Every time I go to Joshua Tree, some serendipitous shit happens to me.
One day, I’mma tell yall all about the coincidental things that occur every time I step foot in that magical desert.
But for now, look at these two pictures that pretty much explemify the spirit that is guaranteed to surround me when I’m there.
The first one was taken on my most recent trip to Joshua Tree in July.
The second one was taken in April during a self-imposed birthday artist retreat where if you recall, the whole point was to, and I quote –
Um. Can I just remind yall to be careful wtf you wish for? Because I ain’t been the same since and it all started with the 2nd photo.
You see, I have this weird quirk about social media. As a creator, feedback is important but I don’t need it every day.
It’s debilitating to develop content based on what people “like” so I try not to look at likes, views, or anything else that could potentially make me say, “Oh yall like that? Lemme do some mo” or “Yall don’t like that? Ok. I won’t do dat again bawse“.
This data may help guide some people and I think that’s great. Honestly. I wish I were more like you. But as for me and my house? We avoid analytics at all cost.
It is but a distraction on a long road of judging yourself and for me, not looking at that shit, has been a rather effective mental health hack – to simply stay the course and not get caught up in the robotics that is social media.
So tell me why I fucked around and looked at my analytics in April?!
Why did I do that yall?
There I saw that this one photo had over 125 thousand interactions! Now, I don’t even know what that means and it’s probably some influencers reading this right now, scoffing at my sophomoric sighting –
Like, “Tuh. 125k? I do that on a regular Tuesday” And to that, again I say in all sincerity, “I wish I were more like you Tink” because rather than capitalizing on the attention and momentum, my scary-ass retreated.
I don’t e’an know-how “interactions” work fuh-real, I just know that was too many people potentially looking at me. It made me want to run and hide.
But it also, made me wanna get my shit together.
I said to myself, “Ok fine. If this many eyes, are in fact on you, then it’s time to boss up”.
You need to get your finances in order. You need to perfect your vision. What are you trying to accomplish exactly and what can we do each day to get closer to that vision? Those shirts you been sittin on, put’em out. Those thoughts you think no one would relate to, share’em. Those fears you have, let’em go.
And so for the last 5 months, that’s what I’ve been quietly doing – assembling my life so that idgaf who lookin at my ass.