What I keep coming back to every time I try to think about writing about “transformation”, is actually “progress”. I’m happy when I make progress, and I accomplish a lot more when I just focus on my progress. I’m resolving this year to keep my mind on my progress and not get myself stuck from thinking about the bigger, more complicated stuff in my life.
What do I mean by “progress”? If I’m trying to eat healthier and I have a few days in a row where I eat lots of veggies and feel more energy, that’s progress. When I’m trying to stay off my phone and be more productive and I succeed for one day, that’s progress. I can be proud of these successes and having my own personal mini-celebrations makes it even more likely that I’ll stay on track. All of these little bits of progress add up over time and that’s how transformation actually happens for me – bit by bit. By focusing on the good each day, I sneak past the blockages.
Celebrate Progress
“A 2008 study found that small but regular events, including church attendance and physical exercise at a gym, can yield cumulative increases in happiness.” — from The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer 2011
Every day I’ve been taking a few minutes to appreciate every little bit of progress I made, no matter how small. One evening, I was feeling especially pleased with my day and sketched the above “Progress” image. Now I use that to keep myself inspired. Whenever I make progress I decide to be proud of, I hold that up and wave it in front of my hubbie’s face and say it loud and proud, “PROGRESS!!!” He was a little taken aback the first time I did it, but now he loves it and he’s started doing it, too. We’re both making progress. Woot! Woot! Woot!
Transformation in Paintings
My paintings go through some big transformations, but most of the layers are built up over time with little bits of progress. I recently finished a painting titled “Transformation with Fairies”. This painting not only tells the story of transformation of the dandelion, but it went through a pretty dramatic artistic transformation while I was working on it. For almost a year, it stalled out and languished on a wall in my living room. (as pictured below)
It was pretty and I liked the colors on it, but it didn’t really tell a story. It was bland and boring. Then one day, inspiration finally hit me. It was hard, but I decided I had to do something and so and I went for it, and slathered a big, fat, vertical purple stripe onto it. This was terrifying! I really didn’t want to ruin that painting! I had a lot of hours invested into it and people had seen it in my living room. I didn’t want to have to explain to people how I wrecked my painting. At the same time, I knew it wasn’t a very good painting, so I didn’t have much to lose, but it felt like I had a lot to lose. That purple stripe was a huge risk, but it was also progress and transformation in one big step, and it felt really good to finally get un-stuck.
If you want your own “Progress” print to wave around when you celebrate your mini achievements, I’ve put a 5×7 inch print of “Progress” up on my Etsy site for $13 with free shipping and I’m in the process of creating some coffee mugs.
[this post is taken from my March 2018 newsletter]
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