After I finished my live painting gig last week, I met some super nice people in the audience. One guy came up to me and told me that he’s an artist.
He had a few questions and seemed perplexed.
I think he may have been a bit too buzzed to remember what we talked about, so for his benefit and maybe yours, here’s a little ahout what we talked about.
He asked me...”How do you do what you do?”
I replied…”What precisely are you asking me? What are you stuck on? Can you be specific? That’s a really abstract question. How do I do what exactly?”
If you want to improve your situation, you better know exactly what you want. If you could talk to any teacher, role mode, expert or successful person and find out something, would you know what to ask?
He continued on…“Well, I used to want to pursue my art for a living but at some point, you just have to push it aside to make a living…right?”
“I don’t know, do you?”, I asked.
He looked perplexed. I continued on.
We all make up stories in our head. Our reality is based on those stories.
My story is that I can make a living at art and have a great time making art that inspires others and myself.
My story also tells me that I can continuously make amazing opportunities appear, learn from mistakes and overcome challenges.
His story was that making a living at art was impossibly hard and not a reality to consider any longer. His story was that all the “stuff” that being an entrepreneur requires is too hard. His story was that doing art for a living makes making art no longer fun.
I ask you to consider, which of our stories is more empowering?
I’m not saying that his story is wrong or right. Dreams are often hard and maybe they should be. Heck, my job is hard as hell sometimes. But I try to be aware of the story I’m telling myself. If it’s a bad story, I change it.
I’ll give you a for instance. Right before my live painting event, I was super nervous. What if people didn’t like what I painted? What if the band didn’t like it? What if I embarrassed myself and couldn’t finish the painting before the band was done? What if I got artist block half way through?
But then I realized how sucky my story was. And I changed it. I told myself that I have the talent and experience to do this. I am a successful and deserved this. I am lucky as hell to have this chance to do what I love. I said to myself I’m going to have a great time and be relaxed on stage and dance and smile while I paint and have a blast with my friends who gave me this epic opportunity.
I changed my story completely and everything went perfectly!! I mediated backstage, did some sketching to loosen up and I walked on stage with confidence and walked off the stage with a painting that I loved!
Want to see how it went? See below for a video clip from that show.
Jay 🙂
