Hi, Jai, I like your post :) I am not really sure that my answer is what you had in mind, but I've got inspired to write the following:

In the past I used to "dream" about what I wanted and that was a powerful motivation to me. But as time went by these dreams, plans and goals for the future lost their power to motivate me. I suppose it's because the future finally knocked at my door, and I started to ask myself if I would have time to make my dreams come true.

I am an artist, just like you, and, as you know, artistry demands practice and time.

It was a while before I realized that, if I want something, I have to feel the feeling of having it. I knew the theory, but I didn't know the practice of it.

Every time I vizualized something I wanted, it was with that feeling of "I still don't have it, and I need it to be what I want to be".

By a series of events (Law of Attraction in action!) I came to realize that "resistance" is not wanting to accept feelings of satisfaction for manifestations before they manifest physically. Therefore, if every time I wish something I feel I need that because I don't have it, and I feel the lack of it, then I'll never get it!

The idea that I didn't have time enough, or skill enough, to accomplish my dreams was eating at my insides.

I finally understood that instead of doing something aiming at a "better future", I should do something aiming at a better present. I started to work on feeling the feelings of having accomplished the things I want and I focus on those feelings more than I used to focus on the manifestation of my dreams. In that way, I overcame resistance.

I resisted those feelings only because I believed in the necessity of the physical manifestation of something before I could feel those feelings. Once I accepted the feelings as the greatest gifts, and made a point of feeling what I wanted to feel regardless of any physical manifestation, my present became a glass full, and manifestations really started right away.

It was then that another insight came to me.

You see, the Abraham-Hicks material helped me a lot in life, but there was something I didn't get, and it was the idea that "effort" got in the way of my manifestations. If the acquisition of certain artistic skills demand practice and effort, how could my effort be in the way of the acquisition of those skills?

Well, the answer came to me like this: if the effort is toward the acquisition of the skill I believe I don't have, then it's a struggle, and that struggle is in the way. But if the effort is toward the production of the feelings I want to feel, namely, to feel that I already have those skills to enjoy, then it's not effort at all, but "aligned action".

Then I came up with the following definition:

Aligned Action is the ability of doing NOW what you have to do in order to produce the feelings you want to feel.

So, I don't study in order to get skills anymore, I study to feel that I already am what I want to be - right now. Again, the notion of a "better future" is out of the question, it's a better present that really matters, a better NOW.

The results of this shift in thought and feeling are amazing.

I simply understand that I don't have to wait for something to happen to me in order to feel certain feelings - I can produce the feelings using imagination and aligned action.

I also trust that by acting this way, keeping my vibration at high levels, keeping myself in the Vortex, will bring more of those kind of feelings into my life. I don't know what the manifestations will be, but I know they will be exactly of the same scope of the feelings I am already producing - I mean, I am not moving to a better future anymore, just to the same I am already creating.

I now believe this is the teaching behind all those Abraham workshops :) These entities are trying to teach us something that is so abstract and elusive that it cannot really be taught in words - however, the words help us recognize the "stuff" when we experience it.

Of course, it's just my own experience of it, but I hope this is of some interest for you and also for others that are "in the path".