Splash - 6/7/19

Writing About Writing

When I first started this blog, its purpose two fold. First, I wanted to document my thoughts as I move through this massive transition in my life, and second, to get me to keep writing, a skill that I wanted to develop to communicate with the world. As with most things, if done purely for myself, I tend to slack, but when done for others I like to put my best forward. I saw value and clarity form during the process that happened between my brain and fingertips, in the same vein I see value in a conversation with a close friend that provides insights that I’d otherwise overlook in my reclusive introspections. With this 24th post, I am celebrating 6 months of staying on track!

I’ve never considered myself a writer, but with the feedback I’ve received from my readers, I am slowly accepting the fact that I am a writer, just maybe not a great one quiet yet. Honesty and consistency were my priorities, with writing quality coming in a close second. That being said, I see my writing as successful in those regards.

Some weeks I would stare at a blank screen for a night or two. I remind myself every writer has experienced this. While I don’t feel alone, I do want to practice overcoming this performance block. Blocks were everywhere in my creative and physical growth, and just like how one is somehow able to draw extra strength somewhere deep down, writing is no different. There is greatness in the pursuit of this answer and I enjoy the challenge.

Just Do It

When I was an art tutor, my advice to my 5-8 year old students, was to just start. You have the rest of your life to master. I called this “splashing.” We may not know how to swim, but we should at least get comfortable having fun in the water. If you splash hard enough, maybe you’d at least stay afloat. You’d be surprised at just how young being a perfectionist kicks in. Whether genetic or environmental (ie. parents), even at five years old, I had students rage quit with tears because the horse they were drawing looked like a halibut with bricks for legs. They had such high expectations for only doing something for a few minutes. It was amazing bringing life perspective about mastery into someone so young.

“Oh, you mean you’ve been doing this for a week and you aren’t a master at it? Boo-fucking-hoo. Give yourself a break!” Ok, I may have left out the middle part with my younger students, but I’ve definitely said that to my college students. 

The mindset of play allows you to enjoying the learning process. Can you remember the first time you learned how to play a game? Before the scores and critiques, it was simple. You hit the ball. You jump over a rope. Knock down the pins. Whatever it was, it usually involved some sort of laughter or celebration. 

You did a thing.

This attitude of play gets lost quickly in our lives. We start using metrics to measure our performance. Grades. GPAs. SAT scores. Sales numbers. Then we compare those numbers with others. The older we get, the more the concept of play is lost. And like in an episode of Black Mirror, our “value” becomes more and more attached to these arbitrary metrics until we think that that’s ALL we are.

What happens when the numbers fail? How do we cope?

In order to receive the gift of being consistent, you must let go of trying to be perfect. In the world of self-defense, I was taught that just doing SOMETHING is better than doing nothing. You may forget what you’ve learned, forget to instill your lessons, forget the perfect technique, forget… whatever it is. Just do something. You have time to figure out later if it’s the right thing or not, or if the thing can be better. 

 Time doesn’t wait. It just goes. 

When you feel like things aren’t happening, just jump in and start splashing. People might look and stare. People might ignore you. Who gives a shit. The only thing that matters is that you are having fun.

So this post is one of gratitude and encouragement. To those of you who read my jibber jabber, thank you. To those who have provided feedback and comments, thank you. To those of you who share my posts, thank you. To those who are able to draw something from these characters on a screen and do something about it, you rock! ;)

Get in. Have Fun. Fuck shit up. 

Start splashing!

P.S. If you think there is a person that might like these posts, tell them to subscribe. If there are questions or things you’d like me to discuss, have feedback on what I could do better, or just want to say hi, email me! 

Fuck yeah, it’s Friday!  

Photo by Lubomirkin on Unsplash