local anon · 7d
Is it okay to ask if you could please share some of your wisdom/ experience on how you achieved the constantly chill, never stressful art balance? You have a wonderful post on tumblr, but since you brought this up again (thank you), how do you balance personal projects/ work? what if you don't feel like it and the deadline for the work is approaching? There's many times I've thought of leaving the industry but no other jobs give me as much as my place right now. I work in design and I can't really say I enjoy it but it's what my degree gave me and for financial reasons it's hard to step down. To do anything else i'd have to invest to either masterclasses or something that won't put me in any entry level job. Any tips appreciated!
As a treat, are you sweet tooth and if yes or no, do you have any favorite deserts?
As sarcastic as it may be to say, a good way to curb stress is to just not engage with stress.
I don't mean ignoring or repressing. I try to think of stress as a really annoying jerk trying to distract me and grab at my attention, like a rude commentor or troll. And the best way to deal with those is to remind yourself of your real priorities and what's important to you and refocus on that instead. Like, do I actually want to waste time indulging in fighting this idiot, or do I want to invest my time in something I actually care about?
The more you get in the habit of training yourself at redirecting your focus on what's important, it just gets a lot easier to acknowledge stress exists, and you have to manage or address it to some extent (in the analogy of a troll, blocking and maybe venting at a friend about how stupid that jerk was), but end of the day all it does is eat your time and emotions because it's also never going to go away. Keeping yourself aware of what you want your time and emotions to be spent on just elevates your general reality.
With regards to responsibilities and obligations, I just generally remind myself I agreed to it, so I can't be a brat about it. Whatever responsibility I have, there's a person on the other side of it who depends on me to follow through, and that person isn't responsible for my resentment nor are they beneath me. I have to respect the dignity of the people around me by respecting the work that is on my shoulders to follow through on.
Because, end of the day, if I'm constantly spending my time on things that are beneath me or I have contempt for, then it doesn't really matter if it's true or not -- I'm the person who's deciding my life should be filled with things that aren't worthy of me, so I'm not being worthy of me.
Professionally, when I agree to a job I try to remove any part of "ugh do I have to, this doesn't interest me at all" out of me and think instead "the person wanted me, specifically, to do this for them, they deserve my respect for having good taste and taking a chance on me" and have that lead me instead.
In that framing, deadlines are still a lot of work and have a lot of pressure/stakes, but I don't really feel the stress about it because all I'm thinking is "I can't let people down, they're believing in me, so come on let's make their day" -- and, well, I'm someone who gets a lot of gratification knowing I made someone else happy. I take a lot of pleasure in literally being of service to others.
I don't really know if this was helpful or concise, but it's reflective of what goes through my head when I'm managing my day to day realities.
to your second question: I'm relatively a sweet tooth (it happens in cycles), and I always love chocolate
