The Source of Fun
MacGyver was one of my childhood heroes. That guy could do anything. Once, my mom found me sitting on the shower floor, staring at the pressure valves while holding tape in one hand and a screwdriver in the other.
"What are you doing there, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Hmm... I’m trying to see if I can build something. You know, like MacGyver.”
“Ah, I see…well, have fun!” she said with a smile.
“Thanks.”
But I wasn’t having fun. I had no clue what I was looking for or how anything worked. I felt dumb. So I gave up a minute later.
Twenty-plus years later, my 3-year-old son entered the living room and stared at me. I was sitting on a ladder with a hammer in one hand and a trim puller in the other.
“What you doin', Papá?”
So I told him: I was taking the crown molding out so we could add a section to the wall.
For the next 20 minutes, I did exactly that and I actually enjoyed it. Knowing what I was doing made me feel confident and capable.
“I don’t know what I’m doing”
It all starts there: You’ve no idea how things work but have a burning desire to create and discover.
You mix some colors here and there trying to see if they get along. You give a random price to a client but you don't know if you'll actually make a profit. You test new brushes like Harry Potter testing wands, waiting for the one that sparks.
That burning desire soon extinguishes as anxiety accumulates. You know you are just winging it so you start to doubt yourself: "Would I be able to do this again? Probably not. I've no idea what I'm doing."
Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is the path to frustration and burnout.
Knowledge makes things fun
If you are a human being you crave this: to feel capable of doing what you set your mind to do.
It doesn't matter if it's great or average. What’s important is to prove to yourself that you, indeed, can. Because when you know how things work and you know you can do them, confidence flourishes. And when you feel confident about doing something challenging, you get to have lots of fun!
If you’ve been lacking confidence lately take it as a sign that you have an opportunity to learn. You are not incompetent, you just need to spend more time learning and practicing to develop that confidence.
This could mean learning about negotiation, color theory, marketing, anatomy, sales… Trust me, even the “boring” aspects of being a professional artist can become quite fun when you know what you are doing.
Ok.. maybe not taxes. But everything else can be much more enjoyable if you allow yourself to learn and practice more intentionally.
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