All It Takes is 5 Minutes

It used to be that when I got the urge to design or paint something — I also got the urge to go shopping for art supplies. I couldn’t start the next  sketch or the next painting until I went shopping. I figured that if I just had the right art supplies – a new brush, different paints, the right paper, that it would make the ideas and the paint flow better.

What I learned from reading The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield is that this was my inner gremlin’s way of keeping me from doing my art. Steven calls it “resistance.” Why do we resist our gifts and our passions? Well, that could be a whole other book! The why isn’t really important anyway. The most important thing is to first NOTICE the resistance. Here are some clever ways resistance rears its ugly head. You might also call these “excuses:”

• I have to clean the toilets or fold the clothes first.
• I don’t have enough time to start a new project.
• I need a year off first (or a weekend or six hours).
• I need a new paint brush.
• People would think I’m selfish if I just dropped everything and did my art.
• I want to share my idea with a few friends first (don’t waste the energy!).
• I’m not talented enough (the worst monster of all!)

After you become aware of the resistance,  the next most important thing you must do — is to pick up your pencil RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT and draw for 5 minutes.  Get out your paints and paint for 5 minutes. Open MS Word and work on your novel for 5 minutes. If after 5 minutes of doing your art, you still feel like shopping for art supplies (or cleaning the toilet), than by all means do so. But my bet is that after a few moments of painting or writing, you’ll find yourself enjoying the process — and better yet, you’ll find that Mr. Resistance has stomped off to find some other sucker.