Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.*
Austin Kleon

It’s a strange thing,
When our existence is one of obscurity we want to be
noticed,
But when we are noticed to the extent that
our day is dictated to us by others and their
machine then
we desire obscurity:

There’s no pressure when you’re unknown. You can do what you want. Experiment. Do things just for the fun of it. When you’re unknown, there’s nothing to distract you from getting better. No public image to manage. No huge paycheque on the line. No stockholders. No e-mails from your agent. No hangers-on.*

These words from Austin Kleon translate into
an everyday
for all of us.
And once we’re known in our workplace or field
it’s difficult to find our creative spaces,
Though, thankfully, not impossible to
introduce things that are fun to us,
To “waste time” experimenting and exploring,
Creating our own development plan,
Playing within it every day.
A good place to begin writing down the things that get your
blood pumping:

I’ve come to believe in the power of writing down your vision. I don’t believe writing down a vision for your life creates any sort of magic in the universe, but I do believe it sets a general compass for your subconscious.**

Rainer Maria Rilke writes about creating our own obscurity:

What is needed is only this: solitude, great inner solitude.  Going within and meeting no one else for hours – that is what one must learn to attain.^

As my friend Sam Radford points out,
When we waste hours like this
we avoid wasting years:

We waste years because we don’t have the opportunity to waste hours.^^

*Austin Kleon’s blog: A message for graduates;
**Donald Miller’s Hero On a Mission;
^Maria Popova’s The Marginalian: Rilke On the Relationship Between Solitude, Love, Sex, and Creativity;
^^Sam Radford’s blog: Wasting years by not wasting hours.