Art Slam » Food for the Creative Soul

"Do not wait to strike until the iron is hot; but make it hot
by striking." – William B. Sprague

I have a birthday coming up next month and as it approaches, I have been reflecting on the past year. A lot has happened. Biggest one being starting a business and right after that one a new job. Both of these things have led me to discover more about myself than I thought possible.

• For one, I have standards. I am at a point in my life where I do not believe I have to settle for crap just for the sake of it.
  
• Secondly, I now understand that businesses do "abolish" entire departments for business reasons. I found this out two months after my former employer kicked me and four other people to the curb right before Christmas last year and gave us one week to get out.
• Thirdly, if you don’t ask, you can’t receive. We, in general, are such chickens. Never asking for what we want because we are too scared to get the answer we don’t want. Now, that is a glass half empty thinking. This year, I have been asking for things and assuming I will get what I want or a yes answer. It has worked 95% of the time. Why in the hell did no one tell me this sooner?!
• Fourthly, just because I have a professional attitude does not mean the people around me do and that is ok, up to a point. What I have discovered is that you can be sucked into negativity or you can rise above it.
• Fifthly (is that a word?), I really don’t like revisions. They destroy my creative flow. I am an artist, damn it!

I have discovered lots more and am thankful for all the lessons I have learned this year. They have been a blessing. Being a student of life is one of the best experiences I am going through right now. Sometimes the lessons suck, but I am learning and that is all that really matters.

I often say this to friends who are going through crisis and as they are ranting about what sucks in their life, I remind them that what someone thinks of them is none of their business. I need to live what I preach.

I am a big questioner. I want to know people’s motivation. I like being in the know. Especially when it concerns me. What I realize now is I am setting myself up to be pissed off and angry. Which leads to self-doubt and unnecessary insecurity. My new mantra, which is actually an old one; "What you think of me is none of my business." Seriously, it isn’t. I no longer care what negative people think of me. I no longer care that they need to bring people down to feel good. I no longer care that they have no life at home and therefore are working themselves into a grave. I no longer will allow them to have any power over me. That is a boundary I now have and will stick to.

My opinion of myself is the most important one. If it is not yours, it should be. What you think of you matters more than anything anyone else on this Earth thinks of you. If your opinion of yourself if low, how do you expect others to think highly of you? We, in general, wait for others to validate us and tell us we are special and great. That is such crap. Some people wait their whole lives to be told what they have always known. We care too much what others think of us. We have no boundaries. I am settings lots of them for ’08. Why? Because I can and I owe it to myself. What do you owe yourself?