Author: KrocK

Good luck

A sentence we hear quite often, “good luck”, I know most people use it with good intentions, but it’s wrong in my opinion.

And why is it? Because wishing good luck to someone implies that the outcome of a situation depends only on luck.

Let’s take a simple example that most people have probably already experienced in their own life. A friend of yours is having an exam tomorrow, or a job interview, and you say to them something like “Well, good luck!”.

It’s not about luck at all, it’s about how much that person prepared herself for it and/or if she is qualified to do it. Of course you could say that there are some parts where you have no control on, like the difficulty level of the questions asked, which could be helped with luck. But if you think about it for a second, you’ll find out that someone took the time to prepare those questions too, and unless that person is incompetent, there is not much place left for chance. You either get it or you don’t.

I believe in taking responsibility for ourselves and understanding that we can make our life better by making the necessary changes by ourselves. By removing “luck” from my vocabulary, I do one step in the direction of controlling my own life and setting my mind to believe that almost anything is possible and that I just have to decide that I will make it happen. Of course it’s not as easy as saying “I want to become a billionaire” and do nothing about it. But by making changes one after another then I can come closer to it.

Making it clear in our mind that we have control over our destiny, is already a step towards achieving what we strive for because it will inevitably push us to see the actions we can do and which opportunities we can use to come closer to our goal. Compared to relying and waiting on luck (or lack of it) to decide for us, which as you have probably already noticed, won’t go out of its way to make us happy.

The power of lists

It can be tough to accomplish some tasks if nobody forces you to. But what kind of things would I want to accomplish that doesn’t have an impact on somebody else? Anything that makes YOU happy or that you consider important. Unlike with your job and your other responsabilities, no one is going to put pressure on you to reach your life goals but yourself.

I’m the first one to start watching TV, Youtube videos or scrolling on Twitter or Instagram when I have nothing to do. Yet I have tons of projects in mind that I could work on instead of wasting my time. I had to find ways of wasting less time and actually do something with my life. For me, the most effective way I found up to now was to make todo lists of what I have to accomplish. I use lists for my daily chores, for my projects and even for my goals for the next 10 years. No matter what you decide to use you lists for, it stays rather similar. It’s just a list after all.

For my daily chores list, I usually write it the night before, so when I wake up in the morning, I already know what I have to do. For other lists, it’s more of an incremental process, I add things in it when I think about them.

But what do I write on this list? I write everything that I want done, and personally, I prefer having a lot of small tasks rather than just a few big ones, it feels less like a mountain and it gives me more satisfaction. I feel better doing 10 smalls task than 3 big ones. Every activity that you want to do deserves its place on the list, even if it’s something more abstract or creative. For example, I have trouble taking time to create music, so when I write it as a task on my list, it helps me devote time to it, even if it’s hard to predict how it will really turn out (inspiration is hard to get on demand). So if you plan on doing the laundry, write it on the list, if you want to write a new article on your blog, write it on the list, if you want to do some meditation, write it on the list too.

Here’s an example of what my list can look like:

  • Laundry
  • Write blog article
  • Read article about <insert subject here>
  • Go to the gym
  • Take dentist appointment
  • Deposit paycheck
  • Draw a comic
  • Water plants

The list format doesn’t matter much, as long as you can easily understand it and that you can also easily have access to it. I use text files, spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, etc), the memo application on my cellphone, post-its and notepads. I won’t recommend any tool in particular because everyone has their own tastes and experiences, so just take the one(s) you like/know best to suit your needs. There is probably also a few websites that can help you with this task, although I personally don’t use any.

At last, the list itself doesn’t force you to do anything, having a list rotting on your desk won’t change anything in your life unless you take a look at it and actually work to check what’s written on it. Everybody is different so it may work or not for you, but if you’re like me, having a clear list is a lot better than having hundreds of mixed ideas in my head. Try it out and see if it works for you!

Why do I draw

A while ago I wrote a post about the reasons why I write, I thought it would be nice to write about why I draw, more specifically why I draw webcomics. I’ve been a fan of webcomics for a few years now and at some point I thought “I could do that too”. So I started drawing comics and other “funny” drawings about 5 years ago, and even if I don’t have much followers, I still do it anyway and I don’t really care.

First thing, I like drawing, it should be obvious. But making comics is not just fun, depending on the idea I want to picture, some parts are boring and annoying to draw. I must admit that I don’t consider myself a great drawer, maybe I have a little more talent than average, just enough so I have the guts to publish drawings on the internet, but not really to be recognized for their quality. The sad thing is that I lost touch with this talent for many years, and now that I came back to it, I feel like I wasted a lot of time not practicing it. Anyway it’s too late now, I have to start from here and go forward as much as I can.

Just like I love writing because I can freely express what I have on my mind, I love drawing comics for the same reason. I can make a joke about anything I want and draw it the way I want to. I know that some jokes may not be understood by some people, but it’s part of the game, you can’t please everyone. Taking care of everything about the webcomic gives me freedom I wouldn’t have any other way. I can make the website the way I want it to be, I can upload comics whenever I want, and these comics can be about any subject I want. I do and manage everything the way I want to, I don’t have to listen to anyone else than myself. Something that I’d have a hard time doing in the traditional way (publishing comic books).

An other thing I like about it, that is an extension of the freedom I’ve talked about just above, is that it is on the internet. I don’t have to address my comics to anyone in particular, I just make them using my own vision of comedy and humour, upload them on my website / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram and let them live by themselves. Unlike in real life discussions, where most people are unable to understand and appreciate my humour, the internet gives me the chance to reach people that can. If someone happens to see my comics somewhere and likes them, then it’s good, and if not, it’s good anyway, at least I created something and shared it with the world.

I see comics the same way I see paintings. Some could say that painting is more noble or professional, but to me it comes down to the same basic thing, expressing emotions and ideas. Because in both ways, the artist illustrates something the way he sees it. Just like two painters asked to do the same piece of art will come with two different results, the same thing will happen with two comic artists asked to draw the same joke. So drawing comics is a way of expressing my individuality and describing a situation in my own unique way.

While I mostly write to share tips in order to try to make our life better / easier, I draw comics mostly to entertain. And even if an unwritten law seems to state that a webcomic should be funny, I don’t expect people to laugh a lot reading mines. A lot of my ideas are based on word-play, which seems to be a kind of humor that doesn’t get much love in the French and English population, so obviously not so much people will like what I do. I also do a great share of observation jokes, which are only understandable by people who have ever been in the situation I’m drawing about. And the rest is pretty much just plain absurdity which will also appeal to the small group of persons who likes that kind of humor. But does it stop me from doing it? No, and I think that it’s precisely what makes it so nice to do. Knowing that it will only be truly understood / appreciated by a few individuals makes it so much more interesting for me. Just generating some kind of positive emotion in someone, is enough to make me happy.

Although I’d like to make a living out of it, I don’t think it will ever earn me enough money to become a job, I’m not even sure if it will ever earn me any money at all. I could probably manage to get it to pay in some way by adding ads on my website and becoming some kind of whore that draws things that are funny to the general public, but that would make the whole thing worthless to me. For me, it’s do it the right way or don’t. So it will probably stay a hobby like most of the other things I do, but I don’t care. As long as I can create and express things the way I want, I’ll be happy to do it and it will be worth it.