Reality of Creativity

It's been over a year since I decided to reach out to a friend (other than my husband) to help keep me on track with setting art goals. Sounds easy, right? I have trouble keeping deadlines, so if I reach out to other people they can help hold me accountable! Except that's never how it works. I've always been accountable for myself. But now it's not for a grade. It's not to complete a lesson or specific project with standards set by someone else. I set the standards. I set the project. I have high standards and expectations of myself because I know what I can accomplish. I know that I can continue to push myself to learn more and to accomplish more. But now, there are no immediate consequences. No pass or fail grade. Nothing holding me back and nothing really pushing me forward. So how do I continue? 

Because of this question, a lot of people have asked me if I love creating art. Of course I do! Otherwise I wouldn't be struggling this much to keep myself doing stuff. However, I am easily distracted and love doing many things. Just because I love it doesn't mean it's always easy to sit down and create something. 

So to help find the answer, I've connected with this friend about every week and we update each other on projects and daily life and help each other write down goals for the upcoming week. We ask each other what we have and haven't done and how we can get better. Even if we don't accomplish what we set out to do, we try to stay on track. So throughout the year, even if I have failed to accomplish everything, I have only seen the positives this weekly call brings:

Nothing is immediate. Everything will take a lot of time, I just have to be patient with myself.

Some weeks and days will still be better than others. I can't always create good art.

Getting fresh ideas and a fresh perspective.

Getting an educational perspective-which is good, since my main goal is still to learn.

Small sense of community. It's difficult not having a class to criticize my art. Even if she doesn't always see what I've done, I get emotional feedback and support. 

Stronger relationship and understanding of each other. 

While I may not have seen a huge increase in physical work, I feel that I am setting good habits and helping my mental growth and stability. I'm learning to fail, and it's great.