hello!
This post is not so much about art, but about the lifestyle alongside the creative work. It is also written in a way that discards all professionalism. Having gotten that out of the way, I’m going to tell you about The Little Bit Better Project.
I recently stumbled into a new daily routine, inspired by my need for life to be … well, at least a little bit better. Suffice it to say, my life hasn’t been going so well.
Let me rephrase that. My inner life is great - but the external stuff: the changing neighborhood I live in, the noise pollution, the unsustainable tourism, the lack of current resources to make changes, etc - has made pursuing my big goals literally impossible. All plans have been thwarted, I kid you not. I will spare you the details.
However, the disintegration that follows when allowing your circumstances to consume you is really not ideal. I simply cannot accept being metaphorically eaten by an unfortunate turn of events. But how do you make positive changes toward your goals, when you can’t even sleep or work without disruption from the world that surrounds you? Well, you don’t.
Here enters my existential collapse. Luckily though, I have experienced this kind of thing before. So this time around, it is different. I can pass over the whole “falling into the void” thing and just move on to the next step.
Basically, I had to say “f*ck my plans” and not particularly by choice. So in response, I said “I’m going to break the rules” as an act of becoming delusional (this one by choice). The rules I am breaking are my habitual belief systems that tell me ___ + ___ = success, and ___ + ___ = failure. None of that anymore, I have been pushed to the point of no return with narrative this, narrative that.
Instead, I’m flipping it around and starting from the end point - the point in which you have already achieved your goals and thus gained the confidence to do things, because you’ve got your achievements as proof to back you up. I’m just acting like that now, despite my lack of “proof”, or whatever.
Let me put it this way: my default is self-doubt. Self-doubt talks me out of things, says my current environment is too far away from my goals for them to ever happen. But delusional Jasmine does not care - heck, she does not even notice these thoughts - because she’s already living the life in whatever way she can, here & now.
I have decided that all those goals & dreams I planned to spend my life working toward are simply just going to happen, kind of like how the sun will rise tomorrow and the next day and the next, and I am going to live each day making my life look a little bit more like those goals & dreams. It’s a bridging of the gap between the present and the future, today.
One thing, every day, that makes my life a little bit better, in alignment with the life I know I can live. How do I know I can live it? Because I have chosen delusion, and am content to proceed in such a way. Anyway, this is The Little Bit Better Project:
It’s an ongoing list consisting of one goal every day (that is almost more like a task) that I actually have the ability to do, and will do. The only rule is that it must actually make things a little bit better in my life, not just make me feel better about things in my life:
Dream of a beautiful home one day? Clean the ceiling fan.
Dream of a successful creative career? Be vulnerable. Make & share the thing.
Dream of being hot & strong? Lift the dumbbells.
You get the idea.
That’s literally it. Yes, I know this had a lot of seemingly unnecessary backstory and build up, but it is very contextually significant. Because when I look back one day, and see my ongoing list of 1,000 things, every single day, that truly made my life better… I will be quite pleased. And also living very well at that point probably.
This project mostly lives in my little planner-journal-thing, but my vlogs & this substack will be documenting it too, not only because I think that’ll be cool to see one day… but because it’s also an invitation for you to join in too, with your own LBB project, for your own life of course. Why not, right?
Well, that’s all. It is day 15 as I’m writing this, and I can confirm: my life is getting a little bit better.
chat soon,
Jasmine
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Contact: jasminecherryartist@gmail.com