Watching this video was like hearing the words of my own Inner Therapist coming back at me. Sometimes, it really helps to hear another artist, from a completely different genre, say the stuff that Brad Rushing says in this video.
Here are a few quotes that resonated with me:
“I don’t have to believe in myself. I just have to do the steps that I committed to myself to do to get me through the Valley of The Shadow of Death.”
For most of us artists, believing in our own skills and artistic output is a moving target. Unfortunately, we have more days where we miss that target completely than those where we land in the Bulls’s Eye. The important thing is to move past your feelings, each and every day, and simply do those things that you promised yourself to do. In short, Do The Work.
“The irony of having something successful and praised, and then not having a lot of work… that’s even worse than having something criticized.”
We want other people to like us and the work that we do. But one of the hardest stages to go through in an artistic career is to make something that is lauded & praised publicly, maybe even globally recognized, and then go through a long dry spell with little / no work at all [meaning paying work, not self-generated artistic output]. It happens… a lot more than many of us are willing to admit publicly.
The amount of paying work you’re doing is not always a direct correlation to how good you are at your craft or how “good” your work / output is in comparison to others in your field.
Geez, many of us are still languishing through two years of a global pandemic that has cut much of our past income stats down to almost zero. We didn’t change. The quality of our work has not changed (if you’ve still been practicing throughout this whole time, you may actually be BETTER than you were two years ago).
THE WORLD CHANGED!!
So, give yourself some grace and be empathetic to what we have all experienced together. Continue doing things to keep your chops up or even expand your knowledge and skill sets.
“If you want something you’ve never had before, you have to do something you’ve never done before.”
A great old saying that I’ve heard in numerous places.
Right now, there are things in my career and trajectory as an artist that I have not achieved… yet. But, I know that one big step toward reaching those goals is to reassess my current situation and ask myself, “What are you NOT doing that you should be doing?”
The answers to that question could range from “Meet new people.” or “Go to events and be brave enough to introduce yourself to some new people.” to “Get up earlier.” or “Eliminate distractions and time wasting activities.”
(One of the big answers for me right now is: “Eat healthier and make time 3-4 hours per week to exercise.” That would help increase my energy levels and elevate my mood so that I can feel better while doing the work that I do. The result, hopefully, will be a faster pace and more productivity.)
Your answers may mean moving to a new city or consciously choosing to work with a whole new group of people.
So, take the 16.5 minutes to watch Brad’s video below. (If you’re short on time or even shorter on attention span, ramp up the playback speed to 1.5X *A BIG time management hack that I use all the time with educational material.*)