/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

The sooner you accept that life is more about living and that happiness is a result, not a state of being, the sooner you will find peace with whatever you choose to do. Some see suffering as an indication that they are doing something wrong, but suffering is most often life itself. "Do what makes you happy" is a bad plan because happiness is the result of doing something, not the emotion you feel before or while you do it. Runner's high doesn't occur until you've run a long long way, and your body has suffered to a point where it peaks.

Realizing this helped me draw way more, because I realized I didn't have to be in the zone, I didn't have to be happy, I didn't need to feel like drawing, I just had to do it. Same with homework, taxes and the dishes. Life is full of things that just happen, life is full of the boredom of the everyday. Few things you do will ever illicit happiness, and striving to enjoy what you do is futile because in the end, there will be times you don't, regardless of what it is, and if you are doing it to enjoy it then you'll just think "why am I not enjoying this?" instead of thinking about what you are doing.

It's a bad way to live, only for the positives in life. Life is more about the things you do everyday, like brushing your teeth or taking out the trash, than it is about the romantic or exceptional experiences. I didn't do anything to make drawing like this for me, mostly, I just stopped trying to be good because it's the same thing as trying to be happy. It's a result. It made me focus on being good more than it made me focus on drawing. Many times I enjoy it a lot but when I don't, I don't stop doing it, because I'm not doing it to enjoy it and if it's bad I don't stop either, because I'm not doing it to be good. I'm doing it because it's what I do.