My first dive into mentorships came after college with Chris Oatley, and since then, I’ve taken other mentorships. Going through them, I felt excitement and anxiety learning from pros who were higher up the career ladder than myself. Additionally, I was super motivated by the other mentees who were participating alongside me. I’ve learned a lot from people who see the world and problem-solve from an entirely different perspective.
“Why bother taking more classes?” “Are you as good as you say you are?” “Maybe you’re just a bonehead.” You might be right on that last one. Mentorships and why take them?
Well, if I’m going to be completely transparent and honest, I just don’t feel like I’m really any good. I’m constantly striving to get better. I think a lot of artists are the same. All of us pushing toward some intangible goal tainted by an unhealthy amount of self-doubt lingering above our heads. Sadly, for myself, it goes deeper. I’m going to borrow a line from David Goggins and say that I recently took a look in the accountability mirror and saw some ugly truths. I was lazy. I had been using mentorships as a way for me to force myself into working on things I already knew I needed to do. Like brushing up on the fundamentals of art, sticking to process, sticking to a plan, being consistent. I think at its ugliest, though, I was deluding myself into believing that the next mentor would somehow make me a great artist. A kind of artist divine intervention, and it would be the lucky push my career needed. Having faced those hard truths, I had to own up to my shortcomings.
But what should I do? The answer came to me early last year while taking my dogs for a walk. And that’s when the concept of a self-directed mentorship popped into my head. I had to mentor myself! If I could get up every morning at 4:30 a.m. to work out, I could discipline myself to learn other skills. Hells! I’m old enough, I should be able to bootstrap something to fit my needs. I decided on becoming an autodidactic. A fancy word for someone who teaches themselves.
There are times in your life when you’ll need a helping hand, but there are also times when you need to fend for yourself. There is a great benefit in both paths of learning. Right now might be the time for you to sit down, grab a pencil and paper, and figure it out. An autodidactic approach might be the answer. And history has many examples of great men and women who were autodidacts. Benjamin Franklin comes to mind for one.
Self-learning is self-care and can benefit others if the knowledge you gained can be transmitted to other people in need. Case in point, my self. I needed to address a weakness in my skills as an artist. So, I set about creating a system to help me make measurable growth in 12 weeks. And because I stuck to the plan, it worked. Today I’m a bit better than before. A step forward in a positive direction because I wanted to be a better artist but at the same time taught me something about myself to be a better person.
