The Hamster Cage
Last week a former student came by my studio to show me the tiny amount of work he had done in the past four months.  He is incredibly talented, plus he has never been to art school so his style is very fresh and interesting.  The problem is that he is not able to get much done, even though he has the time.

After chatting with him for an hour, he told me that he’s had a problem since childhood.  He starts making something, but he feels like it is never good enough, so he stops working.  I think of this as the hamster cage problem.  Our minds have a little corner where there is a hamster in a spinning cage that generates these thoughts: “That’s not good enough!”, “You have no talent!”, “You’ll never succeed!”, “That won’t work!” and on and on. 

Some people are able to ignore the hamster cage thoughts and some are not.  I had this problem, but I realized as a teenager that the thoughts were always the same, no matter how good or bad the work was. So I stopped listening to them.  It took a decade to completely ignore them.  Finally, I was able to experiment and do something completely odd without hearing a little harpy voice in my mind that said “That won’t work!  That’s just awful.  Forget about it!  Go back to that safe thing that you do…”

Put Ass in Chair
The other reminder that helps is to simply concentrate on putting your ass in the chair, or next to your stand up desk, everyday.  If you can get that far, you will start working.  You may intend to work for only a few minutes, but, if you enjoy it, you may continue working for hours.  If you don’t enjoy it, do something else.  Work discipline can be inherited from one or both parents.  Fortunately, it can also be generated by putting you ass in the chair everyday.

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