We live in a results based society.

People want to have taken an award winning photograph, have the most contacts on Twitter, be the first person to walk on the moon (fingers crossed). Goals are great. Hell, I think they are an essential element of growth and growth an essential element of happiness. But living for the goal is no life at all.

There is only one time in the process of creating art that the artist owns his work. I’m not talking about copyright or intellectual property laws. I’m talking about you, in your soul, owning your work. There is only one time in the process and it’s during the process of making it. While you are crafting the idea it is yours. You control it. You can make it fly or slit its throat. It’s up to you. But once you finish it, once you’ve handed it over to the world, the world owns it. Don’t believe me?

An example: a photograph you’ve taken wins first prize and is published in a magazine. You see the magazine and you realize you should have used a hair light because the model is getting lost in the background. Do you get to ask for all 100,000 copies of the magazine back so you can fix it? No.

Example #2: You’re just finished the best blog post you’ve ever crafted. You mind is a flutter with electrons. This post is sure to change the destiny of the world. You will be heralded as the one true and mighty man of inspiration. Only you hit the publish button in WordPress and within the hour you start getting hate mail. Thousands of people have misunderstood what you were trying to say. Bird’s rights organizations think you were advocating global Avicide. After months of self imposed exile you muster the courage to leave your hilltop mansion and journey into the valley to restock your walk-in ice cream sandwich freezer only to find your automobile vandalized, buried under a bubbling mound of angry guano. You follow?

No? Let’s move on.

Ownership isn’t the only reason to enjoy the process.

There is nothing wrong with looking at your finished image, film, novel, haircut and admiring your handy work, but life isn’t an accumulation of victories and failures. It’s not even an accumulation of ordinary experiences. Life is the now. It’s all we have. Enjoy it.

“Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” The things we do to get where we want to be are just as valuable as getting there. Enjoy it.

Do you want to have taken great photos or do you want to take great photos? There is a substantial difference. Maybe it is more clear if we replace the way we do our art, in this case, photos, with the word vacation. Do you want to have gone on a vacation or do you want to be on vacation? When you are on vacation do you grit your teeth and push through it, knowing that thankfully it will soon be over and you will have gone on a great vacation? No. It wouldn’t be a great vacation if you did that. Why would the act of making art be any different? It’s not. Enjoy it.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think creating is always going to be fun. If you aren’t experiencing some pain in the process you may not be trying hard enough to expose your most sensitive parts. That said, life is about the journey not the destination. A journey towards a goal always lasts longer than the moment of achievement. Why not enjoy the journey?

An artist’s life is like that of a boxer’s. You beat yourself up learning the art, you beat yourself practicing, then, if you’re lucky, you get a chance to go in the ring where everyone can see what you’ve got to show them, and you get beat up again. Maybe you win. Maybe you lose. Either way you’re bloody and bruised. Enjoy the process, it’s what gets you where you’re going.

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