Building a Habit: Doing it EVERYDAY for a Year!

The Five P’s of Painting Every Day:  Sharing my passion for FUN one day at a time. 

On May 1 of last year, I began painting every day with face painters around the world who want to improve their skills.  Please note:  I was unaware that it was a monthly challenge, and announced on my blog and social media that I was IN IT for a year:  365 days…52 weeks of 7 days each!  I had seen painters all over the world being congratulated for “painting every day for a year”, so I assumed that the challenge was for a year.   (You also need to know that I have never done anything every day for a year other than brush my teeth.)

What a fool am I?  Turned out that it was a good thing to bite off such a huge goal, since I know I am an “all or nothing girl”…one of those people that gets easily distracted by the “next big thing.”  After all, the last loooong commitment I took was in my 30’s when I went off of birth control….and I am now the proud mother of two grown daughters!  

Someone once told me that “if you improve your skills 1% each day, you will be 37 times better at the end of a year.”  I don’t know if that is true, but to improve face painting skills by 1% each day does not take much effort, so…I signed up for the Facebook group and started painting.

Little did I know that 11 months and 20 days later, I would be still be at it, and shouting to the masses:  Just Do It! 

Provocation (aka peer pressure): First thing every morning, my facebook feed is filled with painters in earlier time zones posting for the day’s theme. If I ever wanted to skip a day, all I had to do was look online and see that hundreds of others worldwide had found the time to paint something on themselves, their practice boards or a friend. NO EXCUSES! Sometimes it was just a little design, but often it was a “massive” portfolio piece that anyone would be proud to share.

I learned quickly that I had to schedule this painting/practice time into my day. Otherwise, I would be a stressed-out maniac at 11 p.m., wondering how to get the design done in time for posting by the midnight deadline. Not Fun!

Preparation: I keep my supplies out and available, which helped to ease the set up for my daily painting. I keep the black backdrop ( a fabric shower curtain) hanging over my bedroom door all the time. Getting a good quality photo was part of the challenge and one of the most difficult things for me, a card-carrying, baby-boomer, non-selfie-taker.

I realized that “setting the environment” for this new habit, was almost as important as the goal itself. Like leaving your running shoes out the night before, so you see them in the morning. Without making it convenient to paint, and the instant reinforcement from a great pic, it would have been harder to create the self motivation for this new everyday activity.

I am now prepared with design ideas for some of the more challenging items I may be asked to do: a Koala on the forehead, minions, a one-eyed elf, a full face nutcracker, and a paint roller…When I get asked to do the Family Fun Day at Sherwin Williams, I am TOTALLY READY!

Persistence: I had established a goal and I had announced it to the world, making me accountable to all kinds of friends, clients, prospects and painty peeps. Just sharing my plan with others helped to keep me on track, and makes it difficult to drop out for a day or quit, since that would just be WRONG. Don’t get me wrong, I have wanted to quit numerous times, and it has not been easy to paint my face day after day, right before bedtime.

I have never followed through on my New Year’s Resolutions, and yet somehow, I thought I could paint every day for a year? The example shown by my peers and their easily recognized skill improvement, motivated me every day. I saw other people completing their year, getting congratulated by painters all over the world and then there was the possibility of PRIZES! I will do anything for a free gift! (that’s why I have a whole closet full of TOTE BAGS-who doesn’t love a free tote bag?)

People stop me each and every day and ask “where did you get that done?” And when I tell them I did it myself, and that I paint myself every day, you can see the respect in their eyes. No doubt, it creates a whole new conversation about how I can decorate their friends and family.

My goal setting for this painting challenge has translated into goal-setting for other things: running a 5K, doing free webinars, even launching an online course for other artists to improve their businesses. Each of these things demanded preparation, organization, commitment and adherence to deadlines. How many party entertainers do you know that have such self-discipline? When each of these goals was met, I discovered that I REALLY REALLY LIKE that personal feeling of accomplishment! Bring on those endorphins!

Practice: Of course this is the BIG Kahuna, the one that everyone relates to: getting better with nearly everything. I got better at painting myself, which is not easy to begin with, and even harder for a non-artist like me.

I am not a natural artist, I am not fine-arts trained, can’t draw my way out of a cardboard box…or even draw the box. But knowing I had an assignment every day made me think about the subject matter constantly; do research online, look up books in the library, find past notes from conventions or workshops; and then learn to paint it on myself BACKWARDS IN THE MIRROR.

Don’t get me wrong, it has not been all rainbows and buttercups…plenty of my designs were not worth sharing on social media outside of the challenge group. But each one, even the awful ones, taught me a little something…and helped inspire confidence. The group is a “no-negativity” zone, so only positive feedback occurs. It’s like a getting a big GROUP HUG every day.

Promotion: This was the biggest surprise, since I really only signed up to better myself and achieve a lofty goal…oh okay, I’ll admit it, yes, win some prizes. But I learned quickly that the photos and the experience of speaking to people out and about while my face was painted, was increasing my presence on social media, making for better posts, establishing an Instagram presence and making my web site better. In addition, I had content for flyers; entire collages dedicated to specific holidays or themes, and could use these to promote themed packages, or just Bella Faccia services in general.

Painting myself every day turned out to be an relatively unique business habit, ie. an anomaly in my market, and its given my neighbors, friends and business associates something to ask about and a reason to request my card. People notice when I am NOT painted…how’s that for a fun surprise?

My kids would call me freaky, but isn’t being an entrepreneur all about being a little, or a lot, different than the norm? An original? Remarkable? Memorable? I hope so. Plus I am living proof that you can NEVER be too old for having some fun in the way of face painting.

For me, painting a face everyday, usually my own, showed my surrounding community that I AM the face painter. No need to explain it, you see me and you know exactly what I do.

As face painters, we might be the one type of party entertainer who can WEAR what we do. If you see me out and about, say hi, congratulate me on my ONE YEAR of painting everyday…and let me know what I can do for your next special event.

I’m the one with my face painted.