EddieOlivas.com

I started reading a new book this week, The Artist’s Way – A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. I was looking around Craigslist a few weeks ago and found an interesting group listing called “Artist’s Way Group”. The listing said “Explore your creativity in a small group setting with guided exercises and fun activities. Needed: Bring the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, your inquisitive spirit, and a desire to be more creative.” I was intrigued that a group would get together and only require this particular book so I looked up the book, read some reviews, and promptly bought it on Amazon (used for a few bucks). If there’s anything I’ve learned in the last few years about myself it’s that I want to be a creative, productive artist. No getting around it. I get so much energy, enthusiasm, and hope from creating things and expressing myself. I’m not happy unless I’m being creative in some way.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve taken from the book so far is on the topic of the fear of being wrong. We all want to improve, learn, and get better at our craft, but we also want to look good while doing it and that’s just not possible all the time. I’m gonna write songs that no one likes, draw pictures that I end up hating, get up on stage and completely screw it up, it’s all a part of the journey. We can’t let the fear of being wrong or imperfect stop us from moving forward and creating. In years to come when we’re further along the road, who the hell is gonna care how many times we screwed up getting there? As the book says “Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves.”, “Give yourself permission to be a beginner.”

There’s so much wisdom in these pages it amazes me. I can see why this book is so popular and why people teach classes based on it. I would recommend this book to any artist wishing to get over a block, be more creative or to any person who is looking to finally give themselves permission to be the artist they were meant to be.