With 40 studio albums over 60+ years, including one released just last year, Bob Dylan stands as one of the most vital and creative artists into old age.
He has serious endurance.
Below I’ve written up 3 EQ takeaways from Dylan’s approach to making music. Use these to grow your endurance:
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1/ Know your purpose (or “destiny”), and hold it tight.
Dylan talks extensively about his destiny. He even goes as far as to say “he bargained with the chief commander,” trading his devotion to music for success.
“[Destiny] is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself no one else does,” Dylan explains. “It’s a fragile feeling. You put it out there, and someone will kill it. You have to keep it to yourself.”
Even if you don't view your purpose as destiny or a spiritual bargain, the idea still translates: Know your purpose. Revisit it often. Your purpose creates lasting energy.
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2/ Curiosity fuels decades of endurance.
Author Brad Listi described Dylan’s creative endurance, saying, “You can point to a number of artists who fit this bill…They never stop staying interested. They’re always taking in new stuff.”
You can see this in Dylan’s work as he jumps from an album of 30 Sinatra-like covers to an album of newly written songs. He follows what interests him, not what interests you.
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3/ Curiosity also fuels shorter-term endurance.
One study found that just by describing a day when you felt curious, you can boost your mental and physical energy by 20% more than when you describe a moment of profound happiness.
Writer De-Shawn Charles Winslow experienced this first-hand.
He was stuck, trying to finish his book. His deadline was around the corner. But he felt like his book was boring. His characters were boring.
He’d been watching old law & order shows, and he had a funky idea. What if he blended his novel with a murder mystery?
He tried it out, and the book flowed out of him. His debut novel “In West Mills” went on to win the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner, an American Book Award, and a Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction.
It was his curiosity that propelled him through that fallow, boring period in his writing.
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Not all success is instantaneous. Developing the endurance to stay energized for months, years, and decades can help you stick it out.
And more importantly, endurance feels good. Just look at Bob Dylan’s face when he talks about it…
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P.S. Follow me, Evan Watkins, for more posts like this one.
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Sources:
1/ Bob Dylan on 60 minutes w/ Ed Bradley
2/ Podcast: Otherppl with Brad Listi “Episode 891. Marie-Helene Bertino”
3/ Podcast: Otherppl with Brad Listi “890. De'Shawn Charles Winslow”
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