Second in a new series of exercise tips you can apply to your art biz.
I'm not working from an article this time. This all comes from personal experience.
Find what you love to do, and do it.
When it comes to exercise, you either have to do what you enjoy or find the joy in what you do. And believe me, it's a heckuva lot easier to start with the former.
It's the secret behind my three-year-old commitment to kickboxing.
It's the perfect exercise for me right now.
It's intensely physical, with a good mix-up of strength work, coordination, and aerobic components.
There's a bit of mental but not nearly as much as other martial art disciplines (though I'm finding I miss the kata--those longer, choreographed movements that look like fast tai chi.)
There are things I'm good enough at to be proud of, and plenty of things for me to work on.
I'm learning my biggest enemy is ME--I'm my own worst enemy. I need to focus on my own performance and improving it a little bit at a time, rather than compare my performance to anyone else's.
It's been hard, as an older woman, to get comfortable with punching, kicking and striking. The mindset is extremely foreign to me. I can feel brain cells and ingrained social conditioning fighting me every inch of the way--"Don't hit!" "Don't raise your voice!" "Be nice!" I remember raising my hand to hit in a martial arts class years ago and being almost physically, psychologically unable to do so.
It's different now.
The whole thing is challenging but rewarding.
I'm exhausted when I'm done--but also exhilarated.
Because I love it. Even when I hate it. If I didn't love it as much as I did, I wouldn't still be doing it.
And the fact that I enjoy it so much is more important than all of the other reasons I just gave.
Because the enjoyment is where I find the discipline and the courage to keep going. Even when I don't feel like it. And even though I'm not very good at it.
I don't feel the same way about swimming. I know it's better for me, and I really should do more of it. But it's a major battle to keep it up for mor than a month or so. It just doesn't have the same appeal to me. As I become more disciplined and more aware of what my body needs, I know I'll have to add it into my repertoire. It will be the SECOND part of what I said earlier--I will have to find the JOY in swimming.
But I'm glad I started with something I love. Especially when I can say with pride, I've been studying kickboxing for three years now. And I've attended almost every single class, without fail, except for major injuries, major illness or being out of town.
Do the same with your artwork.
The thrill of doing what you love will carry you over many other hard times and boring times and frustrating times.
In fact, whenever I do a mentor session with an ABI attendee, that's the first question out of my mouth--especially when someone shows up with a hodge-podge of projects, all different in media, theme and colors:
Where does your heart lie?
Which of these is calling to you?
Don't START with "what sells?" Don't even start with, "What's easy?" This is hard, but don't even start with, "What will make me the most money?" That's important, but that will come later. It can wait.
Start with, "What do I love doing?"
Because that powerful connection will help you through all the hard stuff later.
