I had an entirely different blog written for June. But upon further reflection, I have decided not to bring the vibe down. Instead, I am going to write about something I’ve been experimenting with the last few months for pure creative expression (because that’s what you’re supposed to do when things in the ole melon are not so groovy).
Enter: Redbubble designs.
I had built up publishing art and designs in my mind as this big, scary thing that would be an intimidating undertaking when in reality, it was as simple as creating a store and having fun.
It got me thinking about how often I’ve done that with other areas of my life.
The urge to overthink paralyzes me sometimes, creating gorges out of sidewalk cracks. I convince myself something is much too complicated or hard or pointless to attempt, or at least to attempt yet. That ever-imposing “not yet” that can suck years away from real progress.
The risk of “not yet” is that it could become “never” before we’ve even realized it.
So often, once I do the thing more than once, it becomes completely manageable and doable, and I wonder why I was so worried about it to be begin with. I’ve had that moment so many times in my life you’d think I’d have it figured out by now.
There is no such thing as “ready.”
Action is the antidote to anxiety and overthinking. Sure, what action you take matters, but the act of choosing to try something, learn something, do something is almost always better than stewing over what ifs and not readys and comparisons.
So I made the Redbubble account when I didn’t feel ready to do it. I tried beating myself down with realities such as “no one cares what you create,” “it’s an over-saturated market,” and “This is a waste of time,” which, though generally true, have nothing to do with how much joy it brings me to bring ideas to life and see them on real products.
Redbubble, for those unfamiliar, is an online store that allows you to upload designs and produces print-on-demand products with those designs. The artist and Redbubble share the profits.
My first few designs were meh, and then I learned about file sizes and pixels and how to make them better. But I had to have the meh before I could figure out how to improve.
A lot of things in life are like that. We have to be willing to start if we ever want to see progress.
In this world of capitalism and turning every little scrap of life into a competition, it feels like a relief to do something just because I want to. No more, no less.
We become ready by doing the thing we think we can’t do, or feel we are somehow not good enough to do. We become ready by trying and trying again. We gain what we need from the doing.
That’s why in this interesting and somewhat demoralizing time in my life I am taking dance classes with my darling, gleefully making art no one cares about (in a non-pitying way), and baking cookies while watching movies I’ve seen a million times. Not everything has to have a bottom line.
Thank you for reading and happy summer!