New Skills

Every job that I have ever had asked me to learn how to do something new. This new venture is the same as any other job. In the past I have learned things as from how to run a cash register to scheduling the inner workings of an office. These were all essential to being good at my job. I couldn't function in that position if I had been unable to adapt and learn these new skills.

I am learning more and more that I have to pick up more skills in order to function as a small business of one. The only catch is that I don't know all of the roles that I am going to have to fill. So every day I have to learn something new in order to keep up with everything. 

Since I have a habit of getting distracted by things, keeping all of these roles may help me to be more interested in continuing my work. Being all of these different people is much more engaging that being just an artist. I get to do art, package, public relations, finances, everything. 

I look forward to what I am going to have to learn next. It is good to know that I will never have a life that stagnates. If I just keep moving I will not fall back.

I Almost Forgot

I'm not perfect. I have been trying to be good about keeping up with this blog, but somehow this week has gotten away from me. I have to admit, that even though I have tried to keep up with everything that eventually things will get away from me. I just have to remember that everyone will mess up at some point.

I cannot do everything all of the time perfectly. That would be impossible. I will try everyday to be a better person. If you do the math all you have to do is improve yourself, .27% a day and by the end of the year you will be a 100% better person by the end of the year. All you really have to do is try  nothing more. Even if you fail the fact that you tried made you a better person.

So even though this week has been difficult to get everything done, the fact that I have fought every excuse not to write I have improved myself. Today I have defeated my excuses and have tried even though I don't really have anything else to give. I have this, and that may just be all I need to make m y .27% today.

Just the Right Amount

I love me a hot chocolate, but just like anything else I must practice moderation. My love for my art must be balanced the same was as my favorite high calorie beverages. I have to love my work or it just wouldn't be worth doing. I have to have passion for what I do or doing it will become a chore and I will eventually lose any motivation for working on it and it will eventually land in my pile of unfinished projects, and well that would just make it a waste of time. 

On the other end of the scale is loving my work too much. It is like having an ugly kid. I know this is probably a really inappropriate comparison, but I have already started with so I may as well finish explaining. You love your child, and as it is right to do, you can see past any flaws in their appearance. To you they are  beautiful, but sadly there are attributes that make a person appealing to the eye. Not to say that is the way we should judge people, but there are features that make a person pleasing in appearance. Though there are these common standards of beauty, your child will more common than not, be beautiful to you know matter what. It is after all the product of your labor and love. Just like your child your view of your work can be clouded by your love for it. I am always reminded of what Tim Gunn from Project Runway calls the monkey pen experience. When you first walk into the monkey pen you can smell the stink of their feces, but after twenty minutes you grow used to it. It takes someone to come in with a fresh perspective to tell you it stinks. 

Seeing through the smell of our own love for our work takes a fresh perspective. We have to be willing to love our work to have the passion to do it, but if we love it too much we cannot see the flaws in it. We have to be willing to take a critique, and we have to be willing to see it clearly enough to make it better. If we cannot see what is wrong with our work because we love it too much, we will never see it clearly enough to improve it. Our work will never reach its true potential because we have blinded ourselves to the flaws. 

Everything in life needs moderation. There is no exception. You can over do the good things just as easily as the bad. When we have proper perspective we, and moderation in our life we give our selves the greatest chance of improvement and success.