THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.
What I needed to hear most:
"The most important thing you can do is do a lot of work -- do a huge volume of work...It's going to take a while -- it's normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that OK?" ~ Ira Glass
It helps to have that word WORK greet me every day.
"Welcome to the day. Welcome to Work."
I never thought about it as a gap that needed closing. But it is.
What I want to be and where I am. There's a gap there that needs to be bridged, closed or traveled through.
And I'm thinking Ira Glass is right. There's no way to get there but to do a huge volume of work.
And it's going to be a fight some days.
So that's why I chose "Work."
Love the video clip. It's a good thing for me to remember too!
ReplyDeleteThis is something that should be taught and remembered. Too many people take a course and after attending a few sessions think that they should be as good as the instructor. When they see they're not, they give up rather than doing more work. Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing this Susan ...Ira Glass always has interesting things to say...now to worK
ReplyDeleteA year or so ago, Sharon Boggon posted a short vid by an artist who was saying the exact same thing:
ReplyDeleteFor the first couple of years as an artist, you'll be producing work that isn't up to much, but you are learning each time and will get there if you don't give up.
It *is* a helpful thing to bear in mind when you see others doing great stuff in their own style and you feel capable only of copying them and never doing anything novel, that it'll come in time. I too need to put in a lot more work and my word for the year is 'focus' - focus on my projects and on the health technique of focusing.=)
All the best to us both and, as the Chinese say, add oil! (kind of means, fuel up. A gas station is an add oil station. Without the oil, your car doesn't go, so you often need to add figurative oil to yourself to get something done. Good, isn't it?)
Like musicians practising - there is no short cut to excellence. But at least we can enjoy the trip!
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love Ira Glass? I listen to him all the time while I work. Better for me than music.
ReplyDeleteI had a quote on my blog for the better part of last year that must have been from him because it said this almost exactly. It has helped me a lot and I have finally come to terms with the understanding that it doesn't happen overnight and I can make things that don't have to "be" anything - they can just be a thing that helped take me where I want to go.
ReplyDeleteI love the beading you have been doing by the way - lovely, lovely work - I had forgotten how much creativity there is in loom beading.i had several as a child and used to make things with them all the time - beads are such happy little things!
OOOhhhhh. THAT's why you chose "work". Its funny that you posted this and Ira's vid. I recently had a conversation with myself about this subject. Gosh I'm glad that I now have time to put my thoughts into action. Thanks for the reinforcement. I think there will always be a gap for those that create. It might close in, but will never totally meet.
ReplyDeletexx, Carol
What a great word and reminder! It feels like 'work' has become a bad word, but it's so important. It's freeing to think that "it" will take time and effort and it doesn't have to be perfect and figured out right this instant!
ReplyDeleteSo true! A painter I was learning from once said that to become a good painter, you needed to paint 100 paintings. And then you needed to paint 100 paintings. And then... It takes sustained effort to consistently turn out work of high caliber and to find our voice through our art/handwork/craft.
ReplyDeleteYou've always seemed like a hard worker to me, Susan! A most creative one also......
ReplyDelete