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Destructive Thoughts

Purging destructive thoughts that hold you back

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Destructive Thoughts

Many books about art marketing discuss the doubts and fears that hinder artists succeeding in selling their artworks.

Most of them tackle this subject in a different way than I do.

Doubts and fears are created by your mind, and they absolutely disrupt a creative practice, both in the creation phase and in the marketing phase. Doubts usually occur more in the marketing phase because marketing involves other people, and, if you have doubts and fears, you will project your fears onto others, which will doubly paralyze you.

For example, if, after you price your painting, deep in your mind, you think it’s “too expensive,” you will project that thought into your reality and it will create a fear in your mind that other people also think it’s “too expensive.” But that is a false thought, a negative thought, and one that will hold back your sales if you allow the doubt to prevent you from seeing reality as it actually is and then pricing accordingly. Don’t allow fear and doubt to stop you from testing the market and proceeding based upon facts.

How do you solve this destructive mental problem?

Most writers, on this topic, talk about the importance of “mindset” and practicing “positive thinking” to counteract the “negative thinking.”

I call this the “Daily Affirmation” method, named after the old Saturday Night Live skit where a character named “Stuart Smalley” looked into a mirror when he felt he wasn’t worthy of something and said, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!”

While this approach may work for some people, at least for a while, it is not The BoldBrush Way.

In my view, this is the wrong approach and it is not sustainable. “Positive thoughts” are fine, for what they are, and I’m sure practicing “being positive” has helped many artists to move beyond their “negative thoughts”.

But here’s the problem: Your mind is forcing negative thoughts upon you, and, to combat that, you are forcing “positive thoughts” back into your mind. You are engaging in a battle and that takes energy and constant vigilance.

The issue is that thoughts, all thoughts, are created by your mind and they are all, to some degree, a fiction that you are creating in your mind.

The root problem is this: all thoughts are wrong.

It doesn’t matter if you have “doubt.” And it doesn’t matter if you feel “good enough.” What matters is that you take inspired action.

For “positive” and “negative” are just a false duality created by your very mind! Your mind is trying to find and solve “problems” to keep you alive, and you are trying to force it to think “everything is OK’, “I’m good enough.”

That sounds exhausting! Now, in your battle to “feel good”, you have even more thoughts inside your head! You’ve created raging dinosaurs of the mind lumbering around in that head of yours. And that’s a sure way to tune out inspiration.

“Positive thinking” is trying to “fight fire with fire” - fighting thoughts with different thoughts.

But, instead of battling negative thoughts with positive ones. The answer, The BoldBrush Way, is to do what Bruce Lee recommended, to be like water - simply flow around and through these thoughts and allow them to dissipate.

The answer isn't to “fight fire with fire”, it is to withdraw oxygen from the fire and allow it to burn itself out.

The answer is to have no thoughts. To get into a state of “no-mind.” A state of flow. A spiritual state. A state where “you” and “your thoughts” have disappeared and stopped blocking Creation from blowing life into you.

When you reach this state, even when a stray thought appears, you will be able to observe it as an impartial observer, and your mind will appear to be a child throwing a temper tantrum over something trivial. In that state, you simply chuckle and say, “Ahh, my mind is throwing a tantrum again, but that isn’t reality.” And you take the action you need to take and your mind-child stops crying and moves on to something else.

Practice this enough, and, eventually, it will become effortless and eventually your mind will give up and serve you, the master, and return to its rightful place as a tool that serves your true self. So don’t allow your mind-child to enslave you with it’s tantrums, simply ignore it, and take your rightful place as the master of your life and your creative calling.

Creatively,

Clint Watson
BoldBrush Founder
Creativity Fanatic

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