Confidence > Motivation
polycounter lvl 13
I've been thinking lately,
And i believe I've thought thoroughly enough to make a coherent post about how confidence is ultimately more important than motivation, for the sole reason that confidence defeats the need for motivation.
Here's my train of though;
I used to suck at finishing my projects, i'd always make up some bullshit reason as to not finish them but looking back on it now i'd have to attribute it to lack of confidence in my ability to produce decent art, deep down i felt like my work was shit, but i was telling myself i wasn't which stopped me from finishing projects because who in that frame of mind would publish something they though was crap, which lead to lack of motivation.
Lack of motivation because why start something if nothing has changed, i'm still crap, i was thinking some retarded thing like "if i lurk Polycount more, i should absorb enough skills through observation that i'll get better, so i should just wait it out" i was pretty naive.
Here's where confidence changed how i worked;
I'm not exactly sure what gave me the confidence boost, i think school played a huge part of it; Praise from my peers, actually having to finish work because i was paying good money for it and actually seeing self improvement.
But the more confident i became in my work the easier it was to fight artist block aka lack of motivation.
I wasn't scared of tackling new things anymore, regardless of the end result i was confident i could get it done and satisfactory to my own artistic taste.
I think my confidence in this argument was more apparent when i started to tackle my traditional 2D skills, something i've ALWAYS put off, it took a bit to get the ball rolling with my 2D work but everytime i start a sketch or an illustration i know deep down i can pull it off and finish it. Where as before i'd stare at a blank photoshop document because i was scared shitless at failing. I took a step back at it now i can safely say i attribute this to self confidence.
Now days i finish most of my projects, personal and professional with such ease because i believe in myself, i can see improvement with every stroke of the pen, i believe with every piece i make i get better.
Now, i was, and still am a firm believer that motivation is a gift and you work because you have too, but i don't think motivation is even in the equation for me anymore, no invisible motivation barrier that i have to hop over to start a project anymore, i just walk right into it.
I decided to make this post instead of hypothesizing to my self because i know the motivation topics pop up from time to time, and i've been through the same struggle,and i'm sure there are plenty of silent sufferers.I thought maybe a different take on it might help at least one person out.
You can do it, i believe in everyone and you should believe in yourself.
TL;DR: Become self confident in your abilities, and you may not have to fight motivation anymore.
Q&A:
Q: How can i be self confident if i'm shit?
A: Your doing it wrong, your work is good it's just some people work is better, that's the way of life embrace it or more and more people will become better than yourself. Believe in yourself.
Q: I'm still fighting motivation
A: Either your doing it wrong, or my argument is flawed.
Q: Why did all the dinosaurs die out?
A: Cause' you touch yourself at night.
And i believe I've thought thoroughly enough to make a coherent post about how confidence is ultimately more important than motivation, for the sole reason that confidence defeats the need for motivation.
Here's my train of though;
I used to suck at finishing my projects, i'd always make up some bullshit reason as to not finish them but looking back on it now i'd have to attribute it to lack of confidence in my ability to produce decent art, deep down i felt like my work was shit, but i was telling myself i wasn't which stopped me from finishing projects because who in that frame of mind would publish something they though was crap, which lead to lack of motivation.
Lack of motivation because why start something if nothing has changed, i'm still crap, i was thinking some retarded thing like "if i lurk Polycount more, i should absorb enough skills through observation that i'll get better, so i should just wait it out" i was pretty naive.
Here's where confidence changed how i worked;
I'm not exactly sure what gave me the confidence boost, i think school played a huge part of it; Praise from my peers, actually having to finish work because i was paying good money for it and actually seeing self improvement.
But the more confident i became in my work the easier it was to fight artist block aka lack of motivation.
I wasn't scared of tackling new things anymore, regardless of the end result i was confident i could get it done and satisfactory to my own artistic taste.
I think my confidence in this argument was more apparent when i started to tackle my traditional 2D skills, something i've ALWAYS put off, it took a bit to get the ball rolling with my 2D work but everytime i start a sketch or an illustration i know deep down i can pull it off and finish it. Where as before i'd stare at a blank photoshop document because i was scared shitless at failing. I took a step back at it now i can safely say i attribute this to self confidence.
Now days i finish most of my projects, personal and professional with such ease because i believe in myself, i can see improvement with every stroke of the pen, i believe with every piece i make i get better.
Now, i was, and still am a firm believer that motivation is a gift and you work because you have too, but i don't think motivation is even in the equation for me anymore, no invisible motivation barrier that i have to hop over to start a project anymore, i just walk right into it.
I decided to make this post instead of hypothesizing to my self because i know the motivation topics pop up from time to time, and i've been through the same struggle,and i'm sure there are plenty of silent sufferers.I thought maybe a different take on it might help at least one person out.
You can do it, i believe in everyone and you should believe in yourself.
TL;DR: Become self confident in your abilities, and you may not have to fight motivation anymore.
Q&A:
Q: How can i be self confident if i'm shit?
A: Your doing it wrong, your work is good it's just some people work is better, that's the way of life embrace it or more and more people will become better than yourself. Believe in yourself.
Q: I'm still fighting motivation
A: Either your doing it wrong, or my argument is flawed.
Q: Why did all the dinosaurs die out?
A: Cause' you touch yourself at night.
Replies
Never thought about lack of confidence but it's probably the same thing as lack of motivation.
Well, maybe it's important enough to feel good about yourself and to be in good mental health.
But the only thing that matters: is it done?
Motivation is just a fuel. And like sugar for brain it's a very short-term thing. You can't get far with it.
You can be motivated at morning only for a few hours and then you like ameba.
What keeps you going? Not motivation. Discipline. Habit.
Ask sport professionals about motivation. The only thing that matters — are you in gym doing what's need to be done?
No matter if it's raining, bad mood, etc. Of course sometimes it's better to take a break or you can hurt yourself.
Q: How can i be self confident if i'm shit?
A: Make it better. Or in the end you will be a self-confident shit
And keep in mind that every artist feels like a shit comparing to someone else or just for something in his mind that he can't achieve yet.
Noone talks about it usually, that's it.
If I have little to no experience in something I'm really just not going to be confident in myself about it. That's just me being honest with myself.
That's not to say that I wouldn't try my best and am afraid to try new things. I certainly believe you shouldn't be afraid to push your boundaries and fail. That's how you grow.
What you're describing as being able to finish projects etc. falls more in line with self-discipline than self-confidence or motivation.
Q: How can i be self confident if i'm shit?
A: You can be self confident in being honest with yourself. If you're work isn't great. Work hard to improve! It comes with hard work and self discipline.
I see guys at the gym who haven't made progress in months but train as much as I do, same goes for art.
Growth comes from a succession of small goals not sustained drudge.
Motivation is the fuel that reaches this goal and then immediately asks for another, and Confidence is the hubris to set a goal 3 sets higher than the last and call comfort zones and recommendations irrelevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
So your assessment that confidence means anything is kinda wrong too.
I get where you guys are coming from with the self discipline thing its defiantly a viable solution for people who have motivation issues, but you can't just flick a switch with that either, right?
Self discipline defiantly played a role in my self improvement over the years, but i also can't help to think being self confident was a factor as well.
Anyway, i don't think there will ever be an absolute fix for motivation issues, I just hoped that maybe an alternative might help a few people out there.
I think most artist and also really good artist never really go I'm fucking awsome and this is the best I and anyone else will ever get, instead everyone
has confidence in that the work they do will result in themselves becoming better artists, if you don't have that sort of confidence things might get hard and you lose motivation.
Believing in yourself (self confidence) is only the first step. The hard work and self discipline even when you don't want to, is what makes the artist's work good.
What if you are confident in what you are doing, but anytime you make a move there are naysayers who bring up valid points?
I am not sure if confidence or motivation is enough.
One has to have the right direction as well.
I've always got motivation to make new fellows, and I am rather confident that I must produce them;
however I always wonder if fellows and employment people will see that.
If I make one mistake the tough guys will appear out of nowhere and say I am incapable of completing the task,
which make me hesitant to make characters sporadically instead of going with specific razor point guidelines.
An example of what I mentioned beforehand was during a walk I had an idea to make a fellow called "quacktus" after seeing a cactus on a store display and a few ducks crossing the road. I started coloring the fellow, but then I thought to myself, " The meat-brigade will say that this character is too similar to my other characters and I am not listening to anyone, a lecture will be given and more folks will say rude things."
Sure I could just say that their heads are full of meat and move on, but that would be rude, and not the best course of action. What if they are correct? , That makes me hesitant to proceed with production, and less fellows will seem to be made due to that.
I have to think methodically and produce characters with a portfolio purpose; but even I do they never seem to be appeased; thus I always seem to be in a state of limbo.
Another example of such is recently I was making Mario esque fellows and someone said they were too detailed.
I am not sure, if I made them too simple it wouldn't be appealing to employing fellows, and they would think that I
wouldn't be to produce. That would leave me a horrible position. There just seem to be too many variables and too many people giving conflicting advises.
Blocking everyone out isn't an option either, the problems I mentioned above will occur the second I peep my head in again.
So in this case, you are damned if you do, and you are dammed if you don't.
Disscipline and confident do seem like they go on par with each other.
I've noticed something (obvious), there are periods where one can work and be productive without limit and there are periods when that same person, if he dares fall down or takes a break, it asks tremendous effort to get back to that ''productive state''...
Help plz.
My argument though wasn't about thinking your work is top tier and you can't make mistakes, it was about having confidence in your own abilities and skill sets, it's okay to say something you produced isn't up to standard, if you can justify artistically why you should stop working on the project instead of stopping because you are afraid it won't work in the end it's fine, confidence can at least get you to that point and not make you preemptively assume its going to fail when you haven't even tried.
@Blond
Do you feel like you just sit there contemplating starting a piece but you don't?
If so, think, deep down is it fear holding you back? are you worried that you don't possess the skills to finish the project or finish it satisfactorily?
Here's my train of thought if it helps;
"I want to try paint a portrait (mind you i'm an environment artist), i've never done it before i'm not sure how it will turn out, but i'm confident i will give it the best of my abilities, and if i fail? so what, there are plenty of people out there doing art and failing and every time they fail they get better and better, that is to say people are getting better than me at failing than i am getting better at sitting around. And if its not the best portrait in the world who cares, as long as its the best i can do, my idols have idols, and so do their idols. my skills will be one step more refined after this, i can do it."
I know it might be construed as self discipline and i agree that's a valuable trait to have indeed, but i don't think we should rule out confidence.
I can confirm the last piece i worked on i've never attempted anything like it before in my life, and the old me would of never even tried because i wasn't confident i could, the new me said i could and i'm so fucking glad i did because i actually loved the whole experience and i love the result, i would of never gotten to this point with my old way of thinking.
Anyway i better stop rambling, i'm starting to sound like a love preaching hippy.
If you ever want help tho, my inbox is always open.
this is based on my experience and my mistakes :
many ppl don't have confidence because they just compare themselves to other popular artist .
often nothing to do to their own true passion.
lots of great artist is not comparing themselves to other artist. they just doing what they love