A SACRED 7 Days

Sat- Bought 6 plants for entry garden
Sun- Sold Sheep piece and Heart Triptych
Discussed possible contract fabric dyeing job for Fresh Purls
Began topstitch on 2 Labyrinth pieces
Mon- Continued topstitch work
Karate class
Tues-Dyed sky blue fabric for future sheep pieces
Continued topstitch work
Dug 3 buckets of rocks out of back garden site
Rough draft 1st Blog post and prepped picture for same
Weds- Initial Blog post
Continued topstitch work
Matted and framed 3 prints of Owl drawings for retail outlet
Thurs- Visited Its My Health and delivered prints
Discussed possible project development ideas
Studio time: Began working on dye work for Fresh Purls
Continued topstitch work (almost done 1st color!)
Fri- Karate Class
Dealt with icky IRS stuff
2nd Blog entry
There that’s a week of Kaizen acts for me…
June has been a good month. I’ve managed to keep chipping away at some projects, finished some and even sold some pieces. I now have work in 2 venues on the East Side: Day One and Fresh Purls and 1 venue in Natick: Five Crows. All of this feels like its pointing in the right direction.
When I look at the list up there it strikes me how powerful this tool is not so much because of the accomplishments but because I avoided Overwhelm.
When I started using Kaizen I focused on 1 small creative act a day, now I usually manage 2 or 3 depending on the circumstances. Previously I would head home from work wanting to do something to achieve my Big Goal in an evening,
Immediate Overwhelm.
(As well as a great way to end up playing Freecell all night)
So nothing would get done at all I’d end up feeling guilty and like a failure and then I would gather myself up and start the cycle all over again
Pressure to succeed-Impossible goals-Avoidance behavior-Guilt and recrimination-Resolution to do better-Repeat cycle until dizzy or sick.
I am now breaking free of that cycle. I am now actually achieving some of my goals. If I find I’m getting overwhelmed then I just have to break it down into smaller bits. My ego wants the Big Goal but for me to function with any consistency its gotta be the little bits. It’s a balancing act I have yet to master but I will keep chipping away at it!