Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be, #1

Let’s start with the most obvious interpretation of this axiom. (We’ll go deeper in succeeding weeks.)

What do we mean by “ass?”

In this first-level expression, the word means body. Our physical being.

When we say “put your ass where your heart wants to be,” we mean station your physical body in the spot where your dream-work will happen.

Do you want to write? Sit down at the keyboard.

Wanna paint? Step up before the easel.

Dance? Get your butt into the rehearsal studio.

Sometimes people will write to me. “I want to work in the movies. Do I have to move to Los Angeles?” Or, “My dream job is in fashion design. Do I need to be in Manhattan?”

The answer is yes and yes.

Hemingway moved to Paris. Joni Mitchell made a home in Laurel Canyon. Andy Warhol grabbed his bags and took off for New York.

Andy Warhol followed his dream from Pittsburgh to Manhattan

Something wonderful happens when we pack up and execute a pilgrimage to the place where our heart’s true action lies. The universe notices. The Muse approves.

But even more important, we move our physical body into proximity with other like-minded souls—our peers, our mentors, our fellow aspirants–who are making or have already made the same bold move. Hemingway gets to hang with Gertrude Stein and Lady Duff Twysden, who became Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises. Henry Miller finds himself talking all night in cabarets with Anais Nin and Blaise Cendrars. And Glenn Frey gets to chill with J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne, not to mention Linda Ronstadt and Don Henley.

None of this creative ferment would’ve happened if these artists-in-embryo had not set sail on a steamer or hopped aboard a Greyhound.

It’s not enough for your heart to be in the right place. Your physical body needs to be there too.

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