Recently Clem asked me for help in shifting her work habit. How can she “get herself” to sit and draw more regularly?

She said:  “I find myself singing and not drawing.”

I said, ” Why not make that ok? Singing is great!”

She: “I only draw twice a week.”

I: “Isn’t it great that you are doing it each week.”

She: “I should be drawing more.”

I: “Don’t take this personally– no one else cares how many times a week you create,. You can make the frequency of your focus ok.”

She: “But it will take so long to complete this project.”

I: “No one else cares how long it will take.”

I love thinking about how it took Thomas Edison 1000 tries to get the light bulb to work.

What if he said– well 775 is already too many tries. It should already be figured out.

Instead I imagine he said, “Maybe if I adjust this mechanism a bit over here…”

Do we care how long it took him? or how long it took to paint the “Mona Lisa” or Van Gogh to paint “The Starry Night”?  The world is delighted to receive these works of art.

I like to say ” It takes as long as it takes.”

As the chat proceeded, Clem uncovered some beliefs behind her frustration:

” I am supposed to work every day.”

“There’s a procedure to follow. This is the way it’s done.”

” I am supposed to finish this book this year.”

That’s what she’d been taught in the organization in which she worked.

As we two wound down our visit, she smiled. She said, ” I feel all inspired now.” I could see relief on her face.

Isn’t it great that she feels empowered now to enjoy her drawing process. She is going to make it ok to go on in her own way at her own pace. Imagine the fabulous stuff she will put forth!

Will she need to remind herself of the inspiration? Absolutely! We all know it takes repetition to put in fresh thinking, to change our ways. Wow isn’t that really worth doing!

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