The leader of one of the creative groups (The StuckCreative) that I attend, always tells us to do something each day towards our
creative work. I’ve been going to this
group for months and have yet to accomplish this. I’ve
concluded that this may be ideal but far from practical.
It would be great if we could devote all of our energy and
time in pursuit of a particular goal. Can
you imagine if there was a program like The Biggest Loser where we could check
out of our life and pursue our dreams full time? There would be a staff of experts and a coach
standing by for support. At the end of
the day, you would fall into your lovely bed exhausted from pursuing this one desire
all day long. When you check in with
your loved ones they would provide positive reinforcement and proclaim that
your success in achieving this dream is a matter of life and death for you and
your family. There would be many happy
tears to follow.
In reality, we are managing (to varying degrees) the life we
have right now while working towards the life we hope to create. And creating
something new requires time and practice.
We do this in the midst of work, family and other responsibilities. Of course there are benign unexpected things that
happen that temporarily disrupt our lives like last summer when the air
conditioning unit in my house in Atlanta decided to go on strike against the
tenant. There are also non-benign things
that happen to us such as illness, or loss of a loved one or loss of a
job. We have no choice but to tend to these things.
To all of this, I say that we should continue on in pursuit
of our goals and the life that we want. Don't feel bad or disappointed if you can’t do this daily or even routinely. Most often, achieving our goals is a lot like
driving to work in traffic. At some
places we can move pretty fast and other times you just have to sit there and
wait. We always manage to get there but sometimes
it takes a little longer.
