I woke up yesterday morning to an email from Mye De Leon. This email was a great reminder that I think a lot of people need to hear (myself included). Let me quote you some of the words from her email:
“Creating for social media should never be your number one
priority! There are way better reasons for you to focus on.
Create because you want to:
- Practice
and better your skills.
- Develop
your own style.
- Share
a message or a technique with your followers.
If your purpose
for creating is because you need to post on Instagram, it'll eventually burn
you out.”
Well, let me tell you that I have been there and done that. I
originally started posting my lettering mainly to practice and document my
progress, which eventually led to developing my own style. I was so dedicated
to practicing that I made a commitment back in November 2015 to practice
lettering everyday for 100 days. It was awesome! I could see how quick I was
improving. It was hard work, but it was totally worth it. After the 100 days
were over, I continued to try to create everyday to keep the momentum going
because I still had so much to learn and to improve, and I pretty much did so until
the end of 2017.
Then 2018 happened, and it all changed. Life just got busier. My
workload almost doubled at work and I needed to balance life better (I was
making poor health choices too that needed to change). I struggled juggling it
all: work, life, and lettering. It probably didn’t help that the algorithm on
Instagram was in full swing by this time as well. As I posted less and less, I
noticed that not only did my engagement significantly dropped, I also started losing followers. Yes, I know that we should not focus on the number of likes
and followers we have. I can honestly say that I have come to that point now where
I no longer care. Okay, that’s a lie. I do care a little, but not so much. I
don’t post to get likes and followers. I post because I want to share with the
world what I’ve created, and I create because I enjoy it. However, it still sucks
when you post an artwork that you’ve put your heart and soul into, and only
2-3% of your followers will actually see it or like it. But anyway, back to
2018.
At the time I took it quite personal and thought the drop of
engagement and followers were a reflection of my work (which only later I
learned that it was not), and it was the result of not posting everyday. Because
of this, I felt this immense pressure of having to constantly create something great and
post everyday like I did before. And you know what,…. I ended up getting burned
out. Plus, the more pressure I put on myself, the more creatively stuck I became. It
was a vicious cycle! Eventually I just had to take a break from it all and
re-evaluate everything.
Like I mentioned before, I have now come to that point where I
don’t care as much. It took me awhile to get there but during the second half
of 2018, I finally accepted that I no longer am able to create everyday due to
my workload at work, and that’s okay. I will continue to create whenever I can
and do it because I find enjoyment in it, whether in the end people like it or
not like it, see it or not see it on Instagram (I've also learned that no matter what I do, I keep losing followers anyway so I've stopped looking at those numbers). I will not pressure myself and
compare myself with others on the Internet. I will go at my own pace and share
my creative journey according to my own capacity.
Mye’s email continues and she says this:
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| Artwork by @valster73. Do not use without permission |
Much love,
Val
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