How do you feel when you are alone? I mean really alone, without friends around you, without a computer or smartphone?
FOMO, Fear-Of-Missing-Out is one of the main reasons why we are afraid of being alone. Others might have fun without us. We might miss an important event or some breaking news. That’s scary.
Important events on FB are often not more than a photo of the dinner a friend is eating. Breaking news is about the holiday plans of your sister. Why do we fear missing out? What do we miss?
We miss the comforting reassurance that we belong to our family, to the group of friends.
And exactly that is the reason why artists have to conquer the fear of missing out, why artists need solitude. In the warm blanket of comforting reassurance we go with the flow, accept what others have thought and done before us and reproduce what’s done before.
Art has to be new. Art is different than anything that has been there before. It transforms what is around us. In order to be able to transform, artists have to dig inside themselves. That digging can only be done in solitude, without any distraction.
The warm blanket of comforting reassurance will smother all new artistic ideas. Solitude creates a distance, gives us the independence we need, in order to create art.
“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” (Picasso)
Do you dare to conquer FOMO?