Creating a Portrait a Day for 30 Days
One thing I have learned in my journey to improve my skills for my big goal is the importance of having regular practice and fitting it into my routine. Some people would call this dedication or discipline. But those words generally give me a rash, which is why I try to make a game out of every "serious" thing I do. It motivates me, it makes it fun, and I (hopefully) get a feeling of winning something at the end.
When I was a kid, my mother would tell me to clean my room (which of course was always a mess... I was never one of those tidy art-types). Instead of cleaning it like a normal person would, I'd organize my loose belongings into piles. Stuffed animals next to action figures one day. Organized by color the next. It drove my mother nuts and it took me all day to "clean" my room. Maybe being straightforward about it would have gotten it done more quickly, but I remember those sorting sessions fondly.
It's kind of a metaphor for my life that lives to this day. I come at things sideways. If I come at it straight on I often feel like I'm taking too direct... and easy... a route. It's not always entirely practical. But at least I know myself, and I know the key to my achievement is to make any goal into a game. Read more...