Are you trapped in maybe, that special indecisiveness that can haunt an artist? Find out more now!

What does being trapped in maybe sound like?

Q: “Which will be your painting days this week?”

A: “Maybe I can get in some painting on Tuesday and Thursday.”

Q: “Will you approach some galleries on your trip to New York?”

A: “Maybe if I have a little time left over after family obligations.”

Q: “When are you planning on moving to the larger format paintings we discussed?”

A: “Maybe when I can find some cheaper canvas.”

And so on.

If a client of mine can break free of the maybe trap startling growth can occur. After two phone coaching sessions a famous singer-songwriter on the verge of refusing to go into the studio to record his new album switched his mind from “Maybe I need more time to prepare” to “Yes, I can record right now.” A painter made the movement from “Maybe I can afford a model now and then” to “I can’t afford not to hire models!” With that new yes came a burst of creative effort. Both in our personal and our creative lives, good things happen when we champion yes.

Why then do we so often say maybe rather than yes? For all the obvious reasons, including the fact that, even when we say yes, there is no guarantee that our work will turn out well. Yes is just a starting point, not a conclusion. After the yes comes the work, with its successes and failures, elations and letdowns. So yes is not pure deliciousness but only the opening without which good things can’t happen. If unfortunate things regularly happen—if we start but don’t finish a project, if we finish it but don’t like it, if we like it but can’t sell it, and so on—it has hard to say yes the next time.

Since we often get these very mixed results from saying yes, we begin to wonder if saying yes is worth the effort. Why bother? Why stretch? Why sweat? Why create? If all the work that it takes to paint a dozen paintings nets us only one we truly love and if trying to sell our output is like swimming against the tide, why say yes? Why not stay in maybe, which doesn’t get us what we want but at least avoids some anguish? Why not collude to take an easier path, one defined perhaps by keeping track of the state of the economy and the state of our shoes?
Well, we know why. Next week I’ll explain “why” really clearly!