A few days ago, I was talking about Resistance. That force that tries to distract us from our goals. It finds many ways to thwart us from our path. But there is counter force to that, as well. Steven Pressfield says that the opposite of Resistance is Assistance. When you declare a goal and start…
Falling down is a key element when learning to walk. But no infant ever says to themselves, I’m only going to fall down forty more times and that’s it. I’ll give up on walking. I’m only going to fall down this week, but then that’s it. If I can’t walk by next week, I’ll crawl…
Week 8 in The Artist’s Way focuses on recovering a sense of strength. One of the things we need to do is acknowledge and mourn our artistic losses. Cameron says that avoiding it causes artistic scar tissue. And that prevents artistic growth. Most of us shrug off our artistic misfires. We don’t openly mourn the…
It’s been a while since I’ve spoken about Resistance. At least how it has been affecting me. “Resistance” is the term that Steven Pressfield uses. He says it’s an entity that prevents us from doing the thing we want to do. It has many disguises and tools. It’s the laundry that needs to be done.…
In Be Useful, Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about how he would train for 5 hours a day when he was a body builder. Two and a half hours in the morning. And two and a half hours in the afternoon. He would track all his workouts. When he transitioned from body builder into a movie star, he…
I’m still working my way through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. I’ve recommended the book to many people. It’s great! But it’s taking me a long time to get through it. It’s supposed to be a 12-week program. It’s been almost two years and I haven’t finished it yet! I keep getting stuck on some…
As soon as I hit publish on yesterday’s post, I was flooded with regret. Why did I declare it? What was I thinking? Publishing a post a day for a whole year?? I mean, I’ve thought of doing it for years. Of making the same commitment. But it’s so much. And my previous attempts at…
This week’s work is on recovering a sense of connection. It’s not only our connection to those around us and the environment. It’s our connection to everything. Cameron tells us that our Morning Pages and Artist Dates are teaching us to listen. The Morning Pages encourage us to listen past our internal censor. It’s a…
I’m still taking much longer than a week to complete the weekly exercises. But keep moving forward, right? I find that I continue to build momentum even though it’s slow. This week’s focus is on recovering a sense of Possibility. Cameron wants you to lean into your relationship with the Creator. Or the Universe. Or…
I’ve been limping along working on my Artistic Recovery. It seems to take me a month to finish these “week” long sessions. That’s my fault, though. Not the program’s. I am very happy with the work that’s coming out of following The Artist’s Way. I wish I was better at following through with it. The…
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