3 Heartbreaking Truths that Crush Most Artists
The endless cycle that destroys many near-great creators.
Let’s start with the big one.
1. You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.
We started writing, creating, working to pursue that which inspires us.
Then the muse pulls from the rug from underneath us.
Because ideas don’t really matter.
And it’s only about execution.
Once you realize this, you understand that you can do anything, but you can’t do everything.
So you keep working.
You try your damndest to narrow your focus.
And it works for a little while.
And that’s when we’re hit with the second crushing truth.
2. You have to love the plateau.
No matter how much time and dedication you put into something, you will eventually hit a wall.
A creative wall. A mindset wall. A physical wall.
And you’ll spend 6–12 weeks — if not more — either feeling like you have no more ideas.
Or that you are stuck in a creative rut.
There’s success just on the other side of the wall and the only real way to get over it…
…is time.
And then, after you surpass that hurdle, you hit the third crushing truth.
3. You have to raise your level of what’s acceptable.
This is perhaps the most difficult one of all.
You got real comfortable being pretty good, being more talented than most, and maybe it even paid the bills.
But then you figure out there’s something more and you no longer match your ambition.
Your ambition has outgrown your ability and your mindset.
And you have to raise your level of what you consider “acceptable” or even “done.”
And this doesn’t feel like an epiphany so much as a curse.
Because it doesn’t go away.
Self-sabotage and those old comforts will work tirelessly to pull you back down to your former self, to that old internal comfort zone.
You have to win this daily fight, every single day, or else.
And then, when you feel like you’re winning, the cycle repeats.
You try to take on too much again.
You hit another inevitable plateau.
You raise your level of acceptable once more.
Now, you’re an artist.
And you realize effort beats talent every, single, f — king day.
But here’s the good news…
Now you are working for the best version of yourself.
And no one else.
Now, you are the self-reliant artist.
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[If you’d like to join a community of self-reliant artists, join here.]
