What if we celebrated attempts and not just successes?
Many of us focus more on our failures than on our successes. If you have a manuscript that you are trying to get published, or you are an artist or musician trying to get gigs or shows, you may get a lot of “no” responses before you get a “yes.” It’s so easy to get discouraged.
If you are new in any creative endeavor, you’re bound to look at your work, compare it to accomplished artists, and decide it’s not good enough. What keeps you from throwing up your hands in frustration, deciding you are a failure, and giving up? Some qualities and attitudes that help are tenacity, resolve, courage, and acceptance of the learning curve and the time you have to put in to make progress.
Here’s another idea – not only celebrate when we get that gig, art show or publishing deal, but celebrate our attempts as well. For example:
Many of us focus more on our failures than on our successes. If you have a manuscript that you are trying to get published, or you are an artist or musician trying to get gigs or shows, you may get a lot of “no” responses before you get a “yes.” It’s so easy to get discouraged.
If you are new in any creative endeavor, you’re bound to look at your work, compare it to accomplished artists, and decide it’s not good enough. What keeps you from throwing up your hands in frustration, deciding you are a failure, and giving up? Some qualities and attitudes that help are tenacity, resolve, courage, and acceptance of the learning curve and the time you have to put in to make progress.
Here’s another idea – not only celebrate when we get that gig, art show or publishing deal, but celebrate our attempts as well. For example:
“I sent out a query letter to 20 literary agents, and not a single one took me on! Let's have an impromptu gathering at ‘Simply Bar & Bites’ to toast my sending out 20 queries!”
So why not give support to each other for the success of trying, of doing the scary work of putting ourselves out there in the world? For myself and many other people, that’s the part that’s incredibly hard. (It’s character building, right?) And it needs to be done over and over again, hopefully getting somewhat easier over time. We could all use a little encouragement to keep creating art and to keep sending it out the door.
So who needs a party or a toast this weekend? I’ll raise my glass to you.
So why not give support to each other for the success of trying, of doing the scary work of putting ourselves out there in the world? For myself and many other people, that’s the part that’s incredibly hard. (It’s character building, right?) And it needs to be done over and over again, hopefully getting somewhat easier over time. We could all use a little encouragement to keep creating art and to keep sending it out the door.
So who needs a party or a toast this weekend? I’ll raise my glass to you.
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