Rambles #5: Discouragement
I talk about this kind of thing a lot: accepting my level for what it is. However, motivation is still the biggest road block for myself and for many people. And often times it's not even out of laziness but simply discouragement and, especially in the current situation, maybe some depression.
When we see that we are not where we would like to be in our skills or even just life we start to panic. And what makes it worse is things like social media where we can actually compare ourselves to people around us. Which obviously isn't any good way to get through life. But admittedly, we still do it. We let other people's successes get us down. Now maybe I'm bias but I want to say that it's even worse for artists to an extent.
We become obsessed with being great and we expect to be great RIGHT NOW. We don't have the patience to fail and make bad work, but this is the time that we need patience the most.
We become discouraged and frustrated when we see people who are younger than us already using Maya or After Effects when maybe we just started using it last year or even last week. I've come across plenty of tutorials made by 10-year-old kids. And yea, it sinks in fast that they are teaching me. I can't resent them for it though. Good on them for starting early. What's even more pride-crushing is when the teen artists you see on Tumblr or Instagram are even better than you. And even though it's discouraging, we have to not compare ourselves.
I know that it's easier said than done, but what can you do about it other than just get better? Challenge yourself and improve your own work. It's OK to compare when it inspires you or maybe even helps you visualize a goal, but at the end of the day, it is your own improvements that matter. Your journey is personal and has nothing to do with the other people you see. Sometimes the best thing to do is keep your head down and work. Don't think about getting better or being as good as someone else. Just do it. Your skills improve naturally because every time you do something again it gets better without you really even thinking about it. And that's honestly how these people got so good. They were just doing it to do it. Because they enjoyed it; they were in love with it. This love made them keep doing it and that's how they got better.
Bottom line, if you love it, you don't have to think about getting better. You just keep doing what you're doing and before you know it, you're work will look even more amazing than you hoped.
