It hurts to keep your ass in the chair, breathe through the anxiety, and keep writing.
It hurts to slash certain words out, and keep others in, knowing some are full of truth and others full of meh.
It hurts to keep your fingers on the strings, newbie pluck after newbie pluck, thinking, “that strange not-quite-cohesive sound is coming from… me.”

It hurts, and… it requires respect.

Respect for the pain of growth.

Respect for the learning curve of creation.

Respect for REALITY: no improvement happens without you there, practicing. And no art at all happens without you there, making it.

But when you get into it, when you get practiced at skill of practicing, it starts to hurt so good.

Like feet to the pavement–those thighs loving the ache.
Like tongue traversing a foreign language–that brain loving the rearrange.
Like it’s 4am on a full moon, and you’re sleep-deprived, but no matter, because you simply cannot, will not, refuse to put the paintbrush down until the masterpiece is done.

Love. You start to love the ache.

Ask any creator around: it hurts. But the hurt is profoundly useful. It’s the muscular ache of your soul coming all the way into and through you. Of shedding doubt one note, word, move, or color at a time.

That’s high grade hurt. Helpful hurt. The kind of hurt that grows you up real good.

Let’s up our game, together.

Calling all creators who’ve started something they love, but have yet to sustain the pain of finishing…

Creators Completion Camp.
10 days.
10 micro lessons on finishing what you’ve started. A guided visualization to meet your inner-finisher.
And a private Facebook community to share the process of your completion.

Yum.

All love and a totally true heart,
Rachael

PS–What’s the hurt you wish you’d throw yourself into more often? For the sake of creative consecration? I’d love it if you left a comment and shared your secret truth with us! xoxo