My Journey with The Artist's Way (So Far)

It has been 6 weeks since I started my journey with The Artist’s Way, and I have to say, it’s pretty life-changing. I’m at the halfway point, and to be honest, I’m very surprised I’ve gotten this far at all. If I gave this exercise to 2023 Deb, she would’ve completely failed. (Though to be fair, I still have 6 weeks to go so I could still fail). 

The Artist’s Way was something I always heard about in the art community – people said it was the book that ”creatively unblocks you” when you really need it. The phrase “morning pages” was even more common, and was used by people who weren’t even reading the book. I did try morning pages a few years ago, but failed to maintain it longer than 2 weeks. I think I failed because I didn’t truly understand why I was doing it, and I felt like it was a chore more than anything.

I bought the book earlier this year on a whim – but let it gather dust on my shelf for a few months because I didn’t really need it – I was at my peak creativity at the time. A few months later however, I started to feel a strain on my artistic practice. I was dreading drawing, and struggled to create anything I was remotely happy with. I started to fear being creative because I wasn’t ready to face the reality that I may not improve at the pace I wanted.

So how has it been so far?

In short – It’s been really good. I’m glad I picked up the book at the time when I did, because I am 100% more equipped to succeed than a few years ago. Since last year I’ve really become less precious about making everything perfect, and I’m being more kind to myself on the creative journeys I go on. If you want to complete The Artist’s Way you have to be in a similar mental space too.

I would say the practice of “Morning Pages” and “Artist Dates” is probably the most significant, I’ve seen a big increase in excitement when it comes to creativity. Within a week of starting, my fear and dread completely disappeared and I was drawing again (and I don’t think it was a coincidence either). I would definitely recommend this journey to anyone who is creatively blocked because you may surprise yourself.

These are a few of my takeaways from the journey so far.

Takeaway 1: Do everything you can to decrease friction and keep yourself on your journey

When it comes to morning pages, the book recommends writing 3 full pages of stream of consciousness. Back in the day, when I did morning pages on my own without The Artist’s Way as a guide, I tried to do this in my journal and quickly gave up. There were a few reasons for this: I find it very straining on my hands to write 3 pages non-stop, my penmanship is not great and it can get very messy and unreadable (which means it’s harder to read back on), and time wise, I don’t feel like I have a lot of dedicated time to complete them.

So I changed my approach this time – instead of writing by hand, I typed up all my morning pages (way more organised!), and instead of doing 3 pages (equivalent to 750 words), I chose 500 words as a goal, so that way I had time on my morning commute to do other things like reading or drawing.

I decided that instead of trying to make things perfect and by-the-book, I would use the core technique cited in Atomic Habits. The book tells you to “just show up”, and work on doing something consistently instead of perfectly. The main goal of morning pages is to do it every morning, so I adapted my approach so I could easily succeed in that goal.

When it comes to The Artist’s Way’s weekly exercises, I complete all of them, but I tend to do them digitally and in words, so even if the task asks me to draw a picture, I tend to write a description instead (Call me lazy, but the task is still completed). When it asks me to physically write a letter to myself and post it, I write an email and schedule it to be sent in a month’s time (It does the same thing but it’s way more time efficient). If I feel any sense of friction to complete a task, I remove the friction and do the task in the easiest way possible.

Takeaway 2: Morning pages are incredibly valuable even if I write gibberish every day

Morning pages are supposed to be a stream of consciousness, and while I initially thought it wouldn’t make a massive difference in my life, it really has. Some days admittedly are slogs (I don’t always have 500 words fresh in my head in the morning), but I’ve found the benefits have been incredible. I definitely have felt more focused during the day – and this was very apparent when I substituted my morning pages for writing *this* every article for 2 days. The Monday and Tuesday I skipped out on – I immediately felt more frazzled and irritable throughout the day, and I don’t think it was a coincidence.

Takeaway 3: The Artist’s Way is about prioritising and valuing yourself

My biggest takeaway from The Artist’s Way was the importance of prioritising yourself and your creative time. I definitely know I prioritise my needs (I take care of myself as much as possible when I can), but I don’t always value my own time above work or social events.

I’m an introvert, and spend a lot of my alone time resting, sleeping, rotting in bed, doom scrolling, and keeping my life in order. Time alone takes up 50% of my weekly hours, so I automatically prioritise social events because I assume they are more rare and harder to come by.

Over the years, this has proven to be the opposite, with my social calendar being healthy and full – and I rarely spend time on my own creative practice. Not that I’m complaining – my favourite part of my life is hanging out with my friends and family, but there’s a part of me that yearns for more time to rest and do creative things on my own. I used to put a hold in my calendar for a “Deb Date” every month, but time and time again, I’d skip over it because it felt like a waste to do that when I could use that time hanging out with my friends (after all, I hang out with myself all the time when I’m alone!).

I realised actively hanging out with myself needed to be a conscious choice, and The Artist’s Way reminded me of that. By valuing my time just as much as time with others, I felt like I was taking care of myself a bit more. This gave me some room to rest, and then gave me energy to be creative on my own.

Takeaway 4: I did this journey at the right time

As I mentioned earlier, I definitely know I started this journey at the right time. I’m a born perfectionist, and while it’s hard to shake that off completely, I have been more forgiving of myself in the past few years. I’ve learnt the true meaning of the platitudes “Done is better than perfect” and “The journey is the goal”. Mentally, I’m more accepting of failure and trying multiple times – and my life is more stable than it was previously. I have a routine, I know my habits and rhythm really well, so if things go awry I know exactly how to counter it.

To succeed at The Artist’s Way, I think you’ll have to accept the journey will be uncomfortable, and requires you to prioritise it. It can be tiring to do something for a long period of time (12 weeks is a lot!). If you fail, it probably means you didn’t want to do it enough, you’re afraid of the outcome, or your lifestyle doesn’t suit it right now. These are all valid reasons, and these are reasons I failed at previous creative endeavours. I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish this one though!

Takeaway 5: I learnt I am afraid of failure and success

In the previous takeaway I mentioned that most people don’t follow through on most creative projects because they’re afraid of the outcome. This often comes down to two reasons: success and failure — and surprisingly, I’m scared of both. Let me explain.

When it comes to fear of failure – I don’t want to face the reality that no matter how hard I try, I’ll never be good enough or reach the potential I’ve made up in my head. Even now, I do worry about my own journey with design and drawing because I wonder if I’ve already hit my limit, and my skills cannot progress. (Objectively I know this is false, but my anxiety likes to swirl in this narrative).

On the other hand, it has become apparent to me recently that I’m incredibly fearful of success. There’s a few reasons for this – more success means more eyeballs on my work, progress, and me as a person. Impostor syndrome kicks in – being afraid to be found out that I’m not as good as the success I’ve managed to accidentally achieve. And last but not least, when people succeed, things will change. This was something I struggled with after the success of Timeblock Planner and Expense Tracker, after getting so much attention, I found myself being the “productivity queen”, running a new business (when I was just recovering from burnout from my last one), and I was paralysed trying to make a new move not knowing what that meant for my lifestyle (which I had become really comfortable with). Losing a sense of autonomy (even from success) is a scary thing, and I really love keeping everything of mine small and on a random corner of the internet. I get to set my standard for my schedule, creativity and progress.

During this journey, I’ve been coming to terms with these fears so it doesn’t get in the way of my creative practice. I think I’m getting a bit better but I know there will be ebbs and flows.

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All in all, my journey with The Artist’s Way has been incredibly effective and fulfilling. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is interested or feels creatively blocked. (This is also the first blog I’ve written in several months, so this is proof I’m doing better!)

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