This week I changed almost everything about my schedule at once. I started doing cardio along with lifting, I changed my diet to have more vegetables and healthy foods in general and I’m now learning new recipes, and now I go for walks more often. This whole week felt like a mess. Almost nothing felt familiar and I was sure that my art productivity would drop.
Today I looked back at the week and realized that I actually spent a bit more time on the book than the week before, even with all the chaos! So what actually fell apart was only my sense of control.
Why it didn’t work before
I’ve tried changing my diet a bunch of times already and it always went about the same. I would spend a few days researching the best recipes and then on the day when I need to do the first batch cook, I would spend like 5 hours at the stove. After that I would have no more motivation to do any work for the day, and realize that this is not sustainable.
I was scared that making such a big change would break something for good. If I started drawing less, maybe my motivation would disappear and never come back. If I stopped posting consistently, maybe my account would die and I’d have to start from zero.
Neither of those is how it actually works. My motivation depends on my environment, it doesn’t just “disappear” one day, it’s predictable. My posting streak never mattered as much as I thought. I didn’t post anything for over a month, and the second thing I posted after coming back was a text tweet that got 6.5K likes. So Twitter doesn’t punish you for leaving.
Another problem was that I treated every new habit like a complete package. I either follow this diet or workout plan exactly, or not at all. So when it didn’t fit me, I just abandoned it.
Iterate through the chaos
This time instead of following a strict diet, I’m following a few general guidelines and building the meals myself. My batch cooks now take about an hour. When I don’t like something, I just change it! Same with my workouts, I can change those anytime too.
Making a big change is always messy and you will feel lost for a while, no matter how much you prepare for it. Feeling lost is not a sign of failure, it’s just what change feels like at first!
Usually it’s smarter to change one habit at a time, I could’ve done that, but I felt inspired to fix everything right now. I didn’t want to waste that energy on doing things in the “correct” order.
If you’re about to change your lifestyle, your habits or even your art style, give it a time window to settle. Like 3 or 4 weeks, and don’t judge the outcomes in that period, you are supposed to feel lost! Only decide to keep or change this habit after that period, and keep iterating from there.
I’m giving myself 3 more weeks until I judge if this whole routine works.
