It’s been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am sure we have all heard this so many times that it begins to have no meaning. Becoming just a cliche for many, rather than taking to heart what it truly means. Especially with any creative endeavor. Let’s face it, we all love praise. Some more than others. And some take it to heart more than others. You did a great job. That’s beautiful. Your work is amazing. This is so pretty. You are a great artist. All these compliments fuel us to keep creating. Especially on social media. We love to see those hearts and likes. But conversely, no compliments can have such a negative impact on a creative person’s self esteem. I am not even going to go into a negative comment. Let’s talk about the desire to be perfect to the point that we actually do not make art. Or do not color like we used to. The desire to be a perfectionist, even on a subconscious level, can be paralyzing. Similar to self doubt like we talked about on day one of this podcast series, trying to achieve perfection in any area of one’s life, can cause an incredible amount of stress. I am a believer in the statement – Energy flows where attention goes. Meaning, what we focus our attention on, will bring us the best results. Focus on complaining, you will have more to complain about. Focus on physical Pain and the more pain you will experience. But when you shift your focus to something that is more positive you will start to have a much more positive experience in all that you do. Many people joined the coloring community and started coloring as a hobby to distract themselves or focus their energy or attention on something else to get their mind off something that was negative in their lives. And along the way friendships were formed, community was built and coloring became a hobby that you were involved in daily. In the midst of it all we started to see other people posting finished coloring pages and we started to compare ourselves to others. We started to self doubt our abilities and many people stopped being creative. Even people that were not perfectionists or did not consider themselves to be a perfectionist and have any of the characteristics or traits of a perfectionist in the coloring community have started to show traits of a perfectionist, thinking they need to be like everybody else. Stop trying to be perfectionist is what I’m here to say today. There is no True Perfection. Sometimes the beauty exists in the imperfections. Sometimes the joy exist in the mistakes sometimes your happiness is based on what is exactly not perfect about you or your life. Coloring may have changed your daily life ,changed your outlook on life.  Think about how being able to be engaged in a hobby that allows you to express yourself has changed you. Think back to how it felt when you were in your Heyday so to speak of coloring and you were coloring and you were involved in it and it just became fun. You enjoyed it. And I think what’s happened is a lot of people have seen other people’s work and they are comparing themselves to one another. Or maybe you simply got bored with what you were coloring. Or overwhelmed by all the new coloring books and coloring supplies. that you think you’re supposed to buy your think you’re supposed to have. So what but I would like to see people do is go back to when you started coloring just for you when you colored just for the joy of coloring. You made art just for the joy of making art. Stop beating yourself up over being a perfectionist trying to get things perfect and lastly stop beating yourself up over not coloring. People have said to me that they have stopped coloring, I don’t know what to do, it is stressing me out.They just can’t get themselves back into it. Life is a cycle. Things happen. Life changes. Life gets in the way. We are all busy. If you did the same thing over and over again for many years at a time it would be boring. One little thing every single day can turn into something bigger without you even realizing it. You’d like to start painting don’t think of a 30 by 40 inch canvas that you have to paint just start small start with a tiny little canvas. Do you want to start drawing again ? Doodle on a napkin if you have to. Want to start coloring again ? Start with a simple book or look at the books you already have. Stay away from a coloring challenge if you need to. We don’t need to be perfect.

 

 Imperfections exist in our lives every single day. 

I hope you can take today’s podcast episode and just kind of think about all of the things that are trying to make you perfect and embrace the imperfections instead. The purpose of making art is to do it for yourself and do it because you enjoy it. If you are involved in any type of creative activity whether it’s visual or performing arts, cooking, crafting, etc,  it should be something that you enjoy. If you are frustrated by it then it’s time to change what you are doing.

So what’s the next step? Take a moment to think about why you started coloring. And think about your abilities rather than your inabilities. 

 

© 2019 Anne Manera