Get Your Hopes Up!

How many times have we been told over a lifetime that we "shouldn't get our hopes up?"  Who did it to you isn't important but sadly enough it usually comes from those we love or trust the most.  You can't really fault them because, most of the time, they think they are doing you a favor and somehow with their life experiences they are going to prevent you from experiencing disappointment.  But when you compare what they collectively teach us from childhood onto adulthood about going for our dreams, you have to wonder what is worse - being safe and eliminating any success or experiencing disappointment and learning from it and going on to succeed beyond your wildest dreams?  Using the analogy of an Olympiad, does anyone ever tell an athlete to shoot for the bronze because it is safe?  Of course not.  You go for the gold!  Why, in this profession, aren't we teaching that to those around us and more importantly why aren't we all, as artists, shooting for the gold?  Why are we content with shooting for something mediocre because we think that all of the great accomplishments were achieved by other artists around us?

This is one of my biggest inspirations in creating this blog.  We need to dream in ALL aspects of our careers, not just the creation phase of making art.  We create our success, it doesn't happen to us.  We need to dream big and if it is our path to "get the silver medal," we have to understand that we wouldn't have achieved that had we not been working towards something even greater.  Do not limit yourself.  If you need help with your art skills - work hard at it.  Practice, over and over, seek out help if you need to and picture yourself as the great talent you aspire to be.  Everyone gets better every day.  Leonardo da Vinci said it best when he noted, "every artist was first an amateur." Dedicate yourself to it.  If you need help with the marketing of your work, look to someone to mentor you, if you don't have money to invest ask those people you've connected with on social media sites or in your local art scene to come to your studio for a critique or meet them at theirs to ask about how they did it.  Never accept where you are as the destination for your art career.  Aspire to be greater and fix your mind and body on how it would feel being in that destination.  Disregard any past failures you've had in your career and keep in mind, the more successful an artist is the more failures they've probably had than you.  Trust me, I can attest to that.  I've been there.  What separates a success from a failure is unwavering faith in your goal.  Look at historical figures like Abraham Lincoln.  Had he accepted his disadvantaged upbringing or any one of the political failures he had, we might have never known what his true potential was as a man.  Thomas Edison failed more than 10000 times, but claimed, "he had not failed but had only found 10000 ways not to make a light bulb.  Never be afraid to fail, so much that you would stop dreaming.  Get your hopes up and keep them there.  Believe that good things are meant for those who strive for them and that there is enough room at the top for everyone - including you!  Be well.