Reverb 10.13: Action.

December 13-- Action.  When it comes to aspirations, it's not about ideas.  It's about making ideas happen.  What's your next step?

Well, it's a little about ideas. I have to have some ideas about where I'm going and how I want to get there. Getting there by train, plane, or automobile will look much different than traveling via my own bipedal power.

I don't know entirely where I am going. I have some places I would like to go (the usual: permanent job, my own apartment, new-to-me car, big friendly dog), but I know putting all those ideas in a basket when you're not feeling terribly close to any one of them is a bit like planning an oceanliner cruise when all you can really afford is a dinghy on a trout pond.

I have noticed that some of the 'action' I have wanted to take in the past, but for some reason could not master, has sort of fallen into place in the last few months. While my personal space is still a total disaster, I am a much more organized person. I am capable of getting things done (and on time), and I making time to be responsible. I even started paying more attention to my personal budget. It's not a sexy, dreamy "change your life and write a book about it" action, but it is changing my life in a little but needed way. For people who are chronically responsible, I imagine that it is shocking to you to discover that some of us don't learn/utilize these skills until 24.

As I write this, the task list on my new phone is chastising me for being tardy on a task with an arbitrary deadline I set for myself. It just asked, "How about it, Tiger? Are you ready to get started?"

The somewhat, maybe a little, kinda "sexy, dreamy" action I would like to take next year is working a little more on marketing and selling my artwork. I get nervous about this; I don't really know (objectively) if I am actually any good and I have no idea if anyone besides my friends will buy it. But I have nearly saturated the friend market, and I really want to continue. I also get nervous about making something I love into something I do to earn money. I don't ever want art to feel like "work." After the new year, I am planning on starting by putting a few items up on Etsy, try and figure out what a fair price is (it is certainly not what I have been charging-- everyone is getting deals deals deals outta me), and figure out if I can carve out a corner of a new market for myself. This will also require me to learn how to ship very large canvases (assuming someone buys something). I look forward to that challenge!