Doodle

 

How can you make it better?
どうすればもっと良くなる？

 

It’s quite easy for us to get satisfied with what we are now. Especially when other people say that our work is good enough or we are smart enough.

And we feel terrible when someone says that our work is lousy or we are not good enough.

What others say can affect our self-esteem. But someday you might think, “How dare this guy can say I’m good or bad? Who the heck is he? Does he deserve it?” You are right. Other people can make us feel good or bad, but they will never be responsible for your life.

No matter what others say, we should not take that at face value. We have to keep asking ourselves, “How can I make my work better? How can I make myself better?” That’s the only way to achieve self-actualization.

 

 

How good do you want to be?
どれだけ「良く」なりたい？

 

It’s always good to focus on how good you want to be, not how good you are now.

We don’t even know how good we CAN be. So aim high. But we also have to have a ‘realistic target’ every day so that we won’t get disappointed easily. So start small.

If you improve 1% every day, you will get about 3700% return a year later. In other words, you will be about 37 times better than today. And if you keep doing so, that would probably become the greatest investment you’ve ever made.

 

 

I took a short break from June 10 to June 13, and posted several ‘unofficial’ doodle cards without caption.

 

June 10:

June 11:

June 12:

June 13:

 

 

Have a backup plan.
代替案を準備しておこう。

 

We should not rely on social media in the first place.

My wife’s Instagram account for her business was deleted yesterday. Since she neither deleted it herself nor violated Instagram’s terms and conditions, there are only two possibilities: the account was hacked, or Instagram deleted her account because someone falsely reported her account for abuse or spam. The latter might seem weird, but on the Internet there are people who love destroying someone’s social media account.

Luckily, she just created the account about 10 days ago, had less than 100 followers, and has had all backup of her content. It’s not so difficult to get back up.

It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan. If you are a creator and post your works on social media, it’s better to post the same content on your own website. Ask your followers to visit your website and ask them to leave their email address so that you can contact them even if your social media account is deleted.

Never forget that social media companies will not protect us. They just need the ‘crowd’ that looks attractive to advertisers.

 

 

Surprise yourself first.
まず自分自身を驚かせよう。

 

When you hit a plateau, one of the effective tactics to get out of it is to surprise yourself.

We all do something creative every day in a sense. But we tend to apply the same method to what we do, and we easily get bored. Other people might still like your work, but you are no longer interested in it. That’s a very dangerous situation, because it can wipe out your motivation to do or create something unique.

Whenever you have a chance, try a completely different way to do a certain thing. Use the method you’ve never used. Or create a thing that is completely different from what you originally intended.

You might be disappointed by the outcome. But disappointment is a different form of surprise, and much better than boredom.