall. This is meaningful.
Speaker 1:Perhaps I've had more. I've learned a lot. I've grown to hate several things in the process of learning. I'm going to read that again. I've grown to hate several things in the process of learning. I want to start 1986 with a clean slate. Of course, this destroys any chance of getting a gallery. No one is interested in an artist at the end of a series and beginning a completely unknown beginning. All right.
Speaker 1:So how many times have you felt as though you're back to zero? How many times have you felt as though you've got to completely start over, as though everything that has come before this is an absolute waste of time and energy? I certainly have recently. That's a. That's a reoccurring feeling, for for me and I think, a lot of other, you know creatives and humans that I've, that I've talked to, like this is a common thing, and you know, what's really interesting is that and this is this is something that I recommend while while reading this book, if you choose to is you know you read these entries and if all you had was the impression from this book.
Speaker 1:You might think that this is an artist who isn't making much of any work or isn't making work that could be considered good. But then you cross-reference the work that he was making during this period and you're absolutely blown away. Now I'm speaking as somebody who absolutely loves Witten's work and I'm just a massive fan. So there honestly isn't a lot that he did that I'm not pretty enamored by. But I think it's really important to realize, in spite of how he felt during those times, he was still showing up the next day and making work, some of which proved to be timeless and extraordinary, you know. And so I just think about the power that comes from writing that down Again now we're talking about, you know, our own lived experience here, the power of seeing the words. You know again, I have no idea what his experience, you know. Again, I have no idea what his experience, you know, was when he saw that written out. But I think it's really, really important to take the time to do that Again.
Speaker 1:I said I was going to be vulnerable, so I and I do have stacks and stacks of these journals laying all over the place. This is from about three years ago. I'm just going to read this. I don't want to, but whatever. Okay, what is so stressful about my internal state that I require de-stressing? I am worried about silly things. I'm worrying about winning silly games, the online popularity contest of social media. It's not so much the popularity, it's the validation it can offer that my art is legitimate, that I have a shot at making it as an artist, that I can get my achievement fix here, that I am valuable. That's a difficult thing to see written down. Quite sad really, but true enough to acknowledge. Okay, that was writing some things down that were real at the time and I might cut, I might edit this out. I don't know if I'll share this or not, but okay, I am personally need to see things written out to even really grasp what I'm feeling.
Speaker 1:You know, I talked a moment before about just the sort of general sort of sense of ick like that, that, that uh general disease, and when I write things down, when I sit, when I I mean I remember I I tend to like log where I'm at. So I was at a coffee shop Saturday morning. Daughter was at at softball practice waiting for it to get done. I remember that. So I was at a coffee shop Saturday morning, daughter was at softball practice waiting for it to get done. I remember that day. I remember that day because I wrote this down. I wouldn't otherwise, but I remember how I was feeling. I can probably, if I really thought about it or tracked it back, think about what I was going through or what I was responding to at that time.
Speaker 1:But what's so valuable about the practice of journaling and what reading Witten's journals have reminded me of and given more clarity to, is just that once we see that, once we acknowledge what's actually there, then we can actually do something about it. And I think you know we talk about this all the time. And if there's one thing I've said, probably more than anything else on this podcast, is just reminding reminding all of us that it's not just you, it's not just me. You think you're the only one, you think it's unique to you that you're frustrated, that things aren't working out, that you feel like you're back to zero. Read the words of the absolute legends and be reminded of the fact that it's not just you, that this is a common part of the experience. This is a, a, an ingredient, a, necessary, necessary. I don't know about that. It is a common, extremely common component of of this experience. You know, and I think it's it's.
Speaker 1:It's so easy to fall into the trap of believing that our heroes, the people that we would put on our uh, the, the, the greats, the people that we look up to and say, yeah, wow, if only I could do something anything close to what they've done. It's so easy to fall in the trap of thinking that they didn't have the same struggles that we had. I talked before about. You know what it would be like to just read these words and how easy it would be to conclude that the work that was happening during that time, you know, might not have been that great. So the opposite is also true, right. If we think about the experience of, you know, walking through a gallery, through a museum, you know, paging through art books and seeing these tremendous masterpieces, it would be easy to conclude that things were just flowing, that everything they made that year was that good, when, in actuality, that may have been the only thing of dozens of hundreds that made its way out of the studio that even exists, you know, today, in the, in the public record, right? So when I read about Witten's experiments, when I find these quote exam, when I read about Witten's experiments, when I find these quote exam. So again, just that conclusion that not only has someone else and a whole collection of other people who have come before and are doing it now are experiencing the same or similar things. One of the best to ever do it did so by extension. It's okay that we are too. It's not just me, it's not just us. And another really useful observation and, I think, benefit of journaling and at times, revisiting some journal entries. I did that in preparation for this episode. I might share another one or the first one, depending upon whether or not I decided to leave that first share in, but it's.
Speaker 1:It's recognizing our own patterns, you know, I mean the number of times that certain ideas and themes represent themselves in this book. Again, over years, over decades, we get to see and we get to remember oh, I've been here before. I have. Wait a minute. This is pattern recognition, right? Wait a minute, I've been here before. This looks familiar. And hold on, what happened. Oh, it all worked out In some form or fashion. It all worked out because we're here, right, even if it didn't work out in the traditional sense or the way that we might've hoped it to. We still learned something and hopefully we've taken whatever we might've learned from that experience into what we're experiencing now. But I have that all the time where I write something down and it's like, oh yeah, wait a minute, I've, I've, I've seen this hand right, these words that came out of this head before, and hold on what happened. Oh yeah, I figured it out, oh yeah, it ended up being okay. So our own pattern recognition, that own, you know, when we capture these are all little data points. These are all little, you know, time capsules, but over time, as we collect them, as we log them, they tell a story and armed with that information, we're much more equipped to move forward. All right, let me read some more quotes here.
Speaker 1:Jack's words are undoubtedly more interesting than mine. He writes this is from page 115,. The paintings are beginning to clarify themselves. It is something about systems. The last painting, taf 2, taught me a lesson. One step of the system deals with my applying thick Aquatec white with a stiff bristle brush. There we go. It is too haphazard, too much calligraphy, a carryover from my earlier paintings. I want something more definite as content, something more thematic or recognizable.
Speaker 1:I'm experimenting on TAF 3 with string and pieces of rag torn from one of Andrew's old shirts. My reasoning is that I can control the amount of thickness and shape. Therefore I should be able to add or subtract by using different weights of materials. I think it's important that I list the individual steps of my system. I'm not going to read all of them, but there's I don't know probably 15 different steps. So he outlines his process for this particular piece. So I wanted to share that because and I just I put the biggest smile on my face when I started to see and this, this reoccurs throughout, throughout his journal entries in the book but just listing out the different steps, the what, but also the why, the here's what you know I'm doing to achieve certain effects, to try and get to where I'm trying to go, but then also the why behind it. So let me read from page 120.
Speaker 1:My show opens on the 4th of April. I have five paintings. I'm only pleased with three of those five and I need at least six. My thinking moves so fast that I can only produce two paintings that are absolutely about the same problems. When one problem is solved and I see it before on the canvas, I become bored. I cannot produce six paintings of the same idea. I am not cookie cutter. My thinking is not stationary, but moves along at a very rapid rate. Therefore, each painting is a representation of a particular idea.
Speaker 1:The plastic concept unifies the complete works, but the content of each painting could change drastically at will. In other words, I can assimilate any idea into my system, which is actually the matter or raw material. This matter can be used in a number of different ways. Matter is what unifies the whole. All plastic elements are conceived through matter. For me, I want this raw material to be my playpen, a means of doing anything I wish to exercise every fantasy, myth, every feeling of the absurd within my grasp.
Speaker 1:So what I love about that and these are on subsequent pages from the same entry. So it's the what, but it's also the why. Here's what I'm doing and here's why I'm doing it. Here's what I'm hoping to, here's what he's hoping to achieve, you know, with that particular technique. So, naming the system as of today and, as I read from one of those previous entries, understanding it just needs to be true. For today, this just needs to be. This was just a system for right now, understanding that we may very well throw today's system out the window tomorrow, but we've got something that works, that is functional for right now. We understand what we're doing and we have an idea, at least for the moment, of why we're doing it. It's incredibly powerful. I want to share another example of both the what and the why. This is from pages 86 and 87.
Speaker 1:I must achieve a matte surface. The rib paintings are impossible to see with a gloss surface. Tomorrow I will experiment with using gesso as a final pour, which should give me a matte surface. Skipping ahead surface, a space that exists solely through surface. No attempt at overlapping placement or perspective. The space comes out of the surface and then he gets more into the, what I'll skip for now. Jumping ahead, I take my cue from nature. Even with color I take my cue from nature, presenting an all-over tonal range with occasional patches of hue.
Speaker 1:I want to put the fear of God in these paintings. I want to put the fear of God in these paintings. I want to evoke a spiritual, magical, cosmic existence with a material connection, emotionally charged. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what I can add to that other than just like that just blows me away. And every time I read it and I've read it and reread it a number of times, it's just like it's inspiring no-transcript and I think that again, just to beat this idea to death.
Speaker 1:But there's so much intention in these words, there's so much thought, and I mean you think about how much time, over 50 plus years, was spent thinking about the process, how much time he spent in the studio. He spent in the studio and at any given checkpoint along the way. And you look at Witten's work, which evolved and changed, I mean tremendously, over time. He was always iterating, always thinking about how to communicate what he wanted to communicate, and I think that this is a big reason why or reason, I guess, how he was able to do that right Is really thinking about here's what I'm doing and here's why I'm doing it in whatever sequence, and in having that information available, because he logged it the ability to make intentional adjustments along the way. So really, you know what Witten teaches us through these words is just how to think about our work, how to understand what we've done so far, to the extent that it can be understood, and, even more importantly, how to think about where to take things next.
Speaker 1:I'm going to read another quote from page 54. From the top. It's like a book club. I really hope that one person at some point is like actually that'd be super neat, okay, and we read on from page 54.
Speaker 1:Second, I've had the feeling lately to do something new, ie another way of handling paint. To my knowledge, no one has arrived at an image by using a flooring chisel to chip away paint, but no one had used a carpenter's saw either, or a shoeshine brush or an afro comb or a plumber's plunger. Maybe I've been doing something new all along without knowing it. I love that. I love that for a lot of reasons, but I just I think that's so beautiful and you think about like, so this is where the writing takes the sort of intuitive in the moment, you know thing that I'm, that I'm trying, I'm just going to go ahead and guess that all the different materials that he just or tools he just listed off were not things that were on his list of tools for that day. Right, I could be wrong, but I'm just going to go ahead and guess that you know the way that that he chose to use those tools in that moment were, you know, intuitive. And oh hey, there's a shoeshine brush. Let me grab that real quick, and again, I'm just speculating. I don't know for sure, but I would be shocked if everything they needed in the studio was planned in advance, right? So my point is that in capturing these things and writing them down, he was able to take those intuitive you know, in the moment, you know spur of the moment ideas and oh, let's just try this and see what happens Turn those intuitive experiments into systems, into things that could be recreated, replicated and refined over time. This might be an all-time record of quotes shared in an episode, page 95.
Speaker 1:The paintings have changed. It's impossible for me to control them. Sometimes I wonder who or what is doing the controlling. I have three paintings of one thing and four paintings of something else and one of something else. I must learn to accept change as being inherent with my type of structure. It is not a cookie cutter concept. One must allow for change, however rapid, as long as it is within the original boundaries. Skip in a paragraph. Whatever it is that I'm working with, I have merely scratched the surface. If that it is something so elusive, so infinite in its ability to change, to avoid being structured or placed in category. Sometimes it is thick, sometimes thin, always existing within obvious extremes, sometimes thin, always existing within obvious extremes, sometimes transcending all extremes and sometimes existing in the extreme middle of opposite obvious extremes. I guess it truly is the extreme middle. I'm going to reread the part that I have double underlined and highlighted. I must learn to accept change as being inherent with my type of structure.
Speaker 1:A lot of what sticks out to me throughout this book and throughout his different entries are things that he is saying to himself, and I think that it's something that I definitely recognize in my own journals and I think other people. Like you know, we acknowledge what is and then we sort of like tell ourselves I don't know what could be. We, you know, hopefully get to a point where we can find some hope in where things are at and where things could be and where things could go, and coach ourselves up a little bit. You know, one of the things I had written down from this was just, there are a lot of benefits of intentional self delusion. Again, this is my own takeaway from this. This is nothing that he references specifically, but I think, you know, let at best neutral that's kind of the starting point, right, and given that our internal state is integral in our ability to do the work that we are meant to do, then the practice of deciding what is so, at least for today, and then doing something with it is really important. You know the, the, the?
Speaker 1:I had a good friend of mine from a long time ago who always said he was so good at just coaching himself up and just like being his own biggest cheerleader. You know, and, and I said once. I said, man, you're so good at just pumping yourself up, and he said, listen, if you're not going to be your own biggest cheerleader, then who is Cause? I'm with me all the time. I was like, wow, that is extremely true and extremely powerful. Right? If we're not going to be our own biggest cheerleader, if we're not going to, in this case, decide what's true for now, write it down, declare it for ourselves, then no one else is going to do it for us.
Speaker 1:Here's another example of that, from page 127, from the bottom the common man must bleed in order to experience change. I choose art. I am not the common man. I have sympathy for him, but I am not willing to abandon my art for his cause. The greatest success for me as an artist is my recognition by the common man. I don't expect this, neither now or in the future. So I must accept my isolation in society, but in accepting, I promise to live in a matter worthy of my value. My plan is to continue my work and enjoy myself as much as possible within my means.
Speaker 1:To me as I read that, that is him telling himself what's true for that day. But when it's all said and done, the only thing that really matters is what's next? And what am I about, like, what am I trying to do here? And so again, what I love, what I'm obsessed I mean like really obsessed, not sock obsessed with this book and with Witten's words are just his ability to continuously acknowledge what is, no matter how confused or frustrated he might have been in that moment, but then also get to the place of here's the what, but also here's the why. Here's what I'm about, here's the truth as I see it in this moment, and from that place boldly moving forward into whatever's next. That's powerful, I mean, that's inspiring, all right.
Speaker 1:So I said before I was going to share a couple of different journal entries and I was trying to find something that I was okay with sharing, but I think it's useful to now that we've spent some time with the words and thoughts of a genius just to give some examples of a definite not genius and I'm referring to myself. So this is just something that I wrote, this I don't know about a year or so ago, and I found this in one of my journals and I think it sort of brings this point home. But I wrote this can still be fun, this can still stir my soul. Just because there's lots to do, it doesn't mean I can't enjoy the process, and this is in preparation for a previous show. Everything will be exactly what it's supposed to be. As I sit here and look at these pieces the work that is complete and the work that still needs work. It is special. It is saying exactly what I want it to say. Everything is coming together exactly the way it's supposed to. Everything has led me here. Every single thing has set me up and prepared me for this. I am more equipped than ever before to make my best work. So far, all right.
Speaker 1:So I had to speculate on what Jack may or may not have been thinking or feeling when I read his words. The reason I wanted to share my own is because I don't have to guess. I can tell you exactly what I was feeling at that time, because it was just a year ago, it was before a show, and I think I'm going to tie a couple of things together here, hopefully. I was completely stressed. I didn't believe any of those things that I just read until I wrote all the shit that I was feeling this is all garbage, this isn't going to work out, it's not going to be done in time, no one's going to show up, no one's going to like it. I mean, that's the noise that was going on in my head.
Speaker 1:I wrote that stuff down, I acknowledged what was already there and then got to a point where I was able to arrive at a version of what I hoped to be the truth, and I spent time with that. And there's other things I write down that you know. I write things. You know I think if they were shared would sound gross, egotistic, self-inflated, braggadocious, like I mean. I write those things down because I need to see them, I need to again be my own best cheerleader and I think that's super valuable. I don't know exactly what Jack was thinking when he wrote these words, but certainly some of these big, bold statements that he made. I don't know if he shared them with anybody at the time think they were probably published or shared with a broad audience, because he didn't have a broad audience at that time but he wrote those things down, he believed that they were true and he kept that vision close.
Speaker 1:So, in closing here, what is the point of journaling? My goal here today was to do two things. One was to get you to buy this and read this book. So hopefully at least some of you will go out and do that, because if you love it half as much as I do, you'll still love it a whole bunch. You might also find yourself obsessed with this book.
Speaker 1:My second goal with today's podcast was to just kind of reiterate the value of journaling for all of us, and what it does is we learn about our practice, we learn about our process, we learn about what we're trying to say and we learned about about ourselves. I mean, I can only speak for myself, but like I learned about myself when I see things written down, it came from my, from my head, my heart, through my hand on the paper. I see it. I'm like, oh, that's what's really going on and that's powerful, that's extremely powerful, and I think what I just closed on too, or what I just mentioned, and just to the value and the importance of identifying what the vision is and holding that vision close, when we're able to get clear about our vision, about what we're trying to accomplish, to protect it, to keep it in the forefront of our thinking.
Speaker 1:And I think that does a couple of things. I think, proactively, it helps us to see the forest for the trees, to keep the big picture in mind, to be able to have some perspective around what's happening in the moment, which may or may not I mean most cases for me probably isn't going perfectly. So it proactively gets us in a state where we're thinking about things from a proper perspective and I think, reactively, it can also act as a treatment for those low moments to be able to revisit the things that we wrote down, that we believe to be true about ourselves, about our work, about what we're trying to accomplish. And it doesn't provide immunity to the negative thoughts creeping into the things that we're trying to accomplish. And it doesn't provide immunity to the negative thoughts creeping into the things that we're all going to experience as human beings that prevent us from, you know, being in that perfect state or being in a good state, you know, to be able to do what we've been put here to do, but it does provide some defense, you know, against that, and so I'm going to close with that.
Speaker 1:I think again get this book, read it, buy it. We're going to do a bunch more pods on this. Ty and I are, and I think this is going to be our last. Yeah, this is, I don't need to think, I try not to. As a matter of fact, this is definitely going to be our last podcast of 2024. So, on behalf of Ty and myself, the holidays, happy new year. We cannot wait. We've got a bunch of exciting things in store for 2025. So, with that being said, we will talk to you next year.