How are you sleeping these days? Maybe I can help.
Creatives usually have one common trait, unusual given that their overriding characteristic is usually one of originality; and that is passion. Passion for their art form, and very often, a passion for life itself.
Jeremy Piven says to John Cusak in the film ‘Serendipity’, “You know the Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died — Did he have passion?”
The word passion is derived from the Greek “to suffer, to be acted on” and the Latin passio “passion, suffering”, and it denotes strong and intractable emotion or inclination with respect to a particular person or thing.
In his book, ‘Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain’, the neuroscientist and author Antonio Damasio concludes that “passions have a say on how the rest of the brain and cognition go about their business. Their influence is immense.”
Which maybe helps us to understand how it is that creatives can become totally driven about their work; and why sometimes they can benefit from a helping hand in keeping a healthy balance between the closely related states of passion and obsession (from the Latin ‘obsessio’, “a besieging, to besiege”).
When I’m working on a film, engaged in writing for a book, or I’m close to the culmination of a goal that has taken a good deal of suffering to achieve, I confess to becoming so passionate about the project, subject or undertaking, I might be described as ‘mildly obsessed’.
In fact, this is precisely how I was described when I asked permission to sleep overnight in the karate dojo where I would be examined the next day for my coveted Dan grade – a black belt. Only my Sensei, my teacher, guide and mentor – my coach – truly understood why I felt such commitment to my quest; and why it became the proudest day of my life.
Talking things through with someone who understands – because they’ve been there – can help stop those lonely bouts of 3 o’clock in the morning, wide-awake wondering and restlessness.
The waiting list for my coaching services and details of my coaching content, including how to download my free eBook on the benefits of coaching for creatives, awaits you here:
www.soundproducer.com.au/coaching
Joining my waiting list is an easy and non-committal way to receive more details and to arrange a 1-to-1 Zoom call to discuss your own needs.
