Man. Resistance is a bitch. It’s relentless, it’s constant, and it hides itself as rationalization. Every single moment of every single day.
For two weeks now I’ve been sitting back and looking at my work, trying my hardest to figure out exactly what the hell I’m doing with all of this; the site, the writing, the music, the future. I’ve bought in to the adage of, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So I’ve waited. I’ve waited for inspiration. I’ve waited for discovery. I’ve waited for epiphanies. And you know, what? It’s all bullshit.
Inspiration doesn’t come in the night like some mystical Santa Claus, dropping off presents of creativity if I’ve been a good boy. Inspiration is a direct by-product of me sitting my ass down and picking up my guitar, or scheduling a time every day to write, or turning off Facebook. Even if I’m not sure what I’m doing. Inspiration as being the muse of creativity is a LIE. It’s fabricated by Resistance to keep me from pushing myself forward one more inch and doing what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. Inspiration is the curtain hiding the wizard, it’s the blindness that keeps us from realizing that the emperor has no clothes, it’s an excuse to keep us complacent. Inspiration is the patron saint of comfort zones.
Don’t misunderstand me. I love feeling inspired, and enthusiastic, and passionate. But these feelings come from actually doing something, or being in the middle of it all, or watching someone else live their authentic selves and sharing in it. Waiting for it or needing it to produce something, or to figure it all out, or to give us the answers is doing it all ass-backwards.
I’ve known this for a long time now. But yet, I still allow Resistance to use it as rationalization for not moving forward. Despite everything I’ve learned, I still get sucker-punched, beaten down, and stomped on by Resistance before I even realize what hit me. Like most days, I’m bloodied. But today, I’m back on my feet before the ref counts to 10. It’s my job to go the distance. Like Rocky, simply going toe-to-toe and lasting the whole fight without giving up is a victory in itself.
I still don’t know exactly what the next step is in all of this; life, creativity, fulfilling my quest to help other creative people make sense of the world, etc. I guess no one really does, because as soon as you figure it all out, life throws you a wrench. But I do know that inspiration is a verb and not a noun. And like the voice in Field of Dreams advises, I must “go the distance.”
I just won Round 2 Resistance. Ding. Let’s go.
Twitter Updates
Funny faces: It is the expression that is the most valuable asset to artistic endeavors and our production techniques that enable us to channel that expression into goods and services. I find that the greatest contributions to my own sanity come from works that I won’t produce for public consumption or bring outside myself for unwanted exploitation but that sooth my inner beast for lack of love for the world beyond.
I’ve heard that you have to create a sanctuary around or within yourself for inspiration. To draw on these inspirations you need to bring them within the sanctuary of your creation process. Whether it be within yourself, without or perhaps even by placing yourself within an environment and recreating that environment symbolically. You have to give yourself an opportunity to draw off of your muse or simply to draw from your own experiences in environments that provoke you to action. It seems pretentious to do so but as you soar through your work you can only be grateful for those provocations that have inspired you to react or respond through your expressive devices.
As always, you’ve created a thought-provoking piece. As I traverse my day-to-day, which has felt more monotonous than motivating of late, I’ve found myself lounging in the mental/emotional pit of ‘needing inspiration.’ Apparently, thou art correct, as it hasn’t cascaded over my head like a showering of petals from the Gods of Inspiration to date. Inspiration is indeed an amazing feeling, but I agree with you — it is through our actions that we find it, regardless of the import or lack thereof. It’s so simple, though, to use inspiration as a rationalization that procrastinating until the omnipresence of…whatever we think it should be…encompasses our lives to MOVE FORWARD. Today, you inspire me to fish inspiration out, focus on wheat as opposed to chaff, actively LOOK for my own…To wait idly by for it to show up is to become Mrs. Havisham, no?