Getting Down To Business

This is the eighth month-time to get down to business. In numerology, the number eight carries with it a business-like, professional or organized approach to things. I am in the process of cleaning up and organizing my home/studio. This type of maintenance is frequently neglected by creative types. We tend to either jump in without always thinking things through and don't always look back until it's too late, or we think about something endlessly and have a hard time making up our minds or sometimes never make a decision. Preparing or repairing one's personal and professional environments is vitally important to our overall creative potential and productivity. Think of it as something similar to taking time to prepare a canvas properly. Many of us when we were younger have had the experience of being impatient in these matters and later regretted our haste. Of course one can buy already prepared canvases just as one can hire someone to clean up after us or organize our space. But I want to suggest that going through this process yourself is of value and will build much needed skills if done consistently over time. Working within a somewhat chaotic environment may be fine with many of us-for a while. We can do it for quite a long time, but eventually a lot of creative types to accumulate too much clutter- a kind of critical mass. When this happens, we may not be able to find things we need. For the person who keeps an organizational map of everything in their head, finding yourself in this situation can be very frustrating. Sometimes we end up buying a second or third tool which we already have. It may take time to realize that we need to do something about this, because we're often amused by ourselves and some of us are particularly slow learners, but eventually we begin to see the need and understand that there may be some benefit to taking care of certain things. Reinventing the wheel can be beneficial from time to time, it can even be the source of new discoveries, but it is not an efficient way to get things done on a daily basis, nor is it a good way to get around to the things you really love, especially if don't have enough time in you day/ life and you're having to redo something you may have already put a lot of time and energy into because you misplaced it.

Anyway, that's what I'm telling myself as I try to get things straightened up around here. Even baby steps can be encouraging, but today I actually did a lot. Breakfast with a friend who is always a ray of sunshine and then seeing an inspiring movie 500 Days of Summer, then coming home and getting back to cleaning and sorting, then working on several small sculptures, and writing quite a bit too. It was a very satisfying day.
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