Participation trophies have a bad rap.
In sports, it’s certainly reasonable that the trophies, medals, and ribbons go to the team or athlete who won. It’s a contest.
But the arts aren’t like that. Neither is entrepreneurship. Neither is learning a new skill. You win by doing it — by showing up day after day to do the work and get better. It’s not a competition. “The best” is irrelevant.
Read MoreWhen I first started my email list for Eclectic Music, I was self-conscious about writing to so many people at once.
I was terrified that I would make a mistake — even a typo — that would cause people to roll their eyes and assume that I didn’t know what I was doing. I worried that I would share an idea that people would think was stupid.
What’s more, I was concerned that I was bothering people every time I sent an email out. I imagined that my relationship with these people was so tenuous and fragile that one false move would crush it. “Now she’s gone too far!” they’d say grimly, deleting the offending missive. “Who does she think she is?”
Read MoreWhen I was a kid first setting out to write songs, I was terrified of copying someone else. I wanted my stuff to be totally original.
I eventually realized that no one would ever care if a teenage girl in Maine happened to steal a chord progression or a bit of melody from an established artist. Everything was fair game.
This playful attitude freed me up to create without worry. I was able to forge my own path without thinking at all about what other artists were doing.
Read MoreAfter spending most of the last quarter of last year making a dining-room table-full of holiday gifts, I decided that I wanted to knit some things for myself.
I made a shawl and a hat and some fingerless mitts; a cape and a couple pairs of leg-warmers. But what I really wanted to make was a sweater.
And then I spent hours combing Ravelry (a website for knitters and crocheters) for juuuust the right one. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so I considered designing my own.
Read MoreWhether we’re talking about a business venture, an ambitious piece of art, raising children, or getting through seventh grade, some projects are so long-term that the completion date is “someday,” which feels like effectively never.
In such a situation, at mile 16 of the marathon when the finish line is a distant dream and the starting line only a bitter memory (How young we were then! How foolish!), we may find ourselves losing steam.
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