You’ve been thinking about this project for a
while. You’ve been anticipating it, delighted as the details come together in
your mind. You’ve set aside a chunk of time to work on it today. So exciting!
You sit down, all the tools laid out before you, and stare at the blank page
(or canvas, or screen, or whatever).
And
you stare.
And
slowly your mind goes blank.
Then
you remember that you think you really ought to reorganize your closet. So you
head over there and dig into the mess. In the process, you uncover a half-finished
project from long ago, and it becomes very important to you to finish it first.
In the process of that, you create a mess which you suppose you must
clean up, in addition to your closet. Then you get some mail which you decide
you should read and file away. Which jogs your memory about something else that
you think you ought to do.
By
the time you look up, frazzled and frustrated, from half a dozen
still-unfinished projects, the chunk of time has already passed, and you haven’t
even touched the project that you were so excited about. Oh well, you
think. There’s always tomorrow. Or next week. Or next month…
I have spent far too many days of my life like
this. You could call it procrastination, but I think I’ll just call it fear.
Fear of commitment. Fear of failure. Fear of the unknown. By God’s grace, I’m
learning ways to fight through this, and I’ll share some of the things that
have been working for me.
ONE: if you’re a
Christian, praise and pray.
I
try to send a few words heavenward whenever I sit down to create, but I often
don’t remember until I’m in the middle of it. I request inspiration, guidance,
new plots, a steady hand, wisdom for choosing the right colors, etc. Sadly, it’s
even less frequent that I remember to give God praise for the gifts He’s
given me, such as my talents, the myriad art supplies within arm’s reach, and
my comfortable home.
If you want to get your perspective set right, I
suggest going through the Lord’s Prayer and really thinking about it, not just
using ‘vain repetition’ (Matt. 6:7), starting with:
Our
Father (God who is in an
intimate relationship with us, interested in all the details) in heaven (Yet
high above us and able to see everything from His eternal perspective),
hallowed be Your name (Will this bring honor to His name? Am I doing this
for the glory of His name or mine?).
In equal importance with prayer, I advise you to
read the Bible first each day before you do anything else. It may seem like
prayer and Bible reading are eating away at what precious free time you have,
but I dare to make this guarantee: if your true desire it to know God better,
you will not regret one single moment you spend in His Word and talking with
Him. (Note that I say talking “with” and not “at”—there’s a distinction.) Your
life and art will be the richer for it.
TWO: turn on music.
I do nearly every visual project and even some
written ones accompanied by songs playing from my stereo or computer. I believe
music has a special ability to soothe the fearful noises in your head, wake
your creativity, and draw you out of your self. As a Christian, songs about Jesus
and His work in our lives have an especially powerful effect on me.
I
try to match the music to the project. For example:
Bright, colorful painting—energetic
pop/rock
Epic fantasy graphic
novel—Celtic, Jewish, film score
Illustrations for children’s
book—folk, pop
Intense, emotional
drawing—acoustic, symphonic
THREE: tidy up.
I am not talking about reorganizing your
closet. But, if you have a mess or an urgent piece of unfinished business in
your near vicinity, it might help if you get that taken care of first.
Here’s an
idea: set a time limit for your tidying, and when it’s up you absolutely must
get back to the project. Or, you could set aside a specific time or day for
clean-up. Keeping your workspace in order can be helpful, so far as it keeps
your mind clear and your eyes undistracted. Although some of us find a little
pleasant clutter inspiring…
FOUR: finally—JUST DO
IT!
Walk your feet into that workspace, apply our
hindquarters to that seat, get your fingers on those keys, grab that
tool…whatever! Scream in agony if you need to, but DO IT!
So,
back to the connection between procrastination and fear. I think a definition
of “fear” might be: knowing something is bigger than you and outside your
control.
That could explain why we get afraid
when we’re supposed to be creating. We don’t fully understand our gifts or
where our ideas come from. We have no control over how people will respond to
the things we make. We don’t know what’s going on.
A quick scan of a Strong’s
concordance shows that about a quarter of the uses of the word “fear” in the
Bible say ‘fear not’, and the majority are talking about fearing God. He
gave us our gifts. I think He often sends ideas. He is in control. He knows
what’s going on.
Therefore I remind you to
stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound
mind.
2
Timothy 1:6,7
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