The Unseen Sacrifice

The Unseen Sacrifice

What is not seen in the successful person is the untold hours of practice and sacrifice to get them to their current level. At a recent gallery show opening I was talking to one of the fellow exhibitors. We were talking about one of my pots and she said that someone who did not understand the hours that it took to make that piece might look at it and think nothing of the time and energy that it took to make it. She makes etchings and understood the time that was needed to make something look easy.

There is the often told story of Michael Jordon and the thousands of hours he spent in the gym shooting baskets all by himself - the first to arrive, the last to leave. There are hours and hours of practice and rehearsal that no one ever sees. The sacrifice to be not just successful but the best but for me it is to make the perfect pot. To allow the idea of what is in my head to come out through my hands. Sometimes it is really easy and there are times when it is not.

Sometimes that sacrifice is not that of an athlete or an artist but that of  mother or a father working that extra shift or tell their child no - going without so that the child may have more.

There are times when that sacrifice goes to the extreme to where family and friends are excluded, excluded from the search - from the life. Don't ask if that is healthy or not because nothing else matters - it is tunnel vision with the goal not always in sight.

But then there is the Wall Street guy or the big/small business owner that does this very same thing, the acceptance of them doing that is much less - why is that?

The goal always is - to be perfect. To release what is there into the exact best. I strive for that, looking for it in all of the corners and not being satisfied until it is there. Perfection really is important - things do need to be their exact best. Once in a while it is right in front of me but most of the time.......