Challenges or Commitments?

Everywhere I go these days – everyone is offering a Challenge.

A 21-day workout, juice cleanses, meditation, writing a book, running a marathon, challenge. 

Challenges are fun and exciting. Full of tension and intrigue. Will she or won’t she? Oh my! Will she make it, or will she quit before her time? Tune in next week to find out!!

DRAMA.

I see why the word challenge is used so much today. And it is not an ideal image to work from as a creative/artist.

Challenge is designed for short-term gain and the me against the world concept. I challenge you is a battle cry for a win/lose situation. It also tends to create a reaction from a person’s hubris state.

This approach does not help you achieve long-term growth as its basis is competitive. Winning over someone else. The creative/artistic world is not a competitive landscape. We don’t have playoffs to see who will be #1 in the arts.

Your origins as a creative are in your process.

You want to move toward resourcing yourself. Keep up with your Personal Best approach to the creative work. And to keep doing this for decades – not just for a season.

Let’s work with another image.

Commitment.

You want to honor the commitments that you have made with and to yourself as a creative/ artist.

Example:

I am going to commit to writing for seven days. I will write every day for 15 minutes for seven days in a row, and I’m committed to that. I will have the courage to see what’s beyond that limitation as I show up for myself daily.

It might appear that you’re doing a 7-day or 21-day commitment. What is really happening is that you are committing yourself to your creative/artist process. You are developing the skills and talents needed for long-term success.

This kind of commitment is not solely based on time. It is about the depth of entry into the experience at hand. And the continual striving for refinement.

Even though challenge is popular, let’s see if we can use the phrase commitment to help us on our path. By doing so, we are making a commitment to grow your courage. Commitment to being more courageous in your creative choices. And developing foundational confidence in your work.

And with this newfound depth of our confidence, you will have developed your true self. And in doing this, you will have the ultimate ability to fully commit to whatever you put in front of yourself to work on.

More next week – about working with a process that will help you to grow your depth and width as a creative artist.

Keep those comments and questions coming – and I will reply to them in this blog.

Yours in creativity ~

Joshua