How much time do you have? How long do most people live? Even if your answer is a hundred years, that’s not an abundance of time. Those hundred years will fly by in what feels like seconds. That thought makes every single day feel so much more important. Every day in itself isn’t that grandiose, unless you fill it with things that make it so. So how do you maximize your days and use them to get ahead on your life’s dreams? The answer may be simpler than you think.
It boils down to this singular, rudimentary thought…just start. Start that art project that you’ve been talking about for years, start catching up on the stack of emails that you’ve put off forever, start cleaning up that pile of clothes that’s been sitting in the corner of your bedroom since 1997. When famous philosophers talk about a long journey beginning with a single step, this is what they mean.
People are often distracted and afraid by the build-up in their own heads. A project seems too large, or too hyped up, that they have no idea where to start. The idea of tackling something so massive seems insurmountable and brings hills of anxiety and even dread. Just start. Start today. Carve out even a small chunk of time in the evening to slowly chip away. Once you start the job, you are one day closer to getting a once impossible-seeming task accomplished.
The only reason you are not “an artist” is because you’re not treating yourself like one. All it takes to be an artist…is to create art. The speed or skill doesn’t even matter. Those things are subjective anyway. Once you produce something, you’re an artist. And once you start getting out of your own head and working on that project, it becomes easier and easier to produce.
It’s a macabre thought, but our lives are limited. Time is finite, and we make too many excuses not to do the things we love. Do we truly have time for those excuses? So what’s stopping you? What are you waiting for? You’re an artist, and the world is waiting to see your creations.
