How to not give up

I’ve written about practice before: Practice Makes Better, and How To Make Practice Easier. 

This time I want to talk about how to not give up when something feels hard. And I want to show you my results over a 4 week period.

Learning A New Thing

Maybe you’re trying to learn a new skill. You’ve watched the videos, you’ve read some blogs, you follow people who do the thing, you went out and bought the materials. Fantastic!

Then you got started, and maybe it wasn’t quite what you were expecting.
Maybe you got stuck somewhere. 

Learning a new skill, or even keeping an existing skill sharp, can be challenging. It takes time and effort to build momentum. And your early work is generally not yet what you want it to be.

All of that means it’s easy to get discouraged while you’re still early in the game.
Too early to see the progress you want.
Too early to have built the habit of practice. 

If you’re feeling this way now, I want you to know it’s ok and normal to feel this way.

Yes, it’s hard.
Yes, it’s discouraging.
Yes, it’s frustrating.
Yes, it’s uncomfortable.

AND I want to ladle heaps of encouragement over you!

Take a deep breath in.
Don’t give up.
Keep going.
You got this.

One of the main challenges I’ve faced is my skewed perception of how easy it will be to accomplish a given thing. 

I blame Instagram for this. 

I’ve consumed so many sped up, edited, art videos that I begin to believe progress can be made quickly, aesthetically, and in a nice linear fashion. My rational brain knows this isn’t true, but if I watch enough videos telling me otherwise my subconscious mind starts to believe it. (Propaganda and advertising work on this principle, and work well.)

Have you fallen into this trap too?
It’s easy to do.

Digging yourself out of it is not easy.
There are far fewer videos of real-time process, with the long, messy reality of it on display.
You cannot counter this particular problem by consuming equal and opposite media.
You have to go through it yourself.

So, you are working on something: learning a new language, taking up knitting, rock climbing, pottery, watercolours, etc. Whatever it is, you are making progress, but perhaps slower and less satisfying than you thought it might be. 

It turns out that’s exactly how it should go. 

Congratulations, you’re on the right track!

When I Thought About Giving Up

The rusty skill I sharpened recently is life drawing. It’s a valuable skill for any artist, and not an easy one. I felt frustrated and discouraged in the early days. If I’m honest, I felt frustrated and discouraged almost the whole time! It was hard. Other people were clearly better at it. I had to sacrifice some sleep to do it. I thought about giving up a few times, and staying home in my nice, warm bed. But I persevered, and I made progress.

Below you can see the progression in my drawings over the 4 weeks I practiced. (Get an optimal view of this progress by using your browser.)

Sometimes the progress is obvious.
Sometimes it’s subtle.
And sometimes it’s not there.

But over just 4 weeks I felt much more confident in what I was doing, and it shows in my work.

I purposely offer you this message and example in long from blog format instead of a quick and tidy time lapse video.

Progress takes time. More time than you expect.
It’s stilted, messy, and can be frustrating.
And it requires you to stay with your discomfort as you move ahead.

How To Not Give Up

• When you feel discouraged and frustrated, allow those feelings to exist. Celebrate them, even! They are messengers telling you you’re on the right path.
  • Note it is “when” you feel discouraged and frustrated, not “if.” You will feel these feelings when you are on the right track.
• Don’t let those feelings stop you. Again, they are indicators to keep going. 
• Allow your work to be bad, or to be mediocre. This is the price of learning. You must make a lot of mediocre work before you get to “good.”
• You might document your progress for social media, I say document it for yourself. Look back at where you were on day 1 and see how far you’ve come. Appreciate and celebrate that progress.
• It can help to set a time frame for yourself. E.g. I will do the thing (no matter how well or badly) for 1 month, or 1 quarter, or whatever feels right, and then I will evaluate my progress, not before.

It can feel helpful to talk about the thing you’re working on. If you like, share your thing in the comments and how you’re feeling about it at this time.