Discipline is the anti-art…
Where we creatives like to live on the right side of our heads, the suggestion that we lack discipline is met with a shrug… “So what?” we retort. Of course we lack discipline. Isn’t that the point?
We get it in our heads that talent, charisma and awesomeness is all we need to have a fantastically successful life… well, that and a good agent…
But there’s not a single success-story out there that hinges on talent, charisma or awesomeness… Not one that I’ve read, anyway.
Every successful author, performer or artist that I’ve ever read about has a story that hinges on discipline… the singular capacity to stay with a task until it is complete; the unwavering drive to take on the insurmountable obstacles that life seems to throw at talented, charismatic and awesome individuals.
I’ve now quite a few talented, charismatic and awesome folks that failed to launch… it’s sad really… a waste… but it happens all the time…
At some point or another in our lives, we must choose the path of greatest resistance… We have to weather storms and pass through dark valleys… We simply have to learn to discipline ourselves.
This is where it always falls apart for me: discipline isn’t something that I can just wish for or purchase or conjure. If that were possible, I’d have gotten it by now. Discipline must be grown…
More than that, really, discipline must be cultivated.
In horticulture, cultivation is more than planting seeds, more than watering or feeding plants… It is the entire process of growth and harvest… Learning the process is the only road to success as an artist or anything else, really. If we are going to produce a harvest (to extend the metaphor) that is 50 or 100 times greater than the seeds we sow, we have to persevere through the entire process…
Every time.
In the weeks ahead, I’ll be sharing the process with you… As I work through a few projects that require a high level of discipline (including the continuation if this series), I’m going to spill out my struggle to you guys…
Could be messy…
NEXT in this series: The Fallow Ground…
Tim!
This is good stuff…”discipline generates great yesterdays”. Too many people live in the present regretting the past. Discipline provides that “fence at the top of the hill” so you don’t need the “ambulance at the bottom!”
Looking forward to reading more and more…
nick