Practice Makes Progress

Yesterday marks the completion of my 1-month challenge to create every day. While this isn’t my first time doing a daily challenge, this last one has given me some clarity around the power & flexibility of a self-imposed challenge.

For starters, my original Create Every Day 2-year challenge wasn’t initially a 2-year challenge. At first, it was a 30-day challenge to create a new lettering piece every day with the objective of finding my lettering style and getting more comfortable with posting online. #twobirdsonestone

At the end of that first 30-days, it was clear to me I was enjoying the work and felt like I had just scratched the surface of what I could create with lettering. On day 31, I decided to go for a full year. At the end of the year, I extended my challenge to 2 years.

As with most pursuits it wasn’t about an “arrival point” but more about growing skills and continuing to clarify the kind of person I want to be. It’s clear to see how far I’ve come when comparing an early lettering piece with that same idea revisited.

The biggest learning this past month was clarity around a basic framework that could be applied to any skill you want to grow.

1. Be Clear On What You Want to Achieve
   (BONUS: why do you want it?)
2. Create A Simple Format to Follow
3. Decide a Time Frame

Applying this framework to my recent February Lettering Challenge looks like:

1. I want to create more (Why? Because I’m feeling stuck)
2. I will create lettering artwork and post online every day
3. I will do this for the month of February

I’m a huge believer that everyone is creative, it’s just a matter of finding your preferred creative outlet. For those of you who have an area of interest you haven’t been able to explore as much as you would like, you may want to consider giving these 3-steps a try.

However, for those of you who are in a season of life where you have zero-interest in exploring your creativity, I also want to share how a friend of mine applied this idea to a different type of challenge.

My friend wanted to address their struggle with eating vegetables. #dontjudge They recognized that their tendency to avoid veggies came out of the fact that they had never tried many growing up.

As a result, they implemented Operation Veg Out.

1. I want to learn what veggies I like
2. Each week I will try 1 new veggie
3. I will do this for 2-months

In this situation we are talking 8 veggies, but it was enough to start expanding an area of my friend’s life that was previously a source of embarrassment and anxiety.

Frankly, no matter what you are looking to try, I think starting small is a key.

We tend to think we have to “go big” but in reality any small step towards a goal or interest we have is progress. Chances are if we start too big it will result in us stopping any progress at all. After having done this a few times, I do think it is a model that I will keep returning to even for small wins when I feel stuck.

I want to acknowledge that there are some seasons of life that are about maintaining where we are at because it takes everything we have to just show up for the daily tasks of life. #iseeyouboo

If that sounds like the season you are in, I insist that you take a pass on this idea. There will always be future seasons of time when you can give this a try.

Let me know what you think of this idea or if you may want to try this for yourself. Also, if you have a friend who may find this type of content interesting, please consider sharing it with them.