001 | Fighting the All or Nothing Mindset as an artist

I am one of those people who will throw something away if it’s not quite right.

Delete from my life if I can’t quite commit to the schedule I set myself.

Overwork something to death before being able to show it to the world.

Even sitting down to write this blog post is difficult. I write, rewrite, pause, delete it all. Try again. Delete. Sit and procrastinate. Change my mind. Start again. Edit the title.

The All or Nothing Mindset is tiring. Confusing. Draining.

It stops you from doing the thing.

Instead you think a long old time about the thing you want to be doing. You research it. You research it a lot. Eventually you might even start the thing (great!). You gain momentum, feeling great. So many possibilities.

And then when things (inevitably) get tough - something pops up, a schedule has to change, an injury - instead of picking up where you left off… you simply stop.

And you don’t restart.

Because now your good streak has ended. Your schedule is out of sync. You’re no longer able to dedicate the same hours you used to doing that thing. So instead of putting yourself back out there a little bit at a time, you disappear completely.

Months go by.

When will you restart? When will you put something, anything out there?