This writer gave the best art advice ever!

Have you heard of Cheryl Strayed? She's an author and all-round wise woman and I recently heard her speak on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast. (That is the best podcast there is by the way!)

At some point during that conversation, Cheryl said something that blew my mind. She was talking about how she wrote her first book. I researched the reference, and here is the quote in full:

“You have to ask yourself not who you aspire to be, but to reckon with who you actually turn out to be, who you actually are. And what I realized is that I couldn’t any longer adhere to the narratives that had gotten me this far. I had to relinquish all of those anthems of greatness and dreaming big and aiming high. All of those beautiful, powerful, important things that had really gotten me there. They weren’t serving me anymore, and so I had to come up with something that would.

That truth that rose up at my humblest, lowest moment was basically that I had to write a book. And that was it. It was, ‘Forget the greatness, forget if anyone would even read it.’ I had to write a book. And I had to surrender to the idea of my own mediocrity. I had to really just go, ‘Hello mediocre person who is just sitting alone in a cottage writing a book, nice to know you. I’ve spent 33 years in your company and we’re going to now get to work…"

"I had to surrender to my own mediocrity."

Just think about that for a moment. What if you stopped pressuring yourself to be good? What if you stopped desiring to stand out or be special? What if you just accepted that you're not as good as you would like to be, but that you are here just as you are, and that you can make something anyway?

Doesn't that feel lighter? Doesn't it take away all the stress from art-making?

I used the quote when I was prepping the new version of Find Your Joy (coming soon!) I think it's so powerful because it taps into one of our biggest issues as artists - the desire to be good stops us from doing the things that would get us there.

For example, the desire to make a good painting can stop us from experimenting. We don't want to mess up what we have, so we stay safe. 

But if we simply surrender to our mediocrity - if we say 'this will probably not work and that's OK' - we can start pushing the edges of our art, and we can find out what's possible.

Every year when I teach Find Your Joy, I watch people learn this lesson. It's a beautiful thing to witness and the impact echoes for years. Just this week, I received two emails from former students who have found their voice. Both are now making amazing strides with their careers. They credit me, but the truth is that I am only the catalyst - I simply help them find what is already inside them. 

And the first step was letting go of the idea that they have to be good at this, and accepting that it's ok to be exactly where they are.

Acceptance is the keyword here. By not surrendering to where you are, you are effectively telling yourself that you are not enough. You are telling yourself "once I get good at painting a tree, I will be a worthwhile person." 

Hopefully, as you read this, you can see that it is nonsense. You are already a worthwhile person and your ability to paint trees has nothing to do with that. 

And, by the way, it's a myth that being praised for your painting skills will make you happy and fulfilled. Just check out this week's podcast (below) to hear about two artists who sought external validation with absolutely no success.

Fulfilment lies in doing the work, making the painting, doing the drawing, crafting the sculpture. It comes from making incremental improvements, or from discovering a new technique through play and experimentation. Fulfilment is the feel of soft charcoal on paper, or the scratch of a palette knife on a canvas. Fulfilment comes from the act of making your work - everything else is peripheral.

Which means, all you have to do is accept yourself exactly where you are, drop what Cheryl calls "all those anthems of greatness and dreaming big and aiming high" and just get on with making your work.