The Artist's Way: Workbook: A Companion to the International Bestseller

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Emotions that might feel counterintuitive such as anger are actually a map. “It tells us we can’t get away with our old life any longer. It tells us that old life is dying,” writes Julia. I’ve spent been five years of inspecting how other people are creative and yet I haven’t written that book I wanted to write, or launched that podcast I wanted to launch. I can’t linger on that point for too long without spiralling.

The Artist’s Way at 30: Alicia Keys, Pete Townshend and the The Artist’s Way at 30: Alicia Keys, Pete Townshend and the

With encouragement – from others and importantly ourselves – we can begin to reframe any loss, rejection of criticism. When we start with joy, the discipline will follow. The question bubbles up again – what do I enjoy? What do I desire? Why does this continue to elude me? This week felt like a lot of question-asking and meetings, but no step taking. Does this mean I am searching for the joy? Week 10: overwork v. zestful work It can difficult to say no, especially to people we love, but it’s an important practice. “Many recovering creatives sabotage themselves most frequently by making nice,” as Julia writes.We spend energy on self-doubt, self-hatred, regret, grief, jealousy and think in terms of great big scary impossible tasks. I can easily put things into the “impossible” category, but as this week explored, often something is impossible only because we are looking too ahead or too narrowly at the things we desire.

The Artist’s Way | Julia Cameron Live The Artist’s Way | Julia Cameron Live

While I might earn comparatively less, what we need is entirely subjective and I’m privileged to be able to cover my living expenses. As Julia writes, we ‘deny ourselves the luxury of time’ – money anxiety is the excuse I use to erode my spare time. Week 7: perfecting perfectionism Only when we are being joyfully creative can we release the obsession with others and how they are doing.” Even without alcohol, there is still room for improvement in respect to how I’m using my time – which is often being the busy worker bee and feeling overwhelmed or worries about money rather than attending to important creative work. Tasked with asking myself what next steps I am evading, I realised I had to make decision about a trip to New York City I had talked about since the beginning of the year. Money, timing, and fear all got in the way, but the next step was to decide, so I booked the flight. It’s the final chapter of the book and I have arrived in New York City with the intention of setting aside three months to work on the personal projects that I have carried with me the last few months – the podcast and the book.

I’ve also learned that the goal is not the point, it’s the running. Once I reached 5km, the treadmill did not evaporate – opportunity to keep running, keep taking strides remained.