Most people don’t actually know this about me, but I love working out. Whether it be cardio or weight training, it’s one of my favorite hobbies. In most people’s imaginations, including my own, the stereotypical sensitive artist doesn’t seem like he or she belongs in the gym. The gym is supposed to be for big, insensitive men that would rip our pathetic art to shreds if given the chance, right? Wrong. Well, probably wrong, I’ve never met every person at the gym. For the most part, though, wrong. If we made a venn diagram with every person in the art world in a circle and every person in the gym world a circle, I would be one of the people floating comfortably in the little sliver of overlap. While at first it seems like the gym and the studio could not be absolute opposites of each other, there are actually quite a few similarities.

There’s always going to be someone who knows more than you

This isn’t a bad thing, this is actually a motivator. It’s easy to avoid these people to keep yourself from feeling insecure. However, you should actually be befriending these people though. Everyone has new perspectives to share. Get that advice from that buff person at the gym, watch that kid in your painting class. You never know what you’ll learn.

There’s always going to be someone who thinks they know more than you

It’s probably no secret to you by now that there are people who don’t know what they’re talking about but refuse to admit it. Take what they say with a grain of salt and if what they’re saying goes against your gut feeling, don’t do it.

Excuses don’t make you successful

Both gym-fanatics and artists have heard variations of the phrase, “Wow, I wish I could ____ like that, but I ______.” For example, “Wow, I wish I could draw like that, but I’m just not artistic.” The thing people in the gym and studio have already realized is that you can look/draw/lift like that. It just requires working hard at it, which a lot of people opt out of.

Sidenote: While I originally wrote this article to compare making art and working out, I realized that these are true for almost everything. So really, this should be called “The Art of Doing Literally Everything in the World.” I’ll keep it like this, though, because I think comparing two opposite things gets my point across.

Feature Photo: http://hdwallpapersfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/weights-wallpaper-hd.jpg