How to commit when life happens - Mastering the Clouds Continued, Cirrocumulus

Mastering the Clouds Continued - Cirrocumulus

My alarm plays at 7am. I’m comfy. I’m warm. I’m aware of my dream state and I want to go back to it. The day awaits, my routine awaits. I know that as soon as I open my eyes, I’ll have made my choice to wake up and spoil this cozy nest.

It would be all too easy to stay in bed. 

The life I’ve elected to live does not rush my wake up routine. My routine knows that I have to choose to commit to it, otherwise I’ll be flighty and distracted. 

Which means it’s now it’s up to me. I don’t have a boss expecting me at work. I don’t have an early morning meeting to prep for. 

But I have willpower. And I have work ethic. And I have goals.

And I have 10 seconds to act on the impulse to get out of bed. 

Do I get up or don’t I?

I’ve had my bagel, I’ve had my outside time, I have the remainder of my tea, and it’s time to draw for the next 3 to 4 hours. 

This is what I show up for. 

These 3 to 4 hours I spend on whatever project I’m working on is what gets me out of bed.

I don’t always get those 3 to 4 hours. Sometimes friends come to call, other times the needs of the household takes precedence, y’know, that’s life, and that was also my weekend. Life happens.

So how do you maintain that commitment to daily work when life happens?

One of the best pieces of advice I got from an art mentor was to do some kind of work on the project each day. You don’t have to make a lot of progress - the whole day's work could consist of a single brushstroke. But at least do SOMETHING.

And I think part of what she was speaking to was the importance of creating a productive habit. The practice of commitment, which when done daily, builds on itself and adds to the skillset library. Everyday offers a chance to practice and improve in big and small ways, even if that day’s improvement is in just a single brushstroke.

*I’ve also heard that if an impulse is not acted upon within 10 seconds then the impulse won’t be acted upon. (Of course there are recurrent impulses, with each impulsive wave offering another 10 second window for action, so there’s always a chance.) 

But if you’re *always* turning that impulse away, then your brain learns not to bring it up, because it’s been conditioned to expect inaction. 

The more you choose not to do something, the easier it becomes to do nothing.

And vice versa - the more you act on those impulses, the easier it becomes to do the thing.

To me, that means commitment, or the secret to improving in whatever the goal is, lies within those 10 seconds of do I or don’t I? 

Just some artist thoughts that came up while wondering why the FLIPFLAP I decided to MASTER THE CLOUDS :  

Here’s what my whicky whacky weekend schedule offered for cloud practice.

Today, Cirrocumulus clouds. 

Cirrocumulus was more difficult.

Cirrus was all wisps and curls. Cirrocumulus is like cirrus, except with more heaping behaviors, making them look...fluffier, ish. Cirrocumulus clouds are higher altitude, they’re seen with cirrus clouds, but also before storms. 

Think of the sky like a water column, and the surface ripples are collecting masses of foamy bubbles. The bubbles collide and make larger masses, they *heap* together, usually because there’s a force behind them pushing them into each other. That’s cirrocumulus clouds.

I described Cirrocumulus stratiformis castellanus mammatus in this post - that’s the first image.

The next image is of cirrocumulus stratiformis lacunosus undulates, which basically describes a cirrocumulus cloud (wispy and heaping), stretched across the sky like a sheet (stratiformis), with ripples (undulates), and a sort of holey, perforated texture (lacunosus). 

The third, left image is cirrocumulus lenticularis (or at least it’s TRYING to be). This is the kind of cloud form that looks like a UFO - they’re caused from clouds going AROUND an object, like a mountain, which looks very specific and recognizable! ...but not so in the Cirrocumulus clouds because those are HIGH ALTITUDE clouds - they’re the clouds on top of the UFO clouds, so they actually don’t look like UFOs. Which is what sort of through me off with this study.

But when you’re stuck on something difficult, do something easier for a minute to revitalize that winning feeling and restore confidence! Which is what happened with cirrocumulus floccus, cavum, and virga.

Floccus refers to the wool like texture, cavum refers to the large fallstreak hole in the cirrocumulus cloud form, and virga is what happens when a cloud releases rain but the rain never touches the ground - so the high altitude cirrocumulus clouds are raining.

Simple, right?

Right?

Right?

Ha. Okay.

Till next time! 

Tomorrow, Cirrostratus.

And hey, are you working on a project? I’d love to hear about it, in a zero pressure zoom chat → What time works for you? 

Shani, The Art Bard