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No more excuses

This time of year many of us want to take the time to set new years resolutions. Well me personally I learned that taking the time to set them does no benefit whatsoever.

For me setting goals is whats more important. This past couple of months I had honestly fell off of the wagon with setting goals. Because I had fell into the same system of doing the same thing over and over.

An example is how I would study mandarin often. Then I just got frustrated and stopped giving it my all. Because when I was learning it I felt great. The reason is I knew that I was doing what I should to help me progress further in life.

If there is something that you want to do then there should be no more excuses for you. While I am writing this I am on a plane back home from my vacation. The issues that I had went through with waiting for my flight to get to the airport I was flying out of was frustrating at one point.

But what I learned from Jim Rohn was to not be upset in any situation that is not working the way it was planned to. Instead be fascinated. So you should be fascinated with yourself by not doing things that you know you should be doing.

Just think how much your life would change if you did not make any more excuses. If you like me actually took the time to post new material to your etsy shop as often as you post on your instagram feed and various other things.

Do more of what you know you should be doing and stop making excuses. Because another year has passed how long are you going to be doing the same thing over each day. As well as working at the shitty job you are at. You should be smart about it and start working on your own projects.

I have an Etsy Shop

Etsy

I have been running my etsy shop for about a month or so now. My Etsy shop is a collection of my calligraphy work and I also do custom calligraphy pieces.

My whole process for doing custom calligraphy pieces is that we will discuss the colors that you would like and also I will send you over a proof before I go forward with printing. The type of paper that I print all of the posters 8.5×11 on is french paper 80# text butcher white paper.

All of the prints are laser printed and are of very pristine quality. There are other pieces that are marked lower in price because they will be sold as is on the original piece of artwork. All of my calligraphy/brush lettering work is solely sold for the artwork and not for reproduction.

I will continue to add more work to my etsy shop in the meantime. I must say it has been a learning curve for me and there’s still a lot for me to learn about etsy. I will overtime make the transition to solely selling all of my work here on jostendooley.com

I want to say thank you for taking the time to read this far and I hope you have a great weekend and a happy holiday.

The Tools Do not matter

 

If you have ever had this ideal of I need to have the best tools do what it is that I want to do. Well let me tell you there is nothing wrong with that at all. The main thing is that you shouldn’t be solely dependent upon them.

Because in the video I used a very basic marker that you may have been surprised that I used. The marker that I used was a crayola washable marker and the other that I used was a tombow brush pen. I wanted to show that the tools do not matter. The tools only matter to the person who is using them.

A real person would be able to make use of anything that they have. When someone has the capability of not making any excuse for not having the best tools they are well on their way. I for one fell into the trap of thinking having the best tools would help me get better. when in reality the only way that I would get better is with practicing.

Now there is nothing wrong with having the best tools money can buy I get that. Because some people want to start off with the best right away. Well for one you do not know how much time you are going to actually devote to what you are going to do. A lot of people fall into the trap of doing something because it feels good or its cool at the time.

So I want you to take this with you do not think any point in time that anything is going to happen overnight and or the tools will make you a better designer. Because none of that matters in the long run. What truly matters is the time that you are willing to put into your craft.

How Gas Nozzles Work

This video is great and very informative. Because just think of how much thought goes into such a necessary tool that is used every single day. Also how every single option and etc has to be explored.

The truth is all there is

The truth is all there is no matter how you try to avoid it. There are many people who are frauds and pretend to be something and or someone they are not. But you know that is not our problem. As long as you are being transparent with what you are doing and who you are.

Another thing is to not sell yourself short with anything you do. If you know that there is something you do not know there is nothing wrong with admitting you do not know that. I will be the first to say I used to be scared of admitting such things.

But over time I realized that I was being more honest and thorough with myself by not pretending. Trying daily to not fall into the trap of those who talk about doing things but when you honestly know they only like the title and telling people about things they are not actually doing.

Remember this Honesty is always the best policy it will save you a lot of headaches and suffering.

 

P.S Guess what day it is its my Birthday 🙂

Dealing with Dark times as a creative person

There are many times as a creative person we deal with many dark thoughts are or many different things. But you know that is normal for anyone to deal with. Not everyone on this earth is an angel or thinks positive 24/7.

The times that everything seems to be going wrong for you stop and reflect on the times that were good. Remember what you were doing before hand and get back to doing that. I recently had realized that there were many things that I had started being lazy with. Then I started to get frustrated and depressed a bit.

But I know that before when I was doing certain things such as promoting my calligraphy work, recording multiple videos for my youtube channel and uploading them how much fun I was having. So I decided you know what there is no excuse and that I needed to stop wasting so much time on things. A good example is apps and how you can get so lost in them. You could spend hours doing nothing on them.

Then after you close the app you would say to yourself what did I accomplish from all of the time I spent in it. I said that to myself time and time again. I am NOT saying apps are bad you just should not be spending all day in them if you know you have things you should be doing.

Do not be scared of the dark times when they come. Because they will come no matter how hard you try to avoid them. The main thing to remember it is how you deal with them. You can either let the darkness of times beat you into an oblivion and make you quit or you can fight back.

Do not let the numbers blind you

By that I mean all the numbers on your social media accounts do not matter as much as you think they do. What would you do if tomorrow the platform you used disappeared? A huge amount of people would be in very very bad shape.

For example you may have a lot followers on your accounts. But you know it is so easy for someone fake being popular. Especially when they think having a lot of followers matters. I for one have learned that connecting with people is what matters. You should be replying to comments and etc.

Never feeling as if you are above people who take the time to view your content and etc. Because they took the time out of their day to interact with you. I tend to take the time to value those who do such a thing.

If you have not been valuing the people who follow you and or share your work its time to do so. Also whatever industry you are in and no one knows you its because you have not fully intertwined yourself with those people.

So stop pretending to be popular with whatever numbers you have and no interaction whatsoever with your content. If you have 1000’s of followers but no more than 10 likes its obviously you either bought them and or just did follow trains. You thought taking a shortcut would have helped but it did not help at all.

Taking shortcuts do not last when it comes to building a brand. How long as a company do you think a company that was just starting out would last if they pretended as if they had customers and made it seem like they were selling 1000’s of products when they really were not. People value honesty and even more now. So remember this you can only fake it for so long and eventually you’ll be found out.