I got the idea for this comic from a podcast on my meditation app (Waking Up) called “Work in Progress”. Basically the host (Jonah Primo, who I really enjoy listening to and I encourage you to check out) was talking about losing sleep over trying to follow all kinds of practices on how to sleep better. He read a book and listened to interviews with a sleep expert and became so into trying to improve his sleep, that he ended up losing sleepover it. Again, the irony is very obvious, but I still find it funny. I got some of the drawing inspo because am heavily influenced by Bill Waterson’s “Cavin and Hobbes” comics. I read and re-read these books as a kid and young adult (and adult actually) all the time. Especially when I was feeling sad. There is a comic about Calvin not wanting to eat his oatmeal and then it comes alive and attacks him. The way Bill draws the pile of food on his plate cracks me up! My idea of this huge buffet of ‘helpful life advice’ mixed together into a dauting pile of food seems hilarious to me…
From personal experience, this comic came from my journey with personal development. In 2022-2023 I read or listened to a stupid amount of personal development books and podcasts. I was so focused on self improvement that I devoured (pun intended) everything I could find on the subject or that was recommended to me. The thing I found about going into it so hard so fast, was that I ended up overdoing it, and it had the opposite effect of what I was looking for. I noticed that if I wasn’t following all of the advise, doing all the things and being ‘perfect’ at it, I thought I was shitty.
In hindsight it’s not surprising, but at the time I thought I could change everything all at once and see faster results. This does not work. It took a long time for me to figure out a valuable lesson, which is: patience and persistence is the way to foster lasting change. It fucking sucks to realize this, as there is not muscling, forcing type actions you can do to speed it up. It’s also fucking awesome to realize this, as I was able to chill out a bit on the ‘self help’ section and simply read a bit at a time and go back to also reading for fun.
These types of books are great, I’ve learned a ton and changed a lot from advice in books and podcasts. The key is to take the bits that work FOR ME and leave the rest. It’s amazing how often I think I can just….
‘start waking up at 5am everyday and do 6 things that make me better before 6am’
‘take a cold shower for 3 minutes every morning‘
‘never eat past 7pm’
‘write in a gratitude journal every night‘
‘always got to bed and wake up at the same time’
I’ve highlighted these words as I can do some of these things, some of the time. The trouble with words like ‘always, never, everyday’ is as soon as you miss once, you’ve failed. I set myself some pretty impossible standards early on (and sometimes I still think I can pull this kind of thing off, and ultimately ‘fail’). Aiming for not perfect, but pretty consistent has been a great lesson, I relearn often.
I practice a lot of self improvement habits and I know I’m a better person for it. The hardest one to learn, and by far the most beneficial is; to go easy on myself if I don’t do it. Self compassion, is something that will be a practice for me for life. I’ll never be a pro at it, but getting a bit better, sometimes, is enough.
The Graphical Bear 