How Do You Handle Setbacks?

You may have been there.  Everything is going great with a model than you do one little thing and it all goes horribly wrong.

JJ typing, these moments are soul-crushingly, enthusiasm stealing, ability crippling.  When the provable shit hits the provable fan.

You spent some great amount of hours and ability to make a model look just right.  Then you give it the finishing touch.  Whether it be some varnish, highlight, added colour, basing, etc all those hours you poured into your new canvas are wasted.  How do you recover?  How do you get yourself back to the table?  Back to the model?  Back into painting mode?  What do you do?

Well that's what I've been trying to figure out during the last 140 some hours, nevermind beating myself constantly since then.  It literally has been that long since I've sat at the table.  Made a huge mistake last Fri and it stole the wind from my sails.  Everything was going great with a couple of clients models.  Then I had to do one more thing and frankly should've known better.  Thankfully I caught it before irreversible damage was done.  Wasn't too far from that either.  In fact it was shocking close.

Won't go into the mistake except to use a line from Batman Begins "I wasn't minding my surroundings."  Last Friday at games I was talking about it constantly.  Fretting my mistake and wondering what I can do to fix it.  What I will admit is I needed to almost repaint two models.  Which cuts into the cost of painting.  One thing I learned last night/this morning is that what I earned for one model is fantastic.

So what do you do when have a setback?  How do you motivate yourself to get back to the table and fix your mistake?  Where do you find the strength to tackle the model again?  How do you move past the huge problem you've created for yourself?

I've made so many mistakes and have done so many bad things since I was young that karma and I are incredibly tight.  You'd be surprised how much we know about each other.  My actions have been coming back to get me since I was five.  None of the consequences for my actions surprise me anymore.  I've grown to accept that my actions have a price and pleasure.  Knowing this I'm aware of the reality and responsible for those actions.  Wasn't a very friendly person with others at some event and they don't like me, I get it.  Certainly don't sit and whinge about why people treat me they way they do after I was being an asshole.  Knew exactly what was happening.  Because frankly it has happened before.

Was supposed to have two weeks of posts ready to go.  Now because of the desire stealing mistake, almost caught up to real time.  Much like TiVo when you start watching a program X minutes into the show so you can catch up to the end when it finishes.  Damn, I miss TiVo.

So two models were almost completely repainted.  Now to get them to the clients.  One will be dropped in the post today.  Other models will be dropped off at his store.  If the mistake didn't happen this last week would've been extremely productive and would've finished at least another commission if not two.  There's only one person to blame for my situation.  Me.  This situation didn't include multiple parties that had an issue with each other.  Or one person looking to compromise and the other doesn't want anything but their own temper tantrum throwing, bully-ish, childish way.  There was only one party involved in this.  Me, I made the mistake because of my actions.  I lived with the consequences of not being mindful of my surroundings.  Also corrected the mistake.  Have communicated to both of my clients there's a delay and have asked for their patience and understanding.  Even hoping to make it up to them.

This brings up another point.  If you say you're going to do something, follow through.  If there's a problem not fulfilling the task.  Communicate it as quickly as possible and do the task.  Some tasks are easier to complete than others.   Some tasks can be completed with surprisingly alacrity.  Others need considerable time.  Especially if those tasks involve a significant amount of resources.  Luckily for me a lot of people I deal with are quite rational.  Those who aren't I have no words.  I've emailed both clients last evening/this morning and communicated to them what I will be doing today.  It will feel great being a person of my word to both of them.

Getting back to the question.  How do you handle setbacks in painting?


slainte mhath