Motivation
Under my mum's strict orders my sister used to drag the covers off the bed, then 5 minutes later when I still wasn't up she would come and grab both ankles and try to pull me off the bed… all the while I was ‘pretending' to be asleep whilst gripping onto the bed for dear life. When she succeeded I would head off into the bathroom, pop a towel on the floor next to the warm radiator and go back to sleep for a few more precious minutes before school.
I wish someone would've taught me how to get to bed early so I could get up early, it would have made my life far easier now I am older!
With my sister all grown up and living in the Scottish highlands there's only the cat to wake me up as my other half wouldn't dare go there! I've always been a night owl, working in jobs revolving around nightclubs and having a partner who worked night wasn't a great recipe for a healthy body clock. I struggle to go to bed even at 3am and then have a major guilt complex when I can't get up for 10am after snoozing for an hour.
Living with this guilt day in day out has a huge impact on how productive you are as an artist. Reading many ‘your life's purpose' books I had an ‘aha' moment (as Oprah would say) when I read…… ‘It is simple, if you are a sportsperson then train at sport, if you are an artist… then paint' Oh my giddy aunt, is that is all there is to it? Just go and paint?
I realised that I was becoming bogged down and not moving forward. Never mind the worry of procrastination, fighting against myself when I can't stick to a schedule it has taken me all week to create. Forget the guilt of getting up late in the afternoon and feeling depressed about it all day. Just get in your studio and paint, regardless of how creative you feel, whether you're inspired or not, even if you're not in the mood! It is work. So paint. And paint I did.
Motivation has to be created, it is energy, and it has to have a starting point to gain momentum. If you sit still and wallow in the ‘why is nothing happening' ‘what should I be creating?' ‘Why can't I motivate myself?' then you are blocking yourself from gaining momentum, from allowing yourself to open up the doors of opportunity.
At the beginning of 2009 I made a commitment to my creative gift, I opened that door, I'm being proactive and it is paying off with opportunities and the occasional commission or sale. The strangest change of all is getting up at 6.30am now my partner has gone on days.
I believe my universe works for me when I work for it; it is as simple as that.
Liz McDonough
