Hi, it's Anna Mason. In this video I'm going to look at how it is you can know if it's
time to give up learning to paint, or anything else for that matter. It was Winston
Churchill who is known for saying:
But in the less quoted second part, he actually
followed up with:
And of course there are things that we should
quit. Like a destructive marriage or friendship. The art of letting go with grace is certainly
one to master. But if you're 'thinking' you should give up on something, like painting
as a hobby, it can be really tricky to discern whether that desire to quit is born of Churchill's
'convictions of honour and good sense', or perhaps just from some negative thinking on
behalf of your small self. I had an experience of this last year. My husband Phil and I decided
to try playing Squash (which is like Racket ball). For health, but mainly for fun. Phil's
always been sporty but I really haven't been, and hadn't done any sport since I was at school.
But I had a glimmer of a memory of really enjoying badminton at school which is why
I thought Squash could be fun. The moment I got on the court, strangely I wasn't the
perfect pro. I struggled to even hit the ball, and I certainly didn't send it where I wanted
it to go. About 15 minutes in, my mind started reacting to this and saying things like...
"I shouldn't even try" "I'm just NOT a sporty person"
"I'll never get good at this" "This is a total waste of time"
But these days I'm more aware of a key fact: I HAVE a mind, but I am not my mind.
So I stopped and asked myself if I could be sure if these thoughts were really true. And
luckily I had Phil there with me to remind me that, for a first ever go, I was actually
doing just fine, and that I would get better with practice.
So I tried to answer those negative thoughts I was having by telling them to RELAX, I was
just learning and it didn't matter that I wasn't good yet. After I got home, I also
took a moment to think about how I would feel if I DID quit. Taking time to still the inner
voice and see what feelings came up in my body when I thought of quitting. And in this
case the thought of quitting was frustrating, disappointing and upsetting. So I knew it
wasn't the right thing to do at that time. If I'd been greeted by a feeling of genuine
calmness, peacefulness and joyfulness at the thought of quitting, then that would be a different
story. That's almost always a sign that quitting is the right thing to do. SO, if you've been
struggling to learn to paint for a while and have found yourself wondering if you should
just QUIT, I recommend you DON'T listen to whatever it is your mind is chucking up about
the issue. And you don't make a decision in the heat of a stressful moment with your paintbrush.
Instead, take 15 minutes or so to really quieten that mind, take your focus inwards (otherwise
known as using your intuition), and find out how you'd really feel if you were to quit
- relieved, calm, peaceful, joyful, OR self-pitying, frustrated, sad or annoyed? Unless it's the
former, it's likely that what you REALLY need to do is to give yourself more structured
practice time, whilst crucially working on being kinder and more forgiving to yourself
about the progress you do make! And as for me, I went on to become the county squash
champion in 2016. NOT really, I'm still far from great, but I did improve, within less
time than I'd thought, and more importantly I really enjoy having a game. If you've got
an experience of quitting, or not quitting, that you'd like to share, the best conversations
happen in the comments under the video at AnnaMasonArt.com where you'll also find loads
more resources to help you pick up your brush and paint the way you've always wanted to.
If you've enjoyed this video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and do share this video
with your friends. Thanks for watching and I'll see you soon!