I recently went back through the last few months of 2016 and tracked how many times I’d posted to my social media channels. I knew I had let it slide a bit but as I thought through all the things I was taking part in, surely I had posted a fair amount. After all, I’d been busy.
Not true.
Over 90 days, I’d posted some nine times to Instagram. The difference between what I’d thought I’d done and what I actually did do was startling. It made me wonder if I‘d spent as much time in my studio as I had thought too.
Our brains are big and complex and it’s easy to think we’re working in a direction but without tracking our progress, we don’t really know.
That brings me to my goals for 2017. For me, 2017 is about consistency. I want to create the systems that will allow me to grow as a professional artist whether that be studio endurance or marketing systems. And for all of it, I‘m tracking.
For example, I’m going to start working from a daily schedule and check back in with myself if I followed that schedule. If I didn’t, I need to figure out why. Bad schedule? Overly optimistic about how much something would take? Got really into something and didn’t want to change gears? Netflix? And then take that information and adjust.
It’s easy to think back and assume we’re putting in the work but before habits are truly ingrained or solid systems are in place, we may not be. There are milestones I want to hit this year (looking at you value and composition) and to do so, I’m going to keep track of what I’m doing and how often and make sure that I’m actually making steps in the direction I intended.
Jan 2, 7:00am