Begin Again: Embracing the Necessity of Becoming a Beginner (Again)
Week 11, Day 3 of The Artist's Way
Today, let's cultivate success within in the never-ending, always-changing process of our creativity by embracing the willingness to start anew.
SUCCESS
Creativity is a spiritual practice.
It is not something that can be perfected, finished, and set aside. It is my experience that we reach plateaus of creative attainment only to have a certain restlessness set in. Yes, we are successful. Yes, we have made it, but …
In other words, just when we get there, there disappears.
Dissatisfied with our accomplishments, however lofty, we are once again confronted with our creative self and its hungers. The questions we have just laid to rest now rear their heads again: what are we going to do … now?
This unfinished quality, this restless appetite for further exploration, tests us.
We are asked to expand in order that we not contract. Evading this commitment—an evasion that tempts us all—leads straight to stagnation, discontent, spiritual discomfort. “Can’t I rest?” we wonder. In a word, the answer is no.
As artists, we are spiritual sharks.
The ruthless truth is that if we don’t keep moving, we sink to the bottom and die. The choice is very simple: we can insist on resting on our laurels, or we can begin anew. The stringent requirement of a sustained creative life is the humility to start again, to begin anew.
It is this willingness to once more be a beginner that distinguishes a creative career.
(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 182 – 183)
Read the following out loud with purpose and intent:
I am willing, once again, to start again.
I am willing, once again, to start again.
Buy yourself a special creativity notebook.
Number pages one through seven. Give one page each to the following categories: health, possessions, leisure, relationships, creativity, career, and spirituality. With no thought as to practicality, list ten wishes in each area. All right, it’s a lot. Let yourself dream a little here.
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”
– Francis Bacon
What is one new thing you're excited to play with today?
Share in the comments below👇
