Reaching Your Goals Through Mini Goals.

The tortoise and the hare is a great example of how to reach your goal. If you asked the hare what his goal was before the race he would have said "To win!" Had you asked the tortoise he would have said "I plan to go slow and steady and put one foot in front of the other until I reach the finish line. I plan to stay focused and meet each obstacle and overcome it while always moving forward."

Well, okay, maybe they would not have said anything like that at all. The point is if you set your goals high without a plan it is just as bad as not setting a goal at all. I have to write my goals down. I then try to imagine the path to reach my goal. I tend to write a flowchart like path. I then look at each of the mini goals that lead to the end result. If those goals are too big I break them down even further.

I do not always reach my main goal but I do manage to meet many of the smaller ones along the way. I also learn from each of my mistakes. My biggest flaw is seeing the timeline. What I sometimes think will take a month may take a year. Perhaps I am overly optimistic sometimes. I am working on that.

This week I have set a goal of getting 2000 "Likes" on the Tangled Metal Facebook Page. When I set the goal I was at 143 followers. That was three days ago. Today I am up to 153. It seems like a very unreachable goal if you look at it overall. However, I have set the goal of having 200 followers by the end of the next weekend. 47 Likes seem a lot easier to reach than 1947 followers.

I have set a plan in motion and I am going to stick to the plan and reevaluate after the weekend. I will let you know how it goes. If you would like to help me reach my goal go to the Tangled Metal Facebook Page and "Like" it and share it with all of your followers. What are your long term goals. What short term goals have you set to make it to your long term goal? I would really like to know. Please leave me a comment and maybe we can help one another.

Be Positive About Your Art!

Chainmail Armor Vambrace

When I was young I was quite gawky. When I got to be a teenager the gawkiness had pretty much completely set in. I was too tall for my weight and too skinny for my height. I was clumsy and awkward. Add to this entire mix that I had a strong like for math, science, SciFi and Fantasy. People called me nerd, geek and a few things I do not want to mention here. People bullied me and beat me up and made my life miserable.

I guess you might say that not much has changed. I am still quite gawky and awkward. Though now I am over weight for my height and under tall for my weight. People still call me names and if I had not found ingenious ways to avoid fights they would probably still be beating me up. And yes, people still call me names. One important thing has changed over the years.

When I learned how to make chainmail as a gawky, geeky, awkward 13 year old some my have thought that would put the final nail in the coffin so to speak. Here is a kid with no friends and not a really great chance of getting any making something that has been obsolete since about 1400AD Yep, that ought to get him some attention. And attention it did get me.

No one in the area I grew up made chainmail. No one in my area had any idea how to make it. And though there were not that many of my peers that were impressed a few people saw my work and loved it. They were so impressed by it that they asked me to make things for them. Over the years I have gotten really good at making chainmail. I have gotten very fast at it and have created things that people would want to wear in public all the time and not just at a Renaissance Fair or costume party.

Am I the best chainmailer in the world? In my mind I am quite sure that I am. Actually, there are probably a lot more people out there making chainmail better than me. There are probably people out there who make better jewelery than me. There are probably people out there who are much faster than me. But in my mind, I am the best.

My point is, I see a lot of negativity out there in the world. Know where I see it the most? I see it the most in crafters and artists who think everyone is better than they are. Why would anyone demean their own work? I think the whole point of doing what you love is loving what you do. Be the best that you can. I am not the best chainmailer that has ever lived anywhere except my mind. And I am 100% okay with that.

If you craft, if you create art, if you doodle, if you glue macaroni together in the shape of a cabin, more power to you. Even more power to you if you think that you are the best at it. Of course, keep in mind it may not be the greatest of ideas to tell everyone you are the best at something. (That little tidbit comes from experience.) But in your own mind you have created something. You are the creator. You should be happy about it.

You'll find that if you start taking pride in your craft/art that it will bleed into other areas of your life. It could make you a happier person in general. It will at least give you the knowledge that you are positive about your art. Ask yourself why you started doing it in the first place.