How to Not Procrastinate

I am beginning a new painting. Right now I’m still easing in. Not pushing hard yet. Mind elsewhere. Which is fun in a way. Until I really begin a painting, it can still be anything I want. It can still be more amazing than it might actually be. I can still be more amazing than I might actually be. I can still be more talented than I might actually be. That is why we procrastinate I think. Because in our fantasies we can be successful, and when in reality we might very well fail. So, we prolong the dream, keeping it at arms length in a fantasy land where it turns out just as we imagined. The only way to really combat the lull of living in a land of imagined outcomes is to fall more in love with process/the doing of the craft, than the imagined end result. That way, you enter a dance, of making, a dance that doesn’t end when a piece is complete. This way we don’t have to mourn when it’s over. I’m getting ready to dance, by first writing here, by first purging my fears and anxieties, by first stretching the muscles of the mind to observe. To recognize. And when I start dancing I will move to the music and the body will guide me and there’s no need to worry if I’m doing it right. There’s no time to procrastinate when the world is playing your song. How to not procrastinate: fall in love with the music, and get up and dance while your song is on. Take the task at hand and dance through it rather than leave it on a pedestal of future accomplishment. Close your eyes and forget the outcome, release your stronghold on the vision and instead open your heart to the act of creating. Trust, it might even turn out better than you imagined. Imagine that.

More Dear Young Artists
↓