I started the month of October with the goal of completing the Inktober challenge this year. I’m now reporting that I didn’t make it past the first week. By the time I got to Day 5 it was already feeling pointless. On Day 6 I didn’t try very hard, and on Day 7 I was just being silly with my drawing. I don’t know if anyone else has ever discovered this, but I didn’t feel the need to do any more.
I mean, the whole point of Inktober is to build your inking skills and develop a daily habit, am I correct? I really didn’t need either of these goals. Which brings me to a topic that I think creatives like us face a lot: the difficulties of setting appropriate goals.
So today I thought I’d talk about this a little while discussing what I did this month.
Here’s the problem: goal setting is hard because there are so many things that I can do! Have you ever been frustrated because you simply can’t choose? This is me, all the time. I love trying new things. I love doing lots of kinds of projects. So I have gazillions of unfinished creations filed away or filling sketchbooks or in a junk drawer. Sometimes I feel really guilty about it, like a kid who keeps going from one shiny thing to another without direction about where they’re going.
Sometimes I tell myself to embrace it. If that’s what I like to do, well, it’s all about the journey, right?
I don’t think that’s entirely true. What is the purpose of making things if not to finish them and share them with others? Yes, the journey should be enjoyable. But isn’t sharing the creation just as enjoyable? It doesn’t matter how you share it, as an item for sale or gifting or just to post on a social feed. If you want to use your art to make the world a better place, in any form or fashion, you can’t keep it to yourself.
Thinking about these things made me realize that the problem isn’t only setting a goal. It’s setting an appropriate goal that will allow me to enjoy creating as well as sharing.
This is how the Inktober challenge was a failure for me. Well, failure is a pretty strong word. I didn’t fail the challenge. I made the decision that the challenge wasn’t right for me at this time.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
Let me say again: there’s nothing wrong with quitting the project that you’re working on if it’s not right to continue it. Think of it this way. If you stop now, you can start another project, one that may be perfect for what you need to do right now.
You may think, well sheesh, isn’t this just justification for wanting to do many projects at the same time without finishing them? Doesn’t this continue to make you frustrated because you aren’t getting to the sharing stage of your work?
It does seem to make it more complicated, doesn’t it? Let me see if I can be clearer.
Inktober was inappropriate with me because my purpose for doing it wasn’t necessary. It brought no meaning to my journey, even if I might have found some meaning in sharing when it was over. I was getting no satisfaction from completing it because it had no meaning.
So Inktober was my current “shiny object”. It sounded like a good idea, and besides, everyone was doing it so it had to be fun…right? I discovered that it wasn’t. Furthermore, it made me realize that my art had to have meaning, my goals had to have a purpose, if I wanted to actually achieve them.
Here’s the really hard part, though. What kind of goals should I choose? Again, the endless possibilities stand before me like a giant wall. I want to scream in frustration. How am I supposed to choose?!
I spent the entire month of October thinking about this. My conclusions are that meaning is important. I enjoy trying all kinds of new art media and working on many types of projects. But I don’t finish them unless they mean something. When I think about the larger projects I’ve completed over the last three years, I’ve come to these realizations:
If it’s a gift for someone, it’s meaningful.
If it’s a picture of someone or someplace special, it’s meaningful.
If it’s a donation to charity, it’s meaningful.
If it’s something I need to learn in order to achieve another goal, it’s meaningful.
Do you see what I mean? When I knew that my creation had a reason, I had the motivation to finish it. So if I want to find motivation for creating I need to find the meaning, a purpose, for doing it.
You might think this is even harder than choosing from a gazillion options. But I don’t think so. I think that finding a purpose is an activity more than a decision making process.
I can observe my friends and family to determine who I want to gift, or go through my pictures to find that special someone or place that touches my heart, or research a charity that is in need of art or the proceeds of my art. It’s far easier to do these things than it is to look at my art supplies and figure out what to do with them.
I didn’t finish Inktober. So what? I didn’t need to finish that challenge. And because I wasn’t focused on trying to finish it, I discovered something about myself. And in that respect, I got what I needed, anyway. It wasn’t improvements in inking or showing up to work, but it did help me understand why goal setting only works if I’ve chosen appropriate goals.
Post script from Future Anni: Between March of 2022 and March, 2024 I posted on YouTube and only occasionally posted at annettezimmerman.com. I’d set a goal of trying video format and discovered that it was a lot more work than I wanted to do at the time. So if I were to go back and rewrite this post today, I’d emphasize that setting goals is important because it helps us to learn about ourselves. Because you’ll never know what happens unless you try.
originally posted at annettezimmerman.com
