adapted from Eric Maisel…
You have your ideas about what to create, but there are many operatives in force to cause you to wonder about your choice because there are just so many choices out there today.
The first operative is the Editor or self-censorship. Some never get beyond that. Watching an Ac/Dc interview on Highway to Hell (over on Youtube) one of the things that caught my eye was that these blokes never censor their songs. Never. Of course they also don’t censor their lifestyle but that’s another story, the key is that they do not censor their creative output.
On Highway to Hell one of the bros. stumbled out of a bar and said to a friend “We are on the highway to hell, mate” and then starting singing it Just chanting the words and working it from there. Now that sounds like genius and perhaps it is because most of us would just make the joke and let it go. Ac/Dc didn’t. And that’s the difference between successful artists and the rest.
So why do the rest suffer from self censorship? Well all ideas produce conflict and conflict produces anxiety, whether it’s a conflict with a co-worker that makes you anxious each time you return to the office or a conflict about whether to focus on your fine art or your graphic art that makes you anxious each time you try to make time for one or the other.
The inner conflicts that arise as you try to decide whether and how much to compromise can make you especially anxious because they often have both a moral component (“It would be wrong to market myself in that deceitful way”) and an identity component (“I just can’t see doing that–it doesn’t fit with my picture of who I am”). Or the simple “What would ** say?”
Instead give yourself some liberty and embrace some laughter. For Ac/Dc the song was a great joke on themselves, things their mothers said to them, and that they realized was true. They had no problem making FUN of themselves, and perhaps that is something that more of us should embrace. Instead of being scared of our foibles, we should realize that are what they are, and work with them.
“Pride goeth before the fall”, “cutting your nose off in spite of your face” and being “too literal”. No matter what you call it, it’s all on the Highway to Hell.
In my anguish... 