Mid-way through the month. Time sure is flying by.

I wonder what I’ll do when the month is over? Will I continue to paint on a daily basis or will I get lazy and let life, work and responsibilities take over as they invariably do?

I read an interesting article today about that very thing. It was about taking cold showers and the benefit of them, but the main point of it was about forming a habit (which everyone says takes 30 days) and then maintaining it. The big thing is maintaining it. The woman writing the article said that it was easy enough to form the habit, and she was able to stick with it for a year, but then it became harder. She wrote that willpower and habit will only take you so far. You need something more to keep a habit going.

That something is the feeling you get from the habit.

By concentrating on that, there is no need to rely on willpower or force to continue. It’s something you want/need to do.

Sort of like drinking coffee in the morning.

I remember that’s how I felt years ago when I became addicted to the gym. I was like so many people, going through the motions 3-4 times a week, working on a program written for me by some gym instructor, getting nowhere.

One day a new instructor was taking me through my new 3-month program and he stopped halfway and said, ‘This program is doing nothing for you. What do you want to achieve?’

I said what we all say: ‘I want to firm up and lose some weight.’

He said my program was simply maintaining me pretty much where I was. What did I REALLY want?

So I pointed to a poster on the wall of a woman who was feminine but muscley and said, ‘I want to look like that.’

He looked me up and down and said, ‘You can do it but it will be hard work.’

I said, ‘I’ll do it, but I warn you, if I don’t see results in a month, I’ll get bored and stop’.

Well, I saw results. Huge results in a month on his program which involved me going to the gym 6 days a week. It was hard work, but I loved it. In fact, after a month I was addicted to it cause I felt so good. I craved the feeling of sweating. And the gym became a big part of my life.

… Oh boy I wish I could l get back there again. It really was a great feeling. I did for a few months before I left Tasmania to come to Greece. The secret (for me) was to find the right gym. One where I felt comfortable, challenged and liked the people.

Anyway, this post was meant to be about art… and it is.

I love the feeling I get when I’m creative. Sometimes I become frustrated when something isn’t working for me, but when it is and I finish something, it feels great.

I love the feeling of achievement, and even more I love the feeling of wonder at the things I create sometimes… its almost hard to believe they came out of my hands.

That feeling is worth sticking with it for.

So here is today’s art – I was bored of flowers, so here are some vegetables. Red ones!

I love the vibrancy of these images and I wanted to keep them sort of limited in their colour scheme. But I added a splash of yellow and green for the pop. I think it worked.

One more square frame and 4 more pre-cut small cardboard squares to go!

z