Let’s stop overthinking everything so that we can finally get to work

I had planned something really clever, but ended up scrapping it to write from the heart and silence the overthinking mind-trolls yet another time

Welcome to Follow Your Gut, a newsletter about the artist life and business from a mother of two. After soon a decade as an independent artist and writer, the question is not only how to do it, but how to continue to follow your gut in a world that tries its best to stuff it with fluff.

85% of new letters are free to read for 3 days, whereafter they go behind a paywall. If this is our first date, I warmly invite you to check out the free archive first. I’m Swedish after all, don’t want to be too pushy (just a loving nudge ❤️).

I’ll be honest, I’ve written four articles in the past three days and none of them have felt just right.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m running on an average of 3hours/night of sleep or it’s just the general syndrome of overthinking that shows its face again.

If there’s something my children have taught me it’s that overthinking unnecessarily over-complicates life. Because nothing will turn out the way you plan them to anyway.

So here I am, doing what I do best when I feel indecisive; I write about it.

Embroidering in public in Gothenburg, Sweden summer 2018 (when parts of my first book is being lived).

I’m a sucker for case studies, reports, reflections, everything that has its base in real life experience rather than theories.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy to read about theories… but I want them to be felt.

This is the mantra I kept in the back of my mind as I wrote When will you get a real job five years ago.

To be frank, I’ve even surprised myself these past couple of weeks as I re-edit the book, of how relevant everything is several years later.

And I think it’s because it’s based on experiences and reflections that never get old.

You see, regular business books or anything based on strategies in the moment will have an expiration date. Why? Because things always change. Tools get updated, platforms develop, trends shift.

What used to be the beloved Instagram has for many turned into a source of great pain, distraction, anxiety and stress.

But what remains the same is the human experience in relation to external events. How you feel about certain situations, like the first time you get asked on a date or (as is one of the examples in the book) the first time you get a paid creative work opportunity.

Do you accept it or not? Why? What’s the emotional experience like? What’s the thought process like? How do you reference your own worth as a newbie vs. a senior?

This is also why I love to read historical accounts of people who lived centuries before us. Because much of their experiences resemble what we live today. Not in the external sense perhaps, but in the way things are perceived (the internal life).

Fears of what others will think if you break out of the mould. Fears of being exposed for doing something different. Fears of rejection and a general fatigue from overthinking and worrying about it all.

The benefit of having less, being less known and with less experience, is that you’ve technically got less to worry about.

There’s less to lose. Yet, in the not knowing we tend to overthink things even more. Because what if?

The same with money. The less you have, the less you have to lose. The less email subscribers (if we take a Substack relevant example), the less subscribers you can potentially lose with each post…

We get preoccupied with our imagination, which as any creative person is probably quite vivid, rather than actually getting to work and shift the focus towards what we may gain (instead of what we may lose).

This leads me to one of the main themes throughout the book;

What is a real job? And in this particular case, what does it mean to be a real artist?

There are loads of variations and I can’t remember who said it first, but a concept that I greatly appreciate in the following saying is the idea of consistency;

“The amateur artist is the one who only shows up when he/she feels like it, whereas the professional shows up at work everyday as in any real job”.

As I re-read chapter 9 of my book titled “Let’s leave Paris…”, I got an epiphany; I’ve ran my first membership (a monthly patter program) for 75 months in a row this month.

An example of two patterns from the program… 250 weeks ago!! Ps. some more close-up images to enjoy at the end.

That means consistently producing one new embroidery design per month for a bit more than 6 years. WOW, I’m literally mind blown.

Instead of overthinking every design move, I prioritized consistency and to continuously create regardless what life threw at me.

Maybe I am a real artist after all.

And just like that, I’ve written another reflective piece of what it means to lead an artistic life and to keep showing up so that you can tell the overthinking trolls in your mind that they won’t win this time either.

Thank you very much for reading!

Elin, x

I’d love to know in the comments about your relationship to overthinking?

If you enjoyed this piece you may want to consider to upgrade your readership to Follow Your Gut as all paying members will receive their own digital copy (kindle format) of the book When will you get a real job within the next two weeks.

Ps. I’m almost done editing so the book will probably be ready sooner than the initial deadline… I just have to follow my own bloody advice and stop overthinking the writing when I think the content overall is quite brilliant.. Oh dear, maybe creatives just have too much brain-power? Haha!

To check out the full launch sequence and more insights about the development of this publication (and my writing style of course) you can read;

• The perfect timing will never come; it’s for you to create it

• When you light a fire under your butt; the sky is the limit

• I put my head in the sand for nearly 2 years out of fear to be a sell-out

• Time to reframe expectations about life as an artist; FULL book chapter

And if you’re completely new, Hi! 👋🏼 You’re warmly invited to have a look at my introduction post to get to know me a bit better first and see if we’re on the same vibe (it will save both of us energy down the road ❤️)

Last but not least…

I’ve had great success with this type of close-up image, which I’m thrilled about because I love making them to display the in-process of any design.

Another process image where you get an insight of the different steps involved in embroidering the bicycle element in this pattern. I made this grid to thoroughly show the principle of “what comes first”, such as the fence being stitched before the bicycle to properly include more depth, as well as the wires on the wheel before the pink bars…

Another type of process image of the second pattern that got added as a bonus 250 weeks ago… The left is the original drawing and the right is the embroidered version. Seeing it like this it’s evident why I always referred to my embroidery style as “touchable drawings”…