For many of us, getting to the proverbial blank page, canvas or recording studio is daunting. There are so many distractions! It's easier to just pick up the remote, say yes to friends' invitations, log onto FB, check the news or spend hours simply THINKING ABOUT what we want to create...
How is it that we get any work done at all?
Something that I read years ago in Julia Cameron's work "The Artist's Way" has served me well, hundreds of times."Over an extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline."
For me, the word discipline has a charge to it; envisioning waking up at dawn with military dedication and working in the studio for hours while the rest of the World is having fun. But to shift from that mentality to a place a being enthusiastic? Yes, that I can do.
I've been at this art thing for a while. 19 years this July 6th (yes, I celebrate my 'artist's anniversary' each year:) and the only way that I've continued is by being enthusiastic. Enthusiasm, Julia reminds us, is grounded in PLAY, not work.
And I find that my work flows more easily - and yes, joyfully - when my attitude is playful. But how to we do that, exactly? Simple. By changing the stories that we tell ourselves.
Far too many of us are running around with some version of this story: "there isn't enough." There isn't enough money, there aren't enough opportunities, there aren't enough people who care about my art, there isn't enough time, there isn't enough motivation, there isn't enough attention, there isn't enough reason to keep making art...
And the painful truth? When we continue to tell ourselves this story, guess what shows up in our lives? Right. Not enough. And when that shows up, it's incredibly challenging to discover or unearth the enthusiasm needed to keep going. What if, just for fun, you began to tell your Self that you had plenty?
I have plenty of enthusiasm
I have plenty of ideas
I have plenty of collectors
I have plenty of joy
I have plenty of time to make art
I have plenty of love for my Self and what I do
How might that story create a shift in your creative process?
I have plenty of miracles happening to me...
BIG love, Joseph
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