We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.
~~ Joseph Campbell
I just finished reading "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Impressive book and not just because I sort of came to the same conclusions on my own. What he calls resistance, I have called my "Sensor." That part of me which is always ready to judge me, which always finds me wanting, which is endlessly inventive in its ways to sidetrack me and what I want to do. Mr. Pressfield does a great job of offering good advice on how to kickstart the creative process and I am grateful to him -- for his insights. I needed a kick in the pants.
Here's something for you to think about. Why is it that people evaluate anything they want to do in terms of how much money it will make. Or more importantly, if it will make a LOT of money. It isn't enough somehow that the thing you want to do will nourish your soul or make you happy. No. You have to make money, you have to make a lot of money so that you can reach the point where you never work again.
I'm abandoning that idea. Because for me, its more about constructing my life in a way that makes room for the things I want to do to be happy. Its not all about groceries and earning a living (though that's in there of course). Its not about zoning out in front of the TV at night and wondering where my life went. Or at least it shouldn't be.
One of the key insights in "The War of Art" is the idea that you should treat your art as your profession. Bring to your art the same degree of professionalism you bring to the job that pays for the rent and the groceries. Do it every day, whether you feel like it or not, make it part of your life. Go to your art the way you would to your job.
So, my internal sensor may have won all of 2009 (and 'life' conspired a bit to help with that) but 2010 belongs to me. I have life goals written out. I have a plan for getting there. I have courses that I'm taking now in art. And new projects in the works.
Tomorrow, I'll share one of them with you and direct you to an awesome website -- that's a lot of fun.
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3 comments:
Sounds good! I've always found art important to me but always stuck with what would be cheap (because I didn't have the money) and what would make good gifts. Now I am having fun learning to draw and paint which have no direct value. I've started a journal and my son's first response was "you should be selling your pictures" and the second "you should illustrate a chilren's book". Now that was nice that he thought what I was doing looked nice but its really hard to explain that I don't want to make money off of it (and he doesn't see that I am not good enough yet to sell anything anyhow but I know that and don't care). Almost everyone seems to see art's value as $$$$. Too bad.
Glad to see you are back also. :)
I really enjoyed this post, and needed it right now. I actually should read it every day, it seems.
Thanks for sharing!
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