Secret # 11 Subtracting Serenity Stealers

In the Next Chapter blogging book group we are now on Secret #11, wow that is hard to believe its almost over. What a journey its been.

Now on to this chapter, its talks a lot about burnout and life situations that take away your creative time. The section I seem to be resonating with is Understanding your creative style. The ones that jumped out for me were:


1. I don't have the skills I need to do my creative work. Although I feel this is true I have been working on this by taking whatever on line classes I can find. The more I do this the better I do get and I just need to remember that.

2. I don't know what to do next. I deal with this all the time, I will start painting a face and its not right so I let it sit and go back to it at another time. Sometimes it takes me forever to want to tackle it. If I wait too long the fear of not being good enough takes over. Or I get the desire to just start something new.

3. I seem to move from one deadline to the next. I tend to get involved in swaps and classes and although they are fun they do have deadlines and commitments attached to them. I find I spend all my time on them instead of other Art that I want to do.

4. I have no clear creative goals Maybe this is really my main issue after all. The only goal I really have is to paint female faces and to start working on composition so I have something else besides just a face. Although I realize that is a goal but it seems so open ended. I mean how do I know when I have reached that goal. What are my conditions of satisfaction that will let me know I have succeeded. These are questions I need to ask myself and then explore the answers. Do I want to paint just for me to express a part of myself that needs expressing or is there another level here. Do I want to be good enough to sell my Art. Am I confident enough to see if anyone would want it. I think all Artists deep down want someone to appreciate what they did or get some joy out it. That seems to be while we are all blogging and sharing what we are doing.

Gail Mc Meekin goes on to talk about a magic wand to remove ten negative things in your life. Wouldn't that be great to have. Some of mine would have to do with the issues I already talked about. Perhaps by going through exercises like this and making changes in the way we think and operate that we really do have a magic wand for change and it is us. We are the magic wand and we just need to have the courage to go on that journey, do the exploring, take the risks and change.

These are my favorite quotes from the chapter.

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar" - Mary Bryant Native American Leader

"Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aide" -Dorthea Brande writer

"If you play it safe in life, you've decided that you don't want to grow anymore" - Shirley Hufstedler, lawyer