I’m rereading Hugh MacLeod’s book Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination, which was the follow up to Ignore Everybody. In Evil Plans, he has a chapter titled Make Art Every Day. The chapter starts off talking about recent college graduates working odd jobs just to get by. It really resonated with me tonight because just over a week ago I watched several of my students walk across the stage to receive their diplomas, and then today as I walked into Starbucks, I was greeted my one of those graduates at the cash register.

As I read Hugh’s brief chapter, I thought of this graduate, a Visual Communication Design major. I wanted to share with him this thought – Make art every day. It’s what I tell my cinema students almost every class period. Write. Write everyday. It doesn’t matter what you write. It only matters that your write because it’s the path to becoming better.

Hugh also reflects on what a talented pianist once told him. In Hugh’s words, “it’s better to practice a musical instument for five minutes a day than to practice for two hours once a week.”

He’s right.

About 15 years ago, when my daughter was about four years old, the director at her preschool asked me if I knew how to play the guitar. She was looking for someone to help with song time at the preschool. Unfortunately, even though I owned a guitar and had brought it with me from Indianapolis to Virginia Beach to Glendale, California; I’d never learned how to play. With a new resolve to learn how to at least play some chords on my guitar, I made a goal of playing for ten minutes a day.

I did this for the next three months and guess what… I learned how to play several chords and I was able to lead preschoolers in their singing. I wasn’t ready to go on tour, but I could play some simple songs appreciated by three and four year olds.

Making art every day, even just for five minutes every day, will lead to success. It will open the doors to opportunity. It will make the artist better at their art. Those who fail, give up too soon because the fact is, you have to do it every day until your last day.