Harnessing the Power of Negativity
A tale of getting through some serious bullshit
Hi there!
With the holiday season coming to a close in the next week or so and a new year approaching, I figured now’s a good time to have a little heart-to-heart post.
2024 hasn’t been a great year for me. It was filled with illness, possibly more doctor’s visits in this entire year than I’ve had collectively in my entire life (and more to come), personal setbacks, financial setbacks, cat setbacks, a tremendous amount of burnout and you name it, it happened. You can tell I’ve been off my game because I’ve only managed to put out two books this year, one of which had to be canceled and relaunched months later due to a family emergency.
It’s been rough.
I don’t believe a new year is some sort of magical reset where things are suddenly positive and hopeful and anything (good) can happen. I also don’t believe in “manifesting” because it’s a great way to blame someone when something bad happens. “You didn’t get the job because you didn’t think enough happy thoughts” does not fly with me. You didn’t get the job because you were competing with 600 other people for the one position and someone with more experience than you was willing to work for less money. Happy thoughts don’t factor in here.
If you read Sacrimony and really get it, you can tell where my point of view lies: Life is just a series of weird random accidents, misunderstandings (both good and bad) and coincidences. It doesn’t make sense a lot of the time, but you just have to roll with it.
So how do I stay sane? It seems like a total downer to believe that there’s no “greater purpose” or “clear path ahead” or “destiny” or “chosen ones” or whatever, right? I do what I’ve always done, which is repeat the words that have served me well over the course of my life:
“This sucks, what’s next?”
The trick is not to avoid the possibility of bad stuff happening entirely, because that’s inevitable, but to figure out how to get through it and look towards the future when things might suck a little less. What can I do to make it suck a little less?
For example, when I was formulating a plan to rescue Snowy, I reached out to a few places to see if they could help with neutering and vet checks. My neighbor/close friend that I rescue cats with had asked me a day later if any places got back to me and I told her “They’re most likely swamped with strays and won’t get back to me anytime soon” and she responded with “Don’t think like that! Think positive!”
So what was I supposed to do? Just sit around waiting for a call that might not happen or an email that might never show up and keep thinking happy thoughts? Nah, I wasn’t going to do that. I banked on nobody getting back to me so I kept looking into other places and people until I found a friend who was willing and more than able to help right away.
And everything ended up going smoothly, after I trapped him, I was able to bring him to her the same day, he got neutered the next day and was back in my house two days after that, I fostered him for almost two weeks and then took him to the Pretty Paw Lounge up in Rotterdam NY.
And he’s doing great.
And the other places I reached out to first? Yeah, you guessed it, they still haven’t gotten back to me to this day. It’s easier for me to operate under the assumption that something isn’t going to happen so that I find other ways to get the actual desired result. I never like putting my eggs in one basket.
On a professional level, with the economy ever spiraling into the toilet, possible tarrifs raising prices exponentially and human artists being replaced by generative imaging (I lost a book illustration gig this year because the prospective client opted to just use GI instead), I don’t have high hopes for 2025 but I do still have plans and goals. As always, I’ll work towards those plans and goals and if nothing pans out, I’ll do my usual “This sucks, what’s next?” and figure something else out.
So here’s to another year of planning, problem solving and possible sucking.
Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and you’ll hear from me in 2025 ;)
-M
Speaking of plans, I’ve got my artbook campaign coming up on January 13th of 2025. It will run until January 23 and the physical hardcover book will only be available during the actual campaign. If only 90 books are sold, that’s all I’m printing (plus one extra for myself).
Be sure to hit the “Notify me on launch” button so you don’t miss out when it goes live!
2024 was very unkind in a lot of ways. My approach to "thinking positive" is more like "instead of using the energy to think about what's not going to happen, use the energy to take action and make positive change instead. " Trying to drive momentum is better than doing nothing!
Oh I see cat!