You're Ready Now

You're ready now. So often we think that we need more training, more experience, when I get the skills, or the nice paint or the private loft studio with huge windows pouring in natural light... then I'll be ready, then I'll make my masterpiece and my life will change.

Nope. Doesn't work like that. You are ready right now in this minute, and you are the best artist that you'll ever be. That's the truth. The best thing any artist can do is to awaken to the moment they are in, to do the best they can with their means, to work consistently and to open themselves to the possibilities of discovery.

I don't believe in the future. I don't believe in waiting for one thing to end and another to begin. I don't believe in excuses. I don't buy them. You can't entertain me with why you didn't, why you can't, and why you're not doing it now.

The answer is simple: you are as good as you're ever going to be in this moment right now. It's not about waiting to be "better". It's not about the golden moment that lies ahead. It's about digging deep. It's about finding what you already know. It's about making big mistakes so you can discover the one thing that is actually yours.

The fancy tools are just fancy tools. There's more implications that come with them. Perhaps there's more pressure and perhaps that's precisely the thing that gets in the way from making true art.

Remember: It's always going to be about awakening to the moment you are in with what you have right here and right now. It's about discovering yourself. It's about a journey that is personal. It's about freedom, freedom from attachment, to your job, your family, your friends, your past, your expectations, your anxieties, freedom from it all, all of it. Trust me. It's about losing yourself to something greater, something we can't explain, and thank God we can't. The boredom that would come from explaining is more than I can mention. Explaining is too easy. Anyone can explain themselves. I want to exalt in something uncommon, something that's never been done before, something that's mine. I want to feel alive. I want to live as deep as I can in the most authentic questions, and then I want to go deeper, further, and messier. Then I will feel like maybe I'm tapping into why I'm here. Anything less would not be a life worth living.

I want to ride the waves of passion. I want to be at the grip of discipline. I want to feel like I'm transcending deep into the raw moment of genius.

As Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said, "Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." He's got it. That's it. That's as simple, honest and truthful as I've ever come in my understanding. I believe it. And you can love, right here and right now.

Stop making excuses. Stop living in something that doesn't exist. It's an illusion. This notion of "a better day". This feeling that "if and when" I'm going to ride the waves of my true calling. No. You're not. You won't ever ride any wave until you loosen your grip on expectation and feel what it is you are right now. Pick up your tools, as rusty as they may be, and make something. Do it will all of your heart. Do not hesitate, and do not settle for anything less, ever. Do it with all of your heart and then do it again. Over and over and over until the momentum carries you to something great. I think only then will you understand what it means to be yourself, to be alive and to live your calling.

You're ready now.