image from Holly Exley (& she shared her awesome resolution blog with me as well on twitter)
It's that time of year. A new year. New hope. New leaf. Over the weekend I was really inspired by this blog post on Marc and Angel Hack Life. (Definitely take a minute and read it, especially if you'd like to be inspired and pushed to be a better person in 2012.) I thought to myself I'd love to hear what others are doing in their creative lives to "be better". So with the above blog post in mind, I decided to ask facebook and twitter:
What are you going to do differently in your creative lives in 2012?
The response was amazing!
I want to share with you below a lot of the tweets I receieved. There were so many! (You can see all of them on my favorites page. Twitter never ceases to amaze me, facebook, however -- not so verbose!) And it was a lot of fun. I heard so many wonderful, inspirational thoughts.
The thought I heard more than a few times that really hit my heart strings was:
Follow my heart, don't always do what I "think" I should do!
"Going to try to listen to myself more...and work work work." @sheilaforde
"I'm going to be painting from my soul rather then painting what I think I should." @Russty
"Drawing what I want to draw rather than what I think I should be drawing. And more of it. Lots more." @iainmmcgregor
"Trust my instincts, have a more positive outlook and do more than I think." @leecrutchley
I could totally relate to these. So often I get stuck in what I think I should be doing which ultimately takes away from my spirit and confidence...end product: not doing my best work.
The next big one I heard a lot of: Get out of my comfort zone and push myself!
"I'm going to stir things up, for my business and also as many other people as I can reach."@rena_tom
"Bigger Risks & More Spontaneity." @MWM_Graphics
"...meet with other creatives IRL and put myself 'out there.' Can't spend all my time in the drawing cave." @paperbullet
"Not saying "no" for the other guy! Also interpreted as not setting limitations, giving up control of the outcome, permission to dream bigger!" @mythink
"2012: the year I forget what fear is." @erinkobie
Ahh! It's so important to push oneself to grow. Not the most comfortable thing to do. But sooo rewarding.
I really loved reading what everyone wrote. Each tweet was really touching to read. All were easy to empathize with and many I had to jot down to remind myself -- that yeah, I need to do that too:
"Work during the day light hours and leave the night for other creative pursuits." @Banquetworkshop
"I'm going to try to stop over-thinking everything this year and just create. I'll think about it later ;-)" @megancharland
"Keeping a sketchbook, staying positive, focusing on the process instead of solely on the end-product!" @meeralee
"I want to loosen up more in my art-making (and in all areas of my life) --being hyper-strategic can mute creativity, it seems. Intention is helpful and good, but I want to dilute the impulse to over-control." @thestorialist
"less internetting, more daydreaming!" @erinloechner
"Going to write ideas down more, paint/draw daily, & experiment with new supplies, MAKE MORE and be open to new inspiration." @kbuzzy
"Read More. Travel More. Draw More." @vaughnfender
What are your creative resolutions for 2012? We're 3 days in, how's it going? Share in your comments what you have planned and how you are doing. I'd love to hear. Oh and happy new year! Here's to a productive and creative year!
