Hello, Reader!
To understand why this post is titled, “The Other Newsletter,” you can read the one prior. Below is a handy link for you.
Here’s the first version:
We are now in December - a customary time of the year to pause and reflect on lessons learned. It’s also been about a year since I started this publication. In this newsletter I’ll share 3 takeaways from a year making art and writing, A Making Life. They aren’t earth shattering revelations but I hope that one or more will be helpful to you and by sharing my messiness, again, you will gain a sense of okay-ness with wherever YOU are in your creative development.
1- I continued to grow, even when it seemed like I was standing still.
I’ve missed many of the goals I set for myself this year, all while I watched friends and other artists leap ahead and meet theirs. In comparison, it felt like I was standing still. I take comfort from something I learned in a yoga class. At the end of a yoga session, the teacher asked me to stand in Mountain Pose. Then, with eyes closed, to notice that even as my body seemed still, there were many micro-movements and adjustments in my body that help me to maintain this pose. This metaphor allows me to look with a compassionate eye on my progress so far. If I look at my progress with a less compassionate lens, it looks like I haven’t moved much. But I know that over the course of the past year I have made lots of little micro-movements in both my creativity practice and in moving towards putting my art into the world. All that time practicing, no matter how small those sessions were in clock time, added up. I look back now and can see that I have indeed improved in my art skills. Joyfully, I currently have a small collection of artwork in a group show in a local art gallery! Something I didn’t even plan ahead of time.
2- Art challenges are seductive and tricky. Here’s what my creative practice really looks like.
Art Challenges1 are so very seductive. Lured in at the beginning by the camaraderie and the dream of a beautiful Instagram profile spread, I started a few this year. I found that when it comes to this year’s Art Challenges, though, even ones I set for myself, I finished none. At first, I told myself a story about how I’m a flaky person, lacking in discipline but then I stepped back and noticed what it was that I DO practice every day. Here's what my practice looks like today
Morning Pages2: 3 handwritten pages (which is interestingly almost exactly 30 minutes) of stream of consciousness journaling - every morning since Winter of 2019
Drawing practice - 4 pages, blind contour and continuous line, both left and right handed, every morning since late summer 2022 (usually about 10-15 minutes)
Daily Nature/Neighborhood Walk - almost every day since 2019
This newsletter - though irregular, since November 2021
Nature Journaling- almost every day since Fall of 2021
3- Activity precedes motivation. Activities that are intrinsically motivating are the easiest ones to make into habit. For all else there are habit trackers!
All the habits listed above are things I find easy and pleasurable. This corroborates two things about motivation that I have read or heard spoken in so many contexts that I can’t say where or from whom I got it from first3. One: Activity precedes motivation. Put another way, researchers say, don’t wait to be motivated. Do the thing you want to feel motivation for and then you will feel motivated! Seeing my sketchbooks fill up give me a thrill and that is further motivating. Two: Intrinsic motivations are better than extrinsic at getting you to do things. In other words the things that are pleasurable in themselves, are the things we are more likely to do. For things that may be intrinsically motivating but I resist out of fear or perfectionism, I have started using a habit tracker shared by Austin Kleon. You’ll probably see me mention his work many times in this publication. I have to say that I am looking forward to a completed and colorful quilt.
As I said, these take-aways are not necessarily earth shaking, but they are honestly what have helped me. Have you come to some meaningful ahas this year? I’d love to read about them in the comments.
Thanks again for reading! Before the year ends I’ll share a list of books and podcasts that have influenced me this year.
Sincerely,
Alma
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An “art challenge” is typically a commitment to produce art, usually around a theme, every day for a period of time. Also, typically, participants share their work daily via social media. Any part of this is optional.
From The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
This Ten Percent Happier podcast episode contains a conversation about motivation.