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procrastination

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Procrastination.

There are two schools of though on this big “P” word.  Either it helps or it ticks people off.

I don’t believe I’m in either school… at least not exclusively.

I know I have to give the brain a rest.  The mind needs to be healthy.

But that graphic novel I started in 2010 is still on the shelf.  Well, not the same shelf… I got new ones in 2013.  I’ll get back to it.  Seriously, I will.  This is when the guilt kicks in and paralyzes me even more.  I’ve put it off this long, and, the masses are not assembled at my door…impatiently waiting for me to toss this graphic masterpiece out to them… Why should I feel guilty over something I haven’t done and no one is waiting for?

I’m in a race that no one else is competing in.  If you’re the only one in it, how do you know if you’ve won?  How do you know if the thing has even started?

I’ve read that procrastination can be a good thing.  Incomplete tasks tend to linger longer in our memory than completed tasks…it’s called the Zeigarnik Effect.  The longer it lingers in the brain, the longer it remains undone, the better we become once we get back to it.  You come back to it with fresh eyes, basically.  Even though you haven’t thought about it, you’re still thinking about it.

Yeah, the brain is pretty cool.

I’m tell you all this to tell you this:  the reason I’m writing about procrastinating is because I don’t feel like writing my strips right now.

I’m procrastinating by writing about procrastinating.

I’ll let you know if it works.

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goals and systems…

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One step leads to another.

Where is he going with this?

I’ve spent a lot of time working on this comic.  It stopped being an occupation a very long time ago.  Initially, I started the strip to possibly get a syndication deal and make a living.  I The goal was to become a syndicated cartoonist.  The ONLY thing I’d do is the strip… that would be my job.

That was the plan.
That was the goal.
That was almost 15 years ago.

51NrS9MAT9L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_I recently finished reading How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams.  I wouldn’t say that the text changed my life per se- despite the fact that Astronaut/Artist Capt. Alan Bean sent me his personal copy (!).  Capt. Bean said that he got some ideas from it and maybe it could help me.  When a Apollo astronaut tells you it could help, you tend to give that “help” some greater scrutiny.

So, yeah.  As I said before… the goal was to become a syndicated cartoonist.  But Adams contends that by setting a goal for myself, I most likely set myself up for guaranteed failure… because anything achieved short of the goal is technically a failure.  Goal setting is for suckers.

Adams believes that people who create SYSTEMS for success are more successful.  I cried bullsh-t on that when I read it.  But, Alan Bean says it could help… I put the bullsh-t aside and read on.  The more I read, the more it kind of made sense.  Creating a system of work that builds on work is more realistic.  It allows for greater leeway and creates situations that may take you on different, unintended, yet positive paths.  The goal I set for myself way back in 2002 was not a way to ensure success.  Going by that, I failed out of the gate.  Failed for a decade and a half.  I’m failing while writing this.

That’s not to say it’s been a waste.  It has not by any means.  It just means that my goal held me back and focused me so much that I may have missed a ton in the periphery.  I don’t know what that periphery was/is.  But believe me when I say this:  From this point on, I’m looking all around.

It’s not an occupation, it’s my life.  It’s not a goal.  It’s a system.

Now I just have to figure out how to create a system… other than “looking all around”.

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More ink – Bob tattoos

bob_tattoosWell, I’m left speechless again.  Super fan Kristopher Torrey got some more Bob the Squirrel ink.  Around this time last year, he got his first Bob the Squirrel tattoo.

This year, he went all in and got TWO MORE!  I was honored and speechless last year, and I’m that now… just multiplied by two.  The Bob on the cloud is one of my all-time favorites… awesome.

We’re all guilty of taking what we have for granted sometimes.  I said it before and I will continue to say it – I will never take the loyalty of my readers for granted. I know I sound like I’m stuck on repeat… but it still amazes me.

No matter what I do, whether the Bob strip continues for another 40 years or it ends tomorrow… I’ll always have Bob with me.  Kris may have him permanently on the outside, but I have him permanently on the inside.  I’ll always be known as the squirrel guy to someone… if that’s all that I’m ever known for, I’d say I did something good.

Kris – pretty soon you’ll have more squirrels on you than a maple tree… 🙂

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