In The Thick Of It All...Or Calling From The Sidelines?

From morguefile

From Steven Pressfield's Book, The War of Art :

I was crushed.  Here I was, forty-two years old, divorced, childless, having given up all normal human pursuits to chase the dream of being a writer; now I've finally got my name on a big-time Hollywood production [King Kong Lives]* starring Linda Hamilton, and what happens?  I'm a loser, a phony; my life is worthless, and so am I.

My friend Tony Keppelman snapped me out of it by asking if I was gonna quit.  Hell, no!  "Then be happy.  You're where you wanted to be, aren't you?  So you're taking a few blows.  That's the price for being in the arena and not on the sidelines.  Stop complaining and be grateful."

That was when I realized I had become a pro.  I had not yet had a success.  But I had had a real failure.

I caught Pressfield's blog via Seth Godin's blog and hadn't ever heard of The War of Art.  Intrigued by the title, I checked him out.  Pressfield's most famous book is The Legend of Bagger Vance - or, at least that was the one I recognized...probably because it was a movie too...

Anyway, there's something to what he's saying in the quote above.  Creating art - of any kind - and creating art can be as loosely defined as creating something new, something that has never been before - being creative is a risky proposition.  You're putting yourself out there.  But, for those people who feel the impetus, the drive, it can't be helped.  You simply have to put yourself out there.

And Tony Keppelman's observation is astute: "So you're taking a few blows.  That's the price for being in the arena and not on the sidelines."  The people on the sidelines do the evaluating - they'll be quick to point out what's wrong, where you fall and fail and how things don't measure up. But they don't create.

How are you being in the arena today?















*Ever seen it?  Yeah, me either... King Kong Lives!