Kit and Clowder Online Colouring Classes: art therapy

Being Perfect vs. Being Our Best

adult coloring Wednesday, April 06, 2022

“I spend an insane amount of time wondering if I’m doing it right. At some point, I just remind myself that I’m doing my best. That is enough.” ~Myleik Teele

Does this sound like you? Perfectionism is an obsession in our society right now. So, what is perfect? One definition of perfect is this – without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings. I tend to see a lot of people approach learning with this attitude – I can’t make any mistakes and allow anyone to see me being less than perfect. Although when I ask whether or not perfection exists, they say no. "I must give my all" isn’t really a bad thing but when having to give your all means being perfect, and there’s no such thing as perfect, it can turn into… I may as well do nothing. At least if I do nothing, I haven’t really failed and I won’t feel embarrassed or humiliated.

So, why this push to be something we can't be?

Because perfection doesn’t exist, it sets us up for failure every time. From that perspective, it certainly makes sense why you’d want to do nothing versus failing every single time. Once in a while you see glimmers of what is perceived as perfection. Those glimmers continue to keep you holding on for hope. If I just do this one thing…I’ll get there, I can be perfect. The problem is, the one thing never leads to perfection… Because there is no perfection.

HOW TO DEAL WITH PERFECTIONISTIC TENDENCIES

Learn to embrace mistakes – know that mistakes will help you grow.
Feel good about a win – winning feels good and should be celebrated, but having a win doesn't mean every practice will be a step forward. Celebrate then refocus so you are present for the next challenge.
Find 1-2 things that you did in a practice that are positive – Beginning to point out the positive things will help motivate you and give you confidence.

MISTAKES HAPPEN. MISTAKES ARE HEALTHY.

There really is no such thing as perfect but there’s something better than that! What is it? Realizing there’s no such thing. Learning to be ok with doing your best (whatever that is at any given moment) and allowing yourself to be human. Just do your best. Be your best. That means what you have the ability to be.

Being present in the process will allow you to do what you want to do. Mistakes will still happen but they are so incredibly important for growth. Here’s my challenge to you – instead of trying to be perfect, try to find another way to appreciate the positive things and deal with mistakes in a healthier way. I'll leave you to think about this quote: "If I am not failing regularly, I am living so far below my potential that I am failing anyway".

My honey pot colouring here is from our Mini Colouring Class Bundle 6 which you can find in the store here! It includes instructions for both markers and pencils - love to have you join in and thank you for reading this week's art therapy post! :)

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Success vs. Frustration

art therapy Monday, February 07, 2022

Frustrated with learning? You aren't alone! Many people report that frustration is a key emotion when learning new skills.

Frustration comes when our ego is not meeting an idealised goal or expectation. Before we embark on a task, we often set ourselves goals of what we want to achieve, but it is very common to misplace our overall expectations with today's expectations.

Just because we want to master a skill like colouring as an overarching goal, it doesn't mean it should be your goal every time you sit down to colour. So it's important to think about those expectations you are placing on yourself, and think about whether they are realistic and achievable for today's activities. Do the pressures help us perform better or do they make us anxious to take on challenges in case we make mistakes? You get to be in control of the expectations you place on yourself.

Remember, learning is not a race or a competition. It is not realistic to expect perfection, to be creating the same as others when we don't know how much experience they've had, or to instantly master new skills. Make sure your goals and expectations are realistic and not self-sabotaging. If you are overwhelmed, make your goal just a 10 minute start, or adding colour to a tiny part of an image rather than needing to sit and complete an entire project at once. Or approach a piece as a practice so you can scribble on the paper, take notes, and experiment without any intention of a usable finished project. Or make your goal to learn just one new thing with your next practice, and take note of what you take away so the focus is on the lesson and not on whether your results are good or bad.

Just as much as you are in control of placing the pressures, you are in control of taking them away and making them manageable. Your success comes from your ability to see mistakes for what they are - lessons. To see challenges for what they are - growth. You don't have to be great to start hobbies, but you do have to actually start them, practice them, and enjoy them to eventually be great. Remember, your hobbies are your time for self-care, to step back from some of the stress in our lives, so make sure not to inject stress in an activity which is meant to be your time for you

*I've been a little slack at updating the blog lately! If you don't want to miss my posts, please make sure you are a member of our Kit and Clowder Facebook Community where I post daily :) I'll try to pop in here more with important posts too!

**My dragon colouring is from our Mini Colouring Class Bundle 3.0 at http://bit.ly/2pDhoRW

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What To Do When You Don't Love Your Colouring

adult coloring Friday, January 22, 2021

This is the most important post you will read all day! Please take 2 minutes to read + leave your thoughts in the comments below!

I'm sure we can all agree that we are our harshest critiques

But what do we do when we put all of the pressure on ourselves and end up sucking out the joy from the learning process? Our words can directly influence whether we are motivated to keep learning or whether we give up because we think it's too hard and we aren't doing a good enough job. Keep in mind there's no benchmark when learning, no one standing over us telling us we must be perfect, no scorecard or timeline we have to learn everything by. All of that is coming from ourselves, inside. One of the most powerful things I heard about our inner speech that has stuck with me is when you find yourself saying it's too hard, or I can never do this, or it's not good enough is not to change the activity.. the activity is not the one at fault - our attitude is

If you can learn to stop those thoughts and reframe them then you can take on anything you want to in life - changing your attitude changes your whole experience

So let's have a chat about how to do that when we are feeling down about our work!

STEP 1 - CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE
So let's talk about how we critique our work - this is when we do some colouring, then we step back and look at how well we think we are doing. Firstly, it's important not to judge a half finished technique - it's always going to look a little wrong or stand out to you until your entire piece is finished. Resist that urge to keep restarting - it's not doing you any favours in learning and progressing with your colouring. If you are really unsure though, don't forget our classes always come with free private, one on one tutoring, so pop a photo over and we can chat about the next steps to help you feel more confident. Remember self-learning is such a small part of really mastering techniques - getting advice, non-emotional feedback, and tips on how to grow from people who have done it before is just as powerful as actually learning the steps. Don't be afraid to use this help - it will get you there faster and smarter.
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Secondly comes how we speak about our work. When you've finished your colouring, or viewing during the process, change your perspective so you aren't looking in that upclose mode we use for colouring, 20 cm from our work. This is not how art is meant to be viewed. Hold your colouring at arms length, prop against a wall and take an actual step back - try to view the whole picture rather than just looking upclose for mistakes and errors. Try to train your eye to see the whole project like as if you were viewing a friend's colouring - don't point out to yourself the areas you don't love just yet. Changing our perspective to appreciate our work as a whole allows you to have a greater understanding of how techniques come together to create a finished piece, and allows little mistakes that no one is looking at, fade into the background.

STEP 2 - POSITIVE TALK FIRST

The wording we use when we first look at our work is very important. Firstly we need to take the time to point out what we've done *right* - it's a step that is missed so often but it is crucial in critique, confidence, and motivation. I guarantee on every single colouring there is a lot of good, and that you've learned some new skills or refined some you've already had. that deserves celebrating. Try pointing out two things you feel you've done well or improved upon from last time - it shows you that you are learning and achieving each time you colour. Consider actually writing it down or saying it aloud - this gives the words more weight (sounds silly but it really works - it's proven that we accept things more when it's concrete through being spoken or written). When you share your colouring online, consider sharing these two things instead of just saying it's not perfect or pointing our what you feel isn't right, and notice how people's opinion of your work changes - we celebrate your achievements with you, but we look for mistakes if you point them out

It's so much more empowering to acknowledge the growth you are having with every piece, and a piece doesn't need to be perfect for there to have been a good lesson involved.

STEP 3 - HOW TO HANDLE MISTAKES OR WHEN YOU DON'T LOVE THE FINISHED RESULT

You don't have to be inauthentically positive though - we learn from mistakes, but it's important that we aren't *negative* when looking at them. There's nothing *wrong* with a mistake - you haven't stuffed up, it's not "not perfect" - it's simply a learning opportunity. Take the emotion out of your critique and focus on what you could try differently, on the lesson, instead of the negative emotion behind it . eg. Instead of "I messed up the wings", "my fine lines are a mess", or "it's not perfect but...." try something like "next time I'm going to work on xxx to achieve xxx result". So this may read something like: I "next time I'm going to work on leaving more gaps between my strokes to emphasise texture". Notice that you've taken away that negative emotion so you haven't done anything "wrong"- but you are still learning on your colouring journey (as we all do).
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A lot of people say they learn best from critique - but as you can see, there's a difference between saying something is not good enough and just reminding yourself that it's all a learning journey. There's no need with your Ego to interfere here - Ego is your expectation of yourself - and we need to train our ego to understand that it's unrealistic to expect to be perfect with our first efforts. The more we expect of ourselves, the more likely we are to have the true failure - giving up. The only time we fail is when we put something aside as you can't improve upon nothing - so work on taking away the pressure and emotion associated with creating and learning... it is just a fun activity with no pressure, no requirement to be perfect, and no expectation

And remember, you aren't competing with the class sample or anyone else you may see sharing online. We all have different amounts of practice that you aren't seeing in the background - focus on your own growth, not that of others. Don't let that ego tell you you should be any further along than where you are right now - where you are is perfect.

STEP 4 - MAKE THIS PART OF YOUR ROUTINE

If you struggle with perfectionism or low confidence, try using a journal to record these steps so you can make this a part of your learning process. It will also help you log your colouring progress, helping you to easily flick back and see over time how you have progressed. Anytime you feel frustration flare up, pull yourself back to these steps and take the emotion out of it. Take three deep breaths and ask yourself - what have I learned from the mistake? What have I done well? Will it look different at the end? How can I improve upon this for next time? The more you train your mind to run through these questions, the more it will become second nature and help you not only in your colouring but in every day life aswell

I hope this may help some of you to assess the way you speak to yourself about your work. Don't let fear of mistakes or the pressures you place on yourself stand in your way of actually learning and enjoying your hobbies. You aren't in a competition with anyone, there's no need to rush to learn it all, and no need to give up on yourself if you dont'quite get there with today's practice. And always remember - you don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great

***Don't forget to come and join us over in the class rooms at www.kitandclowder.com - we run through art therapy tips like this in every lesson + free classes, like our brand new Deer Colouring Class, available for absolutely everyone on the homepage! :)

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Colouring Tip: Finishing is Just as Important as Starting!

art therapy Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Making a start is the number one thing you need to do to improve your colouring (after all, you can't improve upon nothing, right?), but then this right here is my second most important tip. When learning a new technique it's important to remember just that... that we are learning

The first time you try a new technique is going to be your worst attempt because you don't have practice or experience behind you. It's really important that we don't judge our first attempts - this includes your class work. Try not to go into a class thinking it needs to be a perfect finished project - classes are experiment time, troubleshooting, play time, practice time. A class should be about just learning new things, pushing yourself to be challenged, and embracing the mistakes that come along with this - see the lessons that they are teaching you. If you remember that learning is not about perfection but about growth then you can release any pressure and focus on the lesson not the project.

Too often I see people put colouring aside or give up when something is hard or they feel they've made a mistake. When we give ourselves permission to stop listening to the voice saying it's not good enough and just finish the colouring, we then have an opportunity to step back, and assess and appreciate the lessons behind what we've created. When we colour, we colour "up close" - and really scrutinise all the details and areas we don't love, however that's not how colouring is meant to be viewed. Consider Monet's impressionist work - upclose it is just blobs of paint on a canvas, but with space you see the bigger picture.

Giving ourselves some perspective by stepping back and seeing the picture as a whole helps to give the techniques some context - allows our eye to "see" what we are communicating. What was once a glaringly obvious mistake forms part of the bigger picture. And with any mistakes, the absolute worst case scenario is you've learned more about technique and how to tweak it for the result you want in the future. Make learning about the lessons, not about perfection. So even when you feel unsure, keep going and reserve critique until you can assess the picture as a whole, and even then make sure to celebrate each step on your journey, regardless of the finished result - as long as you are trying, you are growing

Want tips on your colouring? Our classes always come with free one on one private tutoring aswell so you can get real tips on how to grow your colouring (this is *not* done in our group here but instead done privately so we can chat one on one about tips personal to your work). **If you want to learn more, why not try out a free class this week over at www.kitandclowder.com - pictured classes here are the Mermaid Pencils Class and the Tropic Paradise Markers Class

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Don't Limit Your Challenges - Challenge Your Limits

adult coloring Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Challenging yourself and making mistakes is one of the best ways to improve and learn in your life - not just in colouring, but in you as a person, however, I often see people who are ready to give up on learning new things, or don't even start, when they are worried it will be challenging. When things are difficult, it can feel easy to give up and move on to something else, however we don't see how much that sets us back, knocking both our self confidence and ability to succeed. I wanted to share an article called "The Importance of Challenging Yourself" as they explain why it's important to have and embrace challenges in your life. Take a read:

"Challenging ourselves to always achieve a level greater than what we expect is beneficial to not only our mental health, but also to our personal well being. As we conquer challenges that stand in our way like roadblocks, refusing to allow our passing, we find confidence in our abilities. Confidence is such an important characteristic to finding the path to success. With confidence in your own work, comes the reward of the confidence of others in you. Boosting that confidence is the growing self-esteem, which results from tackling challenges."

"When we find ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, the worst choice to make is to quit. Giving up on any given task because of the difficulties that fall before you means giving up on yourself. When you give up on yourself, you lose faith in your skills and knowledge, which consequently leads to a lower self-esteem. If you continue to battle through life’s hardships, determine solutions to problems and focus on putting those solutions into effect, you will find satisfaction in your efforts. It is so important to maintain a high level of self-esteem, believe in yourself and continue to challenge yourself in order to build upon your knowledge in all that you do. Next time you are faced with a challenge, face it. Challenge yourself, and prove that you are capable of achieving anything."

I hope this might inspire some of you this week to strive to be challenged and make mistakes, and not just take the easy route...because each and every time you do you will grow not just in your colouring but in you as a person aswell <3 

**If you are ready to be gently challenged to take the next step with your colouring, check out our classes at www.kitandclowder.com (you can find our freebies on the homepage). Pictured above is our Tasty Treats Markers Class featuring Di's Digi Stamps. Happy Colouring!

Extra Reading:
Why you need to be challenged

Why a challenge may be exactly what you need

3 Reasons why you should challenge yourself

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Crafting at the Children's Hospital

art therapy Saturday, April 27, 2019

Hi Clowdies! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break and were able to take some time out just for you to relax and recharge. Over the holiday, I had the pleasure of hosting a 3-Day Free Easter Craft Workshop at the Queensland Children's Hospital, and I thought you might like to see some of the pictures!

We had a whopping 180+ families come through over the three days, where we made Bunny Cups, Scratch-Art Ears, and a Cardmaking Station. We have to work with quick crafts that kids of all ages and mobility can do in a short time frame - the foam cup bunnies (pictured above) especially were a huge hit! It was wonderful to see the smiles on the children's faces as we hoped to spread a little magic on what is usually a long and tiring day for them.

*We had the Fire and Rescue and The Coffee Club teams helping at the Easter Party - thanks so much!

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
When I share about our hospital workshops, I often get asked about what people can do to help from afar, which I'm so incredibly grateful for. We do free monthly workshops for the Children's Hospitals and Cancer Council, and these are actually made possible by our colouring class members. Even if a colouring class is out of your budget, trying one of our free classes and sharing, helping to support each other by leaving kind comments in our Facebook Group, or helping to spread the word are all a huge help to keep Kit and Clowder here today and doing this for longer. Thank you for helping to make these activities possible!

I want to do a special shout out to our Monthly Colouring Class members - these workshops are purely made possible because of your support. I can't thank you enough - when you purchase a class here you aren't just buying a lesson... you are a part of our community, helping us to help others. When you are next questioning whether to take 10 minutes for you, or whether you are good enough to jump in, know that when you do so you are not only doing something special for you, but you are helping others aswell. I'm so grateful that you are a part of our community.

I hope you will enjoy these fun photos of what we got up to and thank you again for all of your support :)

Happy colouring,

Alyce x

*BIG Thank you to the Clowdies who volunteered with me - Catherine, Kylie, Samantha, Tere, Kerri, Carlie, + to Sandra for the Hearts

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Free Stamp + Battling Perfection

art therapy Tuesday, April 23, 2019

*Dragon Colouring Class from our Mini Bundle 3 at www.kitandclowder.com/shop

Hi everyone! I wanted to chat about the learning process this week - it's something that comes up regularly where people are feeling nervous to get started, or not good enough to keep going when they inevitably make a mistake.

I'm sure we can all agree that we are our own harshest critics. It’s easy to tell ourselves that “it’s not perfect”, or “I’m not good enough”. The biggest thing that can stop you from achieving is not how good you are right this moment, how fast you colour, or how many supplies you have...it’s your inner critic, that inner voice that controls how you speak to yourself about trying new challenges and whether your work is good enough. What we don’t realise is that every time we judge ourselves + compare with others, we are dampening our motivation, making it feel that little bit more challenging and overwhelming than it really is, and turning our dreams into chores. The good news? You have the power to slowly change how you speak to yourself and feel about your work.

If you are in one of our classes, or been sitting on the sidelines, and a bit nervous to jump in, remember that a class is not a test in how good you are, it’s a learning tool to help you to get there. The key to taking that next step, whether it is for colouring or anything else, is just to take any pressure, expectations, or comparisons off. It actually doesn’t matter at all how your colouring turned out today, whether it is “perfect” or not. What matters are the lessons you are taking away every time you try, the mistakes that you *will* make - they mean you *aren’t* a failure because you are putting yourself out there, you are challenging what you know to help yourself become better for tomorrow.

So if you've been afraid to jump in, tell yourself right now that you *can* do this, that each and every time you try you will be one step closer to your goals, but you don’t have to get there all in one day or one lesson. Actually saying the words out loud can help reinforce the power behind them (sounds silly but it truly works). It's not always easy to remember this and it takes dedicated practice, just like your colouring does, so save posts like this and reminders to yourself that you are good enough. Appreciate where you are at right now in your journey and enjoy every practice and step forward, mistakes and all ❤

Happy Colouring this week everyone - if you are looking for something fun to colour, why not grab this free stamp that's available for everyone over in our Kit and Clowder Colouring Facebook Group :)

Alyce x

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Let's Talk Self Confidence + A Little Colouring From Me

art therapy Wednesday, May 30, 2018

This lesson is just as important as learning about the colouring itself.

In our Facebook Group, I get to see a lot of people sharing their colouring and read a lot of comments about how we each perceive our own work. Sadly, I read all too often the comments where we don't think we are good enough, as good as others, or that we've made a mistake, rather than appreciating the progress we are making and how we are each growing on our own path, in our own time.

How we speak to ourselves and about our work directly influences our motivation and ability to learn. Even though you might not realise, negatively speaking about your work constantly is not constructive - this is so harmful to our confidence as if you do this regularly you are just enforcing to yourself that you "aren't good enough" or have failed on a task. We need to enjoy just colouring and learning new things without being so caught up on what the end result is like - that is counter productive to learning and we forget the fun is in the process, the making mistakes, the achievements that come after learning - not in holding a pretty colouring at the end. Take the pressure off and let yourself know you are doing a good job - you are growing just by trying

and the more we try, the quicker we will get to the results we want.. but it doesn't have to be today.

So let's look at how we talk about our work so we feel encouraged to continue learning on our journey to grow.

CRITIQUE STEP 1 - CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

So let's talk about how we critique our work, which is usually first done when we assess our work ourselves. Firstly, it's important not to judge a half finished technique - it's always going to look a little wrong or stand out to you until your entire piece is finished. Resist that urge to keep restarting - it's not doing you any favours in learning and progressing with your colouring. If you are really unsure though, pop a message and photo over to me so we can chat about the next steps.

Secondly comes how we speak about our work. When you've finished your colouring, take a step back and look at your entire piece - not just upclose looking for mistakes. Changing our perspective to appreciate our work as a whole allows you to have a greater understanding of how techniques come together to create a finished piece, and allows little mistakes that no one is looking at, fade into the background.

CRITIQUE STEP 2 - POSITIVE TALK

Then the wording we use when we look at our work is very important. Firstly we need to take the time to point out what we've done *right* - it's a step that is missed so often but it is crucial in critique, confidence, and motivation. I guarantee on every single colouring there is a lot of good that deserves celebrating. Try pointing out two things you feel you've done well or improved upon from last time - it shows you that you are learning and achieving each time you colour. When you share your colouring online, consider sharing these two things and notice how people's opinion of your work changes - we celebrate your achievements with you which is so much more uplifting than others looking for the mistakes you have just pointed out to them

CRITIQUE STEP 3 - HOW TO HANDLE MISTAKES

We are *all* going to make mistakes when we colour. It's the nature of learning new things and they should be embraced as they mean you are learning and growing - in fact, we can't learn without them. We need to face these constructively instead of negatively so we still feel motivated when we make a mistake. A good way to do this is to point out what you could try differently next time to get a different result - eg. Instead of "I messed up the wings", try something like "next time I'm going to work on leaving more gaps between my strokes to emphasise texture". It takes away that negative emotion so you haven't done anything "wrong"- but you are still needing practice on your colouring journey (as we all do).

This should be done privately or with myself as you are keeping these growth lessons your personal achievements. All of a sudden you have taken what you felt was a negative attempt at colouring and made it a positive step forward - showing you that every single time you colour you are improving and learning and it is important to have these challenges to learn from.

Don't let fear of making mistakes stand in your way of learning - Be afraid of never trying and being exactly where you are now next year as this is the time you cannot grow. Achievements require first a challenge in all areas of life so don't deny your chance to be challenged because you might make a mistake or you feel nervous. Colouring is not about comparing with anyone else (that includes your classes) but is instead about where you are on your journey only and how you are growing each time you take that challenge - take the time to let yourself know how well you are doing just by jumping in.

Don't lose the love of your hobby through putting pressure on yourselves or being nervous about making mistakes - you "can" do this...it's time to start believing in yourself just like I believe in you xx

ps. A little colouring from me today - I've been working on this cute image from Lee Holland and practicing my black hair with Prismacolor Pencils. If you want to learn with me, check out our colouring classes at www.kitandclowder.com :)

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Overcoming Procrastination

art therapy Monday, February 05, 2018

Today, let's talk about procrastination. We all do it - big things, little things, important things. The things that require commitment, time, and put us at risk of failing are usually what we procrastinate the most and unfortunately, our hobbies and goals, like colouring, can fall into this area for some of us. It's easy to tell ourselves so many reasons why now, *today*, is just not the right time - too busy, too much money, too stressed, too inexperienced, too old, too hard...I've heard them all and I use them too! ;) Very occasionally the reasons may be valid - but 9 times out of 10 they are excuses to avoid the work or emotional discomfort of going outside of our comfort zones. 

"Nothing is as fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an unfulfilled goal" - We usually procrastinate as a way to avoid stress, but did you know it has been proven that this approach is actually one of the biggest causes of stress in our lives? It can lead to increased stress, health and sleep problems, lack of confidence, and poor performance. By putting off today what can be done tomorrow, we are giving in to our fears, helping them to grow larger, and turning tomorrow into the next day, and the next. We are giving ourselves permission to sell out on our goals and our happiness - robbing ourselves of opportunities, of learning, of being the best we can be. 

Nothing great in life is achieved without action. If you want to learn how, to create colouring like you see others create, then we need to stop making excuses and start taking action. We are all more than capable - if we just give ourselves permission to believe it <3 Take a read of the articles above for some real tips on moving forward and take back control of your learning and your goals in life. After all, in the words of Marcud Aurelius, "Don't act as if you have 1000 years to live" - we only have now. 

Here are some top tips to overcoming procrastination, and get started on your goals:

1 - Get out your calendar

Write down your goals and give yourself a deadline. Schedule time to start and place an alarm to hold yourself accountable. You only need 10 minutes to start and once you do, the hardest part is behind you. 

2. Get rid of catastrophizing

One of the biggest reasons people procrastinate is because they catastrophize, or make a huge deal out of something. It may be related to how tough, how boring, or how painful it will be to complete the task; whatever the case, the underlying

theme is that doing the task will be “unbearable.”

In reality, challenges, boredom, and hard work will not kill you — or even make you sick. Procrastination, on the other hand, is associated with stress — think of the stress you feel when you avoid making a phone call you know you need to make. So keep things in perspective: “Sure, this is not my favorite task, but I can get through it.” (referenced from https://www.psychologytoday.com)

3 - Break your goals down into smaller pieces. 

The bigger your goals, the more quickly you can feel overwhelmed. Break it down
into bite sized bits. You might colour the skin one day, the hair a few days later. Or you might have time goals - 10 minutes one day, 20 minutes a few days later. You don't need to plan your entire learning journey - just a step immediately ahead to get you going. 

4 - Visualise the outcome and remember your "why"

Why did you want to learn in the first place? Imagine how you will feel when you feel confident with your colouring. 

When we procrastinate, we tend to focus more on short-term gains (avoiding the distress associated with the task), as opposed to long-term results (the stress of not doing it, as well as the consequences of avoiding this task). Instead, try focusing on why you are
doing this task: What are the benefits of completing it?

5 - Harness Fear

Let's focus not on what we are afraid of, but the cost of continued inaction. How would you feel a year from now if you did nothing? Be honest with yourself - if nothing changes, then nothing changes - we only grow by starting.

6 - Take Accountability 

Enlist a support team! You have one already right here in your Kit and Clowder community! Share your work, join in with what others are doing, and stay motivated. Knowing that you are learning alongside others is a great motivator to keep going so make sure to check in during your journey. 

7- Reward yourself 

Why not give yourself a little treat to acknowledge those times you kick your goals? :) Do not let yourself binge that new Netflix show, check your social media, or get lunch until you complete what you've scheduled. So instead of using these tasks and distractions to procrastinate, make them contingent on you actually finishing what you schedule yourself to do.

8 - Act bravely daily, starting today. 

Commit to stepping outside of your comfort zone and having a go - just put colour on your page *somewhere*. Print your images, download your video. It doesn't matter how fast you are going, as long as you are stepping forward to keep on doing the things that inspire you. Once you've taken the first step, then you can take the next and keep growing and learning. 

8. Drop the perfectionism.

Perfectionism is an all-or-nothing mentality: Something is either perfect, or it is a failure. People with perfectionistic tendencies tend to wait until things are perfect in order to proceed — so, if it's not perfect, you cannot be finished. Or if it is not the perfect time, you believe you can't start. This all-or-nothing mentality can hold you back from starting or completing tasks.

Remember that we must make mistakes in order to learn. That mistake you make is such a vital part of growing - embrace it. Try writing PRACTICE at the top of your page and take your eyes there every time you feel that pang of needing to be perfect pop up. And if things really aren't going your way, reach out and ask for help so we can work on it together. You aren't alone during this journey of learning - let's work together to help you feel confident.

Make today your day and get started on the next step in your journey. You’ve got this x

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Being Perfect vs. Being Our Best

MISTAKES HAPPEN. MISTAKES ARE HEALTHY.

Success vs. Frustration

What To Do When You Don't Love Your Colouring

Colouring Tip: Finishing is Just as Important as Starting!

Don't Limit Your Challenges - Challenge Your Limits

Crafting at the Children's Hospital

Free Stamp + Battling Perfection

Let's Talk Self Confidence + A Little Colouring From Me

Overcoming Procrastination

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