I read Lisa Hammond's new book, "dream big!" a few weeks ago. Lisa is the owner and CEO of Femail Creations, a cool little mail order company dedicated to helping women and girls around the world find and live their dreams. Which, coincidentally is also LISA's dream, so it all works out. Since one of MY dreams was to have my jewelry be carried by Femail Creations, it's just win/win/WIN all over the place.
Anyway, Lisa's book (which is lighthearted and upbeat, and also quite wise) had a little passage on procrastination. I'd quote it directly but I can't find my copy--my studio is way too messy.
The gist of it was, we're usually warned against procrastination. It's usually the number one obstacle against accomplishing anything important. Your dreams can't go anywhere if you never get things done to accomplish them. But Lisa found it a useful strategy for....wait for it....getting things done. Huh?
Well, when faced with an onerous task, she found she would happily dive into ANOTHER onerous task rather than face the first one. So maybe that first obstacle waits a while, but in the meantime, your house is sparkling clean!
Wait, maybe it was the other way around? She didn't want to clean the house so she started a mail order business. That could be it, but I can't find my copy to check because the piles are so deep here in my studio.
I really like this idea that procrastination can actually be a powerful tool for action, an action that moves ANOTHER dream forward. You just have to be mindful of what your avoidance action is. For example, I was a bit blocked when it came to writing regularly--in my blog, my journal, articles for a magazine I have a column in. But then open studio time rolled around, and that meant I had to clean my studio.
I HATE cleaning my studio.
Suddenly, the computer screen didn't seem so blank and empty. It looked eager and ready for a stream of words to appear. I found myself writing two articles for two different magazines, a presentation for a full-day seminar on wholesaling, a short version for a 90-minute seminar, revamped my presentation on press releases and press kits, wrote a dozen blogs in two weeks, and went back to journaling. And flossing. I wrote the articles and presentation in one weekend. All because I don't want to clean my studio.
Don't worry, it WILL get cleaned. I've learned that, if I commit to an open studio date, at some point I will be hit by overwhelming panic. I will then work night and day until the studio is clean (but not too clean--I am a WORKING artist, after all) and welcoming once more.
I really must let Lisa know how inspiring she's been. But I don't have contact info because I can't find that book. It's in here somewhere. I think it's bright pink. It should be easy to find. Maybe if I cleaned my studio....
