Ep.054 When Giving Up is Good

We talk a lot about not giving up in our societies. We talk about persistence and all the ways that you can accomplish and finish things, but how often do we talk about the importance of setting things aside when they aren’t fulfilling our needs? 

In this episode, I’ll speak about why giving up can be a really great thing to do, when it is the right choice, and how to figure out whether persisting or setting aside particular pieces, projects, or goals is the right thing for you. Because sometimes, not only is it ok to give up, it is the best thing for you and your creative work. 

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CREDITS:

Cover design by Sage; Illustration by Olga Kostenko

Cover art, Icarus Reconstructed by Sage Bray Varon

Music by Playsound

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Transcript

Transcript

Make you say, Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can continue doing what I’ve been doing and that’s OK. You’ve got to be able to say that’s OK. I don’t think you’re ever going to be saying I’m not going to be an artist anymore. Sometimes, though, we have to let those other aspects of our lives be the focus. Hello. All my hard working and. Dedicated creatives out there. Thank you for joining me on the Sage Arts podcast. This is a solo sage today, so just me and all of you and river. Who the puppy is on the lounge munching on a Kong, so hopefully she won’t do it too noisily. Or at least not that. You can hear if you’re anywhere, noise in the background. It’s just a puppy. In any case, today’s subject matter is kind of very apropos for me right now, and probably for a lot of us, a lot of the time I want to talk about the condition or position of thinking about giving up on something. And I’m talking about the whole range of things that we as artists run into, which could be anything from a a single piece to a a project or a series that we’re trying to do or a business aspect to setting up a website or setting up a store or trying to get into shows or just the whole idea of being a working creative. Maybe you’ve been trying to make a living off of your art and it just hasn’t been working out the way you’ve wanted it to and you are wondering, do I need to do something different or do I just need to not do it this way anymore? Maybe my creativity should just be for me whatever it is, so that whole range and the idea that giving up is a bad thing. I’m going to try to dispel. That a little bit because we not all of us. But many of us, especially those who grew up in a family where accomplishments were very highly considered and pressed upon you, that you need to do what you say you’re gonna do, and you’re gonna accomplish things, and you’re going to be productive. That can make it really hard for us to see when it’s time to. Just set something aside because we can’t do everything that we set out to do it. Just nobody does. And it’s something I don’t think we talk about enough. I don’t think people except for themselves or feel like other people will accept of them the idea that you will give up or you will fail or you will just turn away from something that was at one point a real passion for you. That’s gonna be the subject matter. Think about where that applies to you. You as we get into this and just a couple of quick little business notes, I am still continuing to have to do this about 3 * a month rather than every week. More stuff is coming up and I’m hoping we’ll be able to keep up on this pace because in April, May and June, I have week plus long trips that I have to get in there, there’s stuff going on with the family. There’s. Still stuff to be done around this house, but I am doing my best to keep it going. I don’t know why this year actually, since what October I haven’t been able to keep up a weekly schedule like I did pretty much for almost the straight. For the first year of the podcast, this is actually why the subject matter is what we’re going to talk about today, because it’s kind of been on my mind and it’s something I don’t think is talked about a lot. We talk a lot about not giving up. We talk about persistence and all the ways that you can accomplish and finish things, but how often do we talk about setting things aside? How often do you talk about not doing the things that we started? Doing leaving things unfinished and I want it not to be a bad thing. I want you all to realize that there are times when that is OK. As always, if you have thoughts about this stuff or if there is a subject matter you would like to talk about, please do write me. You can do so at the sagearts.com website you can write me on social media, Instagram and Facebook. The Sage Arts podcast. Pages there if you wanna donate and support and give back to this podcast, I really appreciate that there are. Buy me a coffee and PayPal buttons that halfway down the homepage of sagearts.com and all of these links are available in the show notes or description section of wherever you are listening to this podcast from. I do want to thank everybody who wrote me about the. Color episode last time. Is so affirming to me to hear the comments from people about how important this was for them at this time, or how it’s always confused them. The CMY thing and how this was a great way of understanding it. And they really feel more comfortable with it. And This is why I do what I do because of people like you. Who? Needs this kind of information that isn’t quite out there in a mode or Ave. that you have available to you, or that you regularly can find. Thank you for all the comments. I really, really appreciate that it keeps me going. It keeps me energized. I appreciate hearing from you. That stuff is set aside. Let’s talk about the whole idea of giving up or just leaving things unfinished. And you know, there’s times that that is definitely necessary. And we’ll talk about when it’s not necessary. And when you should pursue what you’re doing. So we’ll cover all of that here today. So I guess the questions just keep in mind is, are there areas in your life right now that you feel might be better set aside might be better? They’re not being completed and I wanna stop if possible using the whole terminology of giving up because it has such negative connotations. So we’ll see if I’m able to not use that phrasing so much, but it is what we’re talking about. I want to get past the idea that giving up is bad now. There are times when. You shouldn’t. There are stories of people that I know they felt like giving up and then they didn’t. And then they pursued something. They just pushed a little farther and they got where they need to go, and now they’re just doing just amazing work. And they’re where they want to be. I love those stories. One of my favorite because it’s someone that we all kind of know, probably. John Krasinski, who was the character Jim on the office and he’s Jack Ryan. And he’s Emily Blunt’s husband. He had a story that when he was first getting into acting, he came out to LA. I don’t remember he came from, but it was he’s not from the southern. One area and after I guess it was a number of years, he really hadn’t gotten anything going and he was having a call with his mom. And he said, you know, I feel like this acting thing isn’t working out for me. I want to come home. And she said give it a few more months. And if after those few months and you’ve given it a real push, you’re not feeling it, then come home and so. He did. And three weeks after that phone call, he was cast as Jim in the show the office. So there is always going to be, I think, at least in the back of my mind and a lot of us that maybe if we keep going, we will get what we want. We will get that thing that we’re after. We will get that work done that we’ve been trying to get done. You will reach that position. That level that we are envisioning for ourself. But there are times when you have to realize now this is not really going to happen or what it is that I’m trying to do. Even the thing that I’m after may not really be what I need right now. May not be serving what I need in my life at this time, and if that’s the case, that’s where the idea of going ahead and setting things aside of quote UN quote giving. Up can actually be the right thing to do, and you don’t want to not take those opportunities to move into something else, so you might wanna start by defining the kind of person you are, because there’s a there’s a range, but I think there’s kind of like two types or maybe like 2. Extremes of people and how they approach giving up so there’s people who give up easily and there’s people who don’t give up when they really should. And I am absolutely the 2nd. The latter type I like a challenge, but sometimes I really should give up or set something aside or not finish something at certain points. I don’t always realize it at the time, but I think we actually talked about this and Brett was on one of the previous. Because he kind of ribs me about the fact that I don’t give up on things when I really should just stop and replace or hire someone else to do it. You know, I think I could do everything I like to be able to do everything. So I kind of do try to do everything, and I really shouldn’t. So kind of determine who you are cuz that may. You actually have quite a bearing on your approach to determining when things are done for you. When you have had enough. When you need to move on. And and when you can’t, because those of us who take things too far, we need to be able to stop in the middle or at certain points at certain milestones. And what we’re doing and analyze is this worth continuing? Have I not accomplished what I wanted to accomplish by this point? And if so, should I continue? Should I continue to fight, fight the good fight, fight, fight the challenge, or or whatever? And then there’s. The people who just. As soon as things become problematic or troublesome or frustrating, or what? Might give up. So for the people who give up easily, you might want to persist longer. And for those of us who take it to an extreme, we might want to step back earlier on that middle ground. It’s always a hard place to reach on a regular basis. So that’s one thing to determine for yourself what kind of person. You and be honest. There’s nobody’s gonna know. Do you give up easily? Do you take things too far? Are you somewhere in the middle? Are you pretty good about recognizing when you should stop? Regardless of where you are, I think we all run into times where we’re not sure if we should be giving up or we should be what I say. The phrase is going to be. We should be setting things aside. We should be OK with not finishing something because there are so many reasons to. Continue and there are often times many reasons not to continue. But it’s all about how it serves you and what it is that you are trying to accomplish. So if you haven’t listened to episode 49, which is the episode on determining what success is for, you listen to it. Or if you listen to it and you didn’t really take it to heart or you haven’t gone through kind of like the process, do you go through the process of determining what success? Is if you define it very specifically for yourself. Because that is going to have a huge bearing on whether you continue something or whether you stopped doing something. Because if, for instance, your primary mode of determining success for you is measuring your happiness, are you happy? Are you fulfilled? Are you stressed? If you are not happy, if you are stressed out, then. Maybe something that you’re doing needs to be set aside, or if you’re measured for success, is getting into galleries to get into the big show. And you haven’t done it yet, but this is a huge measure of success for you, then persistence is probably going to be your best friend for that kind of success definition. So define success for yourself. And then let’s. Talk about the different ways in which you can analyze what you’re doing and whether it is the right thing for you, whether it is serving you. Or whether it should be set aside and just left unfinished. So let’s talk in terms of single projects or, you know, single. Pieces that you’re working on or series that you’re working on. If you’re frustrated with it. If you’re not having fun, if you’re bored with it, if any of these things are coming up and making you think, I don’t know if I want to continue doing this, the number one thing to ask is why did you start it in the 1st place? Go back to the beginning. Why did you want to do this? These now we may have and many times do start something because we have this impassioned vision for it. Something comes to mind like, Oh my gosh, I want that to actually exist out in the world. So I want to go make this paint this collage, this mosaic it. Help it and make it become a real and tangible thing in the world. That is honestly one of the best reasons to start any creative work. But sometimes, and this is where we have to be really honest with ourselves, we often start doing things because we see other people doing similar things we think. Ohh I should be doing that. I should be following the trend or making the things that are selling at all. The shows that I’ve been at that I’m not making. And although yes, when money is concerned, sometimes you’re gonna give into that, and maybe that’s OK. But again, you can apply a lot of what I’m talking about today to the same thing. Like should I give up on these Kitty? Crafty easily sold things so I can do my personally visioned work and this will. All be dependent on what your version of success is. If your version of success is selling and making a living off your stuff, then you do give in to the trends and some of the things that will make sure that you make the bucks. If that’s the case and you’re doing it because of sales and because of money, that’s one thing. But if your version of success is about what is fulfilling for you and being able to put out your own particular unique vision of things and sharing that with the world, then if you find yourself doing things because you see other people doing it, then that’s probably something you want to really consider. Should I be continuing in this vein, maybe I am. Cutting off my own Muse, shutting down that unique voice of yours. Others by letting what other people are doing and what other people are getting attention for, become dominant in the goals you have for your work and the type of things that you’re doing. Be honest with yourself about whether the purpose the why you started, the things in the 1st place comes from an external source or an internal source. And the internal sources and I’m I’m very partial to those, but understand that how does that coordinate with your vision of? Yes, if it’s not helping to fulfill your version of success, then maybe this is something you need to set aside for the time being, and also if you’re doing it just to explore, then realize that sometimes what you’re doing is a matter of practice and it doesn’t have to end with a finished product. Or a finished series, or a finished shop or website or whatever it is. You explore and you figure things out and you learn from that, and then you can take that information and move into something else that is going to be more particularly focused because of what you learned during your exploration. And you will hopefully be able to fulfill your version of success with more. Specific and fulfilling pieces or projects or series or aspects of your business. Now the other thing that I highly recommend you do is just so basic and so common. But it is so worthwhile and really really useful, and let’s make pro and con list. If you are in a position where you might need to set something aside, pros and con lists, and you need two of them. These will help you define and see what it is that you’re doing and why you’re doing it. And and what feels right. You need two list because one you need a pros and con list for why you should continue doing. What you’re doing and a pros and cons list for discontinuing what you’re doing, you. Know. The things that you do today are often investments for things in the future, like training a puppy properly and making sure she’s well socialized and making sure that she’s happy and she’s content. We’ll pay off down the road, you know, cause we’re gonna have her for. Hopefully a very, very long time. There are things like that in your life that you’re like, I’ve gotta do this in order to have a fulfilling and content and happy future. So it might be a relationship with your spouse or your significant other or your family or the job that you have that actually does pay your bills. Sometimes you have to put a lot of energy into those things. And when you do the question of all the other things that you’re doing, including your creative work, might have to come second. Or put on a back burner for a little while and I hate the idea of giving up creativity. If you’re a creative person because I feel like for most people I know, most creative people I know, it is such an essential part. If you like giving it up like setting it aside, like saying I’ll get to you later. Just feels so wrong. It’s not always a matter of giving it completely, but it’s also a matter of what you’re giving up. So be specific. If you’re making a pros and cons list, be specific about what it is you’re giving up or potentially giving up, or potentially putting it aside or potentially not putting aside. And putting other things aside, the pros and cons, this will really help you define and see. What it is that you’re doing and why? So, for instance, one of the things that I regularly actually have to go through and consider is doing the podcast. I’m not gonna give up my artwork. I’m not gonna give up my family situation or any of those things. The podcast ends up being one of those things that’s like, well, it actually is something that if there is too much. Point on I can actually set aside without losing a lot of the things I think I need in my life, but it takes a pros and cons list to really figure that out, so there’s like three things on each side for the continuing and for discontinuing the podcast. The reasons I do it is connection and to be able to teach because these are parts of my definition of success. So those are the pros. Why do I do it? I do it because it’s fulfilling for me and it makes me feel connected. It makes me feel useful. It makes me feel productive. It makes me feel like I’m doing something that is going to benefit the world in general. I mean, not like the whole world like I’m not. Solving world hunger, anything like that. But I’m helping people be happy in their creative lives and that means something. Very deeply for. Me. What about the cons? Hey, the cons are it takes up a lot of time. It’s an out of pocket expense because it’s expensive to do a podcast and I’m not selling something. Most people who do podcasts sell something. Or they’re doing it as a labor of love, and I’m in the second category. It’s a labor of love. If you’re lucky. You’re like the girls on morbid and you start in your laundry and four years later, the True Crime podcast that you started just because you love true crime is the number one podcast in the country. But that doesn’t happen to very many of us. And then they’re making money just by doing advertising. And that kind of thing, which I’m not in a position to do and I really don’t want to. I at some point I might have to. So the cons on the should I keep doing it list is it takes up time and it takes up money and it takes up my creative energy. Honestly that would be continuing. Those are the things that I gain and I lose. And then if I discontinue it, what do I get and they’re kind of the flip side and this will often happen when you do your pros and cons. A lot of the items will be a mirror. Reflection opposite of what it was for. The other list if I discontinue at the pros are I have more time and my finances might be. A little bit better off. And then under the cons lists I lose my connection and I lose part of my definition of success, which is to teach and to help other people. When I look at those and I realize how monumental that. Being connected and teaching people is for me and I don’t have another Ave. for that at this point. It makes me say OK yeah, I really need to continue doing this. So if you do a similar deep dive internally into why you’re doing what you’re doing, how it affects your life and make those pros and cons lists, they can really help delineate and clarify what it is you’re doing, why you’re doing it, if it’s important, if it needs to be something to continue working on because it does fulfill your definition of success. Or does fulfill something that’s very important for you in your. Life. Then you may want to continue doing it, but if it doesn’t, you realize all it’s really doing is maybe like feeding your ego or making you feel included or you do find out you’re following trends or something that isn’t personally fulfilling. Then you see why discontinuing or. Giving up is actually gonna be beneficial for you, and it’s a good thing. So determine what it is that you need that kind of thing and that also plays into what it is you need out of what. Doing and then the other thing that I think is important to consider when you are facing the question of continuing something is what is the experience that has brought you to this consideration? Are you working on a piece and you’re getting bored with it or you’re getting frustrated with it, or you suddenly don’t see any point in doing it because it’s not going to end up as perfect as you had? Hoped it’s not going to end up as. Envisioned it when you pinpoint the reason for these doubts about why you should continue something, it can really give you a lot of information about what it is that is needed. If you’re going to continue it and maybe why you shouldn’t continue it. So, for instance, if you’re working on something and you are getting. Frustrated with it because it’s not as good as you’d. Like it is that because? You’re not able to do what you need to do. Maybe it’s a skill issue, maybe it’s a matter of you haven’t acquired the necessary skills or the tools, or the the materials that actually you need to have to create the vision that you started out with. And if that’s the case, then you can set something aside. Until such time as you’ve acquired the skills or the tools and materials that you need, and if that’s the case kind of takes the pressure off right, you’re like, oh, hey, you know what? Actually, I need to work on other things or acquire other things. Before I can finish this the way I want to, and oftentimes personally I think if that’s the case, restarting is often the way to go because once you’ve learned new skills or you have new tools and new materials, if you’ve kind of done it halfway, then you’re trying to fix something that’s not quite right in the 1st place. Just start over, you know. And that’s OK to start over. It’s a way of not giving up, but instead trying to perfect what you’re doing. Start over from the beginning and do it right. So if it’s a skills thing, then acquire the skills. There’s nothing wrong in saying hey, you know, I don’t have those skills yet. I mean, a lot of us get impatient. We want to have this stuff done. We want to have something to show for it. I’m going through this with my painting thing, readjusting my understanding and the motor skills and the new materials and everything. And I am impatient. So it gets frustrating. And if it’s a matter of patience, then you need to reconcile. The time it’s actually going to take to finish something with your expectations. So if your expectations are so high that you’re just frustrated through the whole process, then maybe it is something you should set aside. I know it’s going to take me several years before I get to the point with this painting, and especially at the rate that I’m going, right? To be able to take what’s in my head and actually accomplish it. So as long as I realize that and I’m OK with that, I’m going to continue and move forward. If that’s not OK with you because you need to be accomplishing what it is that you’re after right now next month and the next six months, whatever. So that you can start making money. Off of it or you can move on to the next thing that you have cause you have really long list of things that you want to do whatever it is, whatever the reason is then maybe it’s time to set this thing aside because you’re not going to. Accomplish it in. The time frame that you initially hoped to or had envisioned for yourself, right? And then what? If you realize, you know, you’re just bored and there’s several reasons for becoming bored with something because you start out with one vision of it, and then when you start working on it, it kind of turns into something else. It always does. And if the translation between what’s in your head and what you actually end up doing seem drastically different. And it just doesn’t interest you. It just doesn’t motivate you. And maybe, yeah, maybe set it aside for something else, but also it could be that you’re too close to it. Oftentimes we get bored with things when we feel like we’re just going through the motions and accomplishing the repetitive actions. For instance, if you do jewelry and you’re doing a lot of beads or a lot of parts that need polishing and sanding and just a lot of busy work or you’re doing a painting. And the under painting and then the next layers of paint and so many layers of paint and you’re just like, I’m not really that interested in. The subject to need this. You should probably be looking at other ways to do the same kind of work, like you don’t have to do under paintings to do either oils or acrylics. There are ways that are very immediate, but they can be very drastically different techniques for you and you’d have to determine whether those techniques will accomplish what it is that you want. To be putting out there and then it might simply be that you have a temperament or a level of. Patience or whatever. However, that requires you to have more variety and more change, and I’m actually kind of one of those people. So my way of dealing with that is often just to set something aside for a little while and go on to something else, and then I get to go back to it with fresh eyes. And I look at and I can get really excited about the things that I see that were working out really well and. Maybe the things that I was disappointed with I’m not seeing. Because they really weren’t that bad. But a lot of times we’re really close to things. It’s hard. We know what’s wrong when we’re really close, but when we back out and we don’t see something for a while. Well, then it can get exciting again. And just maybe it’s just not the time for this particular piece or this particular project or series. Just go ahead and set it aside. If that’s the case and move on to something else as much as possible, you want to be going into the studio with some sense of excitement to be motivated because we’re putting ourselves. Out in our work we are imbuing the work with ourselves, of the spirit of who we are, and that’s not going to be easy to do if we are bored. Granted, there will be times where it won’t be wholly exciting, because the work is pretty humdrum. But if knowing that at the end of the. That, you know, humdrum, regular, boring, busy work, you’re gonna have a beautiful piece, then. Hey, keep your eye on the prize, you know. And then another thing that might feel like boredom to you is simply that you’re burned out if you’ve spent too much time in the studio and haven’t gotten yourself out and haven’t fed your news. With new experiences and new places and new people and new. Ideas that may be a simple answer. To reinvigorate what it is that you’re doing in the studio, do get out on a regular basis. You know, I end every podcast with a feed your news line, and it’s not just the line. I’m really serious about it. I even did an episode about it. I believe it’s episode 14. Feed your muse. Feeding your muse is really, really important for us as. Artists we can’t work in a vacuum. We can’t just spend all our time in the studio because if we do, we are only being influenced and inspired by the things that are. Around us and. Sure you can get online and look at Instagram or Pinterest or you know, just you can go to museums online and look at things and that’s great and wonderful. But we are physical beings. With visceral reactions to. Things. And if we’re not out in the world experiencing them, whether it’s taking a hike through nature and being out amongst people or going to a museum and looking at work in person, these are very different experiences than being in the studio or being at home and just seeing things digitally. It’s a whole other world, so. Recognize when you have not allowed yourself, your muse, whatever you. You want to call it to get out and experience the world and have inspiration to bring back in the studio and to keep you motivated and to keep you working. And yes, oftentimes you go out and you see new things and talk to people and see art and come back and studio with new ideas and that may make you want to set aside what you’ve been doing. And if that’s the case, you can sit down and do the whole like why did you start the projects that you might be wanting to set aside and do the pros and cons list and determine whether you should be moving on to the new and exciting things and kind of I’m kind of the cheerleader for the new exciting things because I am one of those people that will continue to move on to new and exciting things. Time which granted is not always the best approach, but to determine what it is that you need. Again, what is your version of success? How do you define it and is moving on to something new going to help you fulfill your definition of success? And then I’m going to encapsulate all the other reasons why you might be wanting to. Not continuing something with the exterior outside of your studio reasons, life has gotten busy. Family needs you, your other job that actually pays the bills needs. You you’re just like amount of work. The physical activity of it. They, they, your health, your Wellness. I mean, any of these things can come into play and make you say, oh, my gosh, I don’t know if I can continue doing what I’ve been doing. And that’s OK you’ve got to be able to say that’s OK. I don’t think you’re ever going to be saying I’m not. Going to be an artist anymore. Sometimes though, we have to let those other aspects of our lives be the focus, be the priority, be what it is that we turn. You I would recommend that if that is the case that you have a planned return to your studio. I really would hate for any creative person to not be able to return to their creative work, and if you do have to set aside what you’re doing now, maybe you have a substitute for a creative. Outlet like maybe you just start sketching A sketchbook instead of working in your sculpture, working your mosaics or your your oil paint. Or maybe you do photography. I mean, it’s easy. We all have cameras on our phones and most of them are amazing cameras. And you can do some really interesting photography there. Or maybe you start writing or maybe do other things that are either time wise a lot smaller, or there’s something that can go with you as you fly about taking care of family and taking care of business and taking care of, you know, whatever it is that you need to be doing at the time. Just don’t give up on your creativity. You know, I think if you have always throughout your life been drawn to creative work, I really do believe that if you have any tendency towards creativity, it is an essential part of you and do not ignore.

If.

But do not set it aside. Do not make it a priority so low on the list that it’s just never happens. I think it’s really important for our happiness and our well-being to be creative and to go out there and and share our visions with other people or even just going through the process for some of us, it’s just the process itself that we need to go through. In order to feel fulfilled and to have a happy and complete kind of life. So yeah, I give you absolute full permission to set your creative work aside when it’s necessary. Just have a plan. Return write it down, tell other people. Put a date on it. Put a time frame on it of some sort and get yourself back. And again, if there’s something that you can do in the meantime, keep an eye on your creative self. It is part of who you are and tend to it. You know, in whatever way you can, I’ll say it again. It’s OK to stop. It’s OK to set something aside. It’s OK to change gears. I over the last few years, when I. A. Decided that continuing in the publication industry was just not viable. I tried online magazine. I tried online teaching. I tried just doing things through the blog. I my gosh, I feel like every year I tried something different and it hasn’t quite worked out until the podcast I feel. Like this actually works. But I have to tell you, I felt guilty. I felt flaky. I felt like people are gonna think. I don’t know what I wanna do. I don’t have a focus. I’m just all over the place. And honestly, I kind of was all over the place. And it wasn’t because I’m flaky. It wasn’t because I can’t be dedicated or can’t stick with something. It’s because I was constantly making adjustments for the changes in my life. I had a lot of changes in my life over the last seven years. I moved from Colorado to California. I got married. I suddenly had a whole other life that was really different from what I had before. I didn’t have a social circle here, so that changed as well. Well, what I was doing in my business a few years later change because between the pandemic and the printing industry, the costs and all that kind of stuff, all these things changed and so ever since then I have been working to adjust and tweak what I’m doing to fulfill my version of success and to do what? I need to do in a way that feels purposeful and successful, not just for me. Actually, for you as well, because it’s always about other people for me. If you are in the same situation, don’t beat yourself up and I’m telling you this, even though I still feel like I kind of beat myself up a little bit about constantly changing how I do things. But you know what? We are in a really uncertain kind of world and I’m not gonna get into like. The political or. Socioeconomic stuff that we’re all dealing with, but we really have a very uncertain. Cold. And so if we have to change things, we have to change things. Things are changing so fast around us all. Time our technology is changing all the time. I mean, I would not have thought two years ago about something else being able to do what I do. And now we have AI and all of us are thinking, can they take my illustration jobs, my graphic design jobs or my writing jobs or none of us would have thought about that. I don’t think because most of us didn’t know about it until you know, a couple of years ago and now here we are like facing OK, AI can do so much of what what any of us who are freelancers or offered services and creative services. Those things can be done quite often by AI. Not as well. Absolutely. I do truly believe that hiring a person is going to be so much better in every case, but they can be, and so some of us are losing jobs and having to readjust to that our technology. What’s available to us, what we can do. I would not have been able to do a podcast. I don’t know five years ago. I actually had. And I don’t know if I ever mentioned this. I actually started the process of doing a podcast like 12 years ago with a friend of mine. It was gonna be a fiction one. It was gonna be a creative fiction type of thing. So I’d started that, like, whole process. But it was such an enormous thing back then to be able to do it. We didn’t have the software that we have. We didn’t have the services that we have now. And so it didn’t happen. And so if you keep trying to do things now that aren’t really happening cause things are hard, it’s not really reachable for. You. That’s fine. It might come up later. I mean, here we are. 12 years later, you know. Took me 10 years, I guess, to come into the idea that podcasting is actually a possibility for me is something I could actually do. And I do it on my own, you know, so don’t worry if what it is you’re trying to do doesn’t seem to be working right now, cause maybe it’ll work later. And just set it aside and I’ll let that segue us into the aspect I probably should at least bring up a little bit, which is not giving.

Yup.

I just feel like there’s so much information out there. There’s so many people out there being cheerleaders for us as creatives or just people in general. I mean, you go to a movie. And it’s all. Rah rah rah. This hero heroine is going to do something that no one else did and is going to reach goals that they were after from the beginning. And we always feel really good that they did that. And I think that just kind of pushes the whole idea that if you give up that it’s not quite right that you should feel bad about yourself, but I think. If you’re the kind of person who knows, yeah, I kind of give up on things a little too soon. There are ways, and they’re pretty much a lot of the things that I just talked about to get yourself into a position to be able to complete the things that you have not normally been able to complete, like setting things aside so you can pull them out later and then get excited about them. Because they’re going to feel fresh and new when you haven’t been looking at them constantly for days or weeks or months on end, and then also just realizing when things are really worthwhile for. Because there really is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment like being able to complete something and finish something and share something. It’s just such an amazing feeling. That is the thing that kind of drives everything that I do because I want other people to have that sense of accomplishment to have that. Feeling of success and finishing things is usually a huge part of that feeling of success and accomplishment, so I don’t want you to continuously beat yourself up if you often give up on things I don’t think. That’s helpful. But at the same time, you should finish things so that you feel motivated to continue and to pursue the things that make you happy. So if you have to one set things aside, two do things in smaller increments like find success in the. Learning of a skill and being able to complete an exercise in a a class or whatever. Those are huge and worthy accomplishments as well. So if you don’t finish a piece this week or this month or this year that you’ve been hoping to do, but you’ve managed to learn the skills and pin it down, some of the things that kept you from finishing before it, that’s great, Mark. All of those milestones make note of them celebrate. Them post them whatever it is that’s going to help you keep motivated and keep moving towards those other projects. The next thing that’s going to give you that fulfillment and that happiness. Is what we’re all. After in our creativity, it is something that we’re driven to do for most of us. It is something that gives our lives such brightness and happiness and fulfillment, and I think if you never finish something, you’re missing out on a huge part of what it is that we’re doing as creative. And if finishing those bigger projects is the thing that you’re having a problem with. Than just do smaller projects is nothing wrong with doing smaller projects. You don’t have to do what people are doing on Instagram. You aren’t them. They aren’t. You don’t make an equation between. Too do what makes you happy. Do what makes you feel fulfilled. Do what accomplishes the kinds of things that fulfill your definition of success that get the recognition or the connection that you need with family, friends, or distant people. Making those lists about you know why you’re doing something. The pros and cons. Those things really help. I am a strong believer in writing things. Down. I know not everybody. That’s not their thing. If you talk it out with somebody instead, that’s fine. But get the verbalization of what it is that you’re doing out there and I think that really, really helps us focus on what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and what we. Should do next. Hopefully that covers the whole of what it is. That I’m trying to get across and that you are understanding that what I’m after really for you is that you are OK with not finishing things with saying I’ve gotten what I need to out of this particular project or whatever I want to set aside and move on to the next thing or that you know that you can finish it. That it’s OK that you set aside now and you do it later. I just want that whole idea of not finishing as being some kind of loss as being something to be ashamed of, that just needs to go away. That’s just ridiculous. You know, for many of us as creatives, and it’s something that I’ve realized a lot lately is that for me, the creative process is the goal. I am about the creative process. I want to go through the discovery and go through the exploration and that is the primary reason I do what I do and the finished. Items are definitely something I need and I know I need to get there to feel that what I’m doing and working towards in the explorations and everything that I’m doing is going to feed into. But I don’t need the end product to be the only thing that is fulfilling. So if I go through a process like I am rewriting my novel for the third time. So what about those first two drafts? I mean, complete nearly complete novels in the first two drafts, and I’m going to basically start all over again. I don’t even know if I’m gonna use any of the previous material. Am I going to be like, why the hell did I do that? Well, I had to learn as I went as part of a process and I enjoyed the writing. I enjoy that time. It’s very Zen for me to just sit there and write and work out in my imagination. All these things about these people in this world that I’m. Building and it’s very satisfying and it is no different than going for a hike. You’re going to move, you’re going to a party, you’re going for dinner. We get enjoyment out of those. But there is no end goal. There’s nothing we walk away with from that hike and that dinner of them, you know, being nourished in various ways. But it’s not something that we take and go look what we did. You don’t have to and we don’t. We don’t usually share that most of what we do. Some people do. Some people share our every meal, but whatever. The fact is, is we go through what we go through in our life and the only thing we have at the end of it is our experience. The fact is that at the end of our lives or in the middle of. Our lives, whatever the. Only thing we really carry through is our experiences. So our experiences are, to me paramount. And if you feel the same, then it’s going to really free things. For you, when you do something and you don’t finish it or you do something and it doesn’t get you to where you want it to be and you start over, you’ve had those experiences, you’ve had that enrichment and that learning and that skill building and that joy from the processes that you’ve gone through and that can’t be taken away from you. So consider giving up as part of your process as part of the things that you consider. So setting aside or doing complete work can be a relevant and viable and necessary part of your creative process. That so let’s make that the thing we think about this week. I hope that is helpful for you. If you have stories about your own struggles with giving up on things or not giving up on things, and you would like to share it with me, you know I love stories. I would love to hear more stories. I know a lot of you are shy about it. But do write me. You can write me at the Sage Arts podcast. Pages on social media, Instagram and Facebook, the sagearts.com website. Of course, we have the contact page there you can write me the. And then if you like what you’re hearing and you want more and you want to support this and keep it going, you can donate via PayPal or buy me a coffee. You’ll find the buttons for that halfway down on the homepage of the sagearts.com website. And then of course, if you enjoy the show and you want to make sure you know when the episodes are out. Please do hit that follow button. It also helps when people are searching for arts related podcast to help find us and help join in the con. Conversation. So I am going to leave it at that. I feel like I’m forgetting something. Oh, the newsletter. If you want to send it for the newsletter, that will also let you know when the next episode comes out and any of the additional items that might go with the podcast, like the Color episode had five or six visuals that helped. Explaining some of the things that I was talking about. So if you sign up for the newsletter, you get those visuals as well. So. And that can be done at the sagearts.com as well. Look for the news and notice this button. OK, I think that wraps up all that, so please do go out and look at what you’re doing. Determine what you should be continuing to do. Determine what you should set aside, and maybe not even finish. And like I said, do go out and feed. That must go out and have new and novel. Experiences to keep you excited and keep you motivated. So yes, feed the news. Be true to your weirdness because being yourself is part of having that original voice and then join us again next time on the Sage Arts podcast.