I had an entirely different post written and planned out, but in the spirit of the new year, I decided to just open up a new post and free write. It’s been an interesting couple of months. On the 2nd of December, 2020, I launched a product. A notebook which one of my prints that I absolutely love. It was a very Nike moment- just do it. I put it up on instagram and twitter and dropped my phone like a hot potato. My plan was to give it one or two days and then post the launch on my blog and then another one or two days and then start messaging family and friends directly. I sold out in 30 hours. And cried.
As a society, we place a lot of emphasis on intention. I think we give intention and action the same weight of emotion. It’s why someone can say “I was going to do this for you” and be met with a feeling of warmth. It’s why we let people off for terrible things because they “feel guilty”. For the purposes of this post, it’s why the idea of doing something is matched with as much excitement as doing the thing itself.
We’ve all done it. Thought of an idea that was so great, so brilliant and execution was the less important part. We’ve been met with excitement for that idea - “wow, great mind, great idea, great intention”. But then what happens next?
I’ve wanted to sell my digital art for years. I had vague notions of a website and the sort of stuff I wanted my prints to go on. In the end, there was nothing glamorous about my launch. It was a lined notebook sold through DMs. It was an action, so it mattered more than all the thoughts I’d had in my head.
So, next- we rinse, we repeat. We think, then we execute.
Something I’ve struggled with for a long time- my whole life really, is accepting my gifts. I feel like I always sought out struggle because I felt like success and life in general had to have struggle to it. What I didn’t realise was that, even when you’re gifted at something, there’s still struggle in the consistency of it. I wish I accepted earlier that I am a talented writer, editor, communicator, artist, designer- that I am great at helping other people succeed . Even as I type this as a sort of “in your face” to my fear, there’s a niggling doubt in my mind. Am I, in fact, talented?
The thing is, I don’t think it matters. I can re-characterise that to “I love to write, to edit, to communicate, to create art, to design- to help other people succeed. That, is just as valid.
Just as we praise intention, we praise talent. What I love, what I admire, what everyone I’m a fan of has in common- they work. They show up, they are consistent. The thing is, not everyone can have talent- like beauty, like luck- it’s not distributed evenly. But work? Consistency? More people can do that.
So welcome to another year that can be just like the last or completely different. Some part of that shift, is up to you. Your life can look COMPLETELY different in a year, but you have to show up for that change.