Be Your Own Damn Muse

Procrastination has been kicking my ass lately, so that's what I'm talking about this week on the podcast.

I started out recording my episodes weeks ahead of time, so I could do a sound edit, a transcription, create some cover art and write the show notes. I wanted time to not feel rushed or panicked. But then, slowly, I found myself recording later and later in the week. Until last week's episode, when I sat down at the mic at 1am, just hours before my publishing deadline.

This is not how I want to show up for myself, or for you.

Procrastination is such a ubiquitous experience that everyone almost takes it for granted. Like that's just who I am. That's just how I roll.

This week I dive deep into why I think we're all putting off doing what we say matters most to us. I think this is incredibly important for artists especially. Because barring external deadlines - from a commission of your work, or a publisher who pre-bought your book - then the only deadlines you are accountable to are your own.

And too often, that is not enough to override the procrastination habit.

So I offer some insights into how procrastination is keeping you from facing what you really think, and how, with some gentle nudging, you can start to turn the tide on how you relate to yourself -- and your creative work. 

If you're keen to experiment with showing up for yourself on time and explore what happens when you go against the comfort blanket of procrastination, I'd love to hear from you over on Instagram at SamGarlandNYC.

Mentioned in this episode:
. The Life Coach School podcast
with Master Coach Brooke Castillo

. Life Coach School podcast: Episode 250
Listener Lessons episode where Brooke Castillo discusses "what it means to take massive action and do B-minus work"



(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

This week I apply lessons learned from my recent stint in physical therapy and my resistance to working out at home to the other big goals I have that I resist doing.

Poking the Bear is a term I made up for doing the smallest unit of a huge scary thing, so you can step into the fears and anxiety in a manageable way and build capacity for the doing of the work. If the dream is to write a novel, but it's so overwhelming you can't even begin -- what's the smallest chunk that you can face? Is it a page? A chapter?

The way to our dreams is always by uncovering the beliefs we hold about ourselves and our capacity.

I also discuss  journaling, from morning pages to bullet journals, as another tool for exploring and uncovering your resistance, so you can get into alignment with your creativity and your work.

I'd love to hear from you. Let's connect on IG at SamGarlandNYC !


(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

The dreaded blank page. When faced with it, suddenly everything and anything else seems more appealing -- even household chores. For actors, facing a script can be further  intimidating. It's a blank page where someone else has already poured their heart and soul. How do you now deliver on their vision, while also sparking and honoring your own creativity?

Today's episode is all about how to create a relationship with that initial panic of getting started. Whether it's writing, painting, dancing, or acting -- that beginning is always going to bring up the terror of the unknown.

And arguing with our fears and self doubts is a losing proposition. But dropping into our bodies, and listening to and engaging with all the sensations that are arising,  can be the way back to our creative spark.



(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

Resonating with Melissa Febos' recent book Girlhood (which I haven't read, but discovered through a New Yorker profile), I talk in this episode about how the male gaze turns women from subject to object. And how this is felt keenly as a female actor, in the sexualization of the body and the reckoning with the need to be desired in order to be successful.



I also mention:

Why We Mourn GirlHood
~ Katy Waldman for The New Yorker on April 7, 2021

'One Tree Hill' Cast, Crew Detail Assault, Harassment Claims Against Mark Schwahn
~ Daniel Holloway for Variety on November 17, 2017

(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

Do you call yourself an artist?
Or are you waiting for "proof" that you are one?

Where does that proof come from?
Is it payment for your work? Is the amount of time you put into your projects?

All of our actions flow from our thoughts, so in today's episode we explore how we label ourselves, and whether that identity strengthens how we show up for our creative work.


(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

Episode 5, and I'm shocked to say it's getting harder!
Since I've now moved from Bright Shiny Object to The Dip, which Seth Godin termed as the space between the excitement of beginning something and the payoff of its success.

What does it take to stay committed? To stay in the slog, when things don't have a clear end in sight? To keep believing in the work, before anyone else does?

And then I ponder why, if art is serves a social good of connection and catharsis, it isn't publicly funded and supported the way that health and schools are? These are imperfect systems, to be sure, but how do we bridge the space between the individual hustle required in a capitalist society, of selling our wares, to some form of recognizing the contribution of artists in healing and advancing our societies?

Also mentioned in this episode:

The Dip: A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
by Seth Godin

Big Magic
by Elizabeth Gilbert

(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

How are you with sitting in the uncomfortable space between your skill and your taste? Today we talk about the Ira Glass notion of  The Gap, and how to take heart in the vision of the work you want to be producing, even if you're not able to create it yet.

We also talk about the work of a daily practice, of building the foundations for your art, and how to stay motivated when it doesn't feel artistic or creative. 

And we end by discussing how practicing uncertainty on a daily basis, how showing up without any guarantee of how things will turn out, is a massive life skill for the all the things we crave (intimacy, adventure).


*** 
 

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

 ― Ira Glass

 

(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

In this episode, we explore the sh*t storm that our minds can unleash when we share our creative arts with the world. In an effort to protect us, the brain - perceiving emotional vulnerability as physical vulnerability - will go to great lengths to keep us from putting ourselves in dangerous situations.

This can feel like a reason to quit.

It's not. It's a reason to curl up in bed for a while, take a hot bath, light some candles.
Cry or scream.

But it's also a sign you're on the right path. Keep going.



(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

What are the rules of being an artist?
How much time have I spent searching for the perfect teacher to unlock the exact way to be an actor?

As a life long nerd, it's been a rude awakening to discover that the rules of school do not apply to life. That everyone is making up as they go. And that the greatest gift you can give yourself, is the permission to be terrible at all the things you want to create, but have no idea how.

With special shout out to the delights of Seth Rogen's pandemic pottery.



(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋

In this inaugural episode, I break down how living a creative life means facing the illusion that we control anything on a daily basis. And why this path ain't for the faint of heart.

I also discuss how everyone is creative.  It might mean home improvement or cooking or child rearing but everyone sparks creativity in their own unique, irreplaceable way. 

How knowing all the rules, taking another course, can actually get in the way of just doing the thing. And discovering for yourself how you create. 

I also mention:

A Dad-Rocker in the State Department
~ Nick Paumgarten for The New Yorker on December 7, 2020

Stacey Abrams Is the Author of Eight Unapologetically Hot Romance Novels 
~ Jenny Singer for Glamour on December 3, 2020



(photo credit: Janae Jones Photography)

Come check out the Hot Mess series on TikTok, and watch as I lose my mind - and find it again - writing, producing, and acting in a show!

#CreatingIsHealing🦋