GROW WITH ME #5: In this book Im reading Im learning a lot about the artistic process. I am learning that we indulge ourselves in the fantasy of what our life would look like if we were real artists rather than see the small creative changes we could make right now. For example, if were wanting to be a full time writer we start getting anxious about how we would leave the job we have or what if we had to move somewhere else. But yet, we havent even gotten to that point yet! Its as if our whole life will change in one big swoop rather than the small steps we take to transition into that life. Why? Because artists are dramatic people. Its in our DNA. So rather than take baby steps towards greatness, we think we have to stand at the edge of the cliff & then we stand there anxiously going, I cant. I cant jump. Newsflash: no one is telling you to jump dude. Thats just drama. And drama is meant to be put on paper or on canvas or on stage...not our lives. The truth is that creativity requires activity & if were honest, some of us dont like that at all. And because we hate to do the activity, we would rather obsess about something else instead. Im guilty of that too. Tell me if this sounds familiar: you know you have to write (or paint or choreograph or whatever you do creatively) but you feel like nothing you write is good enough. So you say, Ok, let me clean/organize my workstation (or do laundry, or run errands, etc) & while Im doing that, Ill think about my project some more. I should have an answer by that time. But then you finish that mundane task, and not only did it take all day, but you still dont have any progress on the project you were supposed to do!! Why? Because that was an excuse. What you were really saying to yourself was, Instead of working on my creative project, I will just worry about it some more. This anxiety is what is keeping you from being the artist you need to be. So stop worrying about the great big scheme of it all. Instead, do little things each day. Baby steps. If you have a novel to write, schedule yourself to write ONE page a day. Just one page. Eventually that discipline will become two then three. But even at one page, you can go the rest of your day guilt free knowing you accomplished something that has to do with your passion. Want a good analogy? Think of the analogy of a space craft floating through space. Its going a particular direction & space is frictionless so it will continue on that path. But if you nudge it, even just a little bit, it may not do an abrupt change right away but guaranteed, after some time, it will end up in a totally different destination. So it is with your creative life. Just a few changes each day will, in time, take you to places where you never thought it would.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 03:45:10 +0000
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