I remember hearing Maria Sharapova on a podcast talking about her practice routine in her younger days. Hitting a ball at the wall for 12 hours a day. She still has a wall in her hose to hit a ball at.
Can you imagine how boring in would be to hit a ball at a wall for 12 hours.
As the conversation went on they talked about talent as merely being the capacity to endure boredom. I was reading some parenting advice for when a kid doesn’t want to do something. Ask them this question.
Are you incapable of doing it? Or do you not want to?
There is a price to get the things we want, I don’t mean money, maybe time or effort… your version of 12 hours of hitting a tennis ball at a wall. Are you incapable, or do you not want to?
Ask yourself.
Am I capable?
This will dismantle the resistance that is telling you, you can’t.
It can’t make you incapable, it can only make you not want to.
It’s Day 6 of this series, probably the hardest day, it’s almost a week, day 7 is easy, you get to celebrate completing a week. Day 6 is where the excuses come in.
If you’re the fighting sort, all you need is ask yourself if you’re capable, and if the answer is yes, then just do it.
I am not the fighting sort, not by default.
I like to find the hack or the shortcut.
SO how I approach it is to break things down into tiny chunks, then I tell myself, just do the first tiny chunk. And before you know it, I’ve shot a video, done a drawing, written a newsletter and sent it out to 7000+ of you!
How do you deal with boring work? Do you push through, or find something exciting to do instead?
Every day I write a drawing prompt and meditation or open letter.
The prompts are meant to be done in 10 minutes, the goal is to build a daily practice in as little as 10 minutes a day.
Some do this for the pure joy of it. Others do it to bring more creative joy into their existing practice. Some are starting the journey, others have drawn over 500 pages, 10 minutes at a time!
Ten Minute Artist: Daily Creative Joy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
(For an extra $1, you can upgrade stright to Studio Founder (from annual plan), where you will get a monthly Check-In Email, plus a behind the scenes of this newsletter and my creative career, in addition to all the things)
I’ve create a gallery for you to share our hobbit drawings, and chat about the journey:
As a crochet artist, I usually get my best work done by as watching a video or while in flight. It helps to have something in the background that acts as a pacer.
As a crochet artist, I usually get my best work done by as watching a video or while in flight. It helps to have something in the background that acts as a pacer.
Talent as the capacity to endure boredom...that's a really interesting idea.