Be done with what’s done. Let it burn.
“Do you ever have the desire to burn everything you’ve ever created and start over?”
That’s what my friend asked. (Because her emails are deep like that.)
The answer is “ohhhhh yes.”
I feel the call to “burn, burn, burn it all” at least once a year. Often more.
Instantly? Not always.
I follow the impulse. Just not impulsively.
There’s usually a period of contemplation before the big blaze — sweeping the debris into a pile, staring at it, considering it, asking myself repeatedly, “What’s it going to feel like once I burn this mother down?”
The answer arrives — “so incredibly good” — and I toss the match. Boom. It’s done.
I’ve never regretted these beautiful, cleansing bonfires. Not even once.
Reinvention is necessary and natural.
Picasso had his Blue Period, then his Rose Period, then his African-inspired Period, then… Cubism.
Your life, work and art can evolve through several incarnations and evolutions, too.
Yes, it can be frightening to change. Yes, your income might take a temporary hit. Yes, your neighbors, parents, blog readers, clients or customers might peek through the fence and wonder what the hell is going on and who on earth you are becoming. Yes, all of that.
But it will almost undoubtedly be worth it and secretly, privately, quietly… you know it.
Nobody can toss the match for you.
But when it’s time, then it’s time.
Be done with what’s done.
Let it burn.