CONSISTENCY IS A BITCH

Hey Artist,

I have been struggling with something recently.

Not Tinkering.

Sometimes I think that the most difficult thing for an artist to deal with is not Failure, but slow progress.

If you watch any motivational video on YouTube, they usually talk about going to war, fighting, insurmountable odds, etc. Usually with an image of a boxer or Celtic warriors.

I don't know about you, but most of the time, my life is not like that. For me, it's dealing with incremental progress. Draft 7 of a script is slightly better than draft 6, but I still have at least 2 more drafts to do.

The hardest part for me is sticking to what works.

Slow progress is boring, and it takes an immense amount of willpower not to tinker constantly with my modus operandi. Or worse, hearing about some "New" method, scrapping everything I'm working on and trying that.

Let me tell you, that "tinkering' vice has probably done more damage to my progress than anything else.

It makes sense. Artists are innovators. If there was a guaranteed formula that always worked, most of us would do it once or twice, get bored and then take up beekeeping or something. I know that I can't keep this impulse completely at bay, so I have tried to corral it. I'll give a day a week or 30 minutes during a workday to these experimental impulses. But, I will not give them any more time until the end of my current agenda.

I try to schedule myself in blocks for each project. E.G. I will work on this project for 12 weeks, I will try this marketing campaign for the month of July, I will do this workout for the next 2 months, etc. So, if something does come up from my tinkering brainstorming session, I can absolutely do it. But not until the next session.

I know what to do, but it is still hard as fuck.

So, that's where I'm at. If anyone has any hints or tricks for getting themselves to stay on task I'd love to hear from you in the comments... But I will force myself to hold off on trying them until the end of the month. ;)

Thanks for making your art.

E