Motivational Monday Quote - How to Earn Your Freedom

One of the things I most value in life is time and freedom. I realize that while I have always been willing to put in the hard work necessary on projects of all kinds, one of my greatest accomplishments was realizing there's more to life than just working hard and working all the time. While I have been blessed with working in various creative fields, my workaholic tendencies have gotten in the way in the past for complete fulfillment. It's a constant struggle and balancing act. A dance of sorts. For the past few years, I have been on a mission to find creative ways I can work smarter, thus freeing up more time to do the things I want to do. Because I've turned several hobbies into my job, the lines between work and play can often be blurred. While work fuels me on different levels, I have found that the need for personal fulfillment can come (and should come) from other areas of my life. After listening to this How to Earn Your Freedom podcast on a run, I had to come back to the studio and write down this quote. Since I have had many requests about how I do my watercolor scripting, I thought I would also record a video at the same time. Well it turns out that it's easier said than done. Although I have to admit that it took me forever to actually get the scripting correct, the process was an integral and important part that I felt was important to show you. So many times we view other people's achievements and successes and only see the final results. Feelings of inadequacy may arise within us (especially on the internet when it seems everything is made to look so pretty and seemingly perfect) and this sometimes discourages us from doing the things we really want to do. So much of what we don't see behind the scenes - the hard work, the mistakes, the trial and error process, is what brings us to success. Most of the time I don't really have any idea what I'm doing, but I do it anyway and somehow things work out. Call it luck, but without the preparation, hard work and timing, much of it probably wouldn't have actually worked out. 

I was really not happy with myself about how long it took me (not to mention how many pieces of paper were wasted from my journal), but for some reason this was important for me to share. So the actual quote comes near the end of the podcast (around the 27 minute mark) and has more to it in between the first and second sentence. Really, the bottom line is that "Fortune favors the bold." So, go. Go and be bold. Hope this resonates with you too!

Hope to continue spreading more motivation for each of your Mondays this year using this watercolor set from Michaels and a brush that says Royal 2 on it (can’t remember where it’s from, sorry!). I also found some alternative watercolor options here and here. If you have a favorite quote – snarky, silly, or simple in its wisdom, please share in the comments!