Reminding My Ego

A few days ago an artist I follow posted complaining about the algorithm to her more than 450,000 followers. It kind of irritated me. My accounts have never drawn massive followers. Granted, I don't put the work into them I know that kind of following requires. (Snarky voice: "Oh, I'm so sorry that every single one of your 450,000 followers isn't seeing your posts!")  But, no, I get it. I don't put the work in, but people like this do and it feels pointless if you're not drawing tens of thousands of views and likes. Then, thinking about that made me feel like such a loser. What a nice problem to have - not being able to reach your 5 billion followers. My follower count must be a clear indicator that I am a failure.

But I'm not! I know I'm not. So why do I constantly need to remind myself of this? Am I happy? Yes! That's all that matters. I'm increasingly satisfied with my growth and progress as an artist. Could I be working harder? Sure, but I'll get there. I'm sure of it. I love the work I'm creating. Surely someone else will too. And, now, come to think of it, maybe I should also be complaining about the algorithm for failing to get my work in front of a gazillion people who will then click follow.

I don't post consistently on social media. I have to remind myself that I decided I didn't want that to be a priority. There's only so much time in a day. I've set my priorities and dedicate my time to them. I post when it's fun for me, so I can't allow my feelings to get hurt when something I loved and posted only got 3 likes. (All from family.) I've never gotten a lot of traffic to my shop from social media anyway. My goals are not dependent on a high social media following. I use social media for me. It's a nice way to document time, projects, and inspiring places I visit. So drop this nonsense!

All this to say, I'm making progress on getting design samples ordered. Trying to be a real artist who ships.