The August Challenge Day 1
Why I'm doing it... again + task 1/31
Scroll down to find today’s task, in video format and text!
Last summer I was freshly graduated, and freshly freelance. Having worked freelance throughout my studies as a writer, illustrator, nanny, tutor, and gallery assistant, I’d landed a full time role as a gallery Creative Director during my industry year. I kept that job up well into final year, juggling far too much work and almost entirely forgoing a social life. Six weeks before my final portfolio was due, I left the gallery. I buckled down and submitted a year's worth of work and created a body of work for the final show in a matcha-fuelled whirlwind.
And then, it was over.
University: 5 years of glorious, chaotic, bip-bopping-around-Central-London, making art, making friends, break ups, and make ups. Over.
I was a freelancer. JUST a freelancer. No full time salary, no student loan.
I was staring down the barrel of a long summer in the city filled with job applications and mind maps of how I could possibly monetise literally anything.
I needed something fun. I needed a distraction.
Enter: The August Challenge
Determined to keep up my creative practice and not let it die the all too common post-degree death, I created a series of tasks and exercises based on:
things I had done and found useful.
things I had read and thought might be useful.
thing I had suggested to other artists and they had found useful.
It looked like this:
Every morning for the whole month, I’d whack on a cute top and film a short video, sometimes making bullet point scripts the night before. I’d edit it in the gym on the stairmaster or the bike, and then post it.
People liked it. I liked it, I did my own tasks every day and it gave me routine and rhythm and a bit of momentum. It was my way of showing how highly I value creativity, it’s part of our holistic health. We all want to be healthy and happy, and lots of us show that commitment to our bodies daily by caring about movement and what we eat. Why not care about our creative health in the same way? Daily doses. Daily nudges.
I spent the latter end of the month and early September transcribing every video, editing it to be a few coherent paragraphs, adding diagrams, memes, and checklists, and putting it into an ebook that a few people bought for £31.
By mid-September I had new clients to coach, which hadn’t been the intention at all but was a lovely side effect, a lovely re-engaged community of creatives, and my own practice felt refreshed and solid. I knew I’d want to do it again.
I got a job in October, and I have that same job now. So this time it would have to be slicker and quicker. Enter Notion, and some pretty epic filing systems.
This year, the spreadsheet looks like this:
I’ll do a breakdown after the challenge, of everything I did to ideate, create, and manage this mini-project and where I got all the information and inspiration. But for now, let me tell you what it’s all about…
The August Challenge in a nutshell:
31 days of reflections, tasks, and resources designed to help creatives and artists refueled and reset for September.
I've revised, rewritten, and added in another year's worth of insights, tools, and tips to expand and reboot creative practice. It’s split into 5 categories, with 5 days dedicated to each: Mindset, Purpose, Connection, Balance, and Process.
I’m a big believer in marginal gains – those small steps we can take across different areas of our lives to achieve maximum progress overall.
All you need to do is show up for a few minutes every day this month (on Insta, TT, here on Substack or on YouTube) to watch a short video, then invest as much or as little as you want in the tasks that we'll all be doing together.
Save the videos to come back to, and if you’re subscribed here they’ll drop into your inbox every day.
I want this to be as inclusive as possible, so if you feel you can't access it in these ways, drop me a DM - let's work something out.
By the end of this month, I hope you'll have:
Optimised your online presence
Nourished and expanded your professional network
Reflected and grown in understanding of yourself and your practice
Clarified your goals
You’ll be heading into the next season of work with systems and achievable strategies in place to manage your time, objectives, and creative possibilities.
Sound good? Awesome. Here’s Day 1 (Script below).
Why do you create?
It's Day 1 of the August Challenge, 31 days of tips, tasks, and resources to help creatives level up!
Today let's brush away the cobwebs and reset. Starting with WHY.
Why are creativity and the arts important? Are they important at all? Why is your art important? Can you persuade someone that it is? What stories have you been told about creativity and how have they impacted you? Do you wake up each day and choose the Wild West that is being an artist? Why on earth would you do that???
Does creativity have the potential to change the world?
Does YOUR creativity have the potential to change the world?
Is creativity to you a friend, a foe, something you chase or something that chases you?
Today's task: Grab a journal, your notes app, or something else and be really honest with where you're at right now and what motivates you, or demotivates you to create. Bottom line: Why do you create? Why, why, why. What do you want? What are you searching for? What does it give you? What do you gain?
Understanding our WHY, in as much detail as possible - in delusional, optimistic, dizzying detail is foundational - it's what we come back to when things feel tough. Looking at how, or what will not be enough, we must think about why. Our why is wrapped up in what we value and desire at our core.
That's the fuel.
The next month is a bit of a road trip, and before any journey, you need to put fuel in the tank. So what’s your fuel? What's your why?
Fuel up first, destination later.
Get scribbling, get pondering! If you find this a challenge, there's a reading list in the caption for some great books to get you inspired and thinking about purpose. See you tomorrow for a social media reset! Ok bye!
Reading list:
Start with Why and Find your Why by Simon Sinek
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
The Quarter-Life Breakthrough by Adam Smiley Poswolsky
The Untethered Soul by Michael S. Singer
And who am I? That’s one secret you’ll never know, xoxo.. just kidding.
I'm Phoebe, I’m passionate about helping individuals and communities integrate art and creativity sustainably into their li
ves because I KNOW the positive impacts can be world-changing and powerful. With a Fine Art degree and over 8 years of experience in the art world I've been watching this world from all sides. Outside of my 9-5, I coach artists to find purpose, balance, connection, and excitement in their practice and lives. A challenge like this is as much for me as anyone else, as I continue to refine my own multidisciplinary creative practice.
See you tomorrow for day 2, ok byeeee!
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