Get Off The Floor And Get Back To Work
I whine.
A lot.
So much so that as a kid, when I was in my rarest of forms, my dad would exclaim, “Well look who it is…Blainer The Complainer!”
I wish I could say I’ve changed. I still whine. Not as much as when I was a kid, but more than I’d care to admit.
These days I find myself mostly losing my marbles when the ideas don’t come. I don’t know about you, but I pout when I’m stuck. I panic. If I don’t have an instant idea, I don’t have anything right?
Right?!
Those of us in creative professions (or professions involving creative thinking of any kind) mistakenly believe that we are being paid for our ideas. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. We are getting paid to create not ideate. We are getting paid to work. I hate to break it to you kids, but art is work!
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. Why is this important? Because when we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen. A process is set into motion by which, inevitably and infallibly, heaven comes to our aid. Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose. - The War of Art, Stephen Pressfield
While I’m spinning around on the floor pouting and whining about why that one idea just won’t come I have to ask to myself, “Have I consistently sat down and done my work?” If I’m balled up on the floor, the answer is probably, “no.”
Now, I turn the question to you…
Are you lost these days? Can’t seem to find your next move? Stricken with panic because that big idea just won’t come?
Perhaps you’re whining more than you’re working. Perhaps it is time for you to get off the floor and get back to work. Perhaps you’re not ready. No worries. The work will be waiting for you when you’re done.
