Sometimes I Get High

In the pursuit of a long term goal, we all experience the draining lows and the dizzying highs and one of the most important things to do is stay on the correct path during both seasons. Both states of mind have their way of presenting temptation to wander away, but confronting the situation head-on has always helped me to continue moving forward. 

This may seem cold, but I have found that maintaining a certain amount of indifference is a key to perseverance. Because working alone can feel lonely, having less concern for the effects aids in moving past it. That is a difficult thing to do sometimes because it feels torturous, but this reminds me of a statement made by my favorite comedian:

"Find the torture that you are comfortable with." - Jerry Seinfeld

Let's take notice that I am a visual artist and he is a comedian, these are very different roles, but the path to reaching excellence is so similar. We all get high and we all get low, yet we keep working, how? Each person has to make their own way, and build their own ladder. No person that I look up to can make me them and I cannot make any person looking up to me me. Here are five top tips I use for staying focused:

- When the work is all good, I receive positive energy and I can spend it and flaunt it on some fun activity, until I need to work again. Instead, I reinvest it by putting all the positivity back into the work, to make it better and promote a greater return in the future.

- Love the lows: How can anything be positive, if there are no negatives? I dream of the greener grass when I feel down, I know it is just over the hill and me attaining it is inevitable.

- Surround yourself with what is good for you. Just like food, whatever we put into ourselves, becomes a part of us. If we eat loads of fat, we get fat. If we fill our vision up with other people who are positive, kind, and peaceful, all that becomes a part of us.

- Analyze from the inside and from the outside. When I am judging my performance, I think about it as my own actions, but then I also look at myself as if I were a different person. This simply provides two points of view.

- Always keep in mind that past success is in the past, we have to make new successes to enjoy in the present.