Sabotaged by Shame?

Are you being sabotaged by shame?

I know many of us are participating in the Strada Challenge. Here we are day 22 out of the 31 days working from life Strada Challenge.

I know many are wanting to through in the towel. I don’t blame you. I’m not gonna lie I have too from time to time. Thoughts of “I’m too busy. This is too hard. As if I don’t have enough to do already!” Start to kick in. And worst of all the pressure we can put on ourselves to perform since it’s a public thing can be either very motivating or crippling. We can even be humiliated to post what we worked on that day. Thoughts of: “Oh my goodness this is awful! Everyone’s gonna laugh at me! People are going to see what a hack artist I really am. “ also start to kick in.

Who can stand up under that kind of scrutiny?

Here’s the thing every single time you create and practice it’s like investing a dollar in your skills savings account. That dollar isn’t worth more or less based on the outcome or level of quality of your practice today. Some turn out awesome. Some just suck. And here’s the thing, listen closely now THAT’S OKAY! It doesn’t mean you’re not a good artist. It just means your struggling right now or just not performing at your total peak right now. We all experience this. I’ve been painting for twelve years full time and I still experience these ups and downs.

Here’s the other thing, the pressure you feel right now you’ve put it on yourself out of fear.

I’ll say it again, you’ve put it on yourself. Sorry, it’s true. Here’s the good news though, if you put it on yourself you can also take it off of yourself. There’s nothing to live up to here. The only rule is to work on something every day from life. Not it has to be great or even it has to be finished.

Let’s not forget the bigger objective here and that is to follow a new DAILY HABIT. The reason why the challenge is so good is that it helps you turn creating art into a daily habit. It also shows you that you’re capable of making art daily! Even if that means it’s just a sketch or drawing. Then that becomes part of your identity statement. I’m an artist and I create DAILY. How cool is that?!

So the days not over. Don’t throw in the towel. You got this! And if you already threw in the towel who gives a shit. Start again!

Oh yeah and above is the painting that kicked my ass for 2 days. Happy creating everyone!