Staying On Track Even If I Take A Break

Taking a break over the weekend made me see that working so hard all the time actually makes my work less than it could be. Seems there must be some mathematical equation that would be able to explain this, but I don’t feel like diving into that pool right now.

Anyhow, I do see that breaks are necessary to bettering your work, whatever work that is. It is just one of those things that is true. As in one of my previous posts, where I talked about the need for ease in your life, – “Life Begins at Comfort” – I can see that it really is important to have that give-take experience in what you are working on, especially in the creative world.

Painting has always been that sort of way. You need to break from it to gain perspective. During a long painting session, you get so encumbered with what you are doing, what you are looking at. Try spending five hours looking at the same thing. You just need to take a break from the scenery sometimes, and that is why sometimes I go missing from the blog. I do like to post here every day, but it is necessary to gain perspective at times.

I don’t like to follow a schedule, because for me, I think it blocks my creativity. However, I do think it necessary to work on something that is part of your dream or life’s work every day. I think it’s necessary to stay out of a funk and out of a block so to speak. It is like keeping momentum on an engineless soap box. You need to time all the highs and lows to keep momentum and any stopping will make you not reach your destination.

So I do use a break as a sort of level area where you are neither climbing or descending and it all fits into the equation of racing for the outcome you want. Really there is no end, it seems, but you have to keep on going and if a lull is necessary for the lay of the terrain, then you have to go with it. It is just one of those things.

In any creative act, you have to go with the flow of it. This is something that I have found in my artwork. If I just can’t keep going on a piece, I have to take a break. I can’t stay in the same scenery for too long. Though I do tend to stay in the house most days, it does help me to go out for a store run or something like that every once in a while.

Vacations tend to bother me sometimes, particularly if I can’t work on something to keep my hands busy and keep momentum. When you are riding downhill on a big project, you don’t want to take a break and though it fills the well and helps change scenery, a vacation can make a new engine start or make it come to a halt. The thing for me is not to break too long.

So, I will keep going, even if I have to stop for a pit stop. The juices are still flowing in my subconscious. It is known that during sleep, your brain figures out what is needed for a breakthrough. You can study all night, but if you don’t sleep and get the input of the subconscious, you will not be able to really retain that information. You will keep going, but get nowhere, as if your gears are stripped or the engine burned out.

So if I add some oil or rest to change tires, I am still working on things. I am still in the race, so to speak..

Keep going no matter what you do, even if you crash from time to time, because you can always repair.

So long for now,

tim.