I’ve been battling inner demons about my art. Some days I feel like a complete failure. And then I seem to be able to pull myself out of it and move on, knowing I love what I do and that’s what matters.
This article popped up on my feed today, and it speaks to me on a number of levels. Here are the 5 steps, but read the whole story.
LIVING ARTFULLY IN FIVE STEPS
- Remember “I am not my thoughts.”
- Distance from, and Dis-identify with, your thoughts.
- Accept yourself completely.
- Find your inner voice and state your truth before your higher self.
- Wait as long as it takes. Let your soul guide you.
And then there’s Ira Glass, whose comments have helped artists for years:
Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.