Building an Environment for a Resourceful Growth Mindset

Hello. Thanks for sharing a moment of coffee or tea with me.

Would you be interested to hear a short story about my development process building an environment that fosters a resourceful and growth mindset?

If no, there are no hard feelings. Carry on with your day. It's been lovely to spend a moment with you and I wish you the best.

Yes, you're interested? Great!

It gets lonely here sometimes in this corner of the WWW (wild wild west).

Since the time I entered the wild frontier of the real world in 2010 upon receipt of a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University I yearned to make use of it in a way that adds value and promotes life.

But I didn't quite know how that could be done yet. How could art be valuable except for being seen in museums and galleries?

To make a long origin story shorter for now...

I made a lot of missteps deciding to focus in one or two mediums without exploring a range of mediums to pick the best one that would express a given topic on my heart well. I love photography and filmmaking but my lack of knowledge of how to prepare for a successful shoot paired with a push from family to go commercial before I was ready killed me more times than I realized at the time. Having access to a camera and lens of any kind is still only a small piece of it. #FailingForward is celebrated, right?

Looking back to basics

At the beginning of this year (2023) I joined an artists group to help me learn how others are making art that adds value and promotes life in different people's lives. I was encouraged to research artists and topics they made art about to help me understand what art collectors love. But before I could decide on an art topic I have to be able to make good art about it. So, I started using my daily decluttering activity to help steer me out of analysis paralysis by repurposing magazines that were bound for the trash or recycling bin. I asked myself, can these help me build up my resourcefulness muscle before they're thrown away for good?

Long story short, it led me on an adventure to explore a new medium of art: Paper Quilling! It's pretty fun and doesn't take a lot of fancy supplies to start.

Initially, I looked for references on Pinterest and found some pretty results. But for a time it caused me to do nothing with what I had to work with at the moment because I didn't think it was going to turn out as good as the inspo's. Before you reply with a mindset talk on comparison, I'm aware. The book club I'm apart of is reading a lovely title, Killing Comparison by a beautifully courageous human being, Nona Jones.

But one of my reasons for doing this was so I could finally live and work in a clutter free environment. This helped me work up the courage to start on my own piece and keep going when I realized it wasn't going to be a copy or similar to of the piece that I'd seen on Pinterest. I noticed the inner dialogue that in the past would shut me down and lead to abandoning another project. Fortunately, I carried on relinguishing the need for it to look like the references I'd learned to love on Pinterest, or anywhere else.

In the end, I filled a frame that was on its way to the trash bin but now has a renewed purpose and life. Something I'm sure the guys at waste management or the recycling plant will celebrate because it's one less thing they have to handle on the job. Furthermore, when I went to place it in my home office I had a quiet thought urge me that in its imperfections it was the right piece to start building the type of home environment that fosters resourcefulness and building up a growth mindset more than the toxic fixed and comparison one I'd let stunt my growth for too long.

But before you leave, I want you to know one more thing about me, I'm not so vain that I wanted this to be a one way conversation... You might have to make an account on this site but if you already have a Gmail or Facebook account they make it really simple.

If the story resonated or encouraged you in any way share it in the comments below because if you couldn't tell by now I love brainstorming and discussing ideas about building and optimizing a work and living environment to foster resourcefulness and a growth mindset. After all, life is too short to live under the eye of a toxic comparison thief that only comes to lie, steal, and kill.

In what ways do you give yourself the chance to exercise resourcefulness and a growth mindset today?

PS: In full transparency, I earn a small commission from the link in the story I shared above. This side hustle helps support the longterm work that's in the start up phase. Plus I will never promote a product that I did not absolutely love ❤️ and received a ton of real value with.

Thank you for sharing this moment of tea or coffee with me. :-)