Arbitrary Deadlines

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.” -Jerzy Gregorek

Most of us loathe deadlines. But when they’re put upon us by someone else (i.e. work or school), we suck it up and make our deadlines. Because we don’t really have a choice.

Arbitrary deadlines are so much harder. Because we can choose. They’re arbitrary. No one’s looking over our shoulder and telling us we have to manifest this piece of art now. The decision is all ours.

And most of us, if left to our own devices, would rather just tinker around. Not decide. Not choose to show our work. Keep hiding.

But, just like eating our veggies, arbitrary deadlines are vital to our artistic health. If we can make friends with them, set them early and often in the process, we’ll be much happier. More fulfilled. We’ll get stronger and grow. And become more confident. Because we’ll have had many artistic experiences to learn from. Experiences in which we started and finished.