The tips outlined below are easy to implement in your day-to-day life and should be all you need to live at your worst.
Don't be afraid to create some of your own: there is always room for improvement.
Step 1: Don't start anything.
Starting doing something is the first step to a better life. You want to avoid doing things no matter what. What you want to do instead is imagine yourself doing something. Think about how well it would go, see yourself at the top of the world, with all your dreams materialized, but never take any action.
Dream on painting that landscape, but never take steps towards that canvas. Add mastering drawing but never schedule time for practicing it daily. Keep your artistic goals on a dreamy level or, even better, pray for that lucky brushstroke that goes well.
Step 2: Saying yes to everything.
If you agree to do everything — from other people's requests to each small social media challenge — your entire artistic progression will happen at the behest of forces outside your control. Don't carefully weigh your commitments. Do not try to focus on a small group of techniques or materials for some time until you feel you have improved/mastered it. Just mess up everything and follow the daily wave.
Distraction is a tricky source of misery because it's hard to see in real-time. Somehow, you never seem to have time for anything, and it gets more and more frustrating with each passing day. When you find yourself with that frustration, look at your priorities and keep on seeing no problem about your yeses. Striking a healthy balance makes you happier: so, please don't do it.
Step 3: Never charge for your artistic time or work.
Just accept compliments in return.
Go to your favorite cafeteria and pay for your daily coffee with that unique compliment you've received in exchange for that three weeks project. After, pay your rent, food, or art materials with some other nice words. Observe your landlord, grocery/art shop owners' reactions. Please, put that surprised face. "What do you mean you do not accept compliments as payment?" Complain about how life is unfair and complex, after.
Repeat several times over your artistic life. Start early and never change, please.
You are on the excellent path to misery—the real one.
Step 4: Let others dictate what you do or think.
Artists differ. Our works are a combination of colors, textures, expressions, preferences, and desires that make us unique, and sometimes we will be easily judged by others. Some features are limited. If everyone wants to be the center of attention, someone has to be the audience.
There are two sets of expectations in every relationship between two people. What should govern your behavior?
One option is to forget all about their priorities and stick with yours, no matter what your friend/client might prefer. Getting little nourishment from interacting with you, he'll soon leave you alone.
The other option is to put your opinions, desires, and priorities aside as irrelevant and always adopt those of your friend/client.
If he/she likes orange, be highly excited about the color. If he/she wants to see landscapes, avoid painting the portraits you love.
Become adept at always following the opinion of your audience or customer. Express his preferences as your own. Become a mirror object, reflecting what he most hopes to see: themselves.
Your friend, audience, or customer will find that they will need more challenge than you seem capable of providing. Having sacrificed yourself on the altar of his/her respect, you will find that they simply lose interest. Invisible behind the mirror you show the world, you will get no real benefit from the social approval you wish to gain.
You may feel that you cannot do this forever. You're right about this - you can't. But it does not matter. They all left, already.
Step 5: Give 100 Percent to Your Work.
Unsatisfied by even that mark, the mathematically challenged yourself can request 200 percent.
Pour everything into your work: all of your time, energy, and creativity. Arrive at the end of the day as an empty shell, a bald brush, or a torn paper. You are to save nothing for the rest of your life—your partner, family, friends, interests, health. Only focus on work.
By starving the sustaining elements of your life, they will drop away, leaving you with only your work to prop you up.
The question you must avoid asking is: "What is all this work for? How can I do it easily and pleasantly?"
Just get stressed about never doing enough or, even better, persistently create high-quality standards for you and your work. Don't allow yourself to doubt, try something different, or make mistakes. Perfection, always!
Never stop working, even on vacation. It's just art: so easy, remember? Keep doing it. Not stopping doesn't allow your brain to recharge or get inspiration from the new, and that's our main goal!
A little golden touch to all this would never exercise and rarely stop to eat peacefully and healthily. You are too busy burning yourself up.
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No, I'm not in a bad mood, I just felt like writing something with some degree of irony and sarcasm. While a few years ago this type of conversation would have been accompanied by big laughs and many more ideas, nowadays I think the vast majority would not understand my message and would be correcting me. Leave them.
It all depends on our perspective: we see what we want/decided to see.
Today it's just important to remember that the things we care about are the ones that grow, so we have to choose them well.
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This post is based on Randy J. Paterson`s book "How to Be Miserable - 40 Strategies You Already Use
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