by Carolyn Edlund
Accomplishing what you want as an artist means you may have to embrace some pain on your journey.
Recently I read an amazing blog post by Mark Manson about getting what you want that really reverberated with me. It has been on my mind ever since.
He turned the question “What do you want out of life?” around to ask “What are you willing to struggle for?” This insight has direct application for many of the artists I know because I hear so much about their goals and plans and ambitions.
The easy part is the wanting. Create a vision of what your life will be like when you reach your goals and are living the dream. The reality is that making it happen involves endless hours performing tasks and taking risks that may not appeal to you.
People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist lifestyle are ultimately the ones who live it and make it. ~ Mark Manson
Are you willing to spend the money to get incredible shots of your portfolio? Do you take the time to write an artist statement and put together a website that presents it all professionally? Are you willing to research and prospect, meet the right people, seek press and publicity, market yourself and your work, negotiate and close sales? Can you put up with all the hassle and the inevitable pain involved in getting what you want, over and over again? And can you embrace that?
There is suffering in the quest to accomplish anything worth having. Suffering is something artists understand well. You will be rejected. You will miss opportunities, agonize over wrong decisions, and wonder whether you will ever make it. And sometimes, it turns out that maybe you didn’t really want it after all.
You don’t end up a successful entrepreneur unless you find a way to appreciate the risk, the uncertainty, the repeated failures, and working insane hours on something you have no idea whether will be successful or not. ~ Mark Manson
Wanting isn’t enough. The attitude you need to succeed is more than determination and relentless commitment. You need the willingness to endure a journey that involves inevitable struggle. Manson asks “What is the pain you want to sustain?” The answer to that is what will change your life. “Our struggles determine our successes,” he says. That makes a lot of sense to me.
At times I work with new entrepreneurs who are willing to plan, set long and short-term goals, create checklists and work hard to complete them, without wavering. They come back for more, knowing they are on an uphill climb, and see the gain. I know they are serious and that given enough time, they will get traction and move forward. Those small victories add up and give them a chance – a chance – to live the vision they have of their life as an artist.
Would you agree? What is the biggest struggle you face as an artist?
Thank you for this, at times it is good to hear when you need some more”push” to keep going. My struggle is “time”. I need more of it. I am so very fortunate to have the opportunity to be able to work full time as an artist from my home studio for several years. It enables me to complete my daily duties in, around and after I work on my craft. My day starts at about 6am and I usually finish up around midnight. I wear many hats from PR, accounting, social media, all round business woman, wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter, packer, shipping, receiving and painter and those are just some of them. But… I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Rachel, I often ask artists how much time they have to devote to their art business, and when I hear that they are able to work full-time, it’s always a benefit to them. You have that advantage. Even though your biggest struggle is time, it sounds as though you can give a lot of each day to being an artist.
Was quite a struggle for awhile starving artist here so I got a job outside the home. Work outside the home 3 days a week gives me time to work on my art, take care of my home & take care of my elderly parents. Long hours juggling everything, have been extending my art in different forms and it is slowly starting to take off thank-god… For me it is all about having a schedule to stick by as close as possible and to not let up, get it all done .I will get there, this is my year!
Thanks for your comment, Linda. By working an outside job, you have bought yourself security to build your art business carefully and without making decisions based on the stress of having to pay the bills through sales of your art. I think that’s a good plan. It’s often slow, but of course no one really gets successful overnight. Stay consistent and you will make progress!