Peace Talks with the Motley Crew Who Keep You from Art-Making
In December you’ve met the Jellyfish, the voice of resistance, the Judge, your inner critic, and the Jailer; the head of the visibility police, who wants to make sure you never show your work. What's holding you back from art-making? This motley crew of characters hold you back from your true purpose: making your art and sharing it with the world.
How do you fight these voices?
You can try fighting them, and you probably have, maybe by yelling at them, hurling positive affirmations at your reflection in the mirror, journaling about them, taking classes to learn ways to turn them off. A lot of times, these exercises don't work, though.
If you’ve tried to get rid of them and haven’t succeeded, you aren’t alone. Turns out it’s almost impossible.
Why? Because you need them. They actually have valuable information to impart. But they don’t know how to tell you what they know except with criticism, anger and fear.
What actually works are peace talks
Yup. Peacefully talking. Here’s how to start. Sit down with a piece of paper and pen, or open your laptop and ask this one question: What do you protect me from?
In the comments below, tell me what you find. I’ll bet it will surprise you and I'd love to know.
Happy New Year, everyone. May we all carry the lessons we learned from 2020 into the new year.
Especially this one: Your work matters.
Meanwhile, if you're a creative and you want to get your work into the world, here are four ways I can help you:
- Start by watching the interviews I’ve been doing with artists, to see what other creatives do to get their work out. I’ve been interviewing an artist every week, first on Instagram Live, and then on Zoom and posting the recording to YouTube.
Also, if you’d like to be interviewed, email me. I’d love to chat with you about it.
- If you are ready to start selling your art, Download my cheatsheet: Keep Calm & Sell Something. Follow the directions in there, and tell someone else you’re doing it so you can be accountable to them. While you begin working with your trauma, the best antidote to pain is companionship and connection.
- If you want to make yourself a day job (which means starting a business), get a copy of my business plan book for creatives, Passion, Plan, Profit, and find someone, or better, three other someones, and go through the book together. The book tells you how to work in a group or in pairs, and you can download the worksheets in the book here. Companionship and connection again.
- If you want guidance, book a 15 minute chat with me here and I’ll get you pointed in the right direction.
So, what's holding you back from art-making?
When you sat down and talked with one of the parts of yourself, did it help you gain clarity about what's holding you back from art-making? Maybe it's more than one thing, but chances are, you were able to learn at least one thing by having that peace talk. Let me know what you found out in a comment below.