Friday
Dec182009
Commit Less | Create More
Fri, December 18, 2009 at 08:31PM 
In truth, I'm over-zealous in develping annual goals so I typically miss the mark alltogether. I mean any list which includes keeping up with laundry and knowing what I'll cook for dinner by 5pm each day is unrealistic. So my theory is that if I commit to LESS, I might accomplish MORE. I don't want to bore you with my day-to-day trivia, but I thought you might want to see how my creative goals are shaping up for the year ahead.
Here's my SCALED DOWN creative plan:
- Learn how to knit, learn how to make silver jewelry Acrylic + watercolor painting, sketching from photographs, drawing mandalas, freestyle embroidery, art journaling...
- Gain expertise in all types of brushes Improve brush control and pen control.
- Handwrite 20 pages each week Document thoughts in a written journal, writing once/week.
- Negotiate a $1M book deal Put together the scribbled notes from the bed-time stories I tell the kids.
- Read 24 novels and 12 creative books 12 novels starting with The Help (Stockett) + The Yiddish Policemen's Union (Chabon). Now there are two novels as different as can be.
- Become an international consultant Learn basics of Photoshop.
- Become a professional photographer Work on photography skills.
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Reader Comments (4)
Ah, how right you are! I do that same thing...I have these lofty goals but when I do that, I just set myself up to fail. *sigh* But you are so right...if I scale my goals back then I will see much more accomplished. Now, to work on scaling that HUGE list back. lol
Peace & Love,
~Barb~
That would make a great New Year's Resolution, if one made resolutions.
I've never set any creative goals before, actually - I tend to be very task oriented, ie: finish this sweater, spin yarn to complete scarf, etc. But I like the suggestion to have some sort of creative focus, rather than the randomized dabbling I am wont to do.
One thing I would really like to do this year is to take more film. I am winding up a 365 project (a photo a day for the year) and rediscovered my old film camera - I'd really like to make more use of it.
I do write in my own journal regularly, but I want to spend more time on family stories - the kind my parents, aunts and uncles have told me.
And, of course, spend more time just "taking the line for a walk", as Bert Dodson calls it, line and mandala practice as you call it. That has felt very refreshing lately.
This is a great approach to being creative in the New Year! Thank you for always inspiring me. Lizbeth
*Barb, I dare you to cut that list in half.
*Sophie, I am overly analytical and task-oriented; but it occurred to me that I never have to put "do an art journal background" or "draw a mandala" on my to do list yet these are constantly going on around here. So I've determined that to do lists are for things you don't want to forget and for stuff you don't want to do! I'm seeing the creative goals for 2010 as guides to keep me from bouncing around amongst 8 million things.
*Lizbeth, Thank you for visiting, I look forward to hearing about your creative plans!
~ Tammy