In my life I try to keep things simple
and efficient. Do the things you are supposed to do at the times you
are supposed to do them. I mean the times you -naturally- are
supposed to do them, not by the rule of an artificial mandate. I
visualize this by imagining my “self” as a machine filled with
battery banks. Every segment of my life runs on an individual but
interlinked battery. The batteries supply power to “types” of
energy, such as: artistic, physical, intellectual, literary and other
types of energy. In my experience, running the power too intensely
and too long in any given facet drains energy to the point of
inefficiency. For example, doing too much exercise in a given time
period makes you move slow, you need to take a break to let the
muscles heal. I believe all aspects of human energy are subject to
this.
Nothing is forced in my life, I do
“what makes sense”. I let the most charged battery run the show
until it is depleted. This doesn't mean I get to skip out on our
shared demands of humanity, but it means I arrange those obligations
in a manner wherein they fit with my natural rhythm. I work. I work
incredibly hard, for extended periods of time. When I “feel like
working” I do it. Often, this is for weeks, if not months straight.
12-18 hours per day. I want to do it, it's not tiring. It's not
stressful. I'll wake up before dawn, chug a cup of coffee, then blink
and it's 9 at night. My energy is focused, and i'm highly productive.
Using a fully charged source of energy feels good.
The batteries always run low
eventually. Work that should take 30 minutes takes 3 hours and is
done 50% as well. That's when it's time to stop. Time to recharge the
battery. Time to feed whatever it is in the human mind the food it
needs to stock back up on creative energy. In terms of physical
activity this would be literal food—in creative endeavors I think
the “food” is life experience.
This is not new for me, every year,
sometimes a few times, I go on physical and/or educational binges
that take me into new realms. One year I was so into solar power I
built an 8ft parabolic cooker (which I later took apart because it
was too hard to use, tho it'd ignite wood in a few seconds on a sunny
day). I work just as intensely at these endeavors as I do on the
artistic ones—it feels good to use energy that wants, no, needs to
be used. The view of humans being “one dimensional” specialists
with our lives I feel is flawed. Not to say that it is “wrong”,
but in my experience it isn't real, and at least my mind refuses to
work that way. If I exclude those other dimensions of my existence,
my mind (and body) seems to suffer such stagnation that it directly
translates to the work I create. Boring lives make boring art.
Passion is letting your energy flow freely in the direction it
demands to flow, for as long as it needs to flow.
The idea of using time inefficiently
irritates me, life is short. I believe in using the energy that is
naturally available to you. Every day offers an experience to devour,
something to learn and grow from, and in this extremely short human
existence I want to do it all—I'm a tourist in a human body,
hanging out on a tiny planet, and I got lots to do! So, cheers—i'll
be doing things that are not art until it's time for the creative
energy to flow again!
