Things to do for an amazing 2024
Have you ever done those crazy lists at the beginning of the year, listing about 10+ goals to achieve and felt frustrated for not reaching most of them? Well, I did. The New Year always comes with a feeling that’s a fresh start, and that’s inspiring. However, I used not to be realistic about my expectations for myself and would always end up frustrated. A couple of years ago, I learned that doing little by little, at least for me, is the key to getting somewhere.
That said, I listed only three achievements for this year for my career! Of course, people prefer things like earning X amount of money each month and attending X number of clients by the end of the year. Things like that don’t work for me. Not because I am really bad at estimating numbers, but because I am also bad at planning with so many variables (maybe that’s why I am awful at chess? Haha).
Therefore, I just accepted my condition of not being able to plan such goals, and instead, I set up tasks that I know will get me to some kind of good and desired result! These, combined with the habits and things I already do for my business regularly, surely will get me to where I need to be or very close. I hope this list inspires you to plan your own goals/tasks (if you still have not) for an amazing 2024!
Digital painting more like my traditional style
Last year, I spent a lot of time learning the basics (and advanced techniques) for digital painting. Although I have achieved some sort of satisfactory result, it was still far from what I intended. I’d like people to look at my illustrations and not spot a media immediately.
Therefore, I want to find a mix of traditional and digital that still fits my style, and it’s not immediately recognizable as digital work. However, I also need the digital thing to be quicker and more flexible than a fully traditional painting. So I am studying to find a process that works for me.
Here are some of my digital painting attempts – the second one I did just a few days ago and I might be getting somewhere!
Put a YouTube channel together
Another thing I spent some time learning in 2023 was editing videos. I was planning to launch a channel then, but a lot of things came up and I decided to postpone it. This week, I just uploaded my first video! At first, I plan to share a lot of my process and time-lapses of paintings and illustrations. But later, who knows? Maybe I could share more stuff.
Starting a new social media profile kind of scares me a bit. I am very bad at maintaining a presence online (I just quit TikTok because I forgot that profile existed… for months). I lose more Instagram followers than I gain every month. So let’s see how I do on YouTube. If no one watches it, at least I’ll have a good video journal of my work to watch in the future!
Learn a 3D software
I have learned the basics of 3D software three excruciating times in my life already, and forgot everything! In my defense, at that time I did not have a good computer and I was trying 3DS Max by Autodesk, and it was so hard! However, I am positive that I can learn Blender this time. Look at the image below, how awesome is this?!
Of course, I dream big but I must be realistic. If I learn the basics by early June I will be very happy already. I can’t even imagine how many hours of practice I’d need for something so majestic as the image above. But I am going to take the first step. Wish me luck!
How to not get frustrated by the end of the year
At least to me, it’s when I start seeing Christmas decorations (every year earlier, it seems) that I get the feeling “the year is over, and it went so fast”. If you have lots of goals to achieve in one year, like I used to have, you might end up frustrated. In January, it seems like we have a whole lot of time ahead. However, by accounting for all the regular life things you already have to perform day-to-day, one year can go very quickly.
Have this in mind and set up only realistic goals. Three things to achieve (like I have here on my list) are already a lot. Because every achievement involves dedicated time throughout the year, and time is limited. Make a priority list, and, if by the time you spot Christmas decorations on shop windows, you have achieved only one of the things on your list, consider yourself a winner!
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See you,
Emmy