Today I offer you a practical tip for approaching blocks in life.
We all experience moments of being stuck and feeling that we’re just not good enough. This can be frustrating and draining. The more we try, the deeper we sink into the quicksand of our efforts.
Side note: *Â If you don’t experience these sort of obstacles from time to time, here’s some advice: You’re too damn comfortable, get off your ass and do something harder.
Here’s an example of how I overcome such problems as observed from my perspective as an artist.
Sometimes I’ll be painting and have the toughest time trying to get a section how I want it to be. Sometimes this is just as simple as I don’t yet know what it is I want it to look like.
This type of artist block happens a lot, it’s part of my process and it’s ok because it guides me to new solutions rather than taking the same old boring path.
I have a lot of parts of my process to get me to the finish line.
Here’s one…And this is a big one…
Stop taking yourself so F*&#ing serious.
Try new things, be willing to mess up. Try to mess up on purpose to get that fear out of the way. Write for the trashcan is I believe what Hemingway suggested. Maybe someone else said it, but I’m not taking myself seriously enough to care right now.
I remember when I was painting Rio Jam. I was SO stuck. Some of the faces and poses were not coming together how I wanted them to be. I painted and re-painted some tiny sections over and over again for weeks with no success.
Then one day I walked in, took the wooden panel down off the easel after months of painting and sanded the section down to the wood base removing all of the paint that I didn’t like and started over.
When I let go, I found the solution.
What are you spinning your wheels on? Are you maybe just taking yourself too serious? If you had to start over, could you?
Love you guys!
