Run Your Own Race
It is a beautiful day here in Colorado… let’s face it, every day in Colorado is beautiful. We have a place in Palisade, which is the center of the Colorado Wine Country. ( Jennifer Evans and I host an Art Retreat here every fall. Stay tuned for dates and information coming soon.) Today, as I sit in the sun, I am thinking about running my own race. I wanted to talk a bit about that.
We are, as humans, inclined to compare ourselves to others. Comparison is the thief of Joy, they say. And, They are right. What if you had blinders on? What if you didn’t see what other artists, professionals etc. are doing? What would You do to make yourself happy and achieve what you want??? Wow, that is a biggie. Mostly because now you are probably thinking, “Yes, but…” The bottom line is, there no Buts. There is just you and what you can do and what you want to do and what makes you happy and fills your heart up.
I understand the demands of the world dictate we do things that we may not really want to do; work a job that isn’t your dream job, live where you really don’t want to live, vacation to places you really don’t want to go. My guess is you can place yourself in any or all of these stories.
Let’s take this idea and apply it to your art practice or future art practice… As artists we can tend to live solitary lives. We hole up in our studios (or kitchen tables) and create. It makes us happy, in the moment we are creating. But then, we start scrolling through our social feeds and see what “real artists” are doing and, there goes the joy right down the toilet. Here is the deal, You are not Them. Your goals are not their goals. Your life is not their life. That world and its demands I mentioned early, yep you guessed it ~ Their world is not your world. Run your own race! Be unapologetic about your world. Period.
The one that makes the most money, isn’t always the winner. The one with the most followers are not more successful than you are. Being RICH isn’t about worldly things. Being RICH is practicing self-love and receiving that self-love without attachment to anyone or anything. Just for you, your soul and your heart. Read that again.
Full disclosure, I am thinking about this because I took our dog Rocker on a run this morning. Before I was diagnosed with RA, he and I used to run a 5k a day. It was heaven. I love to run. LOVE IT. Running is a form of self-love for me. Well, RA can put the kibosh on certain areas of your life and running was on of those things for me. I finally found a medicine that allows me to run again (Whoo Hoo!!!!). So, I have may Map My Run app on and I was going along, listening to Van Halen thinking, “Thank You God!” When my Map My Run lady chimed in to let me know that I had completed one mile, and my time was 15.35 minutes. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (can you hear the joy swirling down that toilet?) I was thinking I could freaking walk this fast! Then, I went inside my heart and really examined why I was feeling “Less Than”. Then, I thought, “You know what? All you wanted to do was run and you are running. You have your best little buddy in the world jogging along beside you in the sunshine on your cheeks surrounded by grapevines and mountains. It doesn’t’ matter how fast you are running, it matters THAT YOU ARE RUNNING, JULIE!!!!!” You know what I did? I kept running with a smile in my heart.
This is what I want you to know: If you want to be famous, be famous because it is going to fill you up not because you think you will get better tables at a restaurant. If you want a big house, buy one because it is your personal goal not because you want to outdo one of your neighbors. If you want to run, run to be happier and healthier, not because you want to be like someone else that you saw on Instagram that has 100K followers and looks good. If you want to paint, paint what you want in the style that is a reflection of your heart not because you want to make work for the approval of others.
Find people, be them runners or artists or anything else, that support you and your dreams. Doesn’t matter what those dreams are. Honesty, you can’t even label dreams; Big or Small. They are important to you and that is all that matters. Be proud of yourself. You are doing a great job. And the only job you were put here to do is be happy and share your love and experiences to make this world a better place. And, if YOU are happy, so is the world… we are all connected. Easy Peasy.
Run your own race. And know that I am over here with a cow bell ringing it just for you, when you cross the finish line of every day with a smile in your heart.
Xoxo,
Julie
