Keeping motivated is probably one of the biggest challenges people face in most walks of life. For somebody like myself (and likely you) who paints and models, it’s very easy to get distracted by a new iOS game (I’m looking at you Freeblade), long running favourite game (Elite Dangerous for me) or other real life commitments (damn you dirty laundry mountain and injuries). People have lots of different ways of keeping going, I’ve heard some people who remove all potential distractions (including TV) and others who use painting as a reward after they’ve completed their ‘chores’. I’ve never had much success with other peoples methods yet, so I’m going to try something I saw being promoted by a couple of Warhammer Stores on Facebook – the 52 Week Challenge (#GWfor52).
The basic concept is very simple, each week you pick a project/task/item that is achievable within the next week. You beaver away and at the end of that week (assuming you’ve achieved it) you take a picture of it and then pop it onto the relevant Warhammer Store page and the Games Workshop Instagram account. Now I’m not really that bothered about pimping things to GW but I think the format is intriguing and could well work really nicely. Those readers who have read my meandering posts in the past will likely have realised that I have a habit of going “I’m going to acheive XYZ over the next month” and then failing miserably because something I couldn’t have foreseen happened. Most people know what’s happening a week or so in advance so you can actually set a significantly more achievable goal if you do it as a weekly target.
This weekly format also lends itself really nicely to my intention to get a blog post up each week – and in fact for weeks when I’m away or have other commitments “write a blog post” is a pretty achievable task. So my “week” is going to run Monday through until Sunday, with the intention of getting a post up on Sunday or Monday which ties everything neatly together.
As we’re already the 7th of January (a Thursday) and I’m only just feeling human after my broken bones last year, my Week 1 Challenge needs to be something that isn’t too mammoth but gets me off to a good start. To this end my challenge is going to be:
Sort out the modelling den & tidy the cupboards
Yes I know it isn’t painting Space Hulk Terminators, my Imperial Knights or one of the other started jobs, but the spare room in my house I use for doing computer work, airbrushing and well-lit painting is frankly a complete and utter state and means I can’t actually use it for anything beyond sitting at the computer. I’ve got rubbish to go out, bits that need to be put onto eBay, some things that need to go into the (almost redecorated) spare room, two fish-tanks to move, paperwork to sort, paint to put away and more miniatures to house than I wish to admit. The room also has two cupboards that have needed sorting out for three or four years. One still has lots of old computer rubbish that I’m never going to use, various cd’s that likely can be thrown or housed elsewhere and other junk. The other cupboard contains more modelling and painting items than most shops and I think there is a whole shelf dedicated to sprues from failed or half done project. So it’s challenge accepted and most likely most of the weekend being spent sorting things out!
I’ve tried to do this in the past but have always seen this task as a chore and a necessary evil before I could airbrush/paint etc. I tended to do just enough sorting to allow me access to one of the desks or cupboard, but having this as as the challenge itself I’m quite motivated to get it done properly.