I stumbled across this quote when reading Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist Way:

“Question: Do you know how old I’ll be by the time I learn to play the piano?

Answer: The same age you will if you don’t.”

It is simple. But it made me realize how easy it is to avoid the process at all costs.

For instance, when I start reading a new book, the first concern I have is: “Oh, this is going to take time, should I really do it?”.

By the time I get to the middle of it, I think: “Well, it’s not that bad and I’m actually learning something”.

As I approach the end, I try to speed it up and get done with it. And when it is finally over, I feel super accomplished.

Then I proceed to start a new book and the same cycle happens again. And again, and again. Until I decided to understand it.

That pain of having to start something and the knowing you will have to continue will never be mastered until we fully get a good grasp of the process.

After comprehending it, it is much easier to identify where you are in it and enjoy it.

Let’s be honest the majority of our lives will probably be spent in the middle of the book because it is the longest part. And even when we finish with one particular book, there will be others.

So, the sooner we accept that the beginning is hard as the end is quick, the more we can learn to have fun in the middle, in the process.

“We like to focus on having learned a skill or having made an artwork. This attention to final form ignores the fact that creativity lies not in the done, but in doing.”

Julia Cameron

It’s much more comfortable to look at the big picture and realize it takes time and conclude you would be a fool for even trying than to take the baby steps in order to make it there.

I spent a lot of time this year, trying to master the pain of starting and continuing something. Trying to accept the process and be friends with it. Letting it be my teacher.

I tell you, it’s much more pleasant than making it your enemy.

“Focused on process, our creative life retains a sense of adventure. Focused on product the same creative life can feel foolish or barren.”

Julia Cameron

The good news is process produces results over time. Even though I love this idea, I admit it: it’s hard to put it to action, sometimes. That’s why I always try to observe real-life small progress and see how I have acquired them.

I wrote once about adulting in this article, and how it was so impressive that parents just know things. Their knowledge comes from a life of successive “trial & error” situations.

Recently, I realized that I, too, gained some of this form of expertise. I can now say that I know how to make good rice in 98% of the time.

As unimportant of an event, this might sound as, to me, it made me realized that I “mastered” something I kept working on for a long time until I finally got it right. And that got me even more confident about the process.

We are on the verge of a new year and we may think that there’s nothing to do with this year anymore, but that is not true, because it is all process. Life is process.

Start now or start next year, it will probably take you the same amount of time. Start now, though, and you will make it there sooner.

What do you say?

Your friend,

Ana Zarb.