What you can learn from who you envy

There are 189 other people on the 30 Day Challenge.

This means you get to see a vast range of ‘play projects’ – from writing a 15-minute sitcom, to teaching children to meditate and launching ‘learn how to crochet’ workshops.

Every single project is inspirational (I admire anyone who gets off their arse and turns ‘I wish’ into action). But as the weeks have passed, I have noticed an interesting theme emerging.

ENVY!

There are 3 particular people who instantly create a deep, gnawing envy in me whenever they post a project update.

At first I took a rather dim view of this: ‘Ugh, I’m feeling envious again, that’s bad, I must stop doing that.’

But then I realised it would be a good idea to explore what I am envious about.

So I looked at the three projects.

They all have one glaringly obvious thing in common: they all involve bold illustrations and a hefty does of imagination.

Sarah Lou Davies translates big ideas into simple pictures.

(This is the killer one for me – for years I have sketched similar graphics but never used them because I didn’t know how. When I saw Sarah’s website my insides did a double take before keeling over.)

Michele Gauler creates incredible ‘folded stories’ (watch her amazing video).

Tim Nicholls and Mark Amos frame and sell retro arcade game artwork.

Other notable ‘envy-inducing’ people on the 30DC include Gerry (turning gorgeous paintings into greetings cards), Richard (putting quirky illustrations onto cards for friends and family), and Morwhenna (creating ‘water art’ – beautiful images of ink swirling in water).

Looking at these projects, I learnt that envy is a useful thing. It’s a sign that something vital is missing.

In my case, envy is a finger pointing to three simple things:

1. I want to create little quirky illustrations
2. I want to produce a product I can sell (cards, prints and postcards?)
3. I want to combine words and images (that’s where the real spark happens)

Of course, knowing this and doing something about it are two different things.

What I did about this is the topic for the next post!