More, Better, Healthier, Happier

 As I said in my last post, I am making a list of 23 for 2023: a list of guideposts for the New Year. The items on the list- habits, experiences, goals - fall roughly into 4 categories: More, Better, Healthier, Happier. With, of course, a lot of overlap between them. 

New Year's Resolutions are an opportunity to examine assumptions. Like, do you really want the thing you think you want? Or does it just seem like you ought to want it?

Sometimes I think about that with regard to spending more time in the studio. When I was a young potter, I always thought that I would be a full time potter, in the sense that I made my entire living making pots & selling them, maybe with the occasional workshop here & there. That is not, mostly, what happened! I make more than half my living teaching clay classes. This is partly because it's so much easier to make money that way! & right now I am questioning myself: is that really so bad, to do a fun &easy job more than the fun-but-hard job? I've always felt like it makes me less of a professional, but...1st, does it? Does it really? And 2nd, why do I care about that? That's just image, perception. What matters is how it affects my actual life. 

Of course, making pots is satisfying in a way that no other job, however rewarding, could ever be. But does the exact ratio matter all that much? Like, am I right now spending the optimal amount of time in the studio? I always think I wish I spent more time in the studio, but...maybe the reason I don't spend more time in the studio isn't because I don't have time. Maybe it's because this is how much I want to. 

There was time (maybe it's still that time! not sure) when push-push-push was my main mode - and if that doesn't work push harder. Let me tell you, pushing harder works! Business-wise. But does pushing harder make me happier?