Week 8: Recovering a Sense of Strength

I'll be brief, because this chapter is packed with tips and words of encouragement on how to tackle the enemy of time and its partner- fear.
We will all suffer losses as artists: the book doesn't sell, our poem is not selected, a jury doesn't take our painting- so,we have to learn the art of survival. The most important thing I took away was "the next thing." The next tiny, scary, baby step towards what it is we want to accomplish-'our artistic dream.' Instead of becoming paralyzed by the big picture: the novel, a screenplay, pursuing artistic painting as a career, we can take small steps in the right direction. "Small action lead us to the larger movements in our creative lives...Large changes occur in tiny increments."
We recover a sense of strength when we remove the fear of failure caused by focusing on the big , and instead begin doing the little things in our everyday world that bring us closer to where we wish to go.

Sherry ScottThe Year My Mother Died: A Memoir
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