I was very discouraged by my art this morning. I sat down with myself and we discussed it. Based on my somewhat esoteric understanding of the universe, everyone has a purpose, a reason for being, or a lesson to learn from being here. So, I look back at my life and there is a definite pattern: I am very good at a lot of things, but not really excellent at anything, with the outstanding exception of college. I did REALLY well in art school. So, I said to myself …
What if my purpose or lesson is to be very good at a lot of things…. what if my purpose is not to be "fabulous excellent outstanding" at a lot of things? It is our culture and society (of which I am highly skeptical anyway) that tells us there is some thing more valuable about being EXCELLENT than being very good.
But, what if that’s not the truth … what if there isn’t anything more valuable about being EXCELLENT … what if that is an artificial standard? That instead, being very good, if that is your purpose or dharma, is the ideal for YOU.
IF that were the case, then giving up because you can not be EXCELLENT would be the worst thing. Even dispairing that you are not EXCELLENT instead of very good would be pointless and defeating to the purpose of your being here. Being very good may very well be the top of the goal for you. That edge is where your soul is learning at this point in time, in this lifetime, it its ultimate evolution.
I was beginning to think (again) this illustration project was way out of my league. That there was no way I would have 2-3 years to do all the study and practice to even begin to illustrate something. But then I remembered that I am an EXCELLENT student. That is something I am excellent at, and so my ability to learn quickly is my best shoe horn, so to speak, to accomplish the task at hand. So I decided not to worry that I don't have volumes and volumes of sketch books to use as references. I can learn as I go in the process of designing the book, and if the book is only very good instead of EXCELLENT, that's okay too. Have a most excellent day.
