Tools are nice, but doing things are better.

July 5, 2023

#projects #writing

Did you know I overthink things? Tools are nice, but doing things are better.

Hi, I hope you are having a good day.

If you are anything like me, first, sorry; second, you think too hard about things.

For me this means I think more about tools than what I do with them.

Did you know I am bad at water coloring? Now that I said that, I need the context of good water coloring.

That doesn’t matter; what matters is how I tried water coloring. I started watching videos of professional watercolorists. (My Favorite being Mateusz Urbanowicz)

One of the best parts of watching a Master is having an idea of what to aspire to.

A downside is that you expect to work just like them. You start to think their seemingly effortless magic strokes should be the same for you.

I have that part of my brain that sometimes doesn’t engage; when my work is not as good as a master of the craft, it says to me, why aren’t I more like him?

My inner pessimist says to be more like that; we need the same tools. So I research his tools, look at reviews, save money, and get ready to prepare a space for water coloring.

Then when I have everything set up, I start painting; after a while, my malfunctioning brain says,

“Why is my art not more like his?”

The answer is obvious. It sometimes just eludes us at the moment.

I am not him. I have yet to make their decisions; even if we were making the same decisions, we wouldn’t have made the same choices.

If I stopped overthinking for a second, I might have started with a pad of watercolor paper, a pencil, and the 16 watercolor set I had lying around.

Instead of investigating his tools, I would have tried to make my own magic.

I do this with many things in my life.

I can’t just use a Time Machine Drive to back up my computer; I have to set up a Linux server to back up, too, just like the professionals.

I can’t shoot videos for Youtube; I don’t have a DLSR camera or lights, just like the professionals.

Unlike professionals, I can’t write because I don’t have something big to say.

This is not to say that these things would not help your work or projects, but my brain uses these as an excuse to not start.

When it comes to art, masterpieces only materialize out of thin air if you are not paying attention.

The magic is not in the pencil, or the ink, or the paper, to near the extent I sometimes think it must be.

That magic is in the person who puts it all together. If you have eyes to believe, you can see it even when their tools hold them back.

We don’t mean to, but sometimes we associate the magic people create with what they use to create that magic.

We think about that laptop, that brand of chalk, the ink, the watercolors they use.

Your art is not magical because of what you use to make it; it is magic because you made it.

It being imperfect is just how things are. If we waited for the best in a car, we would never get one because they always improve.

If we waited for the best laptop, we would never get one because the best one is always the next.

I’d like to know if Da Vinci thought the Mona Lisa was a failure because he forgot the eyebrows. Or were their eyebrows to forget? Or did they disappear in time?

Would it be a worse piece of art if we knew which one was true?

Your art is judged by the worst judge ever, you. Why are you the worst judge?

It is because your own flaws are the most obvious to yourself. Lucky for us, everyone does not have the same view of you.

Outsiders see our Qualities good and bad.

That is not to say don’t improve, but improving is much less about the tool and more about how you use the tools you have.

So start; there are no quality standards. Paint the worst painting you can, and write the worst story you can come up with. I guarantee you will surprise yourself with what magic comes off the page.

Start small, take your time, redo, rethink, but most importantly, start.

Start with the pencil at your desk; I guarantee you will see the magic you create with it; if you need a better one to reach your goals, so be it. That magic will exist either way.

I want to belive in you, because it helps me belive in myself.

A bit of silly water coloring I did.