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Carve Until You Set the Angel Free · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit Daily RiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Michelangelo was one of the greatest artists who ever lived.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: As a sculptor, painter, designer, architect, and so much more, he transformed history and was a major force of the Italian Renaissance.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: But have you ever considered exactly what it was that made Michelangelo so great?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Was it his creative genius, his relationship with powerful and influential people such as the Pope?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Was it his ability to organize massive projects like the painting of the Sistine Chapel?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure all of those factors played a part in his greatness, but above all, Michelangelo was a guy who just got things done.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: He finished projects and he saw them through to completion.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now contrast this with his contemporary and also his creative rival, Leonardo da Vinci.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Even though Da Vinci had a wider array of creative interests, and he had one of the most fertile minds in history, Da Vinci often left projects half finished.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And as anybody can see in Da Vinci's famous notebooks, he was a guy who had lots of great ideas, but sometimes he struggled to translate those into practical reality.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Michelangelo once said, I saw an angel in the marble, and I carved until I set him free.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: When we look at that quote, we like to focus on the angel in the marble, but let's not forget about the part where Michelangelo kept carving until the angel was set free.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, marble is a pretty hard substance, and it took Michelangelo four whole years working on his 16-foot statue of David until that was finished.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: But he eventually finished and he moved on to the next project.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a great lesson for all of us writers working on big projects.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to keep showing up every day, you've got to keep carving and making a little bit of progress day by day.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then one day, almost like magic, you're going to be finished.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: That book you've been working on, or that big project you've been working on, that little angel, if you will, is finally going to sprout wings and fly.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's question What project do you need to keep carving on until it's set free from the stone?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.