Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.
Pablo Picasso
Consistency has been the biggest driver for everything in our lives. Whether it is your fitness, art, sports or even relationships, consistency has always been talked about as the biggest parameter that determines success.
I must admit I’m not the most consistent person. In fact if anything, I keep shuffling between habits as soon as I begin to get consistent. I don’t know whether it is a creative mind that works that way in general, or is that mark of a distracted mind. So for someone like me that works in bursts of energy, creating on a consistent basis almost felt like a chore, and something I assumed I would never enjoy,
I visited Paris in 2018. I had gone there for a performance and extended my stay. During my time there, I visited the Louvre museum, witnessed the incredible paintings by the most gifted artists including the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. I also visited the Eiffel Tower and then visited the museum of Pablo Picasso in Paris in 2018. What struck me the most about this Picasso museum was that his body of work was enormous. He would sit everyday and scribble away on his sketchbook. This museum had everything right from his tissue paper sketches to his most beautiful painting. And the one thing his work kept telling me was to just be consistent. To create a large body of work everyday and that the work itself would get better with passing time.
Often I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to create the ‘most amazing piece of choreography’ in a particular week. Needless to say, not only would this pressure get me to crumble and make something that is driven out of fear, and thus not my creative best, but also would lead to days where I would beat myself for being not good enough. And if you have done anything creative in your life, you know what that negative thought spiral does to you. It gets you into this giant trap of questioning your entire life choice of making art.
And that rabbit hole is nothing but the demon inside your mind whispering you to quit. And that is something we don’t want to do.
Two years ago I read the bestselling book Atomic Habits, and I absolutely was fascinated by the idea that the biggest things in life could be broken down into the smallest habits, habits so small that it would not take more than two minutes each day to accomplish it.
I decided to use this book and its principles, and thus came the birth of #97DayChallenge.
The task was simple.
Choreograph, perform, edit and upload one video everyday for 97 days. Thats it!
The timeline was perfect too since I was at home and it was lockdown, there were no shows to perform, nowhere to go. Most artists and dancers were without work. And whenever I have been out of work, I have always vowed to create work for myself. And that’s what I did.
Consistency definitely starts of being really hard in the first week but then it gets extremely easy. Not just a little easy, but really very easy.
Here is a video of the #97DayChallenge
I know for a fact that my speed of choreography as well as editing skills got elevated exponentially. And I got into the rhythm of it. So much so that its been two years since I created that, and I actually miss it just now.
So I started a simple fitness tracking habit for myself on Insta stories.
I call it #Growth2023
The task is simple. Exercise everyday, document it and upload it. It keeps me from falling off the habit of exercising and keeps me accountable. And also gives me an excuse to share my story with the world and inspire them in whatever way I can.
You can follow my journey on Instagram here to see regular updates.
My next blog post will be about a list of things I can get better at, using the simple formula of Atomic Habits, just like I used the principle in my #97DayChallenge
See you in my next post,
In 5 – 6 – 7 – 8,
Love
Priya