Week 1, Day 6 of The Artist's Way

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Today, let's acknowledge jealousy as a stalling technique that reinforces our staying stuck.

Your Ally Within: Affirmative Weapons

All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage.

As blocked creators, we tend to regard these bogus spotlight grabbers with animosity. We may be able to defer to true genius, but if it's merely a genius for self-promotion we are witnessing, our resentment runs high. This is not just jealousy. It is a stalling technique that reinforces our staying stuck. We make speeches to ourselves and other willing victims: “I could do better than that, if only…”

You could do better if only you would let yourself do it!

Affirmations will help you allow yourself to do it. An affirmation is a positive statement of (positive) belief, and if we can become one-tenth as good at positive self-talk as we are negative self-talk we will notice an enormous change.

(The Artist's Way, p. 33-34)

I am willing to use my creative talents.

download this printable affirmation card

Imaginary Lives: If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them?

I would be a pilot, a cowhand, a physicist, a psychic, a monk. You might be a scuba diver, a cop, a writer of children's books, a football player, a belly dancer, a painter, a performance artist, a history teacher, a healer, a coach, a scientist, a doctor, a Peace Corps worker, a psychologist, a fisherman, a minister, and auto mechanic, Carpenter, a sculptor, employer, the painter, a computer hacker, a soap opera star, a country singer, a rock and roll drummer.

Whatever occurs to you, Jot it down. Do not overthink this exercise.

The point of these lives is to have fun with them—more fun than you might be having in this one. Look over your list and select one. Then do it this week. For instance, if you put down a country singer, can you pick a guitar? If you dream of being a cowhand, what about some horseback riding?

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.”

– Henry David Thoreau

What is one other life you would love to lead?

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