MY BIG "APRIL" FAIL. EEK!

Hi there friends,

So today I wanted to review this past month and the challenges it brought me and share that with You!  So April started with great intentions,  (can you sense where I am going with this!)

​I had seen this artists challenge posted on Instagram and with a friendly push from another art pal I decided I'd give it a go....It started off great. With daily set intentions, I was enjoying the process of considering the challenge, answering the questions and providing the answers, additionally it was bringing me back into the studio space on a daily basis and as I have been suffering a little creative block recently it was a marvelous kick up the butt to get into that space every day and review my practice and progress.

I was so #smug about it all I even posted this previous blog about it....www.niamhoconnorart.com/artblog/the-challenge-of-april
 
Here is a sample of some of my posts during that period with instagram links attached if you wish to see more, I was feeling grateful for the push and oh so pious! .... Great huh, except it all went WRONG....

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I never got to finish the challenge, not because it was difficult..it wasn't, really it was rather fun addressing the prompts, if anything its made me realise I have never really introduced my entire practice publicly!  Yes, I do a lot of social media shares and works in progress shots, but I've realised I'm not great at posting images of finished works or telling more in depth detail about how and why I work in the ways I do, what brought me here, and my intentions going forward.  It appears SO obvious in hindsight!!

I'm really not very good at updating my website, gallery or CV, and I'm shockingly bad at online sales having made it so difficult to buy my work remotely as I have not listed prices, uploaded images or provided any ecommerce elements to my page ...all issues I am currently working on so "check this space" as they say!

​This all smacks of major "FAILURE" and I'm putting that in "Caps" to embrace the word...I can't move forward if I don't address the issues....Now my online procrastination is not the reason my #aprilforartists challenge failed....but its another area of my practice I want to work on cleaning up....My April challenge FAILED because I jumped in, and "reacted" to the prompt to participate rather then carefully having it planned out in advance...I didn't factor in the EASTER HOLIDAYS (Duh!) my sisters Wedding, My kids time off school, hubbie off work, wee hols booked....because I reacted! I made an immediate choice to jump in with both feet, I had neglected to look into my schedule to ensure I could complete the task in the alloted time ....so what says you....well this is not the first time I've done this...FOMO is what they call it "FEAR OF MISSING OUT" !!!!! and honestly its a real thing!! Help me feel better and tell me you get it too??

I started panicking as I realised what it meant for me in terms of time, and yes it IS totally a First World Problem that I made a commitment to social media and did not deliver...but its not the person I want to be...I considered a few days before we were due to travel that I might try automate it all, but not having a clue how to do that, I decided it was far too overwhelming a prospect and so I decided that I would, in true Elsa mode " Let it go"!  I would pull back, forgive myself and go enjoy my sisters wedding and family break without an ounce of guilt or regret.  Take pleasure in the time spent with my family and cut myself some slack!   

We had a ball, I revelled in the time spent together, simple pleasures bringing great joy and reminded myself that I am not a computer guru, a marketing expert or a PR fiend....I am an artist and so for the rest of APRIL my challenge became to remind myself of that fact, to stop "reacting" to the outside world so much and to only engage in what serves me, in a measured and intentional manner......I still have so much work to do, to be where I want to be, and to get there I'm going to have to eat this huge metaphorical Elephant in tiny intentional continuous bites... wish me luck x  N.

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