Lately I’ve been talking a lot with my very right-brained, creative, multi-passionate, multi-talented clients and cohorts about the “D”-word.
Yeah, that’s right.
Discipline.
It’s enough to make an artist cower in terror behind legions of excuses and doubts or pipe up with even a little disdain.
(I’m an artist, I like to go with the flow / wait for the right mood to strike / follow the energy / be divinely inspired.)
(Not that there’s really anything wrong with that. As an intuitive, an empath, and a Four, I can relate to ALL of that, and I don’t even think it’s “wrong” per se.)
But the thing is, when it comes to getting our creative work out into the world, we often go to sleep on ourselves instead of doing the work to make it happen.
We go to sleep on those deeper-yet-oh-so-slippery truths that tell us what we need to do our best work.
We forget.
We get busy with other things.
We wait for something that never comes.
Is Discipline Really the Enemy?
It never ceases to astonish me how little actual discipline is practiced when it comes to doing the hard work of creating our stuff.
And by hard, I don’t mean Hard. I mean HARD.
The kind of hard that keeps you massively resisting showing up to your writing or your canvas or your practice development, even when you don’t even realize it (we’ll save the other D-word conversation for another day).
You think you’re too busy, you need to make more money first, or your kids need too much of your attention.
Ha!
The truth is, you need to make a commitment to get your Butt In Your Seat and show up to the creative Big Dream you know you are here to fulfill.
There is simply No Other Way it is going to happen.
One thing we do know is that the artists who take regular action to see their work through to completion are the ones who quietly make it happen.
Here’s the funny thing about all of this.
You don’t need to force yourself to make big, giant, rigid commitments of time and energy to make your work happen.
It’s much simpler than that.
Make discipline your friend and ally.
Just commit to taking regular, consistent, and small steps and you’ll move forward in a sustainable way to seeing your dream become a reality.
Inspiration From Seth Godin:
“While you and I have been busy running down dead ends and wasting our effort, scientists have been busy trying to figure out what actually works. And they know how:
- Small steps work.
- Consistent effort works.
- Group support works.
That’s it. Three things. Set a goal, and in small, consistent steps, work to reach it. Get support from your peers when you start flagging. Repeat.
You will change.”
Your Turn
For me this looks like screenwriting every weekday for a minimum of 15 minutes and reporting in about it to my Writer’s Circle group.
What does it look like for you?
I’d love to hear from you.
~> October 6th. The next session of my Writer’s Circle accountability system starts. Stay tuned for details about how you can participate.
~> November 10th. My next Life Purpose Breakthrough ‘Big Vision’ Group. Details. Only 3 spots remaining.
~> This Thursday. Right Brain Business Planning with my buddy Kris Carey. We’re closing in on completion!
~> FRIDAYS & now morning times too. Sacred writing time. The Do Not Disturb sign is up.
Lately your ezine articles are ringing my bells – I am trying to write, and am struggling with every issue surrounding the creative process you are bringing up. I don’t know what discipline is to me yet, because every time I sit down to write I have a nagging guilt that I shouldn’t be spending my time this way! Perhaps my discipline is about pursuing my dreams despite my guilt. I especially enjoyed this article.
Amanda, I’m so glad this is resonating for you. Yes, it’s about pursuing your dreams despite your guilt AND it’s about recognizing that your dreams are most important divine guidance you can ever receive — and must be treated accordingly.
I can tell you right now I struggle with that guilt. Sometimes its people in your house who think artistry is a waste of time in any form or maybe its the ghosts of the past in the form of the ancestors who made your parents the way they are. I’m breaking myself free from what keeps me back. I am going to put into the world my books. That’s been written. Its a fact. I can’t be anything but what I am.
Hi Jenna,
We always can find the time to do the uncreative stuff – because we’ve been conditioned to do that from a young age. How often during one’s school years were we encouraged to do the things that make us feel energized and pumped? Instead, we learn to sit on hard chairs, face forward and not ask questions. We’re told to do this for our “future.”
I actually see creativity taking the emotional strength of Samson to break out of this wretched “educational” training. And that folks want to lengthen the day for even more mind control sickens me.
Is anyone awake out there? Remember the interview I did for you. It’s become more and more apparent that most of us spent our lives asleep. Creativity is dangerous. It requires you to be awake and stop marching toward the cliff …
G.
I think it’s more than that — there are people (including me!) who “can’t find the time” to do other “hard” things we want to do and would benefit from, like exercise, do our personal growth work, eat well, etc. To me it matches up pretty well with what Steven Pressfield calls resistance, though I still want a better explanation for WHY we resist so much. My intuitive sense is that it is fear of some type that is the root cause of resistance. And maybe that fear stems from a fear of going against the conditioning and programming we’ve been so deeply ingrained with, or maybe it’s because we are afraid to be awake — that does make sense to me intuitively. I remember psychically seeing some things once that were so scary to my conscious mind that I resisted them; it was a fascinating response, particularly since I’d been wishing to “see” more.