You just finished a huge project you've just been working on for months, everything is finalized and you finally have a moment to yourself. In the mean time, you find a job to pay the bills, a few weeks go by, you get into a routine, and suddenly what seemed to be a wink of time is now a month that has gone by.
You slowly start to realize that something has been slowly leaving you and you can't seem to figure out what it is.
Whether you're a chef, a photographer, a painter, a landscaper, an interior designer, an editor or anything where you've had to put that right side of your brain to work, we all seem to reach a point of time in our lives where responsibility takes over and focusing in on what makes you happy instead of getting "a real job" somehow starts to feel selfish.
You haven't practiced your art in awhile. You haven't put yourself out of your comfort zone recently. You keep putting off that time you set aside in your mind to simply sit down and create. Of course you're not going to feel intune with your inner artistic soul! How can you not be?
This particular moment however, that recognition of knowing it's your art, your happiness, that truly makes working not work at all, is the most beautiful wink of time to ever be recognized.
Perhaps as artists, we sign up from day one for this inevitable moment in our lives of recognition; that we have to work harder than we've ever had to work in our lives to feel that passion again that drives us to a point of success. In those moments, I believe, we create some of our most fascinating pieces of work.
Putting yourself in the most unlikely scenarios and opening up your heart, mind, and soul to be inspired again is when true creation emerges. Starting back at the "beginners mind" where one can explore, experiment, and make mistakes and recognizing that you do something creative because you can't NOT do it.
Have no fear of perfection, you will never reach it.
- Salvador Dali
The world is full of critics that will tell you everyday that your work isn't good enough, that your technique and style isn't what they're looking for, and that you're just not good enough. So why is there a need to be such a critic to yourself? Self criticism is of course one of the many ways of self growth and evolution, but something that needs to start becoming accustom within our industry is, self love. Recognizing even in the moments of rejection and hardship that you are still here trying.
Failing is something that should be celebrated and rejoiced among artists! Never worry about failure because it's going to happen. Create and take chances anyway, you might just find what feels like failure isn't failure at all. Because if you aren't failing or winning, are you even trying?
Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will.
- Charles Baudelaire
Creativity is the ultimate; a wrinkle in time where you are producing a small piece of your heart and soul. It all comes down to being you; beautiful, simple, unique YOU. Embracing that fact and all the possibilities that your imagination has to offer you provides you limitless opportunities.
Take a moment and recognize how hard you have worked, how much you want to accomplish, and then surround yourself with everything that will get you to that point. And once you get to that point, push even further.
Go ahead, take a chance on you.