We like to think that we have control over what happens to us, but the truth is that we really don’t have nearly as much control as we’d like to have. Life is a constant flow of gain and loss, pleasure and pain, fame and infamy. The minute we think we have it all figured out and things are going our way…it starts to fall apart. There’s nothing wrong with this and no one is to blame; it’s just the rhythm of life.
What we do have control over is our reaction to what happens to us. In every situation we can choose to be open or closed to what’s happening. It can be difficult to stay open when the experience is in any way hurtful, but for an artist there is really no other choice.
Being open to all of your experiences is an artistic job requirement. Your job is to experience all of life so that you can illuminate it deeply, clearly, and honestly in your work.
If you choose to close down around difficult experiences, you are cutting off access to whole parts of your emotional spectrum and thus diminishing yourself as an artist.
So stay open to it all…
Open to rejection. No matter how successful you become, you’re always going to lose more jobs than you gain, so
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