getting at it

"One of the most effective ways we sabotage ourselves from a life in the arts is by waiting for that imaginary day when "it" will be "easier." We think of going to the page or to the easel, and then we think, "It's too hard. If I wait a little, it won't be so hard." 

Waiting for art to be easy, we make it hard. We take our emotional temperature and find ourselves below normal, lacking in resolve. We would do it, we know we could do it, but we decided to wait until the doing of it is more effortless.

The truth is that getting at it is what makes getting at it easier. Each day that we write creates a habit of writing in us... It is easier and softer way to work today, if only for a few minutes, no matter how hard or impossible it seems. 

Most of us want not only to do it but to do it well. We want not just to write but to write brilliantly, not just to paint but to paint a masterwork. 

When we are not working, it is not because we are lazy. It is because we are frightened. We have bought into the idea that in order to work we must be able to work "well," and we are afraid of working poorly.

"I am willing to work poorly" is often a very good place to start. By surrendering our grandiose expectations, we come down to size. Being willing to work poorly, we may actually work very well. Some of the best work is done on the worst days. Some of the finest ideas lie at the very bottom of the well. 

It is the doing of work that makes work easier, the simple doing of work no mater how hard it may feel to begin."

 ~Julia Cameron, The Sound of Paper