My 100 Day Project is....

…. always tricky to decide!

I am doing the 100 Day Project this year! I’ve tried other years, even ALMOST finishing a few years ago (I think I made it to day 99 if you can believe it).

First - What is the 100 Day Project?

• It is a free art challenge. It is simple - pick something, do it for 100 days, share about it (if you want)

• 2023 is the 10th anniversary of the start of the project!

• Use the hashtag #the100dayproject to share your work, and create your own unique hashtag to share yours.

• You can learn more by going to the website, following on IG @dothe100dayproject, or joining the Facebook group here.

Even though I haven’t done (read: completed) the 100 Day Project each year, I have definitely thought about it and learned a lot about how to complete one. So, if you’re interested, I’ve come up with 5 ways to succeed in a 100 day challenge like this one.

In case you don’t know - 100 days is a long-ass time, so if you don’t have a plan, you might not make it all the way through. This brings me to number 1 -

1) Have A Plan

You cannot just pull an idea randomly out of a hat and believe that you’ll be able to do THAT THING for 100 days. You need to have an idea of what to do! Maybe it’s painting landscapes, or sketching objects around your house, or donating 1 thing per day that you no longer need. It can be anything you want, but you need a plan in place.

You should have a pretty specific idea of what you want to work on so that your motivation and ideas don’t fizzle out halfway through.

My main plan with this objective is to fill up the sketchbooks that I have that are just lying around waiting to be filled. but when I think about filling them, my mind goes blank because the possibilities are literally endless.

To help navigate this, we move on to number 2 -

2) Use Prompts

If you go to The 100 Day Project website, you’ll find so many resources that can help you figure out what you want to do. There is the option for a paid subscription as well where you can get prompts to give you inspiration. If you don’t want to pay, there are PLENTY of ideas for prompts on Pinterest and Instagram.

The prompts I’m using come in the form of popsicle sticks. I painted them all the fun colors and wrote on them all the different art tools, art mediums, and colors I could think of! My project, hash tagged #3stickchallange will be to pull three popsicle sticks from a jar and use those three as inspiration for my sketchbooks work that day.

I’m not going to be too strict with this, but it will be a good way for me to not feel paralyzed when deciding what supplies and colors to use, while also pushing me out of my comfort zone and forcing me to find a use for that wire mesh I’ve got lying around. Oh, and orange…

3) Don’t Use Orange If You Don’t Want to

That is to say, if using orange (or X thing) is bogging you down and preventing you from doing THE THING just because you’re trying to push your limits, for God’s sake don’t use it.

This is low stress challenge, in no way meant to cause anxiety or disappointment. If all you want to do for 100 days is draw circles (#100daysofcircles) or write down something you're grateful for (#100daysofgratitude), please do that thing.

4) Please Miss A Day (or More)

No one will take away your paintbrush if you miss days or take longer than 100 days to finish the challenge. This is not the military - we’re chill over here. Don’t want to work on this over the weekends? Don’t. Had a rough day at work or at home with the kids and need time to veg on the couch? Please do that.

It would be better to take 200 days to complete this challenge than to kill yourself to finish it in 100 and not be proud, or worse - be resentful - of what you accomplished.

Speaking of being proud…

5) Share You Work With The World!!!

We (or at least I) want to see what you’re working on! Tell me your hashtag, share your IG with me so I can follow you and turn on notifications and see your progress. Tell people you are doing this thing and you see how fast they want to support you and cheer you on.

And if you don’t have that support system in your life, there is an entire art community that is waiting for you. They are all lovely people and I have never had a bad interaction with a single one of them.

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Are you participating in the 100 Day Project this year? If you are, LET ME KNOW! I want to know and follow and stalk and share/like/comment on all the things!

And I’d obviously love if you’d follow along with me and see where the next 100 days goes! I’m excited!!