ONE Trick to Befriend Time for MORE Personal Projects
My Story About a Polar Bear Dancing in the Snow
Time is a thief and it’s the best in the world.
It steals when you’re having fun or if you’re having a miserable time. Either way, it is taking seconds…weeks…months…years… an eternity from us. It’s easy to villainize time, but it doesn’t leave us empty handed. It leaves something beautiful in return; experience, wisdom, memories, scars, love, loss…a legacy. It leaves us so much that often the passing of time is overlooked. We are overwhelmed with life and all the information we are inputting. Life slips past us as we pour coffee, open doors, laugh at jokes, drive to and fro, and check things off the list. We take notice in sudden sober moments. We say things like, “time is flying by!” Time listens and smirks because it knows it’s taking the time it took you to say it too. It’s taking the time you’re reading or listening to this…and how dare I point that out! But I do because I want you to realize there is no time to waste!
Now I’m going to confess something I’m honestly embarrassed about. I have a large unused canvas that has sat in my kitchen for yeeears. Unpainted. Unloved. I’m pretty sure I bought it before having my son almost 7 years ago. It’s not in the way. It doesn’t annoy me or my family. It is overlooked by all of us as it collects dust above my front closet. As seen here behind another white canvas (that I did actually paint):
I had intended to paint it with fall aspens. I live in Colorado and I love aspens in the fall. Instead, I often joke to visitors that ask me about it that it’s a “polar bear dancing in a snow storm”. Regulars know it’s blank because I just haven’t found time to do it. They know I’m a busy mom and artist.
I’ve spent a lot of time working on other creative projects like this:
Sad thing is, all my other walls are covered in colorful paintings and pictures. This one blank corner has sat waiting for me “to have time” for 7 years.
Truth is… if you strip back the excuses… I have been actively ignoring it.
It’s just another project unfinished.
A dream unrealized.
Time is unconcerned if I’ll paint it or not. It has one job. Move forward…no matter what. Ever heard the saying “If it’s important to you, you’ll make it a priority” ? Then why so many things undone? Things I thought were important at the time. Then years go by and it’s NOT so important any more. Time hands me other things. Fills my life in other ways. I don’t blame time. It’s just doing it’s job. It’s taking and giving every second of the day and if I’m not making any moves, it will just hand me whatever I am paying attention to at that moment. Which for me means – school lunches, school drop off and pick up, answering emails, planning dinners, negotiating TV time, doing my best to “handle” unexpected life events, and fighting for MY time. What does “my time” even look like? WORK – emails, commissioned illustrations, teaching classes, and my bedtime routine. Sharing another meme? Reading another news article? Watching another tailored Ad? Saving another idea handed to me via Social Media or Pinterest? Sprinkle in some holidays and lots of coffee. Time is a thief.
The Polar bear dances sadly above my kitchen in a very cold snow storm…endlessly.
Reminding me it is unrealized, unpainted, and it’s such a shame too.
Until…
I FINALLY painted it.
yep. I did it!
I took down the blank white canvas and painted my lovely aspen trees!
• • •
And I wrote the words above BEFORE I actually did it.
That’s right. I actually wrote this newsletter (above those 3 dots) a year ago, so I WOULD actually do it! I wrote it Dec. 2023. I wanted to process my feelings about time and I wrote that I had FINALLY painted my aspens before I actually painted it. I wanted it to be true. I wanted to will it to be true. I wrote the words and then sat staring at it until I couldn’t take it anymore.
Just before Christmas 2023, I reached up and carefully pulled the unrealized project down. I could almost feel it’s excitement, like a puppy at a pet store. I cleaned the dust, collected the supplies, and poured the paint. Here is a 30 second video of me painting it:
Then, I placed it back above my closet and I’ve enjoyed it all year. I’m pleased to see it alive, but I never did send this Substack. Why? To be COMPLETELY honest with you, I hadn’t quite decided if the painting was done yet when I placed it back on it’s perch. When is a painting ever really done anyway? Either way, I got what I needed from it. I finally cleared the unspoken gunk from my mind. Whenever I paint, I feel as though my tangled incomprehensible thoughts suddenly free themselves from my mind. A tension releases physically in my body. It’s a very therapeutic process for me. Some people run or meditate and feel the same exact thing. Of course, I’ve painting other things in the span of seven years, just not this one canvas. What a relief to see paint on a surface that had been visibly pleading for my attention for 7 years! I decided that maybe this Substack had just been for me. A little push from the universe to finally DO something instead of just daydreaming about it. So, I never sent my story about time. I kept it for myself.
Until…
I sent it to your inbox this morning.
I saw it in my drafts and realized it had just become another dancing polar bear in a snow storm! Unsent, unrealized…and maybe YOU need a little push too. Especially, in a new year! I’m sorry it took me so long to ask you this one question:
What is your dancing polar bear in a snow storm?
What if your own snow storm parted? What is the “thing” you might be neglecting, a project you started or never finished? Maybe something you’ve always wanted to do and never done. If there’s nothing, I applaud you. But if there is something that popped in your head when I asked (or a lot of somethings), I challenge you to write it down. Right now! Seriously. Why not? Grab a pencil or scrap piece of paper right now. Write to yourself that you FINALLY did finish or complete “it.
It might say something like this:
I wrote the manuscript.
I completed a full sketchbook.
I finished the book.
I made 10 new portfolio pieces.
I submitted my work.
I FINALLY accomplished my creative goal.
Then tape it to your computer, bathroom mirror, or somewhere you’ll see it. How does it make you feel? You now have a better chance of doing it! Why? Because you said you would. You said you already DID it. The thought of actually achieving the goal is thrilling. Your future self is reminding you to “do it already!” and the time IS ticking! A message from a future version of you is a very powerful thing.
I hope you really do it because truly…it feels good. It feels magical to pass time doing something you want to do! It’s food for your soul to work on personal projects.
For professional artists like me, we use personal projects for many reasons! Some of those are to hone our skills, find our style, get in a groove, make the portfolio work we want to get, study new subject matter, to clear the mental gunk, and/or just simply to express ourselves. Even though I draw all the time, other art mediums like sewing or pottery are important to explore too. It grows your creative muscles to do something new and it unlocks creative inspiration. It can be just as important as paid work. There is time for commissioned work and all the other stuff too, but if you let it…time WILL fly and get away from you. 7 years might pass. You will never get to work on the projects that thrill you and lead you where you really want to go.
You know, On The Creative Road could just be another dancing polar bear in a snowstorm. But I know I wont let it because of YOU. So, thank you for taking the time to read or listen. I appreciate YOU more than I ever could express!
One final note, as we enter a new year. I had made the choice in 2024 to give myself more room to process my goals and re-frame my mindset. It was very important to me that I do that. Instead of overwhelming myself during summer and winter holidays with extra projects, I allowed myself to relish in my family time. There is a season for everything. Now I feel myself leaving a season of reflection and entering a new season of sharing and making more art. Whatever season you may be in, whether it be a quiet one or a loud one, I hope you are able to honor it and I wish you a very successful 2025! May you befriend time and choose more things that YOU want to do!
This post is a part of a monthly post by the Illoguild. This month we are discussing the topic of “Personal Projects”. Join us for a FREE LIVE ZOOM on Monday, January 20th at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM MST where we will be discussing this very topic.
p.s. Last year I wrote about using Affirmations instead of Resolutions and I must say it felt good to start the year that way. So I did it again this year and my word of inspiration for 2025 is “bloom”. I’m not sure why, it just popped into my head and it feels right. What word would you choose to inspire you this year? I’m curious to know if you’d like to leave a comment.
Affirmations vs Resolutions
Hello! How is 2024 treating you so far? Or should I say, how are you treating 2024?
Yeah! 👏🏻