Trust the Process

If you are an artist or creative type, you would probably be familiar with the 'paralyzed with fear' feeling that comes sometimes at even the thought of beginning a creation.

In my post yesterday I asked this question.. "How often do we miss the experiences of the ''journey' because we are so concerned with ending up at the destination?"

I was thinking more about this today, and I realised that it is just the same with our creative journey. Often when we are planning an artwork, we have a vision in our mind of what we want to achieve. We see the colours, the textures and can close our eyes and visualize the artwork as a finished product. We can already see how it will look hanging on that wall, or sitting on that shelf.

We focus so much on this final artwork, and our vision of what it 'will be' that the creative process that actually leads to our vision can easily become daunting! We are overcome with fears that it won't be as we imagined, and we doubt our ability to actually produce what we were able to visualize.

I love this amazing and inspirational post by Ashley at 31 Experiment, and the painting below that inspired her words. In her post Ashley also quotes Julia Cameron on why we struggle to start sometimes.. "Our ego plays this little trick to keep us from getting started. Instead of allowing ourselves a creative journey, we focus on the length of the trip. "It's such a long way, we tell ourselves".

Such a long way, and we're not even sure where we're going, or if we'll even end up where we want to. The reality is, often things don't turn out as we imagined. But I have found when we do trust the process and show up at the easel with our paint and brush, often it turns completely different and perhaps even better than we could have imagined.

As Ashely puts it, "Creativity lies not in the DONE but in the DOING". Such a simple concept, but how easily we forget! Trust the process! Believe in yourself!