Keys to consistency
& artistic growth
original podcastIntro
Hi everyone! I'm happy to announce this as dp-cast #1, the first in my Steemit podcast series. In this one I'll describe some tips for getting and remaining consistent with an artistic craft and also expanding in it. I'll use a lot of examples from the vein of poetry, since that is my experience. Click the links below to listen to the podcast! I also provided a complete transcription (minus some "ands, uhs and you knows.) in case you want to read along. The language is casual and not always grammatically correct because I am just reproducing what I said here. I hope you enjoy this one! Please leave feedback if you have any! (Note: if streaming
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Complete transcription
Greetings
Hello and greetings everyone! This is Dan Pendergraft a.k.a 
The main topics that I always like to address is mainly how to find the balance between extremes, because I feel like this pathway of moderation and staying in the middle, staying in suspension between polarities is a very important part of our role as a human being and the overall growth of our consciousness and our collective conscious.
I do wanna keep it sometimes more grounded, and other times maybe go into more metaphysical topics and I want it to be very interactive, so, request any topic that you want me to go into and I would be happy to if I feel that I have the basis to launch into that.
Introduction
So today I want to address something that I feel like is very pertinent to what I've been doing for the past several months, on Steemit I joined in June of 2017 and I really just approached it with a very simple intention, and that was to post every day and to try and post one poem per day and with [other than] a handful of days, I somehow was able to stick to that which was a big shifting moment in my life, because I have been, over the course of my 27 years rather inconsistent at times.
So, today's topic is going to be "Keys to consistency and artistic growth" and I want to keep it somewhat pertinent to any artistic medium and if you know me, you know that my philosophy is that living itself is art so everything is art. So it really doesn't matter whatever your chosen medium is, this should be somewhat pertinent and I will use examples from the vein of writing and poetry since that's what I've been practicing for the past 7 months.
Select medium & set intention
So, on step one, I just put "select your medium and set intention," right so very basic stuff: you need to determine what medium you want to actually grow your consistency in, and it reminds of the quote by a painter who said that "life obliges her to do something, so she paints." and I feel the same way with poetry. I don't subscribe to this idea that, Oh, we have one thing or "I am very talented in this way, I am very gifted in this way."
So much of it has to do with practice, so, choose a medium that you very much enjoy, that you feel like has some depth, significance to your life, that is somewhat natural to you, but also a challenge. Because at times if you pick the artistic mediums that are too natural to you, it can feel so easy and you will burn out and not feel the same amount of depth to it.
This can happen with musical prodigies that were already, you know, had a lot of skill when they were 3, 5, etc. you'll see that they often go towards other veins because it just doesn't have the heart for them. So, that's very important, whatever you really have a passion on.
My experience & intentions
I can share from my own experience that the first thing I was very serious about in my life was music, and I'm a pianist and a singer and a composer and I studied that in my undergraduate program and I became very serious about this on a daily basis practicing. I really became fully consumed with it and obsessed with it and it got to a point to where I didn't always have the right motivations to be doing this for 4, 5, 6 hours a day.
So, that's where the intention comes in and they can vary. You don't always have to have some lofty intention like "the salvation of humanity" but it's something that makes you feel that you have a purpose in living and that you can go day to day [with.] And of course it will be many different things.
You know, for me with poetry it's a different type of abstract appreciation and gratitude for life, so it's an ode to existence itself. It's also a journaling, a form of abstract journaling where I can document my experiences so that I'm leaving something tangible behind, and for myself. And I also learn through the art, so realize that your art form will also teach you.
Setting daily goals
So once you have your medium and your intention, then you need to have a certain type of goal that you can look to that's very concrete that you can do. So for me, it was very simple, I just said "Every single day, I want to write and post a poem."
That is something that you can always go back to in your mind and [use to] refresh you because you have to realize that there are days where you may feel sick, there are days where you may feel more depressed or uninspired or whatever the case may be. And then there may be days where you feel extremely energized and creative and you also have to be careful not to overdo it on those days because you can really sap your energy that you'll need on days that you're more on low points.
Setting longer term goals
So, you can also set more medium term and long term goals with your craft. For me, they're a little bit more vague, where it's more so just, you know, a more medium term goal for me would be to become more adept in communicating and evoking feelings in the readers, you know, not just having something that is an intellectual exercise or something that only I can comprehend, but being able to transfer that energy to my readers.
And then a long term goal, again for me it's a little bit casual; my long term goal would just be to develop myself as a writer and have my writing be able to encompass more & more of who I am and my mission, and how I connect to people and what my purpose is here on this planet. So think about those different goals. Okay?
Work every single day
And then we already covered this, but it's, you know, "work nearly every day." And many of the greats in their respective categories will tell you "You need to work on your craft every single day." (basically.) There can be some days off, very rare! I would not even say once a week or once every two weeks. Because there's a momentum with this.
I know some people will come back and say "beware of burnout" and I will agree. That's why I would say every day, but I don't say all day. Because when I'm doing this poetry, there were some days that it was really only 1 hour, 1 and a half hours, 2 hours out of the day. That's not that big of a chunk, but, it's way different than zero minutes.
So try and keep those "zero minute days" very rare, and to be honest, if you have an artistic medium that you feel like is really a major part of your purpose on the planet, then you will find it hard to actually take days off as well, because, even if you take a day of creating on your craft, if it's musical or cooking or something like this, then you will most likely still be drawn towards reading some poetry or watching a video on this topic or listening to music if you're not taking your hand and actually writing.
Variation is important
So that goes into the next thing which is "Vary up the format, the topic, the vibe." You know, you are an expansive being, we all are, we are dynamic! So don't get too locked into these concepts of "Oh, this is who I am & this is how my art is" and all of this mental clutter of what you feel that your self-definition is, that your role is.
Allow it to be an exploration for you, allow yourself to go through that discovery because that's one of the most amazing parts of the process, that, if you keep this self-concept at bay then you will find yourself to expand so much more than if you say "Oh, well I'm an esoterical writer." or "Oh, I express on the topic of anger." or whatever you may think.
Because to be a human being is to be a microcosm of every energy in the universe so that means that you can go into any of those depending on what you energize. So it's an active and a passive process and we are always finding the balance between that. Okay?
Find & interact with your audience
And then, the next thing that I've found very productive for myself was to "interact with your audience" and this is another factor in how I've been able to actually continue doing what I'm doing for so long because there is energy that I receive back. And even when I was doing podcasts before, I did not have a consistent audience or a consistent response and it was something, then, that dwindled for me.
That even if I had an audience I didn't always receive that feedback and when I found Steemit I found an amazing medium for that. Of course I tried to... It was part of the reason why I even got delegations and I wanted my upvote to be stronger because I wanted to be able to reward these commenters who are bringing everything full circle for you and that will also expand your craft. Because it's a balance, you don't need to be fully pandering to people. You know, I'm not sitting and thinking "Oh, What will people like?" when you're creating but however it's that living connection that empowers your art.
The awesome thing with Steemit is that there's less haters and trolls that will come around because it's an incentive-based, reward-based system instead of a punishment-based system. You find a lot of dissatisfied people and angry people on Facebook and other social media because they're not getting rewarded for anything. So what is gonna motivate them to do anything other than to just troll? That's an aside, but I think it's important.
You are choosing to do this
And then, here's a huge one that I want to land on which is: You do not have to do this! Remind yourself every single day, the days that you are more down and you say "I don't even want to!" Then remind yourself: you don't even have to! And if you've chosen the right craft and if you've gone with the right thing then you will see that constantly reminding yourself that you don't have to do it is amazing. Say "I don't even have to write today. I don't even have to create music today."
Give yourself that freedom, do something else! Clean up your house, go out, read a good book, whatever you need to do, and then, typically if you have the momentum and you've chosen the right thing you'll find that then you'll come back and say "No, but I want to!" So if you're not feeling it in the morning, then, give yourself that freedom and that space and then see if you will then come back with "No, but I choose to, I would like to do this."
Keep your head down
So, then, another imporant thing is to just "keep your head down." Just focus on what it is you're doing and making it more meaningful and making it more clear and aware. Be somewhat unaffected by both compliments and criticism. This might seem like a contradiction to what I said about interacting with your audience, but it's actually not. It's finding that balance between being flexible and being swayed by the feedback that you get and also letting it not affect you.
The reason why you're doing this is because of your love, your passion for your creativity and how meaningful this is to your life. Whether someone likes it or not, you can't let it go to your head. Don't let it puff up your ego and don't let it tear you down. That's really important.
Engage with mentors
Another thing which kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier about when you find yourself less motivated is "engage with mentors." These can be living or dead people that you are either in personal contact with or someone that you very much admire in your craft that you can look to as a mentor.
One thing that's very important with mentor figures is you are not putting them on a pedestal. They're not a god to you. They're not someone that's "so out of your league." In this life, in this reality: we are all peers, we're all partners, we're all friends. We all keep it on that "middle level." So we have respect, but we don't put ourselves above or put other people above us, or put people below us.
Discover your voice
Okay, and then another thing that's really an amazing part of the process is "enjoying discovering your own voice." And for that I would put a quote here, which is: "Originality doesn't exist, but it is a persistent illusion!" And what does that mean?
It means that in life we are always finding semi-novel combinations of principles and facets of life: concepts, ideas, that are universal, but we are combining them in a way that creates this persistent illusion that's called "originality" and then people will say "Oh my goodness, you have your own voice!"
When you get in your head about that, thinking and trying so hard to be original, a lot of times it will flop, and you can get into a lot of pretension and presumptuousness. And let me tell you, I'll be the first one to admit on that!
Your creation cannot define you
You can't take yourself too seriously in the sense that, you know that if you're documenting yourself, especially on the blockchain, it's always gonna be there. So, to be consistent and to be so dedicated to any craft, you have to already get to the point where you realize that your creation does not define you. Because you can infinitely create, so how could a past creation of yours define who you are? That's the smallest fragment, that's the smallest, tiniest, facet of who you are.
It's really a fascinating process. It's one in which I do not consider myself a master at all; I consider myself just hunkering down in this process, because there are other people that have been consistent in their craft for years. I'm just coming from a position of maybe going on eight months of consistently doing this. But what I'll tell you is that I created more in those past 7 or 8 months that I did in the past 7 or 8 years!
The real craft is the art of being human
There are infinite levels to where you can go with your craft if it becomes something that's so important to you, but also, you don't get to that point of full-on obsession and define yourself as a person just based on that one thing. If I was sitting here writing poetry, saying that "the only way that I have worth as a person is if my poetry is good," that's not healthy at all! Whatever your craft is, no matter how serious and how much you love it, it's still only one small part of who you are.
The main craft, which we can get into in later topics if there's the interest there, is "the art of becoming a full, realized human being" and developing your consciousness. That is really your craft. We find ourselves in a society, though, that doesn't always teach us on those levels, and it doesn't always value on those levels.
That's why we have the need for education and the need for finding community of people that are also ready to go into these topics because let's face it, there are different soul ages, spiritual ages of people and it doesn't have to do always with your physical age. Not everyone is ready to go into the more serious topics about "What is your purpose of existing on the planet?"
Conclusion
So, I think that about wraps it up. I don't want to ramble on too long on this first one, but I do want to say thank you very much for listening and I hope that you can glean something, hopefully useful from this and please let me know all feedback, all requests for future topics and we'll see how this goes! I would like to do this certainly weekly but perhaps even two, three times a week depending on how everything develops.
I used to do this almost on a daily basis and now it's quite different because I actually have an audience and a lot more interactivity so it will be even greater! I did key some little notes down on my notepad today, and I'm gonna attempt to do that because otherwise it just gets too meandering and I can go off on tangents! I will try and keep it somewhat towards a rubric and hopefully we can synthesize a lot of aspects of life and then simplify things, because our society is so overly complex at times. So I just wanna say wholeness and I hope that you all find the balance until we meet again. Peace.