Big hurtle

Its easy to do the work when you're a happy camper and everything's going your way. When the bills are paid and everyone under the roof is happy and sipping hot cocoa smiling and laughing it easy to take a long pull from that mug do some work on that script/page/commission. When you're bubbling with energy and everything is in working ordered and everyone is loving your work then there's always a song in your heart you can't wait to punch those keys/layout that page/ink those pencils.

But then you get swamped with work, and not the work you really want to do, the work you need to do if you want to eat and keep the lights on. Then you have to find the time to do the work you want to do. But that's fine. You may get a little less sleep, but that's why we have coffee.

Then you get and honest critique and it becomes apparent that the work that you love and are quite serious about isn't up to par. You're not sure exactly where things got off track, but they did. Fortunately someone cared enough to point this out and not spare your feelings. If you're lucky, they gave you a few tips on getting going in the right direction. So, now you either have to put the work on hold to get your act together or continue to do the work while on a learning curve that can get real steep real fast. So the work you love is now requiring more effort and perhaps testing your love for it. However you are a writer/artist/actor/creator and your shall persevere for your craft.

Then you slip up in your personal life. You said something when you shouldn't have, or you didn't when you should. You weren't there when you really needed to be. You dropped the ball. Then doing the work becomes hard because you're feeling stressed/scared/guilty/depressed/angry and despite what you've hear and read and seen about "tortured artistes" you quickly discover that sucks like a shop vac and you're left feeling like hitting something/drinking something/crying instead of doing the work. You can still do the work, but only after the Xanax kicks in.

That's not to mention the many other distractions that you can easily ignore like sports or going to the movies or playing your X-Box. Or being worried about the world at large and if you're going to maintain gainful employment or if we're all going to die horribly in the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse which will inevitably be triggered by Wendy Williams.

Sure.

Doing the work is a piece of cake.