• Ways to Support + Work Toward Goals

    January 22, 2022 /

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    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hey friends, I think this month’s theme is goals because I’ve already made a couple videos about it and I’m going to keep going. So I wanted to talk about ways that we can support ourself through reaching our goals. And this is not just advice to you, but it’s also advice to myself because I need to remember these things too. So usually when I’m making videos, it’s for you and it’s also for me.

    So I have learned a lot about goals from Leonie Dawson, who is an entrepreneur mom, autistic person, artist, awesome human being who lives in Australia. (All her courses are here! All her freebies are here!) I’ve taken a couple of her online courses, which are really awesome and I super love them. And I have a couple that I’m signed up for that I haven’t completed yet. But some of the things that I learned from her about goals are, if you don’t have goals, of course, you’re not going to meet them because you don’t have them. But if you do have goals, it’s easier to meet them if you have like a larger overall goal, and then you can break it down into smaller actionable steps.

    So like, for instance, as an example, one of my goals is to monetize my YouTube. So in order to do that YouTube says that I have to have at least 1000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours over a course of 12 months in order to monetize. So right there, that’s a lot of information that I need in order to meet that goal. So if I want to get more subscribers and if I want to get more watch hours, that means I need to make more content and share it on YouTube because if I don’t make any content and I don’t share anything on YouTube, then, of course, nothing is going to grow. So I’ve broken it down to: I want to do at least one longer video a month and at least one short every week. So having more consistent content going on my YouTube will help me meet the goal of having more subscribers and more watch hours. 

    So, to kind of further break that down, if I want to do at least one longer video a month and one short video a week, it might be a good idea to just like write down a whole list of ideas of what my videos could be about because then I can like slowly go through and be like, okay I have…. so if I’m going to do one longer video a month, that’s 12 longer videos for a year. And one short a week is 52 short videos for a year. So if I go through and just like list 15 or 20 ideas for longer videos and like 60 or 70 ideas for shorter videos, then I have enough information that I can just like, look through my list and be like, I wanna make a video about this this week and go from there.

    So right now I don’t have that list, so that would be my next step towards working towards the goal of monetizing my YouTube, is planning out what I would want to share. Yeah, so breaking down goals is really helpful in order to meet them. It’s not like I want to climb this whole mountain in one day. I kind of have to like, let me practice walking X amount of miles a day and then practice climbing smaller mountains and then practice climbing slightly larger mountains and then, you know, so yeah, everything is one step at a time. You can’t just like go from A to Z. You have to go through ABCDEFG, blah blah. So breaking things down into smaller pieces also makes it feel more doable. 

    Also, another way that I can work towards like meeting my goals is to have some form of reminder of what I’m working towards and also a way to like track what I’m doing and help myself continue to do it. So like I have… in my journal, the way that I have these like self-care habits that I do every day. I support myself and doing them by having…. Let me grab it, I’ll show you. This chart of… Let’s see, will it focus? Of like all the things that I want to do, and then the dates and then I color in if I’ve met those things. So, this is not really this like image example is not really goals, but it’s like these are things that I do to support myself every day, but having something visual like this and having it in a place that’s easy to see and I see it every day, it helps remind me. Oh, I haven’t done X today. So let me maybe do that. It’ll only take me five minutes or oh, It’s been a few days since I’ve done Y, so, maybe I want to do that today, but it’s helped me to have something visual that I see and is like, in my space that I’m there on a regular basis to remind me like, oh, there’s this thing that I can do because I kind of tend to float off into space like I turn into just like a floating brain and forget that I have a body and like all these things I need to do.

    So when I have that visual cue of like these are some things that you can work on, that helps me a lot. So maybe you can have like a big poster in your room or like me, you have a journal that you like… I leave this journal on my bed, and I’m just like in my room a lot. So I see it and I’ll just like cross stuff off on it while I’m doing it, so having something physical and visual that’s in a place where going to be a lot, would be really helpful to help you work towards your goals or at least remind you of the things that you can work on. If you’re if you have time to do them. 

    Another way to help meet goals is to create habits around them. So for instance, one of my goals is to journal every day. I started journaling every day, January 20th of 2020 and I have journaled every day since then. I’ve already filled up…. this is my fifth notebook and it’s almost full like this is… the this is all that’s left. Actually already wrote all this. Let’s get there. This is what’s left. 

    So, the way that I have actually managed to journal every day is one, I have my notebook on my bed. Like I said, it’s like it’s available to me all the time. It’s right here. Two, I’ve built it into my routine throughout the day. So like every morning, as soon as I wake up, I journal what my dreams were the night before. And then every night, before I go to bed, I journal about my day. So I’ve turned that thing that I want to do into a part of my everyday life and it’s become a part of my like daily rituals and habits.

    So if say like one of my business goals is to monetize YouTube, which means I need to make videos maybe instead of or maybe I can just have a goal of recording something every day, and whether it’s good or not. I’ll have something every day because if I want to post once a week, then if I record something every day, then I’ll have seven things to choose from by the end of the week. And then I can just post the best thing. For me, building those into habits and rituals has to do with like, including it in the things that I already do every day. So, like my journal, I wake up in the morning every day and I just I grab my journal because I have it at the top of my bed. So I don’t have to get out of bed. I can wake up, grab my journal, journal about my dreams and then I’ve already journaled and it’s the first thing in the morning. So like, maybe if doing a video, if I want to turn that into part of my like daily ritual, maybe I’ll have breakfast and then right after doing having breakfast, I’ll make a video and do that every day. So that way, it becomes like… I make a video every morning after breakfast. This is part of my routine. I don’t know if I’ll actually do that like after breakfast because my breakfast was like fluctuating. Sometimes I want it early and sometimes I am not hungry until like 1:00. So something that’s consistent for you that you do all the time, maybe you can like add another thing to it. So it’s like when I do this thing, then this thing also happens. Yeah, so creating habits around your rituals… or creating habits and rituals around your goals can be really helpful. Yeah. 

    And I can’t think of anything else right now. I probably will, as soon as I turn this off, but I also don’t want to make this video way too long. So I’m gonna sign off for now, but I hope this helped you, and I hope that you’re able to create some goals for yourself that are doable, and that support you and that become a part of your everyday. So, that way you are working towards your goals everyday, and growing and learning and changing. Yeah, because it’s nice to have goals. It’s nice to have things to work towards and it I feel like for me it kind of gives me a sense of purpose because otherwise I’m just kind of a sack of potatoes on the couch and that doesn’t feel super great to me. So yeah, I like having goals and I like working towards them and it feels good to have them because then it feels like I’m working towards something. I have something to look forward to.

    And maybe, maybe you can like reward yourself for meeting your goals in some way or like. Say, if my goal to make a YouTube video every week, maybe if I do that for X amount of weeks, then I’ll take myself out on a date or something. You know, like building in rewards and treats for myself for meeting goals. Even if it’s just like, not the full overall, huge goal. If it’s like, here’s the first section of a goal. Once I get that done then I can celebrate and then that’ll help me continue and do more. Yeah. Okay.

    I love you so much! Thank you for being here! I’ll talk to you soon. Thank you! I love you! I can’t do this without you! Let’s meet our goals together!

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  • I am self employed on the internet. Here’s how.

    January 1, 2022 /

     

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    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hey friends! Welcome to 2022. This is weird. I feel like time has flown but also crawled at the same time, and it’s really weird to think about time in general. So yeah, it feels weird that we’re already in 2022, but I wanted to start this year off by saying, hello and thank you for being here and I love you so much! And I literally couldn’t be doing any of this without you and I feel like I say that a lot, but it’s true.

    So I thought… I’ve had, I’ve actually had a couple people ask me like are you for real? Like are you making all this up? Or are you actually like a real person who is doing these things that you’re saying you’re doing? And are you actually like self-employed and all of these things? So I wanted to give you a little insight in my life and how you make it possible. So, here we go.

    Okay, if you’re new here, I’m Bunny, my pronouns are they/them. I’m… a lot of things but for the sake of this video and not making it take like 20 minutes. I’m an artist, I’m a queer person, I am an educator, I care about a lot of things and I have a lot of interests. So if I were to like list all my interests, it would take a very long time and be a very long video. So I’m just going to say I’m into creativity, queerness, nature, ecosexuality, healing, those kinds of things. Yes, I’m a real person.

    Hi, I’m Bunny, I do exist. And I know that some of you might be confused as to like what my business is, and to be honest. I’m kind of confused about it, too. I’m still figuring it out. I became self-employed in 2019, like full-time self-employed. I had been part-time self-employed since like 2010 maybe, and I took a long time to build up to being full-time self-employed, and also a lot of things changed in my life that kind of brought the self-employment to the forefront.

    So, I am self-employed because I don’t want to work for someone else. I’ve done that for a lot of time and I kind of suffered for it as a neurodivergent person. I don’t do well in a lot of “normal” work environments. So, in order for me to like, have a somewhat healthy experience of working, I definitely needed to be self-employed and like make my own schedule. And the reason I’m able to be self employed is because of members of my website. People like you who pay me an amount that feels good to you on a monthly basis to access all of my content and my blogs and all that.

    I’m going to get real with you. I don’t make very much money. I usually make less than a thousand dollars a month… or around 1000 ish a month. So the only reason I’m able to sustain this is because I live with my parents, like my parents… this is their house. This is my room, but it’s my parents house and my parents let me have really cheap rent, so that helps a lot. I don’t have a lot of expenses because my like, all utilities and internet and stuff are included in my rent. And my rent is also lowered because I do things around the house in exchange for cheaper rent. So it works out a lot for me. And I, I would like to make more money, but I also don’t want to burn myself out, which I kind of already have done. So I’m trying to not repeat that. I, I’m still figuring out how to do this self-employment / online working world stuff. Yeah, it’s hard for me to describe this because I feel like I still am figuring it out for myself. But in order to be transparent, I don’t make a lot of money. I don’t have a lot of bills and that’s why I’m able to do this and I recognize my immense privilege as a person who’s able to do this.

    One: I’m white. Two: I’m mostly able-bodied. Three: I have the support of my parents. Four: I’m skinny. Five: I’m like “conventionally attractive” whatever the fuck that means. And yeah, but I mean my whiteness and my family help are probably some of the biggest reasons I’m able to do this and I definitely recognize that a lot of people have to work a lot harder in order to just survive and I’m extremely fortunate and extremely privileged that I’m able to work 10-ish hours a week and get by. I’m not rolling in money, but I’m comfortable, and that’s mostly because of my privileges and the support of my parents.

    I’m 32. Wow, that’s weird to say, I’m 32. I live with my parents and it’s actually a really great situation, for the financial reasons I’ve already stated but also because my parents are fucking awesome. Like, even before I moved out, when I was like a teenager, my parents were really awesome. I mean, I didn’t move out when I was a teenager. I moved out when I was in my early 20s, I lived out of the house for eight or nine years before I moved back in. But yeah, I have a very fortunate life and I’m able to do the things that I do because of my privileges and the support of my parents, and the support of y’all. Like, literally my primary income is from my website. So if you are here and you pay me any amount of money, you are the reason that I’m able to pay any bills and like have food on the table and get tattoos and stuff like that. 

    The tattoo is my largest expense and it’s like… it’s definitely a big investment, in my opinion. But it definitely. I would have a lot more money if I was not getting tattooed about every month ish because tattoos are expensive and this is a giant one. It’s like half of my body. So yeah, I feel like I’m starting to ramble, but I wanted to say, yes, I’m a real person. Yes, I am actually self-employed with the caveat of I have a whole lot of privileges that make it so that I am able to be self-employed and able to, like, sustain myself on not a lot of money because like I said, I don’t actually make all that much money. 

    And I’m still learning how to do this in general. I would like to scale my business. I would like to make more money and support more people and offer more ways that I can be of support to people. And I’m still figuring that out and I feel like I kind of maybe pressure myself to do things like super consistently. Maybe before I know that those things are what I want to do. Like I really have enjoyed doing nude gatherings and I did them for I think it was eight months in 2021 and those are super fun. But I also was like pressuring myself to do them consistently every month and I did enjoy that and I also was like, yeah, but I do need a break. I definitely need a break. I can’t consistently do this every month without any breaks. So it’s a balancing act for me and I feel like I go between like, I want to do something on a consistent basis, and then, oh, I don’t want to put too many things on my plate because I’m already juggling a lot. 

    At the same time like am I challenging myself? Now this just kind of feels like a diary entry. So that’s what this is right now. I’m going to stop this video before it takes the whole day and yeah, I just wanted to share with you a little bit of behind-the-scenes of, like how my business exists and who I am and what I do and why you are the reason that I’m able to do anything at all. So thank you. It means a lot. I love you so much. I’ll talk to you soon. *mwah* Bye!

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  • 5 Ways to Support Your Creativity

    December 18, 2021 /

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    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hi friends! I’m here to talk some more about creativity because I know that that’s something that a lot of you are really interested in and I obviously am also very interested, since that’s like, I’ve turned that into my life. So yeah, I wanted to share with you. I created this like, short list of five ways to support your creativity. I’m just going to dive right in.

    So, I feel like a lot of us think that creativity just like comes to us and we’re just like hit or struck by the like lightning bolt of creativity and it’s something that we don’t really have to like work toward. It’s just something that like happens to us, but from my experience, if I wait for that then it kind of never comes. And you kind of have to like hold space for and create the, like, conditions for creativity to be able to thrive. So this five ways to support your creativity list is something I just came up with this morning because I was thinking about it and I was like, yeah, let me share this with you.

    So the first way that you can support your creativity is by creating a routine, or a ritual, or a habit around it. So whether that’s every morning when you wake up, writing 5 words in your Journal, whether that’s every afternoon after you have lunch you doodle for 5 minutes, whether that’s once a week, you have a day set aside to walk around the park and take pictures. Whatever that works best for you is something that is a repeatable like consistent time that you set aside to do something creative, whether it’s five minutes, an hour, a day. And whether that’s every day, once a week, once a month, just like something that’s consistent that you can be like, oh that’s my day to be creative, and that really helps a lot. Because I feel like if I don’t make time for being creative then it kind of like goes to the wayside and other things become more important than it. So that’s a way that I’m able to make space for and ensure that I have like creative time is what I actually put it on my calendar and turn it into something that’s a regular thing. That’s helped a lot.

    And also I want to say I’m not perfect at any of these. I know that these things work for me, but that doesn’t mean that I always like stick to them because I’m human and things happen and like, same for you. If you miss a week or a day or whatever, like it’s not the end of the world. You can always pick it back up. Don’t beat yourself up because beating yourself up really doesn’t help anything, it just makes you feel worse. So that’s the first one is creating a ritual or habit or routine around your creativity.

    Tip number two is create a space for your creativity. So that kind of goes along with the creating a routine around your creativity. So the routine is kind of like a time a time space, right. So this space that I’m talking about is like a physical space. So whether that’s like I’m going to have a corner of my room, be just for my like notepad and pencil and pens and like all the things that I want like to draw with. I have this like little desk and that’s, that’s my creative desk or it might be you have a whole room. If you have the privilege of having that kind of space, like having like a studio space, and be like, this is my photography studio space. And that’s the only thing that it’s there for, and that is like the dedicated space for my creative photography stuff. If that’s possible, if that’s available to you.

     

    If you don’t have the kind of like physical space like a desk or room, you could also like create temporary physical spaces for your art. So like maybe if you’re a writer, but you don’t have a desk, like maybe you share a desk with another person or you just like have to randomly find a spot in your house to do writing whenever you have time. Maybe to set that space and like turn it into that dedicated space like physical space, you could add some kind of ritual to it, like maybe like get a cup of tea and light a candle and like when you do that your brain is like, “oh I know what we’re about to do. We’re going to be creative because this is what you do every time you’re creative you like get a cup of tea and light a candle”. Like that’s the physical space that’s kind of created through that like repetitive like ritual of like creating like this isn’t my only, you know, I have to share this desk with someone, but when I do these things together, that means that like the space is for creativity.

    Yeah, that’s the second tip or way you can support your creativity and that’s the having a dedicated space for it. Whether that’s like physical or whether that’s something that you set up temporarily.

    The third way to support your creativity is to set a timer and do something, anything. So if I’m like, I don’t know what I want to do. Maybe I’ll just set like a five or ten minute or fifteen, however long timer you want on your phone and just like Doodle Draw Journal, take random photos, experiment like whatever your creative thing you want to work on is, do like five minutes of that. Even if you’re like, I have no idea what I’m doing. Just be like, it’s okay I don’t have any idea. I’m just going to experiment and play and I’m just gonna do it for five minutes. I’m just going to do it for 10 minutes. Whatever that time is that you’re able to alot. So within that ritual and routine of the first like time ritual, the first tip or way that you can support your creativity, that time ritual can be once a week. I’m going to at least five minutes. Every day, I’m gonna do three minutes of doodling, whatever.

    And then you have also that dedicated physical space, that’s either permanent or temporary where you set a timer and do the thing. Just be like, I’m just gonna do it, whether you like it or not like is maybe not as important because you doing the thing is going to help your brain and your body remember like, this is a thing that I like to do and I do it repetitively and… no one is perfect 100% of the time. Like that just doesn’t exist. Sometimes we just need to give ourselves the space to like make a bunch of shitty art and that makes the space for us to have like the art that we super love. The time that you know, everything comes together perfectly. So as long as you’re just doing it, whatever it is and it doesn’t have to be perfect. Let the perfection go out the window, because that’s not important. It’s the act of doing it. When you do it, it’s more likely that you’re going to get something that you like because you’re doing instead of not doing it.

    The fourth way you can support your creativity is through having, whatever your creative supplies are… so like if your’re a writer, your pens or pencils. If you’re like a sculptor, then your sculpting supplies. If you’re an animator or something, then your computer or your like markers or, as a photographer like me your camera, your maybe your tripod, whatever, whatever the tools are that you use for your creativity, put those in a space that you see often, and that it’s easy to reach and like “Oh my camera’s right there, I’m just going to grab it and take a few photos because I like I’m inspired!” If the tools that you use for your creativity are like hidden away, then it’s going to be harder for you to like see them and be like, “oh I have an idea” or it’s also going to be like a barrier to getting you to doing the thing. It’s like, oh, everything’s packed away. I don’t really feel like unpacking all that stuff right now. I’m just not going to do it. 

    Like make it really easy on yourself. Have it somewhere that’s like in plain view, easy to reach, easy to get to. So that as soon as you feel the like creative urge then you can just be like, I got it. Let’s go. Let’s do it! So that’s the fourth way that you can support your creativity, is having your supplies in an easy to see and easy to reach place. Having it just being easy on yourself.

    The fifth and final way to support your creativity is to have an accountability buddy, like have a friend that you say I’m gonna do art every Friday at 4:00 for five minutes or however long. But at least five minutes, every Friday 4:00. Tell your friend, be like is a thing that I really want to do and actually like think it’s going to be good for me and I’m telling you because I don’t want to just hold myself accountable. I’m hoping that you might also hold me accountable to doing this thing every Friday. And you don’t have to do with me. I just maybe… can you check in on me and see if I was able to do it every Friday, like maybe in the evenings like 5:00 or 6:00, see if I was able to do the creative thing at 4. Just having a friend that you can talk to about it and like to remind you or support you or encourage you through doing this thing. It’s really helpful.

    And even if it’s not just like a single person. Maybe you’re going to post, maybe go post on social media be like “hey, this is my day and time to do this thing. Just telling everybody, I’d love to hear what your like art routine is.” Just if you are able to put it out into the world in a way that’s not just like it’s just something you’re doing for yourself, it’s some you’re doing that other people know about you’re more likely to do it and like hold yourself accountable whether other people that are also holding you accountable to doing it.

    You also kind of in that same accountability vein, you could do like a co-working or body doubling session with someone or a group of people. Coworking and body doubling to me, I kindof use them interchangeably, but it’s basically like having a set day of time where you and one or more people get together, virtually, or in person, to do your own work individually, but like in the same space either in person or virtually.

    So like for instance, maybe on Zoom every Friday at 4:00 is the time that I meet up with like two of my friends and we all like, we’re all in the same place, we might like chat in the chat box. But what we’re really doing is, like, focusing on doing whatever projects are working on. We’re going through photos, we’re writing up letters or, you know, but if it’s… it’s not necessarily like these are the things that I’m doing here. Will you make sure I do them? And also this is all the stuff that I’m doing, like, while I’m doing it. It’s more of like, you can do that. You don’t even have to really talk about what you’re doing. You can just be like, hey I’m going to do this thing. Thanks for being here with me. Let’s do it. Okay, bye.

     

    And then you’re like, sitting all on the computer and doing your own individual work. You’re just together in a space. That’s another way for like accountability. Because like whether or not you actually discuss what it is you’re doing, which you can, or you don’t have to, just having another person working alongside you on their own stuff is like a lot of encouragement and accountability for you to also do whatever your stuff is. So yay, that’s the five ways to support your creativity! And I’m going to go through those again really quickly just because I feel like I rambled.

    So here’s the list, five ways to support your creativity: create a ritual routine or habit around it. Have a dedicated space for your creative project or idea or thing. Set a timer and do something, anything, even if it’s like five minutes. Get accountability buddy or co-worker or body double. And store your supplies and a place that’s easy to reach and see so that you can use them in a pinch really quickly. 

    Yay! Creative things! If you liked this, please let me know. I might do more videos like this if you’re interested, I’ll put the link to my survey below and you can let me know what kinds of things you want to hear from me if you haven’t yet. And if there’s something that you want to like you want me to talk about that I haven’t yet. I’d be happy to hear your feedback. 

    Survey link is below and yeah, I want to make the things that you’re excited about receiving from me. So yeah, hope you have a wonderful day. I hope these tips to support your creativity are helpful to you, and I hope that you have an awesome day, weekend, whatever time it is where you are, okay. Have fun being creative! Support your art dreams! I love you so much! Thank you for being here!

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