Synchronicity abounds lately. It seems that when we are ready and open to receive the “gifts” things start to move. The Universe sends it’s power our way. Use it or lose it.
A while back, as I was writing here about beating Mr. Resistance by reading Steven Pressfield’s great book, The War of Art, I received a note from his lovely publicist, Callie Oettinger. She liked my posts and sent me copies of Steven’s other books. What a thrill that was! I wanted to read Turning Pro and Do The Work after I finished with The War of Art, and here they were on my doorstep. Thankful and grateful for such a generous gesture toward me, an artist writing this little blog about life and art.
Just a couple of weeks ago I spied a package at my door. To my surprise it was Steven Pressfield’s newest book, The Authentic Swing, about his writing process for his novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. I was swooning once again.
After I stopped jumping from excitement I started to read and found it magical in the way Pressfield describes his process. Page by page I had Aha! moments.
Yes, like golf, the artist is on his own. Yes, like golf, artists need to find their own voice/style, Authentic Swing. Yes, like golf, art is an individual sport. I could identify with so much of this book it made me dizzy, the way I lose myself in painting. That kind of dizzy.
A section in the book gave me pause. I held my breath as I read it. The title of the section was Cover The Canvas. Yikes! I know all about covering the canvas, quick before I lose it.
“My mantra for first drafts is “Cover the canvas.” What I mean by that is that our supreme priority is to get SOMETHING down from Page One to The End-no matter how incomplete or imperfect.
Don’t stop. Don’t think. Don’t look down.
The enemy in the first draft is not incompleteness or inexactness of imprefection. The enemy is Resistance. The enemy is self sabotage.”
There it was, the enemy. The bane of my artist existence is Mr. Resistance, self sabotage, myself.
Am I ever going to get Resistance behind me? Learning how by reading the process of accomplished professionals like Steven Pressfield helps tremendously. As I study his books my time away from painting is much shorter than it once was. I am learning how to invite the Universe and ignore Mr. Resistance standing in the corner.
Now, if I could harness that knowledge to get over the fear of moving forward with this website, I want to hold a free giveaway of the extra copies of Mr. Pressfield’s books. When I figure that out, and if I could hide what I’m doing from Mr. Resistance, I’ll let you know.
