In your Art Practice, think like the Ant.#2

“Go to the ant”, to learn valuable lessons.
Ants teach us how to be self-motivated and self reliant.
No one carries a whip behind the ant to ensure the work gets done. There are no starting or finishing times in the anthill.
The ants are self-motivated, and need no boss to ensure they get their work done.
The ant use all the resources that they have at hand and do all they can to utilise them to the maximum.

2.Ants teach us to look ahead

The Ant is thinking winter all summer.
In the summer everything is growing, food is plentiful.
Yet the ant refuses to take her rest, instead working harder, storing up against the coming time of scarcity.
One of our great failings in our society is that it is only concerned with the present, not preparing for the future or considering the consequences of our action or inaction.
The ant always considers the future, it looks ahead.

Thinking winter:- save money, always be putting money away in preparation for winter time, those hard times when there is no sales. Saving money is not a nice idea it is a necessity, even a small amount saved every week will amount to much in time.
If you do not save now and you start to seriously save money regularly, it will change your life.
Be like the ant save, store away for the future.
The ant saves its resources for winter time when there are none.
Saving money is looking ahead.

Thinking winter:- work hard so that everything is completed when winter comes. Summer is sales time people are buying so be there, it is not the time to rest, it is the prosperous time and it is not the time to slow down but the time to work hard and get every sale you can.
Take every opportunity that comes along, do not say I am tired, I will rest, summer does not last very long, opportunities pass quickly, sell all you can, when you can.
The ant is always looking for opportunity and never passes it up.

Thinking winter:- The ant is the true opportunist, wherever it goes it leaves a trail so others can follow and so it can go the same way again, repeating the success.
Write down what you do and how you do it, keep a trail so you are able to do it again and repeat your success.
Keep a record of your success in your journal, it will encourage you in difficult winter times and you will also be able to leave a trail for others to follow.
The ant always leave a trail so others can follow and so it can also repeat the success of yesterday.

Thinking winter:- always show up today.
When you get to the studio to paint, paint, do not find other things to distract you from work.
Distraction, procrastination and laziness are the weeds that grow in summer time, kill those weeds.
Summer time is the time for work, the ant is diligent in its pursuit of opportunities every day.
The ant does not rest on the job, does not take off a little time, the ant is 100% ant all the time, it just does ant, look, search, find, save and store away, today.
Then repeat, today if possible, if not tomorrow.
Repetition the master of skills.
If there is a job to be done, then do it, today.
The ant could just wander around aimlessly, just doing activity and not working, it is just wandering and nothing would be accomplished and at the end of the day, no resources would be gathered.
Activity and being in the studio is not working, it is when something is accomplished, a job finished, today.
Do not misinterpret activity as work, work is getting work done.
In ancient text it says, the hand of the diligent makes rich.
The ant is on the job, today.
The ant is always thinking winter in summer.