![]() I've been trying to organize my things a little bit around here by clearing out old stuff, tearing out obsolete lists from my notebook, and so on. It's been fun seeing bits of past me, my priorities, attempts at keeping my business organized and moving forward, bits and bobs of ideas, and two FULL handwritten patterns (clearly someone needs to transcribe), and more. In this notebook, on the first page, is the Cari Jehlik Artist Manifesto that I wrote probably two or three years ago now, just as I was looking to start this business. I clearly wanted to lay out some guiding principles that are ethical and honor all human beings. I then *promptly* forgot about it and moved along. What's really interesting as I revisit these is how true to the core of my being these items actually are. Other than sometimes pushing myself too hard, I've stayed true to these manifesto principles. Every practice I have very consciously implemented take into consideration other people, recognizing they have lives outside of their connection to me, and how as a general rule, I'm probably one of the LEAST important things about their lives. Thinking back, I remember having listened to Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey and feeling how deeply I connected to what she was saying. I know now that it's my neurodivergence that latched onto these principles so hard. Throughout my life, "the way that things are done" often didn't work for me. They were too hard to maintain and burned me out. A LOT. Now I know why. I didn't then. So in a way, I was pre-emptively honoring my own AuDHD limitations without having a name for them. It's really interesting to come back to these and reflect. I've taken courses and signed up for free workshops (and even a few paid ones) and time and again the advice revolves around being completely consistent, doing things daily (or nearly daily), keeping track of this and that, and more. And this is ON TOP of the assumption that we're not doing this creative business full time. I don't know about you, but doing something DAILY is SO HARD for me. The autism LOVES this kind of routine, but the ADHD consistently sabotages every attempt at consistency. And I also CANNOT work from 5 am to 10 pm every single day. Because the advice is to wake up early, take advantage of lunch, work after kids go to bed, and it makes for a completely nonstop day. I burn out in, like, 3 weeks. I can muscle through for about that long, and then I'm dead. My brain fogs up, I'm irritable, and can't function properly, let alone optimally. So I'm glad I came across this manifesto again. I'm looking forward to consciously revisiting it.
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Cari JehlikMy thoughts on things I find interesting, worrisome, or otherwise worth mentioning.
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