I’m Done Renting Permission (Highest Excitement Part 1)

Hey arty friend! 🎨✨

I made a bold decision this week: for the next fifteen days, I’m letting my highest excitement guide my day.

Not obligations.
Not strategic plans.
Not the endless pull of what I “should” be doing.

Just whatever sparks the most creative joy in me each day.

Yesterday was Day One. And it started with a tug-of-war in my soul:

For weeks I have been on the brink of making a huge financial and directional decision.

Investing the most money I’ve ever spent on a program and community that promises to teach me all the digital-marketing-wizardry I “need” to be successful selling my art online.

Incidentally, last week I left a different coaching program – feeling like I’d learned all that I could there, hungry for something new.

And to be honest, there’s a part of me that really wants to be told what to do.

A little voice that believes “if you’re following the steps, sticking to the plan, you’re being productive. You’re on the path.”

But I caught myself. I realized that this sneaky form of external validation isn’t mine.

Not even borrowed – it’s been rented… and at a higher cost each time!

I think I want to be done living that way.

So when I got to the studio yesterday, I made a different kind of list:

A list of three things I most wanted to do with my day – letting my HIGHEST EXCITEMENT choose the focus.

The winner was to get out of the studio – to go somewhere and make art.

So I grabbed my watercolors and my big mural bag full of brushes and tools, jumped in my little car and found myself at City Park.

I climbed to the top of the biggest hill, and set up at the base of my favorite gnarly climbing tree.

Around me, the park was alive with pods of sunbathers lounging and laughing – a cool breeze taming the hot sun.

As I painted, two adventurous young women appeared to climb the tree.

As one of them scrambled up, I joked that she should hold perfectly still so I could paint her – and she did! – it was too good of an opportunity – so I painted her in!

By the end of the long afternoon, I had made two pieces of the tree in different styles.

And I felt more aligned with myself and my creativity than I had in weeks.

There’s still this nagging belief that I have to “be productive” – have to plan, be consistent, focus on sales and marketing and on and on.

Shocker, I just stayed up a little later last night and made huge progress on two different paying projects.

See? It all gets done!

And I had made the best of this beautiful spring day, because if I was being “responsible and productive” – I would have done it all in reverse:
I would’ve prioritized the computer work, missed the daylight…
Then tried to squeeze in creativity after dark. Alone.

With no sun. No trees. No sunbathers.

I hope that my experiment uncovers a radical truth I’ve been too afraid to look in the eyes:

That I have all the power and authority I need.

Authority = author-ship.

The ability to write the day I want instead of acting out some twisted image of productivity.

And I invite you to ask the same question:

What do you think would happen if you let your HIGHEST EXCITEMENT drive your next 15 days?

Would the world crumble?

Would your finances explode?

Would pets and babies go unfed while you indulged in selfish absurdity?

Or, would the important stuff still get done – but on YOUR terms?

I guess that’s what we’re going to find out!

Stay tuned for day 2.

And as always, you’re welcome to hit reply and share any thoughts you have, or stories from your own adventures and experiments.

Let me know if you want to see the full finished pieces!

Until next time, Cheers!

— Ryan