I had my second therapy appointment yesterday, and honestly it's been really refreshing for me so far!

I've been giving a lot of thought to the things in my day-to-day life that stress me out so much. Follow count, update schedules, the pressure to push out art faster, setting up subscription stuff, etc.

And I've been acting as if these are things I have to do. Like they're required. When they're not, and no one is pressuring me to do so except myself. I think I have a tendency to stack my plate with busy-work and making my day more complicated than it needs to, and I don't know exactly why that might be. What would happen if I let myself just relax in the moment, and resist taking on unneccesary burdens or tasks for myself?

For instance, why do I want a Patreon or a Subscribestar? Having people subscribed to me with monthly or weekly expectations puts deadlines, schedules, and pressure on me, which is exactly what gives me burn out time and time again.

Or sometimes I feel the urge to take on commissions, but again, that takes me away from drawing things I personally want to draw, and having to answer to someone else and their timeline and expectations, which I hate!

It's natural when you start to make money from a hobby that you should want to keep it going, maybe even expand further, but I think I need to remind myself that I draw because I like to draw.

If money is really the main priority, it would be so much easier and more lucrative to simply get a part-time second job somewhere.

IDK where I'm going with this, I'm just thinking aloud as I type this morning. But the theme of today is worrying less on maximizing and monetizing, and simply giving myself grace to enjoy how I choose to spend my free time.