It's October 1st. The weather is getting decidedly colder. It is dark -- I mean, really dark -- in the morning when I get up, so dark my dogs don't even want to get out of bed. I am also clearly feeling the cumulative effects of seven months of quarantine on top of an even longer arc of crisis fatigue. I am only one-third of the way into this semester and my spirits are already flagging. Trying to gear up for work -- for a job I normally adore, can't believe I am lucky enough to have -- is a real struggle these days. Trying to find the mental focus, motivation, and energy needed to make music at the end of my days is an even greater struggle at the moment.
I need a pep talk. Not some kind of super-cheerful rah-rah. I need a bracing dose of honesty. Thankfully, I know where to go to get one.
Here’s a third installment of searing, no-nonsense advice for artists from Hugh McLeod’s Ignore Everybody. I am sharing these particular ideas with you because they are what I need to hear tonight, apparently.
Thanks, Hugh.
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There will be a time at the beginning when you will have to press on, alone, with very little support. This is normal and to be expected.
Nobody cares about your work. Do it for yourself. Everyone is too busy to give a damn about your work, especially if you haven’t finished it yet.
You are responsible for your own experience. Nobody can tell you if what you are doing is good or meaningful or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is.
The work is not sensible. Never was. It takes too long to learn, to succeed. The work is never worth the cost to make it.
The best way to get approval is to not need it. Don’t whine. Don’t beg. Just do the damn work.
The minute you become ready is the minute you stop dreaming. That's when you stop "becoming" and start doing.