A personal note from me to you
I've been sending out a weekly newsletter since 2018. Every week, I've taken the things that happen in my studio, and turned them into educational or inspirational nuggets.
Some weeks this is easy, and some weeks it feels more difficult. Being me, I have kept plugging away, even when I felt less than inspired.
As you may know, I teach a course called Find Your Joy - the entire premise of this course is that art-making should feel good. I believe that we make our best art when we feel excited and engaged, and I believe we feel that way when we do what comes most naturally.
I teach my students that any time we feel less than excited, we need to get back in touch with what feels good. All too often we stray into doing what we think is expected, rather than what we would really like to do.
And recently I realised that I have been doing the same.
I have been writing my newsletters for other people. And making my Youtube videos for other people. I have made it my mission to be of service to as many people as possible, but along the way, I stopped thinking about what I want to do.
So I've been spending some time recently checking back in with myself - finding my own joy :)
This has meant spending a lot more time creating art, and a lot less time answering the questions that constantly flow into my email inbox. And as I have dedicated more time to my creativity, it has began to pay me back with new ideas and new directions. I have re-found my joy :)
And that's when it suddenly dawned on me ... the things I teach don't just relate to my art. They relate to life as well. We are ALWAYS more successful when we follow what feels best. I used to love making free educational content, but lately it hasn't felt as good. And it should come as no surprise that my results reflected that. For example, my Youtube subscriber numbers were growing, but the engagement on my videos was decreasing. Fewer people were watching.
So I decided to make a shift. Instead of thinking up new ways to teach, I would simply document my art journey. As I recommitted to my art, I would share my progress in my videos.
I didn't know if anyone would be interested, but I knew I would have fun making the videos, and that the process of making the videos would help me deepen my commitment to my work.
I put out the first video this week (see below) and the results have been amazing. This is the first 24 hours...
The video has also received 3x as many comments as normal, all in praise of the new format.
This is before I have even looked at the things that make Youtube videos extra-successful like the image that shows up in the feed, or the title, or the copy. And it's definitely before i have perfected a style for the videos.
Bottom line: when we do what feels good to us, the results are ALWAYS better than when we do what we think other people want from us.
I should know this of course - it's the premise for all my teaching! But we do have to learn the same lessons over and over again.
So this is not my normal pithy inspirational email - it's simply the story of what happened this week. But I thought it was worth sharing, and it's also worth asking: what are you making harder than it needs to be?