the waves

In other news, I feel like I'm finally beginning to bloom into an adult with responsibilities and a touch of reality. So I should take it as a step of growth to not run away in morbid embarrassment at my past...

Anyway, lately I've been finding it real hard to kick this freaking habit called the internet, namely kbob (i know, i know, 3 years and still going, i'm doomed). In fact I just caved in by browsing for videos the past 3 hrs (ugh). I'm gonna try this intermittent alarm method - work for a period, earn a small reward. <whispers>pomodoro</whispers>



>>> 9 Warning Signs of An amateur Artist
This is some pretty hard-hitting stuff,  it really presents the reality of how difficult this path can be. I don't entirely agree with #3 as it only applies to artists who have reached a relatively mature point in their careers to continue exploring various facets of the same plane. Anyway, what's important for me right now is not only to start, but also finish.

“The seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. Such imperfections are your guides–valuable, objective, non-judgmental guides to matters you need to reconsider or develop further.” ~David Bayles


 

( changes and doubts )

 

dreams of artistree

Can you give up on a dream?

No, I don't think it's advisable to talk yourself out of your dream. It's possible and sometimes necessary, but I think much depends on how rigorously you've pursued a career in music. If you can honestly say you've done all you can do to become a performer, composer, what have you, and things haven't work out the way you've imagined they would, then I think you can make your music your avocation or hobby without regret. Keep in mind, though, you aren't even thirty years old yet, so you're hardly washed up. You may be experiencing the on-set of the navel-gazing and tea-leaf reading that happens to us when we move from our twenties into our thirties. I don't want to patronize you; that was my experience, FWIW.

I think making yourself your business is the challenge of any career in the arts. I'm an actor and a fledgling writer, and I understand this conflict all too well. I've worked a few other jobs along the way, and all of them were satisfying and certainly more lucrative to greater or lesser degrees. Still, it wasn't until I got serious about setting and pursuing my artistic goals that I started to cobble together a satisfying career as an artist.

First of all, consider what it is that you really want to do with your music. Do you want to perform? Compose? Teach? Whatever it is, identify it concretely and then ask yourself some questions. Who are your contacts in the music world? What's your training? Would more training at a better school be a good use of or waste of time? Who are your role-models or people whose careers you'd like to emulate? How did they get where they are, and what did they do that you haven't? What resources are out there that deal with the business side of music? What can I learn from those? Once you start giving structure to your dream by turning it into a set of attainable goals and milestones you've already achieved toward it, you can address the aspects of it that may be too overwhelming to think about when taken altogether. "Your dream" will seem less like some magical orb dangling out there in space just out of your grasp, and more like a satisfying way of living you come to after a rewarding, if at times arduous, journey.

Then I think you may ask yourself about the practical considerations of your life - do you have debt you have to pay? What kind of rent, bills and expenses are you responsible for? What's your standard of living? Can you live more humbly without feeling deprived? Do you want to struggle for a time, or could you be happy living with my music as a side project to your other, more lucrative chosen career? Once you've got both sides of the equation mapped out practically, then you can start to make choices. Whatever you do, choose because of what you know rather than what you fear.

Good luck.
posted by TryTheTilapia at 7:55 AM on July 14, 2007

You say there are good reasons on paper to give up your greatest passion - but I haven't read any yet. All I read is you saying that you should do this or should do that.

You are lucky to be good at something and love it so much. Many people in this world never find that within themselves their entire life. If you give up on that because of any objective idea of what you should be doing, I would think that very tragic! Do what fulfills you.

And remember that what you DO can always change... you don't need to carve your career goals into stone. Follow your heart.
posted by loiseau at 9:00 AM on July 14, 2007

( Read more... )

Structure!

1. JUMP OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING! No matter how you feel, go through the steps and simply doing them will make you awake & give you a rush of energy. It's all about attitude!

2. Force yourself to be at rest without technology, stop taking your iPad/laptop/portable device with you everywhere. Learn to appreciate things just as they are; savor the silence.

3. Environment can be critical. Again, go work somewhere without easy access to distractions, where you can't easily lie down or bum around.

4. KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE ONE IN CONTROL. Take the power back by saying "I'm greater than my impulses". Don't click that icon.

5. JUST GET STARTED. Delay gratification - get started for at least 20 minutes before you earn a reward. Sometimes you work into a flow and forgo the break! Think of the work as a pie broken into small chunks, tackle it gradually. Pomodoro

6. If you still can't get into it after these steps, then redirect that nervous energy somewhere productive - run it off, dance it away, clean house to oblivion. THEN TRY AGAIN. It'll be easier to work once you see that you can be productive

7. Praise yourself for a job well done! And uphold it, the delayed rewards of self-fulfillment is much more long lasting than any dopamine rush! YOU ARE ABOVE THIS.
...And if you fail, don't beat yourself up! You are already on the upswing by choosing to improve, JUST KEEP GOING. MOMENTUM IS EVERYTHING.


( Break it down )