The Process
Finishing a 100-day-long project.
I started a project on 8th April. It was part of The Great Discontent and Elle Luna’s #the100dayproject, I wanted to illustrate a different sport every day, for 100 days. I wanted to finish it on 17th July.
I reached 42 days. 42 sports illustrated. Yes, I missed the odd day, but I did two the day after. But after 42 days, I missed a day. And another day. And another. And another.
I am still on 42. And I can’t get going again.
I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling great satisfaction in seeing a project or job through to completion. So why is it so hard to get to the end now? My busy mind tells me I haven’t got time, it’s not a paid project, 42 is fine for now, I’ll finish it another day.
But. When is ‘another day’? Every day I say ‘maybe tomorrow’. I’m constantly today saying ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’, but only to come to the same decision the next day, and the next day. A few weeks ago a friend even texted me and challenged me to do another sport that day, but I really was too busy then. I think.
But it’s not a cliche when people say the hardest part is starting. It’s only one illustration a day. It need only take 10 minutes. 10 minutes out of 1,440 each day. That can’t be difficult?
So right now, I’m starting number 43. It isn’t a particularly hard illustration, I knew it wasn’t going to be, and it’s only a little bit, just one illustration of 100. But now I’m back in the project. Now I feel like I can finish it. In the space of a few minutes, my mindset changed. My mind now says I’m almost halfway already, I can immediately see the end.
I can’t wait to have them all finished, to have 100 illustrations done, and most importantly, to say I saw it through to the end. 100 days, with plenty more in between. But I will do it; and I will have learnt a lot more than just how to draw a gymnasts foot, a horse’s leg or a lacrosse stick in Illustrator. I’ll learn more about not quitting, about doing a little bit more each day, one illustration at a time, however big or small they are.
The process is important. Having 100 illustrations of different sports is nice, but the process is nicer. The journey. The 100 plus days.
It’s the hardest, and yet the easiest thing to start, or restart. Just do a tiny little bit, and the end goal will already feel more achievable.
Maybe you need someone to challenge you, so I challenge you. Do a bit more of that project today, if not today then tomorrow, if not tomorrow then the next day.
Go on, get going. Get it finished, and enjoy the process while you’re at it.
