1000 days project

"We are what we repeatedly do"

Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers (1926)

The 1000 day project is my attempt to steer myself consciously towards the things that are most important to me.

Every day for 1000 days I will work towards my goals in a structured way. I will be posting daily updates on this website.

The 1000 day project runs from 26th December 2015 to the 21st September 2018, which is my 30th birthday.

In the past I have successfully completed two 100 day projects (100 portraits in 2010 and 100 blogs in 2011). In 2012 I spent 1000 hours drawing and painting.

Day 0296


Every week feels like a new beginning, every day a rebirth.

Must remember to turn adversity into a positive. Need to learn from difficult, mismanaged business relationships. Stop being negative, even if it's true; people only want positive solutions.

Day 0295


Taking it one day at a time, enduring the current blank, bland days in anticipation of an imagined future filled with stimulation, challenge, reward.

Conscious that my schoolboy friends were moulded and influenced by me. If I shut up and let them speak and express themselves nowadays I realise how much more moderate, reasonable and warm they are, and probably always have been. I feel like I am the rotten apple that spoils the whole lot.

For I centre my affection almost entirely on myself, bestowing only a very little on others. All that others divide among an infinite number of friends and acquaintances, to their glory and to their grandeur, I devote entirely to my mind's repose and to my own person. What escapes from me into other channels, does not really do so with my deliberate consent.
Michel de Montaigne - Essays

Day 0294


Time hanging heavily on my hands. With driving stretching on for at least another three weeks, I'm stuck here in my dependent state, with precious little to do. What work I have I put off, which causes a slight but appreciable mental burden which I should rid, but don't.

Met my sister's boyfriend for the first time, walked through autumnal parkland.

Day 0293


Failed the driving test. The agony of the wait, uncertainty, confrontation of own limitations continues.

Distracted myself by browsing a second-hand book shop and a walk around Clare priory with a friend. Beautiful autumnal red creepers over old cloisters, apple and pear trees littering windfall.

Day 0292


Driving test tomorrow morning, cannot think beyond it, understand that it is real or understand that I will still continue to exist into the future beyond it. Such a clear crossroads, only two possible outcomes, and time will inexorably roll on. Horrible to think that there is such potential for another shameful, embarrassing, stressful memory waiting for me the other side of it.

Day 0291


Fallen back in love with art, excited and inspired. Reminded myself about how good some of the artists I know are, had a browse on Instagram and feel excited that there are so many other people out there striving to get better, to draw and paint as well as they can.

Enjoyed looking around the illuminated manuscript exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Would love to make my own. Always loved the Book of Kells, arcanthus leaves, intertwining marginal decorations, gold leaf, tiny lines, beautiful lettering.

Day 0290


Work, walk, paint. Dull routine, crave more human contact, specifically from girls.

We cannot do without reality and we cannot do without illusion. Each serves its purpose, each imposes a limit on the influence of the other, and our experience of the world is the artful compromise these tough competitors negotiate.
Daniel Gilbert - Stumbling on Happiness

Day 0289


Work, walk, driving. The driving test is my event horizon; I cannot see beyond it, it looms big and black and impenetrable and yet I know that this time next week it will be behind me.

Day 0288


Early start, another self potrait in the hotel mirror, an inedibly poor breakfast, the surprise disappointment of which I enjoyed, a walk in the sun, brunch with a friend, meanderings and return to the country, tired and apprehensive of the yawning expanse of another unplanned, empty week.

Day 0287


Excellent day unburdening my wallet in the capital. Old friends, new friends, small-hours scrawl in a tired hotel. The transience, ease, familiarity of functional mediocrity is familiar and comforting. Being on the move is a tonic.

Subscribe to