“With whom is the artist belligerent? With herself. She knows all about her own disinclination to work, all about the possibilities of failure that confront her, all about the doubts that could assail her. She is belligerent in her refusal to allow these real obstacles to prevent her from working”
I have found this concept of belligerent commitment to be absolutely essential to me in my creative endeavours.
Without belligerent commitment the busyness of life would regularly encroach on precious creating time and it would be whittled away to nothing. Dishes would be washed, laundry would be done, the garden would be weeded and productive, repairs around the house would be mended and friends birthdays would be remembered on time. But there would be no art.
Without belligerent commitment the doubts that invariably creep in would became paralysing fears and there would be no art.
Without belligerent commitment a lack of sufficient income for a great deal of hard work would be a signal to do something else instead and there would be no art.
Without belligerent commitment every single day there would be no art.
The work is rarely easy, it is not always pleasurable and it doesn't always go well but that is ok because I am committed to go back to my work the next day, regardless of what happened the day before and regardless of the multitude of supposedly more important tasks that are crowding in and demanding my attention.
As Eric Maisel says:
"The belligerent commitment the artist wants is at once a commitment to start, a commitment to start with energy, and a commitment to continue with energy...If you want to work without such commitment, do less important work than creative work"