When I think of “setbacks” I think of falling behind. Falling behind what or who? I don’t really know. The idea, though, is that there is a preconceived goal that you’re aiming for, even if you don’t consciously recognize what that goal is. Additionally, on a subtle level, there is a kind of time aspect to all of it. Keeping up or keeping pace in some kind of “race” to be good or successful. All of these things are external factors, though.
So, for myself, I stopped looking at these external factors as the hurdles for development. I’ve read it elsewhere in many places, but the thing that helped me break from these external factors is a quote from Matty Mullins that has been taken and reworded or expanded in different ways.
The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.
Matty Mullins
Taking those words to heart, and only focusing on how I did things before, makes it easier to look at those challenges and failures as opportunities instead of setbacks. It’s not the external factors that are important measures of progress, they just exist to provide ideas and direction. It’s what I actually try to achieve that matters, and if I fail then I can just step back, dissect and analyze, and try a different way to see if I do better. That’s how I try to frame it in my mind so that I can keep moving forward.
What are some ways I can seek out feedback and constructive criticism to continue growing and improving?
At least when it comes to writing, I’ve done a few things to try and get feedback.
One is this very blog! I know I don’t exactly solicit people to leave comments for feedback and constructive criticism, but I haven’t discouraged it much either.
Another that I’ve done earlier this year was a writing contest that promised two avenues for feedback: peer feedback and judges. The peer feedback was done through a private message board where we could all read each others stories and then respond in their respective threads, while the judges were tasked with providing objective feedback on how our stories were written and the things that we should look at it for future attempts.
Something that I’ve dipped my toe into so far is joining Discord servers that are focused on writing. I haven’t started socializing in them as of yet, but I have access to them so I can start building connections and such. I’ve also started to do some reading/writing group activities for others who are writing so that I can get some experience under my belt as part of a sort “book club” as an alpha reader.
Those are all the things that come to mind at this time that I’ve been doing in this regard, and you can apply similar tactics in other areas of your life depending on what it is you’re seeking feedback on.
Now, for myself, I just need to put more effort into the “social” aspect of a lot of it.
Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday. I spent Wednesday evening through today (so far) with my dad as he was getting some surgery and I just didn’t have the mental faculties necessary for most of my usual daily habits.
So, for today’s prompt I decided to pull from the official DayOne app website where they have a post for Journal Prompts. As I was scanning through I ended up on the Inspiration section and decided to combine a couple prompts, but I wanted to focus specifically on the artistic side of inspiration.
When it comes to painting miniatures I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from several mini painters that I’ve discovered on Instagram over the last few years. I see the different styles and techniques that they showcase, thinking about how easy they make it look, and I feel like I want to give them a try myself. Obviously, those styles and techniques of theirs have been honed over years of practice, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try them out to see where I might shine or need more practice. I’ve been good about not being discouraged when I don’t “instantly master” what I’m trying to imitate because I remind myself of these facts, but it also spurs me on to watch them again and again, to repeatedly dissect what I’m watching in different ways to see what I can glean.
In recent months I’ve taken to more general creative hobby crafting through the YouTube channel Nerdforge and the mind blowing things that they create. I find it not just inspirational but also refreshing when a wild new video is uploaded to their channel and it turns out to be something incredible like the full sized Warhammer “mini” they made. The ideas that get pulled together from different sources to create the final result is absolutely amazing and stretches the way my mind thinks about how to approach different situations with techniques that may not have been originally intended for the scale they were working on.
That’s where I’ve been getting a lot of my artistic inspiration these days, and as long as I keep watching these amazing people work, I believe I’ll always be able to find inspiration.
It’s been a long day and we’re not even to lunch yet. I’ve been awake since last night and just don’t have the energy to come up with an engaging idea for a writing prompt today so I’m going to call a break here.
Here’s hoping everyone has a good day and that I get some rest soon!
What are some activities or habits that drain my energy or motivation?
Not to be confused with Energy Vampires, those people that suck the energy and motivation out of you, but Energy Suckers are just about everything else. Unfortunately, there can be some overlap depending on how you go about handling different activities and habits.
For example, one of my favorite activities is playing Magic: The Gathering with friends. Usually this is a fun time, but every so often you just get into a bad round where nothing seems to be going right or you’re just not getting the cards you need to actually feel like you’re playing. You’re watching the person across from you draw card after card after card and just popping off on their turns while you’re stuck doing pretty much nothing. That’s one of those times where it just sucks the energy (and fun) out of you and you would rather just start a new hand or call it a night altogether. What can make it worse, in the “overlaps with Energy Vampires” area, is when you’re playing with someone else that happens to in a bad mood because THEY are in that unfortunate situation of not being able to do anything except sit on their hands, or this other person just happens to be a snarky asshole who likes to rub it in. I’ve actually stopped playing with some friends as often because they like to invite specific people that I just don’t vibe with anymore after too many nights of less-than-subtle jabs and taunts.
Similarly, this can happen with online gaming. Playing a specific game with people and when things just aren’t going quite right despite the normal challenges, it wears on you mentally. This is one of those things for why I never really played a lot of online multiplayer games back when I streamed a lot, and also something that baffles me as to why/how some people can slog through 8+ hours of their day playing a game that isn’t going to be fun. (Which is, sadly, what a lot of people do because they think it’s what they need to do if they want make it big in the streaming space.) What makes this more difficult is if you’re playing with random strangers and you again end up with, you guessed it, snarky assholes. (It’s one thing if they’re throwing shade at comedic times and also making themselves out to be the butt of jokes, but when they’re just full on harping on you alone and have absolutely zero positive attitude? That just sucks, period.)
Looking at other activities and habits, you can see the same things happen with them, and I’m sure I could go on and on about them but I won’t, or else I’ll just go on forever and seem stupidly nit picky. In the end, though, suffice to say, when something just isn’t going right and you’re struggling? That just sucks.
When I am faced with challenges or obstacles, what is my usual response?
I have a generally simple process for facing challenges, depending on some circumstances. Am I facing them by myself? Is it in a controlled environment? Things like that get considered, but the short answer for how I respond is to dissect things.
If I’m encountering the issue on my own, I try to understand the immediate or near term impacts to determine if I need to deal with the thing right away. From there I can plan an appropriate response. A similar thought process is involved if I happen to be working as part of a group/team when the challenge is encountered. The only difference I include is evaluating whether I’m in a position to “call the shots” and deal with things without the permission/involvement of the group. If I need to rely on others to face the challenge I don’t mind reaching out for help, but if I’m already part of a group then making sure that everyone is part of any and all decisions is important for facing what is front of us.
So, once I’ve determined impact and whether or not to deal with whatever the obstacle is right away (if by myself) then I look at how difficult it will be to overcome. I’ll break it down into more manageable pieces and tackle things systematically until it’s over. This will happen in a similar fashion if I’m part of a group, but I’ll make sure I’m listening to everyone else to make sure we don’t miss something and that we divvy out tasks appropriately. Once that’s all taken care of it’s just a matter of laying down a timeline for completion (if necessary, if not, I just try to knock it out right away and be done with it.)
Going back to my comment about “a controlled environment” I was thinking about whether or not there are restraints on how the obstacle must be overcome. My mind immediately goes to video games for an example of this because oftentimes what happens is there are set requirements for completion but you may not have all the information. In those cases I just look at the “confines” of the situation to see if I can understand where the boundaries are so that I’m not wasting time trying things that will have zero impact on solving the issue. In normal everyday life this might look like working within the confines of coding parameters, construction requirements, electrical and plumbing specifications, and things of that nature. What is the issue and how are we restricted in our ability to solve it?
Dissecting the challenge/obstacle/issue is the easiest way to approach them, and usually makes it easier to handle them mentally, especially when they might seem insurmountable at first glance.
Are you actively trying to learn to use AI to complement your work? Or are you trying to learn more unique skills that cannot be easily replicated by AI?
The regular daily prompt was something about a big risk that I haven’t taken yet, but since I answered that one a while back, I decided to fill in with my own. It did pop up in the back of my mind again, though, when I stumbled upon the one I added above while scouting for a new idea.
First, I’d like to mention that I have already dabbled with AI a bit for different reasons, but I haven’t made the leap to trying to use it for my own benefit. I’ve learned a smidge about how they work, and how they’re being used in different industries, but shelved the idea of leaning on them when what I saw was giving me an icky feeling (at the time).
One of the things I did was mess around with ChatGPT a little to try and see what kinds of information it had access to from Dungeons and Dragons so that I could try to possibly use it as a little Assistant DM (should I ever actually get a group together and play). This was early on in my research for trying to understand the hype, learning a bit about Large Language Models, and I kind of liked how things were turning out. It could pull up all kinds of information on short notice and offer explanations (to the best of its ability) on how certain things worked or where the information was sourced so that I might look into it myself to confirm.
After tinkering with it for a bit I got the idea to see what kinds of ideas it could string together to help me from a creative writing aspect. Then I got cold feet. I put that idea aside for a bit, and went on my way. Not long thereafter was when I stumbled upon an issue that was springing up in the indie-publishing world for fiction authors. Apparently, the market, especially on Kindle, had been getting flooded with stories. What tipped me off were comments and posts on different social media sites and on reddit that all mentioned how they felt similar, and were poorly constructed and almost rushed. People started putting two and two together, and realized that it had to be AI-related. This gave me some serious pause. Several months went by and I saw someone comment about how people were being caught and screened for trying to submit AI built manuscripts to traditional publishers, which caused these reviewers and some editors to start including phrasing concerning these kinds of manuscripts. So, while I didn’t get my hopes up to begin with, it did severely stifle the idea of using AI for creative writing purposes.
At least, until someone pointed out (it was probably Brandon Sanderson, since I listen to a lot of his podcasts and such) that it’s still up to the writer (me) to actually sift through the AI responses and craft things. I don’t HAVE to use exactly what is generated. Which just took me back to my original idea for the D&D stuff. I can use it for ideas, maybe throw in a more developed prompt to see what gets churned out, and then further customize everything (or even throw things out entirely!) So, I may circle back around to trialing it at a later date if I feel like I’m getting stuck. For now, though, I’m still running on my own brain.
One other area I dabbled with AI, actually very recently, was with coding/scripting for work. I didn’t actually use my work device or any sort of sensitive data, so as to avoid risks, but I was stuck trying to figure out a way to make something work in Microsoft Power BI for some reporting I work on. I wanted to try converting DAX scripting into M code to see if it might help improve processing data from a massively customized date table I had constructed. So, I plugged in the idea to a different AI service via my phone, and tried to work with what was given back. Sadly, I couldn’t make it do what I wanted, so it was a bust. I’ve not looked toward AI for work purposes since then, and doubtful I will again since I really should be developing that knowledge and skill set on my own and not relying on AI to do it for me (or else why bother having me do the work at all?)
At this point, all things considered, I still haven’t messed with AI as much as some people, and I don’t know how soon I’ll get back to dabbling with it for creative writing purposes or as a sort of Assistant DM, but I know I’m definitely not intending to use it for work again any time soon.
What is one thing you can do to step outside of your comfort zone today/this week/month/year?
I don’t know about today specifically, but I could tell you that there are a few things I can do to step out of my comfort zone in the future that are highly likely to actually happen, or did already.
Tomorrow (rather than today): go to the gym during a busier time of the day instead of the later part of evenings when there aren’t other people around.
This week: I could go to a local game store event for a card game I play. It’s a public event, and I always feel out of place going to these kinds of events by myself to play against strangers.
This month: I don’t know if I’ll have something good for this one. It’s October and we’re already 2/3rds through the month.
This year: I’ll be flying by myself to an unfamiliar state to meet online friends for the first time in person! I’m actually excited for this one, so even though it’s outside of my comfort zone in multiple ways, it shouldn’t be too difficult.
I’m sure there are other things I could come up with, and maybe I will after I post this, but I’ll keep those for future writing.
The last time I answered this prompt I was working on a different fantasy-themed story (which, I am definitely still working on since I put so much effort into it initially back during NaNoWriMo 2023) but lately I’m also picking at a new one that I want to eventually put up on Wattpad for the fun of it to see what kind response it gets.
I’m also working on more miniature painting and 3D printing stuff. On the miniature side, I’m still slowly working through my back log of minis from the game Black Rose Wars, and I’m also working on assembling the pieces for a box kit of Warhammer 40k: Necromunda that my dad bought because he wanted to play it after seeing some guys playing in a game shop. On the 3D printing side of the hobby house, I’ve been dabbling in Blender again to try and make a box/base that my printed “arborial dragon” can be mounted on. The box is also supposed to house some battery packs and other electronics parts so that I can make the dragon light up, and I’ve made/printed multiple prototypes but something is always off. (Word to the wise for those wanting to get into this stuff, there are all kinds of nuances to the process from designing in Blender to understanding how things will print in a resin-based printer.)
I think those are the main things I’m working on at the moment. Really it’s just more of the same from last time. The fun never ends!
What goals did you set for yourself this year? What goals do you have for the next few years and beyond?
Today’s prompt is another amalgamation I created from ones I saw on Sage and Bloom from their post on personal growth and self-improvement.
After I read a couple of similar prompts around goals, I did a little introspection and looking back over the year to see what I’ve accomplished versus what I had planned for. A couple of my goals I won’t reveal specifics but I will give an idea of progress.
Starting a year ago, on about October 15th, I had put up a couple of goals for myself with a target completion date of my 36th birthday in late March. One goal was focused on physical fitness (and I failed spectacularly) while the other was on writing. On the physical fitness side, I was planning to do one of two things at least 4 times a week: go to the gym to work out, or do body weight/resistance bands at home. I think the total count targeted was supposed to be around 120 and I made it maybe a quarter of the time. The writing goal was a little more straightforward. Write every day and hit something like 160 posts for the blog. (If you’ve been following along for the last year, you know that I absolutely CRUSHED that goal!)
Tracking those two goals was easy. I have a small whiteboard in my room where I marked out a grid space for the calendar month and a space above it for reminders and tracking totals. In the grid space I would use a red mark to indicate the fitness activity for the day (just a simple check mark to say I did it) and green for the writing. Then, at the end of each month (or beginning of the new month if I forgot to do it before bed) I would tally up the marks and add them to the running total in the reminder space above. Easy stuff! It felt good to add the marks, but the writing goal was so much easier to manage because I was literally able to do that anywhere at any time because I was using my cellphone and posting from work during breaks or downtime between meetings.
Anyways, those two goals were meant to be short term ones that would help me build a habit and routine. The writing one has worked out great! I went from aiming for less than six months to just keeping up that momentum for over a year now. (I’ll have to go back to the drawing board and do some reflecting on that fitness goal.)
I did have a couple of other writing goals that I put together earlier in the year, and even made a checklist on my phone as a reminder of some “six month strategy” goals but I haven’t made as much progress on them as I would like. One was just a reminder of doing my daily writing prompts, the other two were other writing projects which, although I HAVE worked on, I’m still just in planning and world building. Technically speaking, I still have time in my “six months” but not a lot at this point. Those will likely roll over into the new year.
So, current goals from the past year? Daily writing: crushed. Fitness, writing projects: needs a lot of work.
Goals for the future? Well, I’ve mentioned before in various ways that I struggle with setting goals and sticking with them when they’re focused on myself and I’m only accountable to myself. So, while I might have goals I’d LIKE to achieve in the next 2-5 or 5-10 years, actually getting them across the finish line is a different story. A simple list of those goals is getting some novels written and published, owning my own home, being debt free (outside of the house, most likely) and being self-sustained financially on my writing. Will all that happen? Well, only time will tell.
Looking back at the year so far (we still have about two and a half months to go) I’d say I stand a fair chance at actually accomplishing what I want. I just need to make some changes.
The Dragon's Grove 