Resets - 004
Clip from a film by Louie Schwartzberg
Hey {{First Name}},
Seasonal change is in the air and I’ve been reading a lot about transitions. I’ve come across a new favorite idea that reframes of the end of Winter: it's not that our world has been dead and cold and is now coming back to life. It’s that the Autumn is a time for planting seeds, and over the colder months, they germinate and do their work quietly and invisibly underground. And then when the time is right, they burst through the soil to reveal themselves, growing tall in the Spring air.
Things aren’t dead and coming back to life. They’re gathering strength and doing work that you can’t see.
This month, I’m exploring the idea of resetting. To change our minds and set things in a new context. Hope you enjoy it enough to reply.
Happy snacking.
Animated Illustration by Sabine Volkert
I. #ArtGoals
In 2017, I was getting back into my art. Over the Summer, I committed to a 100 Day Project, painting 3x3” album covers. Then immediately painted a series of Trump as various villains– everyone from Wario to Cruella DeVille, Hannibal Lecter to Regina George. Around January of 2018, I was lucky enough to have the series featured on The Huffington Post and The New York Daily News. The extra attention encouraged me to sell some of the pieces on Etsy, and when the year was done I had made close to $500 from my art. Pretty cool, considering I had never made any money or even expected to make money from it.
So when I sat down to put together my 2019 goals, I arrived at the art category and instinctually I set a bigger goal. More. Higher. Further. Double it. In 2019, I’m going to make over $1000 from my art.
I sat with that for a while.
I was journaling about my year ahead, envisioning the kind of feeling I wanted at the end of the year and the kind of year I wanted to create for myself. And after listening to a few podcasts about creativity, and talking through with friends, I decided to reset that goal.
If I had this goal to make $1000+ on my art, I would need to make more art. I would need to consider what other people would want to buy. I’d probably need to post on Instagram a lot more, self-promote, and even run ads. But I already decided that my 2019 is going to be about intentional time and redefining my career path. I need art to be an outlet and energizing activity.
So I scrapped my original goal and reset my intentions with art. My goal this year is to just find at least an hour a week to paint. To not try and make money from my painting. It has become a joy to find time each week and sit down to paint.
Eventually, I will make money with my art. Eventually I will find the time and the audience and the content that will sell. But in the meantime, I’m learning it’s ok to not want more and bigger and further goals. Goals can be about less, fewer, shorter.
And that it’s ok to change your mind.
Gif Illustration by Timothee Bart
II. The Restart Button
If Nintendo has taught us anything, it’s how to fix our lives. One push of a button and we’re in working order again. I wrote a long piece about how 80s technology has messed us up, and how most of us treat each aspect of our lives as if it were a computer with a virus.
Artwork by Victoria Siemer
III. Reprogram Your Defaults
This month, Lauren and I bought a car. It’s a little strange having a car here, considering the easy access to public transportation. But she’s commuting to a new office in the suburbs of NJ and so it made sense to get one.
The first time I drove it alone, I was flipping through the radio and realized that the preset stations were terrible. And two were just static! So one of the first tasks was changing the radio presets. I want my favorites one click away, and not waste time scanning stations every time I get in the car.
Over the last few weeks, I realized that I do this in almost all other parts of my life.
I reset the operating system on my phone from Android to a launcher called Siempo, which is in B&W and replaces app icons with a single letter and randomizes the order of your apps so you don’t get in the habit of clicking the same place all the time. It’s completely changed my relationship to my phone.
I updated my Calendly so my default meeting time was 15 minutes, and fixed my Google Calendar to end at :20 and :50 so I have a break between appointments.
I turned off autoplay on Netflix. (Gasp!)
I have my bank accounts synced so that my savings and retirement are withdrawn first, before I ever see it in my checking account.
With the people I want to see most, I make sure we plan our next hangout while we’re still hanging out, knowing that we’ll see each other more.
Our world comes with defaults. The out-of-the-box (literal and metaphoric) way of thinking and way things work is meant for the broad majority of people. But the people who design our world don’t know you and don’t have your best interest in mind. These designers are making sure advertisers are happy, or investors, or their boss, or a focus group that’s supposed to represent you. Not you.
Only you know you like you do.
Maybe it’s the designer in me that wants to curate and customize these aspects of my life; maybe it’s the list-making documentarian that wants to organize and customize. But I’ve learned that resetting defaults to suit my favorites and my needs and my preferences, puts me in control of my life.
Defaults are for robots.
IV. Hey {{Firstname}},
Thanks for making it all the way through. If you enjoyed this, share it with a friend. I love making new ones.
Come back hungry soon.
-Jake
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