Balancing Time Spent

http://youtu.be/aYnlpaWWH4E

I simply cannot get enough of Levni Yilmaz's Tales of Mere Existence today!  My facebook friend, Cathrine, posted one today and then I was hooked.  Thank you, Cathrine!

Though, I must confess, I have probably spent too much time viewing the films on his youtube channel.  My goal of cleaning the apartment today is quickly losing time, but at least I am finding myself motivated to do more of my artwork.

Of course, I'm telling myself that I have to accomplish some cleaning first before indulging in some art time.  Will there be enough hours in the day today?

So many days are planned like this.  I feel as though I need to earn the right to spend some time creating and I think that's faulty thinking.  I plan the day with all of the stuff that I don't want to do, but need to do first, and only after all of that is accomplished can I be rewarded with what I really want to do.  This is most of the time a lose-lose scenario for motivation.  If I do happen to do all of my household chores, by the time I get to have fun I lose all motivation for it.  I'm too tired and would rather just read or watch tv.  Then I feel a type of anxiety that I wasted the day because I didn't create anything.

Adversely, sometimes I make these grandiose lists and they just sit there, as do I.  I think of things to do instead of doing anything on the list.  I'll spend too much time on the computer, or looking up cleaning/interior design shows to inspire me, or playing with our cats, or exercising or a combination of all of these plus more, and then get nothing else accomplished for the day.  Nothing on the list gets done, and again, my artistic motivation is not acted upon, ending in anxiety that I wasted the day.

This is how I functioned for several days out of the past year.  I either did what I needed to do and was left with little motivation/energy for the end of the day to enjoy creating, or it was spent without making the day count for much of anything.  This year has not been too bad so far, but I'm scared of this happening again.  Now that I see this pattern, perhaps I can stop this phenomenon through a careful plan of attack.  What plan of attack have you taken that works for you?  How do you balance your time successfully?

Did Picasso do dishes?  When did Rauschenberg do his laundry? 

Monday Madness: Dancing the Goals Away

MONDAY MADNESS!

I wrote my goals for the day with a cup of coffee a few minutes ago...revise a painting, revise a drawing, finish another painting (or come close), plan out my next bubble portrait, dishes, laundry, Dance Central...

I started to think about the big goals, and how I have failed to attain them over and over again.  How do I approach these goals with a fresh start, or in other words, without the baggage of previous fails?  How do I mute that negative talk inside my head- that skepticism that I will ever achieve them?  I glanced down at my daily goals...Dance Central...

Last week a new friend, who I feel as though I have known for much longer than I have, came over to play Dance Central with me.  I tried out a new song - the routine for "Push It" by Salt n Pepa, and I was outrageously horrible!  We had plenty of laughs as I tried to get the moves that seemed so unnatural and awkward.  Sweating and laughing, I accepted my complete failure.

MightyMeCreative Performing Dance Central "Push It" from YouTube.

Yesterday, I decided to give it a try again.  I have been going through all of the songs and trying to get Five Gold Stars (perfect score) for each of the songs.  I failed and failed and failed, but steadily saw my score getting better gradually.  I was out of breath, tired and sweaty, but I was determined to get it down.  Within an hour and a half I had Five Gold Stars on the Easy, Medium, and Hard levels for the song.  HOORAY!  I jumped for joy and did a silent little cheer of joy in my apartment!  I did it!  I did it!  I did the freaking impossible!  (This is not me in the video - lol - it was posted by MightyMeCreative on YouTube)

The dog walkers and neighbors on the other side of my closed blinds didn't care.  The entire world didn't care that I had just accomplished this foolish little goal.  But I did, and that's all that mattered.

So today, I am reflecting upon that as I look at my goals.  Like so many others, I've always been good at creating goals, but it's always the problem of how to get there.  It takes time, patience, determination, and hard work.  It takes sweat, laughter, anger, disappointment, and delight.  It takes the honesty of knowing exactly where you're at, and where you want to go.  The distance between the two begins to get filled in with each attempt, mistake, or success.  The small progressions make the biggest difference.  A mastery of a this dance step, of that dance step, and then putting them together for the next one. 

Who knew that I would find advice on succeeding and build inner confidence through a video game?  We're all foolish if we have ever thought that video games do not teach!  (I also learned how to steal cars from Grand Theft Auto! LOL  Just kidding).