Artists and Creatives; Don't Let the Sting of the Jellyfish Paralyze You
My new book, Artists: Prosper! Make Peace With Your Brain, and Money + Joy With Your Art is out this month (although it might not be ready to order until October 39th). Fingers crossed. The book explores what blocks you from getting your art into the world. Resistance keeps you from making art, or sharing it with the world.
Steven Pressfield wrote a whole book about this topic, called The War of Art. He calls the block Resistance. It’s the voice in your head that says, “Yeah...you can do your art. Just not right now. You’ve got laundry, homework, bill paying, car washing, grocery shopping, Mom calling to do first. Get that all done, THEN you can make art.”
But if you pay attention, you’ll notice that the list of things you need to do never shrinks. The voice doesn’t care if you ever call your mother. It just wants to keep you from starting to make art.
I call this voice the Jellyfish
I call this resistance which keeps you from making art the Jellyfish. Why? Partly to make you laugh, and partly to create a mental image of what happens when the Jellyfish shows up. Jellyfish sting their prey to paralyze it. Once you’re paralyzed, you can’t take action. You can’t make art.
Have you noticed your internal Jellyfish at work in your creative life?
What would YOU call the resistance that keeps you from making art?
Do you have a name for this voice? Send me an email to tell me. I’m giving copies of Artists: Prosper! to the best names people come up with. Becoming conscious of it, naming it, noticing when it’s active, is the first step in stopping it from blocking your art.
If you’d like to be notified when the book is out, go here and give me your email address. You’ll be among the first to know.
THANKS for your support--for subscribing to this newsletter, for helping me work out the ideas for the book in this writing, and for continuing to do your art, whatever form it takes.
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In the meantime, helping you figure out what you’re really doing in your business for your people, and the best way to communicate it to them are my superpowers. If you need help with this, let’s chat.