As a creative entrepreneur do you ever feel like there isn’t enough time to create?
My clients tell me things like, “Since I started my jewelry business, I never have time to make jewelry” or “If I get 30 minutes of painting in a day, it’s a good day.”
I get it. Writing blog posts, emailing your list, updating Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, responding to emails, washing your laundry, doing the dishes, walking your dog, taking care of your kids (and everything else you have to do) takes up a lot of time.
I’ve fallen into the ‘I don’t have time for it’ trap way too many times.
Because I’ve been focused on my individual consulting clients for the past two and half months, I’ve told myself that I don’t have time for my watercolors. And, while I am spending a lot of time on individual consulting clients, if watercolor is a priority to me, I’ll make the time, right?
That’s what I’m doing with my 30 Days of Geometric Watercolor Patterns challenge. For 30 days, I’ll paint and share one geometric watercolor pattern on Instagram each day.
Why You Should Start a 30-Day Challenge
If you’ve been meaning to make something a priority, you should join me by creating your own 30-day challenge.
Everybody has excuses, but if you really want to make time for something, you’ll find a way.
I love painting with my watercolors. It calms me and makes me happier than most anything (except for reading young adult novels and spending ‘alone time’ with my man). But, I’ve made excuse after excuse on why I can’t make time for it right now. And, that’s crap.
Is there something that you’ve wanted to spend more time on? Well, give yourself a no-excuses challenge so you stop coming up with reasons why you can’t do it today and ‘you’ll make time later.’
Why 30 Days?
When I decided that I needed to make watercolor a priority, I knew I needed a way to keep myself accountable for a specific length of time.
And, we can all do something for 30 days. It feels doable yet challenging.
At the end of the 30 days, I’m going to reassess. I’ll probably keep going, but by then it’ll be much easier, because over those thirty days I’m building a habit of painting each day.
Get Others to Hold You Accountable
Many of us struggle with willpower. You have a tough day–your kid vomited on your backseat, your mom told you that your new haircut is ‘interesting’ with a sneer on her face, a client asked for a refund and you had to edit and publish your weekly blog post. So, you tell yourself that instead of knitting for 30 minutes, you’ll give yourself a day off, have a glass of Pinot Noir and watch a Gilmore Girls rerun.
There’s nothing wrong with a little Gilmore Girls, but if you want to build a habit over 30 days and stick to it, you’ll be less likely to skip a day if you tell others about your challenge.
The main reason I’m sharing one pattern a day on Instagram is because I know that I won’t miss a day.
Once I tell people that I’m doing something, it takes a hurricane, 103 degree fever and no access to internet to keep me from doing it. That’s my stubborn personality, but I know that it works for me.
Great idea! Yes! I did a 30 no processed food challenge. I committed myself eating only real whole foods. I finished it and did another 30 days!
I love committing to a specific period of time with food challenges. I once did a ‘raw challenge’ to eat only raw foods. It’s not something I wanted to do forever but it definitely helped me come up with more creative ways to eat more raw fruits and vegetables. Thanks for sharing!
These are all so beautiful, April! They’re radiating great energy. I can feel they were made with love. Can’t wait to see more! My priority and challenge is to do at least 15 minutes of exercise ‘cos I’ve been glued to the computer helping clients and redesigning my website from scratch.
Thanks Michaela! I’m still a newbie when it comes to watercolor and every comment like this keeps me motivated to keep going. 🙂
Love that challenge! I use the app Sworkit for short bursts of exercise. I especially like the yoga routines.
I haven’t actually committed to doodling for 30 days, but I’ve been trying to spend time each day doing it this week. I will commit to 30 days along with you, because you’re right…you get it done when you’re held accountable. No more excuses!
Love your pretty watercolors, April!
YAY! That’s such a good one for you. 🙂
Thanks lady!
I love this idea! And I love your watercolor work. This gives me some fun ideas for a couple of months out. I am going to want something engaging and knitting/craft related when we get into the summertime. I’m stock piling ideas for it now. I know a lot of people tune out “knitting” in the summer months, so I’m going to put attention on yarn “crafts.” You know how I love pom poms!! And knitting that’s for the house rather than a big bulky scarf or a wooly cat hat. Opening the challenge up to IG followers makes for something fun that everybody can do together. My first challenge was the one you hosted IG last year at about this time. That changed so many things for me. Thanks again for another great idea, April!
Thanks Patty! Oh…I love pompoms, too! They add a bit of flair to things. I use pompoms when decorating presents and the recipients seem to love them. 🙂
Love this idea, and am in the middle of a 365 day, 1 hour of art day challenge. Started with 30 day challenge to get up at 5am to do before my day gig. When I easily did that, I decided to keep going and go for the big one – a full year. I wrote a blog post about my adventure and challenges too. Now on day 114 – yahooo!
By the way, taking BSchool through you and Mayi is MORE THAN meeting my expectations. I’m actually very surprised and thrilled at all the value add you two provide, way beyond what I thought would happen, and leaps beyond what I’m learning in the modules. Thanks my new friend. If you ever want a testimonial, count on me :)!
I did 365 days of blogging a couple of years ago. I ended up missing about 30 days, but that was still pretty darn good in my opinion. Doing a year of something is a big commitment but that just shows that you want it to be a priority.
I’m so glad! Mayi and I have soooooooooo much fun hosting a mastermind for B-School. We love getting to do calls together and working with a small group of women who have similar goals. It’s really something I look forward to each year now. Glad you joined us!
Great post, April! Ok, you’ve got me thinking what my challenge could be! I will keep you posted:)
Thanks Bonnie! Definitely keep me posted!
OMG! I can relate to this. I need to make a 30 day challenge AWAY from the computer, something hand made. I am not sure what yet but I’ll keep you posted just to make my self accountable : ) I should decide by tomorrow…
Awesome Rosa! Sometimes we have to make a commitment to something we actually love so that we make time for it. Just because we really enjoy something doesn’t always mean that we’ll “find the time.” So glad you’re going to commit to something handmade.
Your watercolors are so pretty! I am doing a 30 day challenge to write something every day. It might be journaling, a blog post, or working on my book. My co-conspirator at The Pink Typewriter Project, Dawn Tolbert, is doing a 365 blog post a day challenge and she is on Day 102! So proud of her!
Thanks Dana! Oh…I like yours a lot! Writing is one of my favorite things. 🙂
I just completed a 30-day gratitude challenge which has been extremely rewarding. Not only did it remind me of all the wonderful blessings in my life, but writing by hand is helping me regain hand strength which had been affected by illness.
Love challenges! I recently did a 7 day challenge, where I committed to carry my camera everywhere I went and it was wonderful! I took a lot of pictures and felt so creative.
I want to do a 30 days challenge but I would like to have a specific theme: I was thinking self-portraits, since I don’t really have a lot of experience doing it. It would be a great exercise and would help me get out of my shell!
By the way, those patterns you’re doing are so pretty.
@Marian: such a great idea!
I’ve done something similar, Marian! It definitely helps you to focus on the positive which makes every day a bit better.
Love challenges! I recently did a 7 day challenge, where I committed to carry my camera everywhere I went and it was wonderful! I took a lot of pictures and felt so creative.
I want to do a 30 days challenge but I would like to have a specific theme: I was thinking self-portraits, since I don’t really have a lot of experience doing it. It would be a great exercise and would help me get out of my shell!
By the way, those patterns you’re doing are so pretty.
That’s a fun one, Monica! I tend to leave my camera at home, because I don’t want to carry around something so big. But, I bet I’d find lots more photo opportunities if I did carry it. I might try something like this sometime this year. Thanks for sharing!
I did a 30 day challenge last year called “A Month of Fairies” where I drew and painted a fairy every single day.
What I really wanted to do was to experiment with some techniques I haven’t done in a while, and so I did a lot of ballpoint pen + watercolor sketches, some paper-cutting and a few digital art pieces.
I posted daily updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and people really seemed to like it, and it was building up anticipation because they knew there was going to be a new fairy each day. I also posted weekly recap posts on my blog.
It was challenging because sometimes I was staying up late to catch up, but overall a very rewarding experience.
I wouldn’t want to turn such a challenge into a lifestyle, though.
I also did a year-long “doodle a day” challenge back in 2013, but I didn’t get the feeling my skills improved much because I was just dabbling at whatever technique or idea I was in the mood for that day.
Having a clear intention (theme- or technique-wise) is in my opinion a much better way of taking up a challenge.
I believe one of the reasons this challenge is working so well for me is because it’s got the theme of geometric patterns–instead of a watercolor painting a day. If it was that broad, I know I’d waste a lot of time each day trying to decide what to paint. Because I’ve limited myself, it’s easy for me to decide what I want to paint.
However, when I blogged once a day for a year, I didn’t want to put any kind of limitations because it wouldn’t work for my readers and I’d get easily bored. For me, the longer the challenge, the less the parameters I want to set for myself.
But…what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another.
Your challenge of one fairy a day sounds really fun!
Dear April,
I’d love to share with you my own 30 day challenge, except I didn’t actually finish it. I started it before Christmas just because I had done a workshop earlier. Then the “excuses” came up, like the holidays, moving somewhere else out of the blue… Actually, that’s mostly it.
Still, I’ve managed to keep organizing workshops in my city and, even though I didn’t really follow through with making one butterfly a day, I ended up filling my days with preparing for workshops with beautiful people.
Five workshops in three months, so far, and on Monday there’ll be another one. Daily or not, a challenge does change you 😀
Now, to follow you on Instagram! I wonder why I haven’t done it already, I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now…
Keep up the good work,
Andrea
Thanks Andrea! So glad you’re following me on Instagram now. YAY!
Five workshops in three months sounds amazing. Congrats on those BIG successes. Digital high-five!
I did a 21-day challenge with Simple Green Smoothies, and it was great. My eating habits have completely changed for the better.
Now though, I need to carve some time everyday for practice my flute. It’s a big part of my life, since I help the music program at my kids’ school and I play at a church every month. I need to practice my skills, not just practice music sheets.
So I’ll challenge myself to take it out for 10 mins everyday!
I’ve heard of Simple Green Smoothies and their challenges. Thanks for sharing your experience! I’ve been meaning to check them out more.
YAY for 10 minutes a day!
I’m sure you know how important I feel it is for everyone to find time for their creative outlets! This looks like such a fun challenge. I tried to do the 365 project a few years ago for photo and stayed strong for about 4 months, but I’d like to try to do a fun 30-day creative project like this. I should come up with my own!
Yes…I definitely do! I was thinking about you when I was writing this post, Bev. 🙂
You should come up with your own. I’d love to see what you do for a 30-day challenge.
I have! I did a 12 Days of Christmas Challenge in December. Hmmm, you know I make time for playing tennis, but one things I’ve been placing on the back burner is reading. I’ll have to think about getting creative with that one!
I read almost every evening in bed. In order to make it priority, I have to limit other things like television (we don’t have one in the bedroom but I have been known to get sucked into Netflix on the iPad) and social media. I love reading soooooooooo much–I try to read about 100 pages per day.
I have challenged my son to see who can make an adult coloring book first. It has been going slow for both of us so maybe we should change it to a 30 day challenge. Or actually a 48 day challenge because the book needs 48 pages. Thanks for the idea!
Oh how fun! I love adult coloring books. They’re so calming.
Good luck with yours!
It’s almost like you read my mind. Though knitting puts me in my happy place ( along with Gilmore Girls on Netflix), I have another passion lately. Drawing! So, this 30 day challenge is perfect for this new passion. I’m taking online classes, reading countless books, talking with fellow artists, all to make this more than a passion.
I’m in!!
A 30-day challenge is a great thing for a new passion. You can really test out whether or not it’s something you want to commit to long-term. Creativebug is hosting a 30-day drawing challenge. Each day they put up a new video with an artist who draws the object of the day. It’s pretty awesome for someone who’s looking to do a 30-day drawing challenge. You should check it out.
It’s funny to see this post. I signed up for a different creative month challenge from another blog. That one includes prompts and challenges as well, and is geared more toward photographers. Unfortunately, I have been super busy and have only started one project. But, I have saved all the challenges and will be scheduling it sometime when I am not a chauffeur all day long.
All this to say, thanks for posting this and reminding me that it is important to do! It helps to hear things from more than one source. 🙂
That sounds like a fun challenge!
Of course…it definitely helps to hear things from more than one person. 🙂
Last year, and in to the start of this year I did a 365 Instagram challenge. I decided in order to really get into Instagram I needed to post a picture every day. At first it was fun but then I started getting tired and bored of my images. Well that made me realize that anyone who was following me was probably bored too, so I stepped it up. I have finished that challenge and now posting to Instagram is a breeze. Keep up the good watercolor work!