Four Ways to Transform Past Hardships into Powerful Art

We often don’t give ourselves enough credit for persevering in the face of difficulties.

Photo by Amaury Salas on Unsplash

Cutie and the Boxer is a fascinating documentary about a married Japanese couple who are both artists and scrape a living by in New York.

The film really shows the hardships that the couple have gone through in order to keep making their art and living the life they wanted. And yet they kept going and were still together. (It’s available to watch on YouTube for a small fee and is well worth a watch.)

It made me realise that nobody achieves anything without some form of sacrifice. And that the quest to express ourselves creatively is a noble pursuit. But we often don’t give ourselves enough credit for persevering in the face of difficulties.

Here’s four ways we could all be a little bit kinder to ourselves.

1. Don’t give up

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The truth is, dedicating yourself to something, whether it’s art, or a business or an important cause, is not easy. It can be a rough ride. But at least you can be secure in the knowledge that you really tried to achieve something important.

As difficult as it is to go through, having suffered or struggled in life means our creative work itself is infused with more soul and depth.

This is obvious when you see/hear a great singer pour their heart out in a performance, compared to a highly marketed pop act with no depth who mimes to a backing track. Even someone who doesn’t have a technically great singing voice can be powerful because they know how to get raw emotion across.

That kind of hard-earned, heartfelt soulfulness is one of the big differences between great art and throwaway or forgettable art.

If you gave up now, the world would be missing out on your unique voice.

Try this:

Decide right now that you’re not going to give up on pursuing your creative dreams. Because you don’t want to look back and regret that you didn’t at least try.

Why Your Voice Matters More Than Ever Right Now

2. Turn your regrets into cautionary tales

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Far too often, I get caught up dwelling on past disappointments, and my creativity and general happiness always suffers. It’s not healthy to wallow in these things, but sometimes it’s difficult to get past them.

Obviously we’re all hardwired to avoid pain and suffering, but ultimately it’s an inevitable part of life for everyone, even if outward appearances suggest otherwise.

For an artist of any kind, there is some small comfort in the fact that hardship can help further our understanding of other people’s situations and compassion for them. And it can even enable us to help them avoid the same mistakes we’ve made.

Try this:

Think of what problems people might be struggling with right now, who you could help with your art because you’ve been through something similar to them in the past.

3. Accept that everyone is an idiot sometimes

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I’ve acted like an idiot so many times in the past that I’ve lost count. As a result I know I’ve upset and hurt people, usually because I didn’t understand the impact of what I was doing at the time or didn’t know how to deal with challenges skilfully.

I can’t change what I’ve done, but being aware of my own mistakes makes me a little more patient and less judgemental about other people who do seemingly idiotic things.

Try this:

If there’s anyone you’re angry or upset with, compare what they’ve done to some of your own mistakes over the years.

Maybe you can find it in your heart to forgive them, and yourself, and free up space for new ideas to flow into your life. If you can’t, channel that anger into something creative instead!

4. Be proud of your efforts so far

Photo by Michael Spain on Unsplash

If you’re creative but feel like success has so far eluded you, it’s important not to forget or discount the things you’ve already done.

Even if they don’t feel like things that would impress anyone else, they’re part of what has made you what you are now.

None of your hard work is ever really wasted — unless you decide to disregard it. Everything you’ve done has contributed to your unique mixture of knowledge and skills.

Try this:

Make a list of all the things you’ve done over the years, no matter how small they seem, and keep it at hand in case you ever feel ‘unqualified’ to make your art. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t even finish everything (or anything), it still demonstrates that you have a creative spark that’s in need of expression!

A different version of this article was previously published at clearmindedcreative.com