Are You Blinded By Focusing On The End Product?

Copyright © 2007-2009 Celeste Varley

When the inventor finally hit upon a filament that would light up a light bulb, do you think he knew, when he arose that morning, that this would be the day? He surely knew that he sought a filament that worked, but he tried all sorts of things that failed before he could find the very thing that succeeded.

It was the process of searching through things that didn't work, that enabled him to find the solution that did work.

Whether you're an artist, a writer, a healer, a parent, a friend, or a salesman, if you set very specific goals and expectations, you might miss an awful lot of potential gains you couldn't have imagined.

While you are intent only on your end goal, you can't pay much attention to anything other than the expected end result. You tend to find only what you have eyes for.

If you're totally focused on looking for one thing, you won't see anything else. The paradox is there's a good chance you wouldn't see the very thing you're seeking either. It's like blinkers on a horse.

We held a yard sale recently. I saw two neighbours coming to look around, and overheard one telling the other that he had one very specific tool in mind. That's all he was looking for. When they left, the other had a number of items, but the first man had nothing.

What's the connection between doing a yard sale and making a work of art?

One man only had eyes for one thing. The other man took in everything there, and allowed himself to be surprised. Approaching a work of art, at the beginning, is like hanging loose with the kernel of an idea. Not an idea that you're very attached to, or clinging to, or have developed in detail.

Clinging to your detailed idea starts and ends with you. If you can relax your insistance a little, and remain willing to be surprised, then you will probably find plenty of unexpected solutions to your general idea.

These "solutions" aren't just your property. Inspiration doesn't come from you alone. It comes through your heart from the Source which is everywhere. So if you have access through your heart, and are receptive, this new inspiration can grow your germ of an idea into a new entity. Kinda like an egg being fertilized.

If the inventor had happened to hit upon the solution that worked the very first time, I wonder what difference that would have made? Would he have grown through the process which enabled his future work to develop?

Can you imagine if the first piece of art you ever tried turned out to be stunning in all respects? Maybe your first one did! But then, what did you do next?

Can you feel the pressure you'd put on yourself? What would you do for an encore? That kind of "beginner's luck" often results in a "one trick pony" - a person who has one opus and stops dead.

Do you know the reason success is so elusive? Hint: it's not the fear of success. It's the fear of getting outside your comfort zone. The mind isn't comfortable confronting the unknown.

If ever you find yourself trying to "finish" the picture in your mind before starting, it's usually a result of fear. Fear of letting go the illusion of control.

The mind will do handstands to keep from getting into any discomfort of the unknown. It believes that it can and ought to control the whole thing by taking charge of the entire picture from beginning to end.

But living art has to grow. It isn't pre-conceived, like a virgin birth, having the finished product in your mind already formed before beginning. It needs to grow in a natural way, and reveal itself even to you the artist.

I had a fear of the water. Being a visual person, the surface reflections hid what was underneath. I was afraid of what I could not see, the unknown, under the choppy, dark and forbidding surface --- where most of my body would be if I swam.

For my 30th birthday, my sister sent me a scuba mask. I was vacationing on the Isle of Elba. So I donned the mask, lay on a flat rock with just my face in the water.

What a surprise! I could see underwater that it wasn't all dark, choppy and forbidding. It was peaceful and beautiful. I watched as scuba divers were being trained. They seemed to be flying underwater! Oh, what joy and envy I felt!

The next year, I returned to take the scuba lessons. I graduated with flying colours, and secretly learned to swim at the same time.

Getting around this paralyzing fear had the effect of freeing a huge amount of creative energy. I had come to hear the whole message of what my lifelong fear of water was telling me. Until I looked underneath the surface, in safety, I didn't know that my fear was only half heard.

Fears aren't really overcome, so much as heard completely. Your fears are actually blessings. Like mine was saying: "You aren't safe getting into a risky looking place. . . unless you can see what's there." My clenching had always kept me from hearing the second part. Once I heard it, the fear could melt.

It felt as though nothing could happen to me now! This was a period of invincibility. Even after, when frightened, I remembered this experience, and drew strength from it.

While the mind chooses the comfort of the known, the heart rests with the truth.

When you start a work of art, you have to start with something, like my desire to fly underwater. So start with your response to something from your heart, rather than the full blown end result in your mind. I know this can be scary. It can feel like irresponsible madness.

What is negative about 'bad' feelings like fear is that we deny them, rather than the feelings themselves being negative. So, if you can unclench a little, you might be able to hear what else your fears are saying.

Say you're drawn to a stand of trees. Instead of fucusing on how it will turn out, try to stay with the idea of what draws you a little longer. Try to get closer to the feelings; out of your head, and into your heart.

How does your chosen subject feel to you physically? What is there about it that calls you? Not your intellectual explanation, but your heart's truth. It doesn't even have to be in words. Sometimes it's better to not be in words or justifications.

Your feelings are the perfect doorway for you to come into relationship with your subject. It isn't a stand of trees that's your subject, it is your response to this stand of trees.

The seed of your idea can grow into an entity of its own when it is nurtured in relationship with you. With respect, care, and feeding, like any relationship, it may be incubated and grow.

How can you feed an idea? By giving the work what it needs. How can you give what you lack? Feed yourself first and frequently by opening your heart to your Source.

Ask to be filled with whatever you need: love, mercy, strength, compassion, peace. Then you can see the work with innocent eyes, as it develops on your canvas, paper, or clay. By feeding yourself, you will have what it needs, and be able to feed it.

Your art has a life of its own, separate from you. You aren't your art, and your art isn't you. This is one of the truths about the creative process.

This growing seed of an idea is just as attracted to you as you are to it. Did you stop to think that every subject you choose for a work of art, also chooses you to come into relationship with? In the give and take of a relationship, what could it give you in return?

For one thing, you could find out more deeply about why you and it were attracted to one another. You might also learn more about your own inner life. You can become able to "read" your own marks as though reading a secret code.

Viewers will also 'read' so much more of their own meanings in your work as well. Your heart's meanings are transmitted to viewers, and they feel encouraged to find their own rich meanings there. You could easily gain even more raving fans who want to buy your work too. Not a bad side-effect.

When the time comes that no more needs to be done, then you may wish to name or rename the piece. In all likelihood, it will have quite a different persona from at the start. That's a healthy sign of a truly new birth.

It's a big part of your reward, when a new entity grows out of a relationship. A new child is born.

"Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder." Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864

Did this enrich your art making experience? I hope new seeds were planted for you. Celeste Varley

About The Author:

Hello, I'm Celeste Varley and have been an artist at heart all my life. It is my privilege and passion to help seekers move beyond self-expression, to access the seeds of wholeness within. If you like this article, you may want to see more "Fresh Horses" articles on my website. Check it out and see if it's right for you. http://www.heartsongstudio.com Celeste Varley, Heartsong Studio, Helping the Creative Spirit to Soar.

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Are You Blinded By Focusing On The End Product? 
Copyright © 2007-2009 Celeste Varley

When the inventor finally hit upon a filament that would light up a light bulb, do you think he knew, when he arose that morning, that this would be the day? He surely knew that he sought a filament that worked, but he tried all sorts of things that failed before he could find the very thing that succeeded.

It was the process of searching through things that didn't work, that enabled him to find the solution that did work.

Whether you're an artist, a writer, a healer, a parent, a friend, or a salesman, if you set very specific goals and expectations, you might miss an awful lot of potential gains you couldn't have imagined.

While you are intent only on your end goal, you can't pay much attention to anything other than the expected end result. You tend to find only what you have eyes for.

If you're totally focused on looking for one thing, you won't see anything else. The paradox is there's a good chance you wouldn't see the very thing you're seeking either. It's like blinkers on a horse.

We held a yard sale recently. I saw two neighbours coming to look around, and overheard one telling the other that he had one very specific tool in mind. That's all he was looking for. When they left, the other had a number of items, but the first man had nothing.

What's the connection between doing a yard sale and making a work of art?

One man only had eyes for one thing. The other man took in everything there, and allowed himself to be surprised. Approaching a work of art, at the beginning, is like hanging loose with the kernel of an idea. Not an idea that you're very attached to, or clinging to, or have developed in detail.

Clinging to your detailed idea starts and ends with you. If you can relax your insistance a little, and remain willing to be surprised, then you will probably find plenty of unexpected solutions to your general idea.

These "solutions" aren't just your property. Inspiration doesn't come from you alone. It comes through your heart from the Source which is everywhere. So if you have access through your heart, and are receptive, this new inspiration can grow your germ of an idea into a new entity. Kinda like an egg being fertilized.

If the inventor had happened to hit upon the solution that worked the very first time, I wonder what difference that would have made? Would he have grown through the process which enabled his future work to develop?

Can you imagine if the first piece of art you ever tried turned out to be stunning in all respects? Maybe your first one did! But then, what did you do next?

Can you feel the pressure you'd put on yourself? What would you do for an encore? That kind of "beginner's luck" often results in a "one trick pony" - a person who has one opus and stops dead.

Do you know the reason success is so elusive? Hint: it's not the fear of success. It's the fear of getting outside your comfort zone. The mind isn't comfortable confronting the unknown.

If ever you find yourself trying to "finish" the picture in your mind before starting, it's usually a result of fear. Fear of letting go the illusion of control.

The mind will do handstands to keep from getting into any discomfort of the unknown. It believes that it can and ought to control the whole thing by taking charge of the entire picture from beginning to end.

But living art has to grow. It isn't pre-conceived, like a virgin birth, having the finished product in your mind already formed before beginning. It needs to grow in a natural way, and reveal itself even to you the artist.

I had a fear of the water. Being a visual person, the surface reflections hid what was underneath. I was afraid of what I could not see, the unknown, under the choppy, dark and forbidding surface --- where most of my body would be if I swam.

For my 30th birthday, my sister sent me a scuba mask. I was vacationing on the Isle of Elba. So I donned the mask, lay on a flat rock with just my face in the water.

What a surprise! I could see underwater that it wasn't all dark, choppy and forbidding. It was peaceful and beautiful. I watched as scuba divers were being trained. They seemed to be flying underwater! Oh, what joy and envy I felt!

The next year, I returned to take the scuba lessons. I graduated with flying colours, and secretly learned to swim at the same time.

Getting around this paralyzing fear had the effect of freeing a huge amount of creative energy. I had come to hear the whole message of what my lifelong fear of water was telling me. Until I looked underneath the surface, in safety, I didn't know that my fear was only half heard.

Fears aren't really overcome, so much as heard completely. Your fears are actually blessings. Like mine was saying: "You aren't safe getting into a risky looking place. . . unless you can see what's there." My clenching had always kept me from hearing the second part. Once I heard it, the fear could melt.

It felt as though nothing could happen to me now! This was a period of invincibility. Even after, when frightened, I remembered this experience, and drew strength from it.

While the mind chooses the comfort of the known, the heart rests with the truth.

When you start a work of art, you have to start with something, like my desire to fly underwater. So start with your response to something from your heart, rather than the full blown end result in your mind. I know this can be scary. It can feel like irresponsible madness.

What is negative about 'bad' feelings like fear is that we deny them, rather than the feelings themselves being negative. So, if you can unclench a little, you might be able to hear what else your fears are saying.

Say you're drawn to a stand of trees. Instead of fucusing on how it will turn out, try to stay with the idea of what draws you a little longer. Try to get closer to the feelings; out of your head, and into your heart.

How does your chosen subject feel to you physically? What is there about it that calls you? Not your intellectual explanation, but your heart's truth. It doesn't even have to be in words. Sometimes it's better to not be in words or justifications.

Your feelings are the perfect doorway for you to come into relationship with your subject. 
It isn't a stand of trees that's your subject, it is your response to this stand of trees.

The seed of your idea can grow into an entity of its own when it is nurtured in relationship with you. With respect, care, and feeding, like any relationship, it may be incubated and grow.

How can you feed an idea? By giving the work what it needs. How can you give what you lack? Feed yourself first and frequently by opening your heart to your Source.

Ask to be filled with whatever you need: love, mercy, strength, compassion, peace. Then you can see the work with innocent eyes, as it develops on your canvas, paper, or clay. By feeding yourself, you will have what it needs, and be able to feed it.

Your art has a life of its own, separate from you. You aren't your art, and your art isn't you. This is one of the truths about the creative process.

This growing seed of an idea is just as attracted to you as you are to it. Did you stop to think that every subject you choose for a work of art, also chooses you to come into relationship with? In the give and take of a relationship, what could it give you in return?

For one thing, you could find out more deeply about why you and it were attracted to one another. You might also learn more about your own inner life. You can become able to "read" your own marks as though reading a secret code.

Viewers will also 'read' so much more of their own meanings in your work as well. Your heart's meanings are transmitted to viewers, and they feel encouraged to find their own rich meanings there. You could easily gain even more raving fans who want to buy your work too. Not a bad side-effect.

When the time comes that no more needs to be done, then you may wish to name or rename the piece. In all likelihood, it will have quite a different persona from at the start. That's a healthy sign of a truly new birth.

It's a big part of your reward, when a new entity grows out of a relationship. A new child is born.

"Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder."
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864

Did this enrich your art making experience?
I hope new seeds were planted for you.
Celeste Varley

About The Author:

Hello, I'm Celeste Varley and have been an artist at heart all my life. It is my privilege and passion to help seekers move beyond self-expression, to access the seeds of wholeness within. If you like this article, you may want to see more "Fresh Horses" articles on my website. Check it out and see if it's right for you. <a href=http://www.heartsongstudio.com target=_blank>http://www.heartsongstudio.com</a> Celeste Varley, Heartsong Studio, Helping the Creative Spirit to Soar.

Read more articles written by: <a href="http://www.thephantomwriters.com/recent/author/celeste-varley.html" target="_blank">Celeste Varley</a>

TEXT Article Copy-And-Paste

Are You Blinded By Focusing On The End Product?
Copyright © 2007-2009 Celeste Varley

When the inventor finally hit upon a filament that would light up
a light bulb, do you think he knew, when he arose that morning,
that this would be the day? He surely knew that he sought a
filament that worked, but he tried all sorts of things that
failed before he could find the very thing that succeeded.

It was the process of searching through things that didn't work,
that enabled him to find the solution that did work.

Whether you're an artist, a writer, a healer, a parent, a
friend, or a salesman, if you set very specific goals and
expectations, you might miss an awful lot of potential gains you
couldn't have imagined.

While you are intent only on your end goal, you can't pay much
attention to anything other than the expected end result. You
tend to find only what you have eyes for.

If you're totally focused on looking for one thing, you won't
see anything else. The paradox is there's a good chance you
wouldn't see the very thing you're seeking either. It's like
blinkers on a horse.

We held a yard sale recently. I saw two neighbours coming to look
around, and overheard one telling the other that he had one very
specific tool in mind. That's all he was looking for. When they
left, the other had a number of items, but the first man had
nothing.

What's the connection between doing a yard sale and making a
work of art?

One man only had eyes for one thing. The other man took in
everything there, and allowed himself to be surprised.
Approaching a work of art, at the beginning, is like hanging
loose with the kernel of an idea. Not an idea that you're very
attached to, or clinging to, or have developed in detail.

Clinging to your detailed idea starts and ends with you. If you
can relax your insistance a little, and remain willing to be
surprised, then you will probably find plenty of unexpected
solutions to your general idea.

These "solutions" aren't just your property. Inspiration
doesn't come from you alone. It comes through your heart from
the Source which is everywhere. So if you have access through
your heart, and are receptive, this new inspiration can grow your
germ of an idea into a new entity. Kinda like an egg being
fertilized.

If the inventor had happened to hit upon the solution that worked
the very first time, I wonder what difference that would have
made? Would he have grown through the process which enabled his
future work to develop?

Can you imagine if the first piece of art you ever tried turned
out to be stunning in all respects? Maybe your first one did! But
then, what did you do next?

Can you feel the pressure you'd put on yourself? What would you
do for an encore? That kind of "beginner's luck" often results
in a "one trick pony" - a person who has one opus and stops
dead.

Do you know the reason success is so elusive? Hint: it's not the
fear of success. It's the fear of getting outside your comfort
zone. The mind isn't comfortable confronting the unknown.

If ever you find yourself trying to "finish" the picture in
your mind before starting, it's usually a result of fear. Fear
of letting go the illusion of control.

The mind will do handstands to keep from getting into any
discomfort of the unknown. It believes that it can and ought to
control the whole thing by taking charge of the entire picture
from beginning to end.

But living art has to grow. It isn't pre-conceived, like a
virgin birth, having the finished product in your mind already
formed before beginning. It needs to grow in a natural way, and
reveal itself even to you the artist.

I had a fear of the water. Being a visual person, the surface
reflections hid what was underneath. I was afraid of what I could
not see, the unknown, under the choppy, dark and forbidding
surface --- where most of my body would be if I swam.

For my 30th birthday, my sister sent me a scuba mask. I was
vacationing on the Isle of Elba. So I donned the mask, lay on a
flat rock with just my face in the water.

What a surprise! I could see underwater that it wasn't all dark,
choppy and forbidding. It was peaceful and beautiful. I watched
as scuba divers were being trained. They seemed to be flying
underwater! Oh, what joy and envy I felt!

The next year, I returned to take the scuba lessons. I graduated
with flying colours, and secretly learned to swim at the same
time.

Getting around this paralyzing fear had the effect of freeing a
huge amount of creative energy. I had come to hear the whole
message of what my lifelong fear of water was telling me. Until I
looked underneath the surface, in safety, I didn't know that my
fear was only half heard.

Fears aren't really overcome, so much as heard completely. Your
fears are actually blessings. Like mine was saying: "You aren't
safe getting into a risky looking place. . . unless you can see
what's there."  My clenching had always kept me from hearing
the second part. Once I heard it, the fear could melt.

It felt as though nothing could happen to me now! This was a
period of invincibility. Even after, when frightened, I
remembered this experience, and drew strength from it.

While the mind chooses the comfort of the known, the heart rests
with the truth.

When you start a work of art, you have to start with something,
like my desire to fly underwater. So start with your response to
something from your heart, rather than the full blown end result
in your mind. I know this can be scary. It can feel like
irresponsible madness.

What is negative about 'bad' feelings like fear is that we deny
them, rather than the feelings themselves being negative. So, if
you can unclench a little, you might be able to hear what else
your fears are saying.

Say you're drawn to a stand of trees. Instead of fucusing on how
it will turn out, try to stay with the idea of what draws you a
little longer. Try to get closer to the feelings; out of your
head, and into your heart.

How does your chosen subject feel to you physically? What is
there about it that calls you? Not your intellectual explanation,
but your heart's truth. It doesn't even have to be in words.
Sometimes it's better to not be in words or justifications.

Your feelings are the perfect doorway for you to come into
relationship with your subject. 
It isn't a stand of trees that's your subject, it is your
response to this stand of trees.

The seed of your idea can grow into an entity of its own when it
is nurtured in relationship with you. With respect, care, and
feeding, like any relationship, it may be incubated and grow.

How can you feed an idea? By giving the work what it needs. How
can you give what you lack? Feed yourself first and frequently by
opening your heart to your Source.

Ask to be filled with whatever you need: love, mercy, strength,
compassion, peace. Then you can see the work with innocent eyes,
as it develops on your canvas, paper, or clay. By feeding
yourself, you will have what it needs, and be able to feed it.

Your art has a life of its own, separate from you. You aren't
your art, and your art isn't you. This is one of the truths
about the creative process.

This growing seed of an idea is just as attracted to you as you
are to it. Did you stop to think that every subject you choose
for a work of art, also chooses you to come into relationship
with? In the give and take of a relationship, what could it give
you in return?

For one thing, you could find out more deeply about why you and
it were attracted to one another. You might also learn more about
your own inner life. You can become able to "read" your own marks
as though reading a secret code.

Viewers will also 'read' so much more of their own meanings in
your work as well. Your heart's meanings are transmitted to
viewers, and they feel encouraged to find their own rich meanings
there. You could easily gain even more raving fans who want to
buy your work too. Not a bad side-effect.

When the time comes that no more needs to be done, then you may
wish to name or rename the piece. In all likelihood, it will have
quite a different persona from at the start. That's a healthy
sign of a truly new birth.

It's a big part of your reward, when a new entity grows out of a
relationship. A new child is born.

"Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more
it will elude you.  But if you turn your attention to other
things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder."
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864

Did this enrich your art making experience?
I hope new seeds were planted for you.
Celeste Varley

============================================================
Hello, I'm Celeste Varley and have been an artist at 
heart all my life. It is my privilege and passion to 
help seekers move beyond self-expression, to access 
the seeds of wholeness within. If you like this 
article, you may want to see more "Fresh Horses" 
articles on my website. Check it out and see if 
it's right for you. http://www.heartsongstudio.com   
Celeste Varley, Heartsong Studio, Helping 
the Creative Spirit to Soar. ============================================================

Read More Articles From Celeste Varley:
http://www.heartsongstudio.com/fresh-horses/ 
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