Why Not?!

In conversation I constantly find myself saying these two magic words…

WHY NOT

Why not me?

Why not write a play?

Why not design a fashion line?

And so on…

The more books I read on creativity, the more conversations I have about creativity, I can’t help but stress the importance of simply just doing it, whatever that ‘it’ may be. Because, why not?

And let’s be real, if you don’t create yr art, someone else will.

More than ever, this is the era of Creative Speed… you can no longer sit and wait for that perfect plan of attack, you’ve got to step up and take step 1, even if you don’t know what that step is, make it up.

When I first started writing my one act play, I set aside at least an hour every day to write. I challenged myself to not just stare at a blank screen, but instead just to write. Write anything, no matter how absurd or banal, just write. And I as I did, the bad ideas came and luckily some good ones too, and eventually I had a play.

Every artist finds themselves dreaming BIG, and then we come back to reality… because we don’t have the production team, or the money, or the time; the proper resources. If you begin to create despite your ego saying you “can’t,” the resources will come.

I’m in love with the human potential to create art. Even better, I love seeing the art actually come to life. Create Yr Art, because why not?

You Are Creative

Yesterday I picked up Ignore Everybody By Hugh MacLeod, and couldn’t be more excited to share his wisdom with you.

He begins, “The more original your idea, the less good advice people can give you.”

People are probably going to think you’re crazy, and that’s probably a good sign. As long as there’s something inside of you that won’t budge, you’re golden.

The more overall power you have over your idea, the more successful it’s going to be. Create art that is simply “your’s”… and this will make you money faster than creating art that you think will make you money.

As you create yr art, you’re going to in turn create change. Change can be scary. And change can be lonely.

Realize and be aware that the path of good ideas can be very lonely. People like you to stay the way you are, and when you begin to change with your art, your whole world shifts too.

Change often times brings about a mirror, when you change, whether you mean to or not, you hold up a mirror to all those around you. And if they aren’t progressing down the change and creative path… your relationship will fall to the wayside.

As you well know, change is one of the many steps to success. So why not embrace it, and enjoy the exploration.

BIG ideas thus far:

1. Create art that is solely your’s.
2. Create art every day. There’s no need to quit your day-job… just create with the extra hour or two you have each day.
3. Create art knowing that you might not make millions, but do it anyway.
4. Create art because the kid dreamer inside you won’t rest until you do.
5. Create art because you are creative.

Momentum

You’re feed up with the way things are.

You’re finally ready for change.

You’ve committed yourself to life as an Artist.

Now what?

Learn to ride the Wave of Momentum.

So we’ve all been in the state of pure passion while discussing or thinking about our next BIG venture. But for some reason it never came to fruition. The passion just fizzled out and the BIG venture came to be a vague what-if memory.

Well it’s time to pull those what-if memories to the surface. Let’s explore and breathe life into them.

The secret to breathing life into our ventures…

The very moment you’re in the state of pure passion, take action. No matter how big or small. Take an action step in the direction of your art’s creation, because this creates momentum. 

Example:

• If you have an idea for a fantastic screenplay, call a friend up right then and there to set a lunch date to discuss your plot and characters.
• If you have an idea for a blog, set the alarm clock and dedicate 20 minutes to your very first entry.
• If you have an idea for organizing an Artist Collective, send an email or text your friends to set a coffee date.
• If you have an idea for a small business, spend at least 20 minutes researching the top 10 small business “How- to- Books.” Purchase one and begin to read.

You get the idea….

The same thing goes for anything and everything in your life…

• You set a goal to meditate daily, meditate right then and there.
• You set a goal to show more love to your family, show the love right then and there with conversation, or an email, or a phone call.
• You set a goal to become more fit and trim, drink more water and do 50 crunches before bed.

Taking action while in the state of pure passion, fuels our momentum. Daily, sustained momentum propels us to take step 2, 3, 4… to the completion of our art.

Now that we know the first step, often times the hardest step, what’s next?

Sustaining it!

5 Simple Ways to Sustain Your Momentum

1. Find a collective of peers to discuss and create work with, meet often. Encourage, share, and love the beauty of idea making.

2. Add more artistic outings to your schedule: see plays, movies, go to museums, and galleries… etc. Do this weekly, or at least every other week. Being around art will attract creative energy to you.

3. Walk through nature… and if you live in the city: visit the quiet parks or the botanical gardens. Walk around without your headphones in. Listen, see, and be open to what the universe wants you to hear.

4. Meditate. Visualize a golden light flowing from your core to all the parts of your body and beyond in all directions. Cultivate this golden light. Ask the universe to provide you with the creativity and clarity to create your art. 

5. And of course: Create Yr Art Everyday!!

Harness your pure passion and take the plunge, not just once, twice, but over and over again!!

Momentum provides you with utter bliss and creativity you can’t help but Create Yr Art.

“Never-ending creativity is your goal. In practical terms, this means fighting against boredom, routine, and repetition. Find creativity openings at every level of your life.”

Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul by Deepak Chopra

Bad Ideas

“One way to become creative is to discipline yourself to generate bad ideas. The worse the better. Do it a lot and magically you’ll discover that some good ones slip through.”

                        Linchpin: Are You Indispensable by Seth Godin

So much of the time we allow our resistance to hold us back because we don’t believe we can create anything worthwhile. So instead we create nothing at all. Resistance and the Ego go hand and hand to fight to keep us mediocre.

Why not try to generate some bad ideas for a webseries?

Or some bad ideas for a new form of social networking?

Or some bad ideas for a business venture?

I made a Bad Ideas List and what emerged was a short film screenplay and my first one act play. I'd love to know what some of your Bad Ideas are, do share :)

The challenge is to take a bad idea, or an okay idea, or a good idea and begin to Create Yr Art. 

"People fail in life, not because they aim to high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit." 

                    Les Brown 

Birds of a Feather

Energy is the driving force of everything in this world. And it’s so very important to have the right energy on your side.

Each and every day various forms of energy both good and bad influence us. The challenge that ensues is to surround ourselves with as much good energy as possible.

Not only does this good energy feel great, it propels us in the direction of our greatness.

A great way to jump start the flow of good energy in your life, is to consider the 5 friends you hang around most.

According to the self-made-millionaire Darren Hardy…

You’re life will become the combine average of the 5 friends you hangout with most.

In other words, you’ll have the average of your 5 friends’:

1. Income
2. Health
3. Relationships
4. Career Success

For example:

You decide to cut sugar from your diet. That evening you go to dinner with a friend, who is not sugar conscious. They persuade you to join them in dessert, and you eventually give in.

Or…

You decide to cut sugar from your diet, but this time you go to dinner with a friend, that is very health conscious. Instead of ordering a sugar filled dessert, they suggest you share a fruit plate with them.

Hanging around certain people can and will influence your life for better or for worse.

If you want true love, hang around people that are experiencing true love, eventually you’ll have too.

If you want great health, hang around people who have great health, your body will step up to their level.

“If you’re a millionaire, and you wish to be a billionaire… Find some billionaire friends.”

                    Jim Rohn

A good way to tell if someone is a friend you should keep in your life, is to evaluate how you feel after you’ve finished talking or hanging out with that person.

Ask yourself these simple questions:

Do I feel more alive?

Do I feel inspired?

Do I feel the need to create my art?

Or…

Do I feel uneasy?

Do I have a headache?

Do I feel less self-confident?

A good friend believes in you even when you’ve quit believing in yourself.

A good friend achieves greatness along side you.

A good friend inspires you to Create Yr Art beyond what you thought was possible.

Are your 5 closest friends inspiring you?

Are they adding value to your life?

Are they achieving their own success?

If you can answer yes to these questions, then keep these people in your life.

If you’re 5 closest friends aren’t in alignment with your own good, find new people to spend your time with.

Once you attract one great friend, the positive energetic flow gains momentum… more great friends can’t help but seek you out. These friends add more good energy to your life, making the creation of your art even more joyous and inspirational.

I highly suggest you apply these ideas to all the people in your life. If family, teachers, or co-workers don’t inspire your success, spend as little time with those people as possible.

Amateur vs. Professional

The amateur creates her art only when she receives a stroke of genius or inspiration.

The professional creates her art every day, setting in motion the energy to generate the genius and inspiration.

The amateur is an Artist that loves her art only part-time.

The professional is an Artist that loves her art full-time, with unceasing commitment.

 (The above information was generated from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield)

Work ethic intertwined with the love of your art is the key to success.

“No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you’re not skilled. If you don’t study and dedicate yourself to being better every single day, you’ll never be able to communicate to people with your artistry.”

                    Will Smith

Challenge yourself to create art that is driven by constant daily improvement.

Research others that have succeeded in your field, model their steps to success.

Give yourself a daily routine to improve and sustain your work ethic.

In Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul, Deepak Chopra expresses a great way to improve the quality of your life is for one week to make your bed, eat breakfast, and arrive to work 15 minutes early. 

Create a simple routine for yourself and add more rituals as you see fit.

Example, my current routine:

• Make my bed
• Workout for 20 to 30 minutes
• Drink 1 liter of water
• Shower
• Meditate for 20 minutes
• Drink 1 liter of water
• Eat Breakfast
• Work on my art for 1 hour
• Work on blogging for 30 to 45 minutes
• Read inspirational material 15 to 20 minutes
• Begin the rest of my daily To dos

What can you do each day to become a Professional Artist?

My first thoughts…

1. Set aside a specific time every day to Create Yr Art
2. Model the lifestyles of those who have already succeeded
3. Surround yourself with like-minded people, who will continue to inspire and propel you in the direction of your dreams

“People are rewarded in public for what they’ve practiced in private.”

                    Anthony Robbins

Constant Improvement

“One of the most important global beliefs that you and I can adopt is a belief that in order to succeed and be happy, we’ve got to be constantly improving the quality of our lives, constantly growing and expanding.”

Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins

Constant improvement in the direction of creating your art can have the power to extend your life.

We’ve all heard stories about ordinary people that are diagnosed with a terminal illness, and they transform their lives. They go from being ordinary to being extraordinary Artists, and then their illness goes into remission.

We’ve all heard stories about ordinary people who undergo life’s most crude adversities, and they rise above into the realm of the Artist.

We’ve all heard stories about ordinary people who become extraordinary by deciding constant, never-ending improvement is the key to success.

What are you waiting for?

Don’t let disease or adversity force you to change. Change on your own accord.

When we don’t create our art, true happiness is fleeting and/or non-existent. If you’re constantly growing in a direction away from your art, you’re paving your life’s path with disease and hardship.

We need to challenge ourselves everyday to improve the quality of our lives through the creation of our art.

Step up, take the reigns, and share your genius with the world!

The EGO

It’s easier to be mediocre.

It’s easier to fit in.

It’s easier to follow someone else’s rules.

Breaking out of this mediocre routine is scary, risking, maybe even unthinkable… choosing to break out is what makes you an Artist.

There’s a little person, or a committee, or a part of your brain that likes to tell you:

You suck.

You’re no good.

You aren’t (fill in the blank) enough. (Examples: smart, talented, rich… etc)

This voice also likes to tell you:

Check Facebook.

Check Twitter.

Watch TV.

Be MEDIOCRE, ain’t nothing wrong with that!

Do anything, but do NOT stand out 

Do anything, but do NOT expand your knowledge

Do anything, but do NOT embark on a spiritual journey

Do anything, as long as its NOT YR ART!

This voice has been called many things, and for our purposes here, I’m going to use the term EGO.

The unfortunate truth is the EGO will always exist. And it makes an even stronger argument the more so called ‘impossible’ your endeavor may be. In addition it loves to pump up the volume when you’re getting closer and closer to the finish line on any artistic endeavor.

But the beauty is we can learn to turn down the volume and enter the realm of our true greatness everyday with persistence.

Here is an image somewhat similar to one by Steven Pressfield 

As you can see the EGO is super small… and we are so much more than our EGO.

The challenge is to remember and be aware of this simple truth.

With the teachings and writings of Deepak Chopra, Seth Godin, Steven Pressfield, Josh Pais, and others I’ve come to understand the SELF to encompass truth. This truth is intertwined with our soul and is our connection to a higher power. The SELF can only say, “Yes” and here is where your art is waiting to be created.

Ways to combat the EGO:

1. Look and see what’s in front of you in the present moment
2. Touch and feel what’s in front of you in the present moment
3. Shift your focus to your body. Ask yourself what is my body saying or feeling now?
• A good way to do this is to ask yourself: Can I feel my feet on the ground? Can I feel my bottom on the chair? And then feel it.

Deepak Chopra explains in “Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul” the reason why body awareness is so important is because the body can only tell the truth, whereas the mind specifically the EGO can tell all sorts of lies. Focus on your body puts you in alignment with your SELF. Connecting to your SELF allows your ART to flow.

And the very BEST way to combat the EGO is to Create Yr Art!

Challenge yourself to work on your art every day. Set aside at least 30 minutes, extend the time once you see fit.

Push past the EGO once, twice, three times… and it does get easier.

“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 by Steven Pressfield

 

The Artist Within

We are all Artists. And we all need a kick in the ass from time to time.

So here it is…

Create Yr Art is a blog dedicated to inspiring and sustaining your momentum as an ever-thriving Artist.

My personal definition of an Artist is one who changes the world for the better by living out their dreams.

Real Life Artists:

Steve Jobs

Coco Chanel

Seth Godin

Will Smith

Lady Gaga

Deepak Chopra

Meryl Streep

Anthony Robbins

Oprah Winfrey

Michael Jordan

And so many more…

YOU too are an Artist!

Your Artist is waiting to come to life. So show up and let it thrive.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.”  
                 The War of Art by Steven Pressfield