#OadlProject365 - Day 153 - 2023, It's a Wrap!
31st Dec 2023 - 2023 Recap
We are at day 365 and how!!! A few hours away from saying good-bye to 2023 forever! What a year it has been...
As the story of my life goes, there is never a dull moment and shortage of adventure! The adventure Gods always keep my life very very exciting and it feels nothing short of a movie plot - except I am playing the lead role in the unpleasant moments too (eyeroll)!
I’m not sure where to begin, so let me just start with the biggest and craziest project that I had embarked on this year, #OadlProject365. For all those who are new here #OadlProject365 was my attempt to draw/sketch/paint/do art for at least 5 minutes everyday for 365 days, build a good habit/muscle, get over perfectionism and get comfortable sharing my work on a public platform. I posted about it here on day 1.
But first, here’s some of my favorite pieces from 2023:
Now the most important question that you may ask - did I succeed in this goal? That's an excellent Q :) and really depends on the metrics that you pick for measuring success.
Before we get into the weeds, let me tell you a quick story -
(Not so) many years ago when I was in college, I became the 1st Chief Editor of my college magazine committee. Rather, I built this magazine team (with 1 core teacher and a couple of friends supporting me) and brought to life our college magazine and paved the way for future batches to create it a lot more easily. Needless to say it was hours and hours and hours of work and convincing and recruiting people to work on it and it was a COMPLETE LABOR OF LOVE. There were no grades for it and off course you don’t get paid for extra-curricular activities :). But I LOVED every moment of it.
Fast forward a couple of years later; when I was in graduate school and looking for a scholarship, in a serendipitous moment, a professor from the MBA school interviewed me ONLY because I had ‘Chief Editor of College Magazine‘ on my resume and he was intrigued by it. Needless to say I was hired as his TA (teaching assistant), which later led to subsequent scholarships the rest of grad school.
My labor of love that I had built in college paid off a few years later in grad school in the form of scholarships; which was most of my tuition payment (tens of thousands of dollars $$$$$) for my Master’s. Not too shabby for a college editor payment ;)
#OadlProject365 is that potential serendipitous labor of love which I created this year to increase the surface area on which lady luck can strike :)
Now back to the present -
Today is day 153/365 ~ 42% . So technically based on a purely quantitative metric - I completed only 42% which could mean a BIG fail. But success and failure doesn't happen in vacuum. Life isn't black and white and there's all shades of greys (and tonnes of colors in my case ;)).
So let's flip the narrative and look at the metrics slightly differently -
Here were my original goals for this project (which were tweaked over the year to fit my life):
Drawing every single day even if it is only for 5 minutes - Fail by the normal terms, but I created art and shared it 153 days of the year! Without this lofty goal, I wouldn't have gone through so many days
Building a good habit/muscle - Pass! I learned Procreate a brand new tool and got into digital art (traditional art is still my fav :))
Getting over perfectionism - Borderline :), still WIP
Getting comfortable sharing my work on a public platform - Pass
Having fun WITHOUT a burnout - More pass than fail :)
Being able to see a trail of my work on day 365 to visualize my journey - HUGE WIN. This will always remain and nobody can take it away from me!
I personally think #OadlProject365 was a labor of love and a successful experiment given that I learned a lot along the way, even though the quantitative results did not line up 100% :)
Highlights of 2023
Successfully wrapping up #OadlProject365, Wohooooo!!!
Did my theatre debut with 2 plays; en route Hollay-wood :D
Travelled to the other side of the world
Got my digital store up. You can get your planners and calendars here!
I can still do a Spartan race and climb a rock wall :)
I read these 2 amazing books; The Surrender Experiment and Living with a Seal (ping me if you want to discuss them)
Goals/Plans for 2024
I had a bunch of lofty goals for 2023, but all of them barring 1 failed because hashtag life curve balls :/ . So I'm NOT going to make any specific goals for 2024.
The simple plan is to:
Get back to traditional artwork (which I love more than digital)
Write more (which I actually got back to in 2023 and enjoyed it)
Read more (which is a habit I have partially lost after growing up)
Get the reps in and continue building! (Am a creator and builder at heart through and through!)
Continue tweaking and improving my systems
Finally I wanted to extend a HUGE thanks to anyone that has helped me in any shape or form this year; which a lot of friends and strangers have done! :) Am lucky to have so much of invisible support in my life!
Let me know in the comments below what are your goals for 2024, what are some great books you’ve read or podcasts you have listened to…
As always like, comment, subscribe and share my crazy project with your friends, neighbors, dogs, cats, AIs, other creative beings because…..why not!
And that’s a wrap!!!
"What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… SO let the adventures continue”
Happy 2024! Wohooo
#oadlProject365 , #oadlProject365Day153, #Later2023, #Welcome2024 #NOTAIgenerated , #hoomangenerated