When you are not in the mood to create your art today, your entire day is falling apart. You know you should do what matters but insignificant things get in the way, your energy is down, your focus is weak, and it seems like the day's battle is lost.

Not yet. You can still finish strong no matter what is behind you. To break through this wall, use a simple technique that works:

Say yes!

Yes, it's so simple that you may not even believe it.
Yes, it's so easy to dismiss it and yet... this is all you need to succeed.
Yes, it works because you make a choice for it to work.

Just say it and sit down to work.

When you have created your artwork and want that the world would find out about it, you cannot hope to do this by yelling from the rooftops. There is so much noise already, so much clutter that nobody will notice you. It used to be that you could buy attention but today you simply can't hope to reach everyone you are trying to reach by buying ad space.

What we are left today is finding people who want to hear from you, who care deeply about what it is you are offering. In other words, you need to build a tribe - a group of loyal fans who can't live without you.

You start this by being generous.

There are two things that go into any creative project - money and time. You finish your piece of art when you run out of money or time. For this to happen, you have to have a strict deadline and a budget.

The deadline is important, otherwise you could perfect the work forever. When you pass the deadline - you stop working on the project, stop worrying about it and let the world decide if your piece of art will live or die.

The budget is crucial, too because if you work beyond the financial boundaries, you could go broke.

If you remember your deadline and the budget, your artwork might have a chance to live on its own.

How long should you work on your art in one sitting? Is it OK to do it without resting or should you take a break after a certain period of time?

Although when inspiration strikes, we all can work long hours without even noticing how the time flies, I think it's best to do a short break every 30-45 minutes of work. Your brain is very active when you create and it's best to take a rest so that you would feel the mental and physical energy renewed.

About 5-10 minutes of rest usually is enough. During this period go drink a glass of water, stretch, or take a short walk. In 10 minutes you can come back to your art and work some more if you want.

When you create your art, there is a temptation to take it easy, sort of without much effort. You shouldn't do this. This sluginess will make you lazy.

Instead give it your best mental effort. Everything you've got. Afterwards you will feel exhausted. That's a good feeling for an artist.

If you aren't tired, you probably haven't created much value today.

When you sit down to create something today, one part of you will want to finish the job and stay focused on the task at hand and the other - run away and hide. You know you have to do this, so one part of your mind tells you to exclude all distractions and just be there in this moment. But again another part of your mind is busy throwing all kinds of excuses and all kinds of distractions at you.

"Look, somebody has sent you an email. You have to reply right away."
"Oh, what an interesting idea for my next piece has occurred to me. I have to explore it right now."
"It seems like I'm getting tired. I wonder if I should stop and pick up where I left tomorrow."
"This is getting boring. Surely my listeners/viewers/readers won't like this."
"This is silly. Do I really want this?"

Ignore those thoughts. They will definitely come back but stay focused on your current action as long as you have planned in advance.

Right now is nothing more important as your current sentence, current brush, or current chord.

If you want to start creating your art, you have to decide what it will be about. There are thousands of possibilities and you can feel quite helpless when there are so many ideas to choose from. Your head is swirling from the brilliant themes and you don't know what's the best starting point.

It could be quite the opposite, though. Your head could be empty, you could stare at the blank sheet of paper, a canvas, or computer screen without a slightest idea in your mind.

Here's what really works. Look around you and learn how to see. From seeing and noticing things you can decide what's good or bad.

There's a danger here also - because you don't know where to start, you won't start at all.

Just pick one idea and see where it goes.

...you will feel two urges - a desire to flee and desire to fight.

If you give in to the first - your art will be left uncreated today. If you listen to the second - you have a chance.

Which one do you think your role models (masters of the past and present) chose more often?

Which one will you choose?

The road is not easy - you have face yourself every day and be honest with yourself. The creation of art will never be like a walk in the park on a sunny day - every day you have to struggle, every day you have to feel miserable, every day you have to be in doubt.

With time, however, some things do get easier - your technique, your experience, and mastery. The knowing that you have conquered yourself before. Knowing that you do the thing that matters.

This will bring you peace.

This is your way - if you don't go there, no one else will.

Are you afraid to face a blank page/screen/canvas?

Are you afraid to create your art today?

You should be. You should be scared out of your mind, feeling insecure, and lost.
Because everything that matters scares us, everything that you believe is important is difficult to achieve.

Here's the good news: the Muse will come to help.

You just have to sit down and start.