To the Unmotivated Artist

It’s 10:04 PM and I’m beyond unmotivated. I finished IBEW apprentice midterms, watched the entirety of "Being John Malkovich" (a classic), and my eyes sting from binge-watching YouTube. Today wasn’t a productive day and I don’t feel like doing a damn thing. Especially having write this when work is waiting for me tomorrow.

This begs the question: Why am I torturing myself like this?

One may think all great art comes from a nonstop explosion of creativity and inspiration. But being an artist/entrepreneur is a job. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a job I love more than anything else in the world, but, like all jobs, it has good days and bad days. Such is life. So I have to do it, even when I don’t want to.

But how does one do it? Won't the lack of motivation stifle the quality of work?

At first when I asked myself that question, I wasn’t sure how to answer it. But as the sands of time passed and as I matured, I found that the solution was quite simple. Indulge my inner old man for a second: To cross a desert one thousand miles long, one must begin with the first step.

That’s the secret. Take a small step, and treat it like a victory. Because when you take one step, then the second doesn’t seem as hard. Then the third. Then the fourth. Same with writing this post. It started with one word. Then two. Then it lengthened into sentences and paragraphs. Before I knew it (as I looked at the word counter in MS Word), I had an entire blog post to share with the world.

Adopt this advice into your craft. Start with a single brushstroke. A single pluck of a guitar string. A single letter. When you start with one step, it becomes harder to stop walking.

Tell me what you think. What did you take away from this? Leave a comment down below and, as always, I’ll see you next week.