Pushing Through: An Motivational Post to Motivate Myself
After painting tonight, or rather, doing the bare minimum required for me to say “I painted” I was considering how much trouble I’ve had lately finding my motivation. It’s not just painting, I haven’t been updating this blog or doing any of the other things I like to do. I realized what I was doing was just pushing through to make sure that my projects kept moving forward, and as this dawned on me I decided that sometimes this is the most important thing you can do.
For example, tonight I painted the gloves of my Knight Models Batman Miniature Game Joker. The sculpting of the hands is rough and painting them wasn’t enjoyable. When I finished them I decided that just painting one part of the model was enough for the evening. At least there’s one less thing to paint later.
It’s the same with this blog post. I figured since I was finished painting I could move on to writing but the only thing I wanted to talk about was how bad a time I was having painting. I don’t like talking about this sort of thing normally and I especially hate talking about whether or not I’m updating my blog frequently, which I’ve done in this post. It’s just not constructive, unless I can make it be constructive.
So, without further pre-amble, here is a motivational thought that I’m going to use to push past the bits of the model I don’t really feel like painting so I can get back to painting the stuff I enjoy painting.
When things are tough keep moving forward, no matter how slowly. Even the smallest steps are better than standing still.
I know, sappy, but I feel better and at least I’ve updated the blog.
Speaking of my blog, I’ve really seen no improvement in my calls to action. That’s this bit at the end of the post where I remind you to comment or look for me on Twitter or Google+. I don’t think it has been effective for me. What do you think? Leave me a comment and don’t forget to subscribe for more. At some point I’ll post something worthwhile.
Sometimes it can feel hard doing hobby stuff. Myself, the projects I’m working on now are taking more time than expected, so it feels like I’m not making any progress. That coupled with that we’ve just launched a new Tabletop Club, which is a lot of work, made me feel tired.
This Saturday, the time I was going to spend painting was used playing videogames instead. Not because I wanted to play videogames, but because I wanted “not to hobby”. It felt good and on Sunday I had my energy back, and enjoyed my time painting.
That’s some good advice. Pushing yourself too hard can be bad if it makes the hobby feel like a job. Just don’t be like me and not paint a single miniature for over a year because Dota. http://tyler.provick.ca/blog/suddenly-dota/
I’m a bit late to the party but I can feel you on this one. I’ve been so wiped out with everything aside from painting lately that I carries over to hobby time. When I finally do get to hobby time, I feel as if I can’t get the results I want. I feel put off then and it carries into the quality of my work.