Being one of those people who will determinedly (or perhaps dogmatically. Probably bloody-mindedly) press on with some small obsession regardless of the results - in my case, a decision back in June last year, to have a press at typing out my thoughts into indigestible short articles - I thought I’d take stock and see what the last six months of keypad bashing might have rendered.

What caused this sudden rush of introspection was that in looking at what all those thousands of words had netted me was that statistically (so perhaps qualitatively) a modest early success (and apparent ‘regard’ based on some statistics) was fleeting. Which I guess simply underscores the idea that any old new stuff will catch the eye and that interest will soon wain.

This is probably the moment when the quit kicks in. The endorphin rush has faded and what was a thrill becomes a chore becomes a bore and you chuck it in. I tried 365 days of designing a capital letter a day. I got to the end of July (here, if you’re bored - http://www.richardshill.co.uk/letterpress/). I did an A6 pencil sketch a day a few years back and that actually lasted a whole year, but that dedication is a stand-alone exception. Ordinarily I’d have knocked something like this on the head.

Then a thing I read a few days back reminded me why ambitions like this kind of self-torture get abandoned - the old lie that ‘practice makes perfect’. 

Practice makes permanent. 

Feedback makes perfect.

I suspect the sketch-a-day worked as I never made it public. So I only had my own counsel to listen to and as I love drawing, each was an encouragement to the next. 

The others, such as this drivel, I decided to put out there. The implication, the contract, being to create a dialogue. Getting feedback. Getting advice - sometimes encouragingly (and thank you to those that have. It’s meant a lot) - is what matters. Even critical thoughts, pulled-punches or full on barbed ‘you what mate?’ are what’s needed. 

If you’ve subscribed to a thread, email newsletter, mailchimp link, someone’s content on here, drop them a line. I try to (not too much as it comes across as a bit stalk-y), it helps me think about what I’ve written. It might help them with the practice. It’ll definitely help you shape your own thinking. 

You might even start writing it down. Either you do, or someone will use AI to do it for - or rather, too - you. Now’s not the time to just give up.

Image © Robert Crumb, Keeping On Trucking, 1968