I am working with a client who had a very upsetting weekend–nothing bad, she was just MAD. She asked, “How do I maintain focus when I’m so upset?” It’s hard to make art or work on marketing your art when you don’t feel like it.
Well . . .
I am certainly no expert in such psychological or motivational issues, but here’s what I’ve found: Give into your natural response. Don’t try to do anything you can’t handle at that moment. It will, inevitably, be self-defeating. You’ll create bad work–whatever it is–and still have to deal with the situation.
When I find I’m not focusing well, I do something else. Otherwise, I’m spinning my wheels.
Case in point: Miki, my Siamese cat, turned 19 years old two weeks ago. She’s not doing great (arthritis, kidney disease, etc.), but she isn’t too bad, either. I finally made the decision to take her to the vet today and have (what they call) a “geriatric” (!) exam. I have been worried about her for two weeks. I’ve been crying, reminiscing, and preparing myself for her eventual death. Yesterday and today were just too much. I found myself not wanting to work and I certainly couldn’t do much that required a lot of thought. My mind kept wandering back to my upcoming appointment with the vet: what if . . . what if. . . .
Instead of wasting all of my time, I decided to turn on some music on my computer (happy music! Louis Armstrong stuff!) and do some of my more tedious tasks that didn’t take too much brain power. I got that stuff done and out of the way. I honored my need to take care of personal issues while still getting some work done.
Don’t fight it.
Oh, yes, and by the way . . . the vet thinks Miki is looking pretty darned good. Amazingly, she weighs less than half of what she was at her heaviest.
Image: Miki on my desk.
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Quote: Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. Author: Robertson Davies 1913-, Canadian Novelist, Journalist
I often fall prey to “spinning” and always do better when I let go of what I’m working on and do something else–even when I’m working under a deadline. I get better results when I take a break and come back to the project with a fresh mind. I’m glad Miki is doing alright. I know how hard it is to focus when a beloved pet is sick.
You are so right about honoring your natural rhythms. When I try to work in an area that just doesn’t feel right, I only create ugly art. My problem is scheduling my time because it’s hard to know where those rhythms will take me.
I’ve spent my week home from work and sick. And doing pretty much nothing. Now I don’t feel guilty about it anymore – thanks.
Natural rhythms I think of as varying degrees of stress. Our lives are filled with varying degrees of stress. Not all stress is bad. I have found that looking at a problem and thinking to myself: Will it make a difference a hundred years from now lowers my stress.Then there are those points in time when the stress gets very high. If I don’t deal with it, it just grows and grows and can overwelm my. So over the years I have learned that if I face it head on it turns out that it isn’t as bad as I thought it was. Not to say it becomes easy because it doesn’t. So if the stress is getting high I jump on it and sometimes all I need to do is step back. I can do something injoyable like paint something fun. Or sometimes I rest my mind and other times you just have to put your head down and dig into the problem.
I juggle art with my other professional career of being a counselor in private practice, yoga instructor and teach psychology at the local college. Right now it feels overwhelming but I have a plan. After May I am totally focusing on art and giving up my other teaching responsiblilities. It felt a little scary depending upon art as my solo income. But art is the joy of my life. I have abundant ideas that need to be born. We have a marketing support group which is wonderful and I have a business plan. Thanks for the great advice. Forget fear is the key for me.