“The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.”
~Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
What a mouthful! Can you just imagine for a moment, putting off doing the work one day thinking you’ll get to it tomorrow, and tomorrow becomes the next day, or even the next after that? Days could turn into weeks unless we stop ourselves from jumping down that rabbit hole. There is every possibility that months can pass without putting brush to canvas, pen to paper.
Chose your poison.
Why is procrastination such an easy habit to develop? Life would be so much better if we could flip it around so that getting our work done consistently becomes the habit.
Somehow I am going figure out how to flip the switch and turn Mr. Resistance on his head.
The Authentic Swing, by Steven Pressfield on my art table
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.
While I go on and on about not meeting the requirements of the latest challenge, something clicked inside my artist brain the last few days.
Just to keep you updated, I’ve been reading Steven Pressfield’s wonderful book on Resistance, The War of Art, again. It was a wonderful help in the past and is now.
That, and this 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Or, as I should call it, my Not 30 in 30 Challenge. Man, I am so far behind I’m not going to bother to catch up.
The thing is this: I know I want to paint, but something has to spark my imagination. Like Steven Pressfield suggests, I have to just do it, be present, sit down at the desk and be ready for the Muse/Spirit/Whatever to inspire. More about the wonderful Mr. Pressfield to come.
The garden is fading. The colorful flowers are gone, their stems are drying, everything is either green or brown now. None of my shells appealed to me. Neither did the apples I like to use. The last few paintings had apples and shells together at the beach. Ok, but now I needed something new. Some photos from my summer trip appealed to me and I chose a few to try. I sketched the scene quickly in paint and as it dried I worked in more detail, just feeling satisfaction in the process and the colors.
When Resistance is at bay synchronicity abounds. It felt really good to get something on the paper. Done.
Today I decided I wanted to paint this same scene from my photos again, but differently, going for an even sketchier feeling. The day was free, nothing on the agenda, the house was quiet, and the equipment was ready.
Another try..looser this time
Pushing myself to look at the whole rather than just the subject, I dropped in paint and tried to mold the forms with color being mindful of the wet areas. Watercolor is unforgiving. To keep the work fresh I moved around the paper to drier areas. Twenty minutes and this is where I stopped. I went back to it after it dried so it has more detail than you see here.
When the Muses are in a good mood, ideas come easily and the work just flows from the brain to the brush. The only thing in the way of that synchronicity is me. Getting in the studio to do that actual work, and have that wonderful flow, is the answer.
However, the question is Resistance.
There, I’ve said it once again, out loud so Mr. Resistance can hear it.
Red Lady Hydrdangeas @2013 Dora Sislian Themelis, 7×9 Watercolor, #3 30 in 30 Challenge
Inching my way in this 30 in 30 Challenge, as I said before, is a challenge. It’s tedious. It’s tiresome.
It’s even ridiculous that this is becoming a chore.
Enter Mr. Steven Pressfield once again to save my day! I am back to reading his book The War of Art. And somehow, with surprising timeliness, I received his newest book from his lovely publicist in the mail. It’s just what I need right at this moment.
“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
Happy Monday, friends! Remember when I was up against a long, on going argument with Mr. Resistance? Well, it’s still on. And it’s on with a vengeance. Is it possible to ever get out of this hole I’ve found myself in?
One thing leads to another, and the next, and the other, and before you know it-down the rabbit hole with only a tiny view of the sky above. It’s my own fault. I let it happen. I get involved in other things and my own stuff gets pushed aside.
Call it procrastination. Call it resistance. Call it lazy. Well, I wouldn’t call it lazy, but I know there’s another word for it out there. I am, by no means, a lazy person. Not at all. However, I do stand in my own way. That’s resistance.
It seems that reading all the books in the world, trying all the tricks in the books, can’t help an artist like me when in deep distraction.
So okay, here it is, you’re probably thinking: Finally, she’s going to tell me what is going on. Right?
I put up with a good amount of resistance most days, which is my usual thing. I’ve even been good at beating it back lately. All good. This time of year I volunteer at my church for their big Greek festival, in the flea market with a friend. We get along great. The flea market is a lot of fun, but it’s work, taking all week to prepare. We really enjoy it. A group of ladies help us open bags or boxes of all manner of stuff and we ooh and ahh, and sometimes we turn our heads in horror. Other people’s discards can be treasures, and plenty of it is just plain old trash.
It was fun and now it’s over. To most people it means getting back to work. To the resistant Me, it means more resistance.
Does it make any sense to you?
Another roadblock I’ve allowed myself to stumble over is setting up a mailing list thing. I know it’s important to do. I know it’s benefits. I can’t get it done. And I’ve let the church festival take the fall for it.
Yeah, I blame the festival for my non-mailing list, and for my non-painting. And while we’re at it, I’ll blame the festival for keeping me from blogging here, updating anything, keeping you in my loop, and general anything.
Mr. Resistance is enjoying all of this right now, I know it.
“Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, ‘I’m never going to write my symphony.’ Instead we say, ‘I am going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.'”~Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Don’t you just love that thought? Sounds like the stories my brain tells my inner-child-artist. Yes I’m totally going to get my stuff together and paint, but maybe just not right now. Today I have this, and I have that, and those things. Tomorrow is going to be THE day.
After a hiatus, resulting from the wonderful Mr. Resistance hanging around, I was able to push a little work to get some things moving. Cleaning and organizing the studio (not really) helps, sometimes.
Cagey? Yes. There’s a lot going on here. Easter in the Orthodox church, came late this year, on the same day as Cinco de Mayo and a family member’s birthday, all at once. The following week was Mother’s Day. Next up is graduations, Memorial Day weekend, and from the holiday weekend to the next is that massive Flea Market in the Greek Festival at our church.
Painting? Unless I’m a wizard, wave my magic paint brush, and paint something in a quick twenty minutes like I used to do, it ain’t happening any time soon.
But photography did occur. And since I can’t figure out how to post here from my phone, I needed to use the desktop.
“Resistance by definition is self-sabotage. but there’s a parallel peril that must also be guarded against: sabotage by others.” ~Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Overcoming resistance is one of the hardest things an artist can do to preserve some creative sanity. I am well aware of all of that.
The interesting thing Pressfield suggests in this chapter is that resistance can come from the people around us. He writes here that when an artist gets the ball rolling, all systems are go and working, the people close to her become “moody or sullen.” This is a strange phenomenon. Family members, spouses can remark that the artist has become a different person. The closer the connection, the more bizarre their reactions and emotions.
This is sabotage from the outside.
It’s bad enough we have our own ways of stopping the creativity in it’s tracks, now we have to watch out for our loved ones’ barbs. Yikes!
Keeping our artist-selves out of that mire can be so debilitating, we may as well just stay there, stuck. The only thing we can do, says Pressfield, is to keep moving.
Next up: The Symptoms of Resistance. This should be fun.
“Resistance is most powerful at the finish line.”
~Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
This particular chapter kicked me in the gut stronger than some of the others for the sheer truth of this statement. It’s a long one so I will summarize some of it.
If you can recall the ancient Greek story of the Odyssey, with the main character, Odysseus, traveling around the world for ten years trying to get back home to his wife and family. Every time he set out for home after some wild escapade, he ran into another adventure.
“Odysseus was almost home years before his actual homecoming. Ithaca was in sight, close enough that the sailors could see the smoke of their families’ fires on shore,” writes Pressfield.
What does Odysseus do? He takes a “snooze,” long enough for his men to lose it. They grab his sack, that they believed contained gold. But when they cut it open, they let loose the Winds, which were bottled up for him by King Aeolus.
These gale force winds were unleashed, sending the ships back across the oceans they had fought so hard to travel, causing Odysseus further trials before he finally reached home.
“The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, Resistance knows we’re about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it’s got.
The professional must be alert for this counterattack. Be wary at the end. Don’t open that bag of wind.”
