Motivational Problem
Hey, just wondering if it's a common problem with other artists dealing with motivation?
This is something that has blighted my work for as long as I can remember; no matter how much I'm interested in the art I'm working on, I'm forever allowing myself to be distracted. It's got to a point now I'm calling out for help.
Anyone able/prepared to share their own thoughts/advice on this?
This is something that has blighted my work for as long as I can remember; no matter how much I'm interested in the art I'm working on, I'm forever allowing myself to be distracted. It's got to a point now I'm calling out for help.
Anyone able/prepared to share their own thoughts/advice on this?
Replies
I find it helps if you allocate time to do certain tasks so you are not stuck on one part for too long, that way you can get shit done and then revisit where you need to later and its a lot easier to see where you need to improve.
Basically the thought process goes like this:
Ok I want to be a better artist!
Art is fun.
Make art.
Oh snap I suck.
That's ok art is fun!
Make art.
Oh snap I suck.
That's ok art is fun!
Make art.
Oh snap I suck.
Why am I doing this. Will i ever get to a level where I am happy?
Of course not. What is the level where I will be happy? This is a fools chase.
Depression. Life questions. Existence problems.
Oh art is fun!
Ok I want to be a better artist!
..... the cycle continues.
What I've found to be interesting is not the fact that art is fun. But learning something new is satisfying. Learning to be lazy (Learn new stuff to make the process easier.) Whether you are learning tools or fundamentals. It gives you a direction and once you learned something you get satisfied. But what to learn? What are you weak at? What are you strong at? What do you not know? What do you know?
But then we are humans and get lazy. That's where my depression starts because sometimes I just want to not learn haha.
And i've noticed a trend with my procrastination (ie flicking on google) It happens when I am at a hard part of making art and I don't know what to do. (no reference, no concept or knowledge). Must be a defense mechanism against hard work haha.
Also an interesting thought. If you were happy with the work you create? Would you bother improving it? Dissappointment leads to development. I'm pretty sure people weren't happy with riding horses to work. So we got cars.
Oh and another thing, make sure the environment you are in is comfortable.
Physically and in your software. Customize your software workplace so that it is fun to work in. Make shortcuts, etc. Arrange it so that it works for you and possibly looks good.
Forget things that lie outside of your circle of influence. Follow less artists on Facebook.
Consider that each day going by that is not fruitfully spent getting better, learning something new, or experiencing sheer pleasure through your work ... is one fully wasted day out of the finite number you have before the grave.
Think of your potential deathbed regrets and act on them right now.
If the problem comes from the everyday routine being a drag and there's nothing you can actively do about it at the moment (work obligations, school, problem with relatives), try to put together a masterplan allowing you to visualize how and when you'll be able to get out of that situation.
More brain space = more focus.
Good luck !
After my study and working for a couple of years I took a year off to travel, a lot. I learned I was addicted to making art which was really valuable. Also what PIOR says about tailoring your life is spot on. The measure of a man's inelegance is his ability to alter his environment to suit himself (insert her if necessary). I am sure that is enough of my plastic pearls of wisdom for today
I bought myself a large whiteboard last year to make task notes and quick concepts - it worked brilliantly for motivation until I moved to a new place recently and no longer have anywhere to mount it. But I'm seeing a common theme in everyone's reply here in that this is about discipline rather than motivation.
Feelings > Actions > Descisions
example: I feel tired/unmotivated today, so im going to play video games instead and decide to work on my art tomorrow. This leads to a bad habit of not getting shit done, and downward spiraling into depression/not working.
The 5% of most successful people in the world tend to look at it like this:
Descisions > Actions > Feelings
example: I have decided to become a kick ass artist, so I am going to work on art, even if I am unmotivated. After doing that, I feel amazing and successful, having accomplished one more step towards my goals and success.
it really comes down to simply forcing yourself to get to work even if you dont feel like it, consistently. day after day, week after week. No use sitting around feeling depressed not doing anything, when you can be working towards your goals. Do it or don't, but looking to others for motivation will usually get you chasing your own tail.
What I'm going to do, is print some pictures out of what I want and could have if I discipline myself better, and stick them just above my monitor. They should serve as a constant reminder that everytime I'm distracted I'm wasting time.
good idea with the pics above the monitor, lots of successful folks have a vision board to help them achieve their goals.
@DustinBrown I would also consider adding these videos to your page, they give an excellent amount of perspective and show that even the historical greats had problems in their career and didn't have much success until later in life.
That is one of the most stupidest videos on Da Vinci I have seen on the internet. A good counterpoint to his video is this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciation_(Leonardo)
This was 1472-1475, Da Vinci was born 1452, so he would be around 20-23. This is one of his painting at the time with his mentor.
Most of his video just seems to be lying. Even if he was telling the truth about Da Vinci would that still be a good example to follow as Da Vinci is a massive outlier in history. Da Vinci invented the tank, helicopter and parachute. He was trained by one of the best artist alive at that time throughout his teenage years.
He clearly was really talented at mathematics, which alone would have made him one of the smartest people alive at the time. 99% of people today would struggle to learn calculus, yet Da Vinci was close to inventing it. So that video is just silly and misleading.
1 - Go through your whole friends list and "unfollow" everybody. That way you'll get updates only from the people that you care for ... by actively going to their profile. And if you miss something and later hang out with them in real life, they'll have the pleasure of actually telling you their story directly and in person.
2 - Don't bookmark facebook.com but rather www.facebook.com/messages/ . That way you will avoid even more clutter.
No, Twitter is my main thing. Theoretically I could take a similar approach to what you suggest and mute everyone I'm following, but I make a webcomic and get a lot of my gigs through twitter and I live in a very rural part of California with no local friends so between it and Telegram it's most of my social life and the fact is I just don't want to cut off a limb like that. Instead I just limit my ability to access twitter when I'm supposed to be working.
EDIT: if you find yourself getting consistently distracted from what you are doing at home despite being motivated and wanting to do it, I would suggest you learn to paint, as patience is the issue rather than one of artistic motivation (just wait till you have to spend 5-7 days before continuing a painting). alternatively every weekend take a train somewhere far away (like 2 hours away in one direction) with no entertainment other than a sketchbook (or if you can afford it a laptop with only your program you work in installed).
Still, evaluating what is worth preoccupying oneself with might be something interesting to do. I am not very familiar with interactions on Twitter, but I suppose that it might be easy to surround oneself with huge amount of badass art ... which in turn might negatively affect your focus, even subconsciously.
Put differently : I tend to believe that 6 months spent focusing on one's art only, with, say, the occasional trip to the art gallery would bring better results than 6 months during which one checks for "inspirational artists" and follows "art badasses" even just weekly. Because how can one focus on his/her own path and goals when always being distracted by others' ?
(bit of an extreme example of course, but that's for the sake of the point
Really can't emphasize this enough. I think that motivation is a myth...you have passion, but discipline is what keeps you doing it all day, everyday.
Feelings > Actions > Descisions
The 5% of most successful people in the world tend to look at it like this:
Descisions > Actions > Feelings
- - - - -
Very nicely put, I think that's very true.
Also, one more point : it's important to get rid of the fantasy of the romantic artist sitting in front of a blank canvas and making magic happen out of nowhere. The fact that there are thousand of youtube videos or gumroad "tutorials" showing exactly that doesn't necessarily mean that this is the path to improvement or greatness - yet I hear of many people trying to mimic that process.
I believe that sitting down to get stuff done only comes after one has a defined idea of what one is trying to achieve - including the necessary references, studies, and so on. A project.
Randomness seems to only lead to scantily clad pinups, fire dragons and post-apocalyptic homeless robot soldiers. Nothing inherently wrong with these themes of course, but why bother ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
(To clarify, the research behind that concept of 'flow' helps you understand what makes you productive, bored, anxious etc. when doing some activity.)
Find a way to make money from everything you do. Money is an amazing motivator.
Actually, I don't play games. I wish I could but I don't allow myself - so I do have discipline for some things, but like Root said (quoted above), I'm a sucker for social media. I'll sit with my project open in front of me... do a little bit of work... then sucked back towards the internet.
That said, I'm already seeing a big improvement to my work rate since starting this thread. It's definitely an attitude thing and I think mental fatigue undoubtedly plays a part too.
What do you guys do about music? Does it distract you? Do you listen to a variety of songs/genres, or only one genre while working? I listen to Spotify and have about 3600 songs, but I’ll find myself often going back and forth between working and skipping songs that I don’t want to listen to until I find a song that I don’t mind listening to or do want to listen to.
Listening to music while I work is enjoyable, but sometimes I’ll get sick of a certain “type” of song after a while (upbeat/fast, slow, guitar/bass/vocal emphasis, etc). Eventually I become anxious and keep searching for songs that fit my mood, or eventually feel burnt out from listening to so much music. (then take breaks from working) It’s like deciding between an emotional rollercoaster of differing songs or getting sick of hearing the same genre of music after a while.
I’ll have to try to work without listening to music/any distractions and see how that goes.
Whenever I listen to something more agressive like rock/metal/pop I tend to get a headache fast. Also there are not so many vocals in it, so that doesn't distract you either.
(Tried that beat.fm thing and immediately got headache and what not)
SharpKeys uses a registry remapping so it all works without the need for a resident program (like AutoHotkey for example).
https://sharpkeys.codeplex.com/
But like the website says, if you map something wrong it could do some damage.