2019 lessons learned in a year of Creating and Kindness

Well 2019 is done and I finally have an few free minutes to myself to do a little recap before I start sharing my project for 2020.

Let’s get the elephant in the room dealt with first. Plain and simple I suck at posting regularly on social media! I had great intentions to post regularly but it just didn’t happen. I started out good but as the months went on it became less and less. The good news is that I was still working on my project, just not getting around to posting about it. I really thought that having publicly set a goal to post regularly would have been enough incentive for me to get it done but turns out it’s not.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way let’s get on to the good stuff, lessons learned.

Looking back on my original post last January I think over all this was a successful the project. Besides not posting regularly and not doing the 12 self-portraits (I'm bringing back the 12 self portraits in 2020) I was able to reach my goal of 52 acts of kindness and a weekly creative practice. After having a yearly project for a few years now I’ve notice a pattern, I have big dreams at the beginning of the year and by the end of the year I’m dragging myself across the finish line. I’m ok with that. I love beginnings and theses yearly projects help me actually finish projects 😊

For me the most fulfilling and fun part of the year was the acts of kindness, specifically the free portraits. I love, love, loved this activity and found it very inspirational and motivating. Making people feel special and beautiful for no reason other than bringing a little joy into their lives is something that I plan to continue to do in 2020.

Here is a few quick thoughts on my 2 main project this year.

Kindness

I found being kind was pretty easy and I never felt like I couldn’t find anything kind to do. While I enjoyed doing random acts of kindness I did find it uncomfortable sharing what I was doing and this surprised me a little. I felt sort of like I was bragging and at times I also felt like the acts of kindness I was doing were not big enough or grand enough. I realize that both of these feelings are silly and just part of my insecurity, but they did make it a little harder for me when it came to posting about them each week. I guess part of it is because I’m shy and didn’t want to seem like I was all “look at how special I am for doing all this great stuff”. Despite this uncomfortableness I had no problem quietly doing weekly acts of kindness and plan to continue the practice.

The world needs more kindness so I encourage everyone to think about how they can be a little more kind each and every day.

Creativity

This one was a little harder for me to do every week. I did create some really good pieces of art but I also struggled at times throughout the year. I sometimes felt like I was creating because I “had to” and found that that was not fulfilling and that what I was creating during those times was not as good. But that being said I did crate more art than I would have had I not done this project and I have acquired some new skills that I’m looking forward to put to use this coming year.

All in all I’d say my 2019 project 52 was a success. There were ups and downs throughout the year but I stuck with it and got it done. I’ve created some new habits for the coming year and am looking forward to continuing practicing kindness and making more time for creating in 2020.

Speaking of 2020, this year I’ve chosen something way out of my comfort zone, stay tuned…..