Quote of the Day: Georgia O'Keeffe on Creativity

We live in a world of endless metrics: likes, views, inbox counts, quarterly OKRs, proof-of-work everywhere, meaning nowhere. Remote teams demand “visibility,” social feeds reward the loudest update, and AI can spit out a résumé of achievements in seconds. Against that churn, the old problem remains stubbornly human: the hardest part of success is deciding what it is. “You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.”

O’Keeffe isn’t selling bravado; she’s pointing to a leverage point. Most people don’t fail for lack of talent, they stall for lack of ownership. When you won’t name the thing you want, you drift into other people’s definitions: the safe promotion, the polite goal, the project that won’t offend. A declaration is not a press release. It’s a line in the sand that tells your attention what to ignore and your effort where to go.

There’s also a quiet politics in the sentence. We’re taught to wait for permission, especially those conditioned to be “humble,” to understate, to be grateful for crumbs of recognition. Declaring an accomplishment means accepting that you’re an authority on your own work. It’s a commitment device: once stated, it becomes harder to hide behind “someday,” harder to sabotage yourself with endless preparation. That’s why this quote is really about courage and success: not as applause, but as agency.

Georgia O'Keeffe earned the right to say this. She built a modernist career on her own terms, refusing the decorative expectations placed on women artists and letting New Mexico’s stark light sharpen her vision and her independence.

So apply it today in miniature: declare one accomplishment you’re pursuing this spring, clearly, specifically, without apology, and then arrange your calendar as if you believe yourself. The declaration is the beginning; the follow-through is the art.