100 Days: Story of Why

Done. And here we go...

I started the 100 Days project exactly one hundred days ago as a growth exercise. In order to combat the paralysis of perfectionism, I challenged myself to create and post a finished work of art every day for 100 straight days and I'm proud to say I never missed a day. Much of the time it was a joy, but a LOT of the time is wasn't. Some days I was tired, some days I was sick, some days I was on vacation, some days the art just wouldn't cooperate. Early on I became frustrated with the cap on quality and depth imposed by the one-day time constraint. But I disciplined myself to obey my own rule and just get on with it and it ended up being one of the best things I've ever done.

Here are a few things I learned:

- I am an artist (as opposed to an architect, or furniture designer, or app designer, or filmmaker, or actor, or director, which are too specific). Regardless of the quality of the work or anyone's reaction to it, I feel most natural and effective while in the act of producing creative output that communicates ideas that bridge rational thought and gut feeling. The medium is beside the point. It took about 15 days to sink in that my best opportunity to make a positive impact on the world is by working as artist in general and giving myself permission to work in the medium that will best stir the flow of an idea through the world.

- Inspiration comes from work. Disciplining myself to post work every day flipped the idea of inspiration on its head. Inspiration can seem to come from nowhere and I've had lots of ideas "pop" into my head and followed them to completion. But completing something every day just because I said I would, increased the generation of exciting ideas by at least a factor of ten. The commitment made possible ideas that wouldn't have been born if I hadn't been unhappily plodding away. Some of my favorite works from the series came after a 4 hour struggle into the wee hours of the morning, when something finally clicked. Without pushing through while cursing the damn project, I never would have arrived at some of the pieces I like so much.

- The work talks back. The need to get something done now leaves little time for editing. Some of these works were, necessarily, almost "thrown" out the door. After a few days, I would look back and discover a common thread in the work that would give me an increased self-awareness that allowed me to apply the same moves in future pieces, on purpose.

- Sharing and being seen open more opportunities for impact and engagement than perfect work, which actually opens no opportunities...because it doesn't exist.

Thank you to everyone who followed this project, whether you commented or not. To the commenters, thank you for your engagement. It helped tremendously to know you were out there.