Wednesday July 28, 2010 Just Do I! Get that Gift!

Fiona Robyn has asked for help, in several areas, but I have decided to look at, "How to look get working." If you want to work, the answer is simple, work. But there are many traps, that can be laid in our way. We can't find the time, we can't find enough time, or maybe, we don't have the energy, or we are too tired.



I have always said, get up a little earlier than you usually do. And here is the trick you lay, you leave ten, fifteen or twenty minutes at the end of the work day to get your work station in order and ready for work the next day, or the next time you come into the stuio and you end on the "downhill." What is meant by the "downhill"? That means in the set aside work period, you are really flying now, you know what you will do next. But, save this work to be finished tomorrow. For example maybe it is the background of your piece, you can complete it, as you get back into the rhythm of the day before.

That way you can go right into the work, right where you left off the day before. You don't waste time, walking around, and wondering where you want to "go." Or what it is you want to do. You are back into the rhythm of the studio.



The next most important thing is to keep a journal. Write down your ideas. Know what it is you are trying to do, and know what it is that you want to do next. This helps in so many ways, as time passes and life interrupts -- because we have written it down, we can go to our journal, and there are the ideas.



For example; We are walking along the garden path, and we are stopped by the breathtaking beauty of a single rose. We stop to really look at it, to smell it. We decide we want to paint it. If we write down this experience, what it was, what it made us feel, what was our response was to it, and why did we want to paint it. Then time goes by, and so many things interrupt --we forget the moment and what we were feeling, why we wanted to paint that rose in the first place. We only remember the rose that we have started to paint in the studio. On the other hand if we have written it down, really written it all down, we have something to judge our work by. When we see the rose we have painted do we still have the same response we did to the rose in the garden?



Sometimes we have decided what we will work on. We are at work, and another idea comes into our heads and our hearts. If we immediately begin that project, we can get confused about what it is we are trying to do. We can forget our first project or if we don't work on it the new idea right away, we can forget what it was. We think it is so wonderful, and so new and so earth shattering, we will never forget -- but we do. So again, if we write it down we won't lose it.

On the day when you seem to have no new ideas. You can go to your sketch book and there will be the idea, waiting for you. Your sketchbook is a personal journal, put into it whatever you want, think of it as an inspiration journal, cut pictures from magazines, cut scrapes of color, quotes or receipts, or grocery list. What ever you like, and the day that you open it you will be inspired.



Do not be afraid. But instead remember, "Necessity is the Mother of invention." So you don't know how to do "this," but if you can think it, you will find a way. Or maybe you find a technique or skill is required, find someone who will help you, take a course.



Again keeping notes does help us. Maybe we have been dissatisfied with our current work? A year later, we have changed what we are doing. Notes in our journal may tell us, we are still dissatisfied, and maybe we can begin to know, it is not the work. And maybe we need to look deeper, or maybe we do not recognize the rewards that are coming to us.



We might start another journal, about the successes we have in our lives. The little things, that we define as successes that make us happy and we can change our lives from discontent to gratitude. Maybe our friend has had a wildly successful show, more than we could ever hope for ourselves. We can be happy for her success, she has proven it is possible, and we can know if it is possible, it is possible for us, too. Rather than to be jealous, we can be grateful for the success of others.

It used to be said, that men were the only ones who defined themselves through their work. But now our work -- what we do, helps to define the lives of women, too. And we can think of our work as a sacred practice in our lives.