This week in The Artist’s Way, I’m learning about recovering a sense of strength through exploring ways I may have a creative block caused by my perception of time. In Week Eight, Cameron calls out the lies we tell ourselves such as “I’m too old.” I’m especially drawn to the teaching related to the way focusing on the output instead of the process often prevents us from ever taking action.

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100 Liminal Days is an experimental project of embracing my current transitional season after exiting my business by sharing an honest, real-time account of my self-initiation experience in daily posts. I’m using The Artist’s Way as a guiding tool, and sending shorter weekly recaps only via my newsletter. Visit Day 1/100 to learn more and sign up to get the weekly recaps delivered to your inbox.

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Now Is Always A Good Time to Start Something New

This chapter is the longest one so far, so it covers a lot of ground. In today’s post, I’m zoning in on this bit about how we often tell ourselves this lie that we are too old for this or that, but what we are really trying to avoid is the emotional cost of being a beginner at something. We make excuses that we are too old, or that we are too young. We might say that we’ll wait to enjoy creative expression when we retire.

As a culture, we glorify youth and allow our youth the freedom to experiment. And we disparage our old-timers but allow them the right to be a little crazy. ~ Julia Cameron

It’s as if we find a way at all costs to justify that right now is not the time for creativity. Through this experiment, I’ve gained this understanding that creative expression takes courage because it goes against the grain of societal norms. Perhaps I’ve even accepted that for myself, and I’m on the verge of removing the blocks in the way of my artistic work. I understand this, yet I still do not want to look crazy. And to try this creative thing or that “at this age” might look a little nuts. So, I am stuck either way I slice it if I believe that my age has any bearing on my ability to spend my time in creative work.

But the real resistance comes from the feeling that no one wants to look foolish as an older beginner – we think that should be left to the kids. Or maybe we look at art created by others who have been painting for more than 20 years and compare it to our stuff – even though we’ve only been painting for one year. We see how far we have to go to produce something like the 20-year artist, and tell ourselves, we are too late.

Courage to Become a Beginner Again and Again

I’m thinking about how Emily inspires me through her courage of becoming a beginner time and time again. She is one of the most voracious learners I’ve ever known. My wife is a pilot working in the airlines and has type ratings on dozens of aircraft ranging from drones to Boeing 767s, from gliders to a WWII vintage B-25. She is an Army veteran, has a Master’s Degree, has received a black belt in taekwondo, speaks Spanish fluently, and has completed multiple marathons all over the world. She’s highly accomplished already!

And every week, she works out 1-2 times per day, practices French online, takes violin lessons, and now also helicopter lessons. It’s in this constant learning state that she has set an example of how to be comfortable with being a beginner over and over again. This badass woman spends her days off from work plucking out Jingle Bells and Mary Had a Little Lamb on the beginner violin I bought her for her birthday last year after I heard her say for the 10th time that she wanted to learn to play the fiddle. 🙂

And she keeps at it, even when progress feels slow. Even though she is playing nursery rhymes instead of The Devil Went Down to Georgia. She keeps putting in the time and practice, and her skills improve consistently. Her art might sound like child’s play now, but we all have to start from the same place.

There is an adage that highlights this well:

Question: Do you know how old I’ll be by the time I learn to play the piano? Answer: The same you will be if you don’t.

Cameron elaborates on how so many of us stay stuck in this story that time is not on our side, when instead we could take one small step today and again tomorrow and the next day to reach our goals. As I have learned, the gift of so much of life is in the journey, not the destination, yet we still focus on the product instead of the process.

This attention to final form ignores the fact that creativity lies not in the done but in the doing. ~ Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way

So today, I’m just recommitting to taking my art practice one day at a time. Writing one blog post per day is helping me feel more confident in my writing. Drawing freehand to make birthday cards for my friends and family gives me practice and I like my art a little more each time I make something new.

Recovering a sense of strength seems to start with a commitment to taking baby step after baby step. We don’t have to go take this giant leap into the unknown like I thought at the beginning. I just need to keep following the whisper to do what I love a little more each day.

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